Top 5 Quarterback NFL Draft Classes of All Time
The 5 Best Quarterback Draft Classes in NFL History
Quarterback. The most important position in the sport. No one touches the football during the game more than the quarterback, and nobody controls the fortunes of the team more.
Dan Marino - one of a number of great QBs from the 1983 draft class
It’s always fun for NFL fans to debate who is the best quarterback in history. It’s just one of those subjects if you’re a football fan, you simply will have an opinion on.
But how often are good quarterbacks available, and how likely is it that multiple teams can find a star at the position in the NFL Draft? As it turns out, decades of the NFL Draft has taught us a good quarterback class consists of around 3 - 4 starters. Today, Ross Crawford ranks the Top 5 quarterback draft classes of all time.
For reference, there are only 32 quarterbacks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. From 85 total NFL Drafts.
It is far more likely a quarterback drafted will be out of the league in one year than starting in the league for the next ten.
Making the debate as to what is the best quarterback draft class of all time all the more interesting.
NB: Current player stats are up to date as of Jan 2021.
5) 2012 NFL Draft Class
The Class
No.75 pick - Russell Wilson (33,946 yards, 246 TDs, 81 INT, 4506 rushing yards, 21 rushing TDs, Super Bowl 48 Winner)
No.1 pick - Andrew Luck (23,671 yards, 171 TD, 83 INT)
No.2 pick - Robert Griffen III (9271 yards, 43 TDs, 30 INT
No. 8 pick - Ryan Tannehill (26,995 yards, 178 TD, 88 INT)
No. 102 pick - Kirk Cousins (28,372 yards, 190 TD, 84 INT)
No. 88 pick - Nick Foles (13,753 yards, 81 TD, 43 INT, Super Bowl 52 MVP)
The Brief -
There will be some recency bias calls for having this draft class in the Top 5. However, after the 2012 season, this class was all set to be the greatest of all time and dominate the league for the next decade. Griffen was a phenom his rookie year before suffering an ACL tear in his playoff debut. He’s never been the same since and has bounced around the league as a backup. Luck’s career will always be a “what if…”.
However, Wilson has emerged as the star of this class, winning a Super Bowl in his sophomore year he has solidified his position as a Top 5 quarterback in the league ever since. He’s on track for a Hall of Fame career.
The 2012 class cracks the Top 5 for its depth. Cousins and Tannehill have each won at least one playoff game and compiled some very favourable stats. Moreover, the best moment across these players’ collective careers probably comes from Foles. His magical 2017 playoff run with the Philadelphia Eagles to claim the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy belongs in NFL folklore.
4) 1971 NFL Draft Class
The Class
No. 67 pick - Ken Anderson (32,838 yards, 197 TD, 160 INT, League MVP 1981)
No. 99 pick - Joe Theismann (25,206 yards, 160 TD, 138 INT, Won Super Bowl XVII)
No. 1 pick - Jim Plunkett (25,882 yards, 164 TD, 198 INT)
No. 2 pick - Archie Manning (23,911 yards, 125 TD, 173 INT)
No. 56 pick - Lynn Dickey (23,322 yards, 141 TD, 179 INT)
No. 3 pick - Dan Pastorini (18,515 yards, 103 TD, 161 INT)
Another solid class for its depth rather than a top-heavy feel. (It’s not all about the Hall of Famers!) Anderson and Theisman are the standouts. Anderson was a longshot to be the best quarterback of the 1971 class, as a third-round pick. However, he led the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl twice, only to never get over the hump.
In contrast, Theismann’s’ career was less statistically impressive, but he managed to secure his team a Lombardi trophy. His efforts in Super Bowl XVII earned him Super Bowl MVP honours and he backed that up with a league MVP Award the following season.
Plunkett, Manning, Dickey, and Pastorini all carved out respectable careers for themselves. My favourite stat from this group;
“The 1971 quarterback group remains the only class in NFL history to have at least five quarterbacks pass for over 20,000 yards in a career. Really!”
3) 2005 NFL Draft Class
The Class
No. 24 pick - Aaron Rodgers (51,245 yards, 412 TD, 89 INT, 3x League MVP)
No. 1 pick - Alex Smith (34,068 yards, 193 TD, 101 INT; 2,601 rushing yards, 15 TD)
No. 250 pick - Ryan Fitzpatrick (34,977 yards, 223 TD, 169 INT)
No. 25 pick - Jason Campbell (16,771 yards, 87 TD, 60 INT)
No. 230 pick - Matt Cassel (17,508 yards, 104 TD, 82 INT)
No. 106 pick - Kyle Orton (18,037 yards, 101 TD, 69 INT)
No. 213 pick - Derek Anderson (10,878 yards, 60 TD, 64 INT)
The Brief -
The depth of the 2005 class made it an easy Top 5 selection. What earns the number three spot is Aaron Rodgers. A bonafide superstar, the Hall of Fame may as well take Rodgers measurements for the gold jacket now.
