The NFL’s offseason maneuvering begins in earnest soon. There already has been plenty of speculation about the potential landing spots for veteran quarterbacks Tony Romo, Jay Cutler, Colin Kaepernick and Kirk Cousins, if they become available.
But quarterback-needy teams league-wide also must consider the possibilities for getting what they need through the NFL draft. That means assessing the merits of a group of draft-eligible quarterbacks that includes Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer and Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes. That process intensifies this week at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
Is there a franchise quarterback (or two) to be had in this class? Opinions vary at this point in the evaluation process.
“I think these are guys that deserve to go late in the first round, early in the second round, somewhere in there,” a front office executive with one NFL team said recently. “I don’t think these are top-10, top-five guys. Now, I’m sure you’ll see some of these guys go in the top five or top 10 because there are teams up there that really, really need a quarterback. But, to me, it’ll be a reach.”
A personnel executive with another franchise said in recent weeks: “Is there a clear-cut number one quarterback? No. But there are certainly things to like about several of them. Watson has a real star quality to him. You saw that when he played in big games.
Trubisky is an interesting player. I’m sure there will be productive starters who come out of this group. People just need to figure out which ones.”
Few people in and around the sport seemed all that enamored with last year’s quarterback draft class early in the process, remember. But then the Los Angeles Rams traded up for the top overall pick and used it on Jared Goff of Cal, and the Philadelphia Eagles traded up for the No. 2 choice and used it on Carson Wentz of North Dakota State. The Denver Broncos traded up to get Paxton Lynch of Memphis later in the first round. The Dallas Cowboys waited until the fourth round to get the quarterback, Dak Prescott of Mississippi State, who ended up outplaying all of his rookie peers.
The first-round draft order adds to this year’s intrigue. The Cleveland Browns, after trading out of the No. 2 spot last year and thus passing up Wentz, remain in their perpetual need of a quarterback and have the first and 12th overall selections. But the conventional wisdom is that they will use the top pick on Texas A&M pass rusher Myles Garrett and then address their quarterback situation with the 12th choice, perhaps by using it as part of a trade package for the New England Patriots’ Jimmy Garoppolo.
The San Francisco 49ers, who are likely to move on from Kaepernick, have the second pick. They could attempt to bid for Cousins, who is expected to be franchise-tagged by the Washington Redskins, or they could keep the selection and draft their prospective quarterback of the future.
The Chicago Bears, widely expected to trade or release Cutler, pick third. The quarterback-deprived New York Jets pick sixth. The Buffalo Bills, who must make a decision about the future of current starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor, pick 10th. That’s a lot of quarterback need in the top 10. And that list doesn’t even include the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have the fourth pick and haven’t exactly tied themselves inextricably to Blake Bortles, or the Los Angles Chargers, who pick seventh and will need to put a successor to Philip Rivers in place at some point.
It will take weeks to months for this quarterback market to sort itself out. But the many possibilities will be on the minds of virtually everyone in those organizations this week in Indianapolis.