It’s a QB league

Stanford QB ANDREW LUCK and Baylor QB ROBERT GRIFFIN III each hopes to hear his name called first overall Thursday night. Should this occur, 2012 would mark the fourth consecutive year a quarterback is selected first overall – the second-longest streak in NFL Draft history. A quarterback was taken off the board first in each year from 2001-2005.

Thursday would mark the 31st time in NFL Draft history a quarterback is selected first overall – the most of any position – and the 10th time in the last 12 years.  

FIRST OVERALL SELECTIONS (2001-2011)

YEAR	PLAYER	POSITION	TEAM
2001	Michael Vick	QB	Atlanta
2002	David Carr	QB	Houston
2003	Carson Palmer	QB	Cincinnati
2004	Eli Manning	QB	San Diego
2005	Alex Smith	QB	San Francisco
2006	Mario Williams	DE	Houston
2007	JaMarcus Russell	QB	Oakland
2008	Jake Long	T	Miami
2009	Matthew Stafford	QB	Detroit
2010	Sam Bradford	QB	St. Louis
2011	Cam Newton	QB	Carolina
2012	???	???	Indianapolis

If Luck and Griffin are selected with the first two picks, they would become the fifth pair of quarterbacks to be selected No. 1 and No. 2 overall in the same year since the common draft was instituted in 1967.


QUARTERBACKS SELECTED NUMBER ONE AND NUMBER TWO OVERALL IN THE SAME YEAR (Since 1967)

YEAR	NUMBER ONE SELECTION	NUMBER TWO SELECTION
1971	Jim Plunkett – New England	Archie Manning – New Orleans
1993	Drew Bledsoe – New England	Rick Mirer – Seattle
1998	Peyton Manning – Indianapolis	Ryan Leaf – San Diego
1999	Tim Couch – Cleveland	Donovan McNabb – Philadelphia

If four quarterbacks are chosen among the first 32 picks, 2012 will tie for the third-most quarterbacks selected in the first round of the NFL Draft since 1970 (1987, 2003, 2004, 2011).  


MOST QUARTERBACKS SELECTED IN THE FIRST ROUND (SINCE 1970)

YEAR	NUMBER OF QBs	PLAYER	SELECTION (TEAM)	COLLEGE
1983	6	John Elway	1 (Indianapolis)	Stanford
		Todd Blackledge	7 (Kansas City)	Penn State

		Jim Kelly	14 (Buffalo)	Miami
		Tony Eason	15 (New England)	Illinois
		Ken O’Brien	24 (New York Jets)	Cal-Davis
		Dan Marino	27 (Miami)	Pittsburgh
1999	5	Tim Couch	1 (Cleveland)	Kentucky
		Donovan McNabb	2 (Philadelphia)	Syracuse
		Akili Smith	3 (Cincinnati)	Oregon
		Daunte Culpepper	11 (Minnesota)	Central Florida
		Cade McNown	12 (Chicago)	UCLA