Who knows where he will end up among the greatest quarterbacks of all-time when all is said and done, but Rodgers’ Super Bowl MVP and three League MVPs give this class a huge boost in this all-time rankings.
Smith had a very rocky start to his career as the pressure of being the number one pick seemed to affect his play. However, he has had some success at every stop in his career, and how he continues to play after suffering that gruesome leg injury in 2018 is beyond my comprehension.
The rest of the class isn’t special, but a lot deeper than most. The only class with at least seven players to throw for over 10,000 passing yards, and everyone made at least one Pro Bowl appearance.
2) 2004 NFL Draft Class
The Class
No. 4 - pick Philip Rivers (63,440 yards, 421 TD, 209 INT)
No. 11 - pick Ben Roethlisberger (60,348 yards, 396 TD, 201 INT, 2x Super Bowl Winner)
No. 1 - pick Eli Manning (57,023 yards, 366 TD, 244 INT, 2x Super Bowl MVP)
No. 90 - pick Matt Schaub (25,467 yards, 136 TD, 91 INT)
The Brief
The top two draft classes are not up for discussion. We can debate who should be one and two. It came down to me trying to find a fifth quarterback to battle the fifth-best from my number one class.
The theme of the Top two classes is the quality of three first-round quarterbacks from both years. From the 2004 class, Rivers is the most statistically successful and ranks fifth all-time in quarterback passing yards. However, he is consistently overshadowed by the Super Bowl success Roethlisberger and Manning enjoyed.
Rivers retired at the end of the 2020 season, meaning Roethlisberger will likely surpass his yardage mark with one more healthy season. Roethlisberger earned his Super Bowl honours early in his career and has gone on to string together consistently productive statistical seasons since then.
Manning has been the catalyst for some of the most memorable plays in pro football history. With the New York Giants, Manning knocked off the New England Patriots twice in Super Bowls and earns his place as one of the most clutch performers in football history when it comes to the playoffs. All three will end up in the Hall of Fame. That’s also not a discussion. Oh, and Matt Schaub was alright for a while.
1) 1983 NFL Draft Class
The Class:
No. 27 pick - Dan Marino (61,361 yards, 420 TD, 252 INT, 1984 League MVP)
No. 1 pick - John Elway (51,475 yards, 300 TD, 226 INT, 2x Super Bowl Champion)
No. 14 pick - Jim Kelly (35,467 yards, 237 TD, 175 INT)
No. 24 pick - Ken O'Brien (25,094 yards, 128 TD, 98 INT)
No. 15 pick - Tony Eason (11,142 yards, 61 TD, 51 INT)
Dan Marino The Greatest Quarterback of all time to never win a super bowl...
The Brief -
Congratulations to Tony Eason who was exactly 4,871 passing yards and 28 passing TDs better than J.P Lossman from the 2004 draft class. It is a team sport after all.
The 1983 draft remains the only class to boast three Hall of Fame quarterbacks (so far) as Elway, Marino, and Kelly all have gold jackets. Although it took until Elway’s final two years in the league for this class to earn Super Bowl trophies among its quarterbacks, the three Hall of Famers are giants of the game. Elway earned those two Super Bowl rings after falling at the final hurdle on three previous occasions.
Super Bowl losses are something of a speciality for this class, (Marino lost one while Kelly lost an astonishing four in a row) the ability it takes to reach the big game should not be dismissed. While the 2004 class has four wins combined, they’ve appeared in the Super Bowl only five times compared to the 1983’s quarterbacks’ ten Super Bowl appearances combined.
Additionally, no one from the 2004 class has been consistent enough over a regular season to earn a league MVP Award, while Elway and Marino earned one each.
In an era with less passing, the 1983 quarterback class boasts three of the greatest to ever throw the football around. If we were to list the Top 10 quarterbacks of all time it’s hard to leave Marino, Elway, and Kelly off that list. So the 1983 NFL Draft remains the greatest quarterback draft class in pro football history.
Honourable Mention:
2017 NFL Draft (Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Mitchell Trubisky)
The 2017 quarterback class has a chance to crack the Top 5 if we revisit this article several years from now. It’s simply too early to judge the careers of some of these guys. However, Patrick Mahomes (already a League MVP and Super Bowl champion) and Deshaun Watson look set to be superstars for the next decade. Trubisky doesn’t look great for a third-overall pick, but there’s time to turn it around.
