A historic draft for quarterbacks – sixes wild

No NFL draft has ever had six QBs taken in the first twelve picks

There were no quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 1996 and 1988 drafts. Going back to 1968 that is the only two drafts were that happened.

No other draft has had six QBs taken in the top twelve picks. Prior to last night the most ever taken in the first twelve was five in 1999. Those five were (in order): Tim Couch (1), Donovan McNabb (2), Akili Smith (3), Daunte Culpepper (11), and Cade McNown (12). Two of those five were great NFL QBs; three were decidedly not. Those three combined to start 91 NFL games with the majority of those coming from Couch (59). The sixth QB taken in that draft was Shaun King, who started 24 NFL games in his career.

While the 1983 draft is remembered as the year of the QB, the 1984 draft actually had more total QBs drafted with 16, which was the most ever in a single draft. Of course the draft had 12 rounds then. Steve Young and Boomer Esiason were both drafted in 1984 (although Young was chosen in the supplemental draft). So if you discount that pick 1984, had no QBs taken in the first round, but 15 taken after the first round. 1984 was a weird draft. Technically Boomer was the first QB drafted and he was taken 38th overall.

The other drafts with four QBs taken in the top twelve were (besides 1999)

2021: Trevor Lawrence Zach Wilson Trey Lance Justin Fields

2018: Baker Mayfield Sam Darnold Josh Allen Josh Rosen

2011: Cam Newton Jake Locker Blaine Gabbert Christian Ponder

I could list the sixth QB taken in every draft, but the names will not be familiar to most. Suffice it to say, that rarely does the 6th QB taken turn into a good NFL starter, but there are exceptions. As you can see above, some drafts didn’t even have a sixth QB taken. There were only seven taken in 2022 and only six taken in 2015. The fewest in the modern NFL was four in 1996, but the 1960 draft had zero QBs selected.

The sixth QB taken in 2023 was Clayton Tune. He was taken 139th.

The sixth QB taken in 2022 was Skylar Thompson. He was selected with the 247th pick.

The sixth QB taken in 2021 was Kyle Trask. He was taken 64th and has yet to start an NFL game.

The sixth QB taken in 2015 was Trevor Siemian. He was taken 250th.

For the sake of Bronco Country let’s hope that Bo Nix is more Dan Marino (the 6th QB taken in 1983) than Kyle Trask or Trevor Siemian.

Besides Marino there have been some other good NFL QBs who were the 6th QB drafted. Another guy you might remember is Russell Wilson. He was the sixth QB taken in 2012. Like him or not, Colin Kaepernick was the 6th QB taken in 2011. He was pretty good, particularly relative to some of the other “6th picked” QBs.

This makes the third time this century that the Broncos have taken the 6th overall QB. The third was Tom Brandstater in 2009. Another three “6th QB”s, Trent Edwards, Chris Simms and Kyle Orton, spent some time playing for the Broncos (I didn’t look back beyond the 1999 draft).

I’m going to save the best for last. Some guy named Tom Brady, who was drafted 199th overall, was the sixth QB taken in the 2000 draft. I think his career was decent. LOL.