It was pointless for the Cleveland Browns to draft a quarterback after the 2nd round in the 2023 NFL Draft
By Chad Porto
Numbers don’t lie and the Cleveland Browns fell for the same trap as other NFL teams in the 2023 NFL Draft.
The Cleveland Browns wasted a fifth-round pick on UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson. “Wasted” may be a strong word, but facts don’t lie. No quarterback has made a Pro Bowl after being drafted in the 5th round dating back to 1994.
In fact, historically, only one quarterback was drafted in the fifth round and made the Pro Bowl. That man is Mark Brunell, the former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback. No quarterback from the fifth round has ever made it to the Pro Bowl before or after Brunell; at least since the NFL merger. Moreover, only one quarterback in the last 10 years has made a Pro Bowl outside of the top two rounds; Dak Prescott.
According to hard stats, drafting a quarterback outside the first, and sometimes the second round is just foolish. You’re wasting a draft spot on a guy who will likely be off the team in a matter of months. After four years that player is going to be off the team he was drafted to. Usually in less than two full seasons. After five years, that quarterback is likely out of the NFL entirely.
Looking back over the last four years, only 53.3% of quarterbacks are still on the team that drafted them. If you remove the former rookies of the 2022 NFL Draft, only 36% of post-first-round quarterback picks from ’19-’21 are still on the team that drafted them.
Over the last four years, about 23% of quarterbacks taken after the first round are already out of the league. That number leaps when you go back just one more year to 2018, as 62.5% of quarterbacks taken after the first round are already out of the league. Most are just entering the prime of their athletic life, and now they’re playing in the XFL or USFL if they’re lucky.
Considering the league is all about “value”, why is it that experts still overvalue quarterbacks?