Always Draft A Quarterback (Who Had Good Numbers) – JoeBucsFan.com – Tampa Bay Bucs Blog, Buccaneers News

Lesson to learn from young QBs?

Yeah, a common belief in the NFL is that if you don’t draft a top-shelf quarterback and develop him, you are banking on tying your team’s future to another team’s unwanted quarterback and maybe that gets you in the playoffs and run right away.

The Bucs, thanks to Tom Brady’s retirement, are now looking like just such a team.

(Yes, Joe knows four of the last 13 Super Bowl winners didn’t draft their quarterback.)

Chris Trapasso of CBS has been writing this week about recent NFL trends teams should strongly consider. Joe will add a caveat to one of them. Trapasso types that teams should always draft a quarterback, even if they have a legit starter at quarterback. The Eagles and 49ers are Exhibit-A.

In 2020, Jalen Hurts was on the board late in the second round. The Eagles still had Carson Wentz, who put up really good numbers in 2019. Hurts put up insane numbers for blue-blood Oklahoma and pass-happy coach Lincoln Riley.

It paid off. Wentz melted down and Hurts is now in a Super Bowl.

Brock Purdy was a four-year starter at Iowa State. Bill Parcells always liked quarterbacks who had a lot of snaps in college. Purdy fit that description perfectly, which may be why he made such a smooth transition for San Francisco this season as a rookie.

But Purdy seemed to get worse in college as he got older. His freshman season at Iowa State, Purdy looked like a sure thing. Joe is willing to bet if someone searched Google for 2018 or 2019 stories, an article would be found on how Purdy would be one of the top quarterback selections in the 2022 draft.

Instead, Purdy was Mr. Irrelevant.

The point is Trapasso believes you can luck into a quarterback — Purdy is the true definition of an accident — by swinging for one every year.

What is Joe’s caveat? Make sure the guy you select on the second or third day of the draft had a bunch of snaps, like Russell Wilson playing 50 college games, and that he put up strong passing numbers (forget rushing stats). Yeah, Wilson is not recent history.

At the end of the NFL day, a quarterback must be able to move the ball through the air.