Quote:I'm not being misleading(And I did count Rivers as one of those 5).  The whole point is that you can get upper echelon QBs outside the draft.  Its not as though your only two options for acquiring an elite QB are to draft one in the first round or to draft one in another round. 

 

You say its rare to pick up a QB of that caliber in free agency.  Well first I would say you can also trade for one.  But secondly, of those top 15, I see 5 first rounders drafted by their own team and 3 are first rounders playing for a new team.  So obviously its not that rare.  Bu then of course, if you are going after already proven quality NFL QBs, who cares what round he was drafted in?  So I may as well add in Drew Brees and make it 4 guys playing on a new team.

 

Point being, there are a lot of ways to skin a cat.  And while I think that article would have been much better served to look at it by round and not lump together rounds 2-7, obviously the success rate of a 1st round QB is going to be better.  Just like any position.  But if you could somehow perform an ROI calc on drafting QBs 1st round versus building your team early and finding a QB later/free agency/trade, I'd be curious to know how much better off you would be in terms of wins.  Clearly we are 0-2 on 1st round QBs and it set us back both times although obviously way back with Gabbert. 

What you're still leaving out is that the trading price is often a 1st round pick (and then some.)  Sure the Bears didn't draft Cutler with a 1st round pick.  But they did trade a 1st and a 3rd for him.  Meaning they used a 1st round pick on him.

 

The Chiefs spent two second round picks to get Alex Smith.  Not quite a 1st round pick, though the Chiefs 2nd round pick last year was practically a 1st round pick.

 

We're not 0-2 on 1st round QB's.  Because Dave Caldwell has never selected a Quarterback.  We have a new regime now.  They're 0-0.  You can't be afraid to draft a Quarterback because the old regime has a poor record of selecting Quarterbacks.  Especially when they also had a poor record of drafting ANYTHING else.

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