With three weeks to go before the 2024 NFL draft, we're approaching what could be an unprecedented run on quarterbacks at the top of the class. Field Yates' most recent mock draft has three quarterbacks in the first three picks, which has happened only twice in the past 25 years. Yates also has a fourth quarterback landing with the No. 5 pick, which would be uncharted territory: There has never been a draft with four quarterbacks taken in the top five.
This isn't a one-year aberration, either. There were three quarterbacks chosen in the top four a year ago, when Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson were gone before the draft settled down. In 2021, the top three picks were all quarterbacks: Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson and Trey Lance. There have been four drafts in league history in which at least five signal-callers were selected in Round 1; two of them have taken place since 2018, and we might see a third in seven years later this month.
Subscribe: "The Bill Barnwell Show"
Quarterback has always been an important position, but this is a shift worth evaluating. Are teams getting too aggressive pursuing quarterbacks when the return has been players like Wilson and Lance? What has changed to make the league target quarterbacks at a higher rate than ever before? Are teams foolish to get involved when there is a run on quarterbacks in a particular draft? And what kind of player should teams expect to land when they do take that plunge for a passer in Round 1?
Let's take a deeper look into those questions. There's a lot to unpack, but I'll try to resolve issues that keep coming to mind as I look around the league and see how aggressive teams have been at pursuing new solutions under center. And we'll start with one that will pop up again if this year's class is disappointing:
Jump to a section:
How the tide turned on taking QBs in Round 1
Why QB value is (almost) too good to pass up
How 10 multi-QB Round 1 classes fared
What should teams expect from a Round 1 QB?
