Four teams that have Top 5 picks are eager to find a new franchise quarterbacks, and so it’s been widely assumed that the top of this year’s NFL draft will see a few quarterbacks going off the board early. But that may not be the case.
As we get closer to the draft, we’re hearing more talk that the stock of the top quarterbacks (Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel and Blake Bortles) is dropping. And Peter King of TheMMQB.com now reports that the four teams in the Top 5 with quarterback needs -- Oakland, Houston, Cleveland and Jacksonville -- are all strongly considering passing on quarterbacks in the first round and drafting one in the second or third round instead.
Right now it doesn’t look like Bridgewater, Manziel or Bortles will be available in the second round. But at this time last year it didn’t look like Geno Smith would be available in the second round, and that’s where the Jets got him. And if those teams at the top of the draft think quarterbacks like Derek Carr, A.J. McCarron and Jimmy Garoppolo are comparable to Bridgewater, Manziel and Bortles, then it would make sense to wait until the second round.
Of course, that strategy falls apart if it turns out that a few teams in the middle or late first round are interested in some of the quarterbacks in this year’s draft. But right now, it looks like the teams that need quarterbacks the most are willing to wait until the second day of the draft.