And I agree people forget football is a team game. You need to have at least a decent or good quarterback to succeed in the league, but you don’t alway need a great one. People also ignore the idea that a number of quarterbacks have great weapons around them. Now obviously Brett Favre and Peyton Manning can throw the ball to anyone, but look at Tom Brady. Always a good QB (though I dislike him personally), but his numbers weren’t really ‘great’ until he had Moss and Welker to throw to. Yet people assume he is a ‘great quarterback’ because of his Super Bowl wins. In fact Drew Brees has better career numbers than Brady despite less starts, and has taken two teams to the playoffs and he’s not by and large considered as good as Brady. I just don’t get it.

A quarterback’s job changes probably more than other other position from college to the NFL, which makes them more difficult to evaluate. Even if the player was in a “pro-style” offense, he wasn’t necessarily playing against “pro-style” defenses. (The BCS and college scheduling ensures that elite college teams or play each other one or two games a year, which I think also contributes to the inability to evaluate players in the draft, but that’s an entirely separate rant.)

I’m not sure if there are more first round busts at QB than at other positions, or if those busts are just noticed more. If that’s true, I think a big part of the reason would be that entirely too many are taken in the first round to begin with. As you pointed out three or more QBs might be taken in the first round of a given draft, but no one would think of taking the third best Center, OLB, or Safety in Round 1.