Josh Tomlin is AAA pitcher of the week, will start for Tribe on Tuesday
May 5, 2014Animated: Watch Nyjer Morgan stumble down the first base line
May 5, 2014Many teams have reached on quarterbacks in the first round of the NFL draft over the years. Brandon Weeden and Brady Quinn are the examples closest to home, but they are far from the only two. I think of Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert, Jake Locker, and even Tim Tebow. There are some serious issues when teams overvalue certain quarterbacks and take undeserving players in the first round. Even still, I don’t think the strategy of valuing quarterbacks above and beyond every other position is wrong. You just can’t overvalue the quarterback position even if it is possible to overdraft it. As a result, It’s going to be a tough pill for me to swallow if the Browns have an opportunity to grab the best quarterback in this year’s draft with the fourth-overall pick and pass on the position altogether.
Whether they’ll have their choice of quarterbacks at four is questionable. That’s the thing about quarterback in a year where it appears the holder of the No. 1 pick is willing to trade down as Houston appears to be posturing to do. That’s a scenario where I think we could all see a team jump up and grab a guy like Johnny Manziel or Blake Bortles before anyone else has the chance. I’m not here to try and predict how the draft is going to play out, but with names like Clowney and Watkins, not to mention some serious talent at left tackle, it’s reasonable to think the Browns might be on the clock without any quarterbacks having been chosen, which means they can get the very best quarterback this draft class has to offer.
This brings me back to the overdrafted quarterbacks who I named in the opening paragraph. The problem with these guys isn’t that their teams drafted “quarterbacks.” The bottom line here is that these guys haven’t been good players. You don’t blame the strategy on the results. As I recently said on Twitter, just because there are some bad movies on Netflix doesn’t mean the technological mechanism – you know, Netflix – is a problem. Just because some dummies drafted mediocre quarterbacks doesn’t mean that valuing quarterbacks above and beyond every other position is wrong. It isn’t.
You give me the 10th best quarterback in the NFL over the third best position anywhere else on the field. I hate to bring up Joe Thomas as a cautionary tale, because the Browns are obviously better off with him, but what has the premier left tackle been able to accomplish in terms of wins? That doesn’t mean that after Sam Bradford you should have gone out of your way to draft Tim Tebow at twenty-five like the Broncos did that year. It’s just to say, generically speaking, that teams should overvalue quarterback because there’s no more important position to succeeding in the NFL. The 15th best quarterback in the league is more important to a team than the best defensive tackle or wide receiver.
It’s important to have a well-rounded team that dominates, but if you don’t have a competent quarterback above all else, you very well might be wasting all that “all-world” talent on the rest of the field. Ask Larry Fitzgerald, A.J. Green, Adrian Peterson, and yes, even Joe Thomas. If the Browns have a chance to draft the first quarterback off the board and think there is a QB in this draft who can be in the top half of all NFL quarterbacks in the league, they simply must take him.
The multi-million dollar question, of course, is are any of these guys good enough to eventually be in the top half of NFL quarterbacks in their career?
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(AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
9 Comments
Only 4 more days.
I hate you Goodell.
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Cmon NFL….
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” . . . the very best quarterback this draft class has to offer” is what? — maybe the 20th-best player the draft class has to offer? Twenty-fifth? No way you gamble a #4 on that.
Gamble a #4? They’ve gambled the better part of two decades by not finding a quarterback. You can’t overvalue the position enough.
Yes, Craig, but the fact that you gambled badly in the past is not a good reason to gamble badly in the future.
Besides, you don’t gamble with a #4. In fact, I don’t think you gamble in the first round at all. Or the second. You wanna gamble, gamble with a third-rounder or later.
I have yet to read, hear or see anything that would lead me to believe the latest front office will be able to select the right QB at #4 so I will stick with my hope that we see them select a position other then QB. Especially given the talent that is out there at WR, OL, LB and CB.
I’m certainly not talking about gambling any more than any other pick. I said if the Browns think there’s a QB in this draft that can be in the top half of the NFL in terms of passers, then they have to take him over the best offensive tackle, wide receiver or middle linebacker, for example.
This is the issue. If we knew who the #1 QB in the draft was going to be, then fine. But seeing how we are not psychic…
“You just can’t overvalue the quarterback position even if it is possible to overdraft it.”
i don’t understand this position at all. overdrafting == overvaluing.