Stacking Up Cam Newton's Rookie Year Against 9 Former No. 1 Picks at Quarterback

There is no denying that Cam Newton’s rookie season has been something special.

The Carolina quarterback came into this weekend with 3,573 yards and 15 touchdowns through the air, and an additional 554 yards and a record 13 touchdowns on the ground. And that was before he engineered the Panthers' upset of Houston Sunday with a couple of TD passes

So the question begs to be asked—how does Newton, the No. 1 pick in the draft out of Auburn, stack up against the other No. 1 picks?

It’s not easy to compare players at different positions, but in the last decades, the first picks have almost always been quarterbacks, so there is a sizable group to sample from.

Since Terry Bradshaw was taken out of Louisiana Tech by the Steelers in 1970, 19 quarterbacks have been taken with the first pick, including nine of the last 11.

Here’s how they stack up in terms of overall performance.

10. Tim Couch, Browns, 1999

His career lasted just five seasons after Cleveland made Tim Couch the first pick in the draft out of Kentucky, but he stepped up from the first.

Couch threw for 2,447 yards as a rookie and had more touchdowns (15) than interceptions (13), which is rare in a first-year player.

The Browns would only go 3-12 in Couch’s starts in 1999, but as this list will prove, the won-lost record hardly defines the performance of good rookie quarterbacks.

9. Jeff George, Colts, 1990

A hard thrower out of Illinois, Jeff George came aboard for the Colts in 1990 and had the chance to start a dozen games for a team that went 8-8 the year before.

He made the most of the opportunity, throwing for 2,152 yards and leading Indianapolis to five wins in his 12 starts.

He threw 16 touchdowns and only 13 interceptions, the best TDs-to-picks ratio of his four seasons in Indianapolis.

8. John Elway, Broncos, 1983

When he wouldn’t agree to sign with the Baltimore Colts after being taken with the first pick in the draft, John Elway forced a compromise that landed him in Denver, where he became the heart of the franchise.

His debut, as is often the case, saw him start only 60 percent of the time, but not because of any defect the Broncos saw in him. He started the first five games of the season and the last five, and missed six starts due to injury (he did come off the bench once).

He was 4-6 in his starts, throwing for 1,663 yards. Not a bad start to a Hall of Fame career.

7. David Carr, Texans, 2002

There were some who questioned whether or not the Texans were smart to go after David Carr, who wasn’t the product of a big football factory.

Carr played his ball at Fresno State, but he’d had great success there, and he wound up having a brilliant rookie season.

His Texans only went 4-12 in his 16 starts, but he threw for 2,597 yards despite a porous offensive line that let him be sacked 76 times for 411 yards, both league highs that season.

6. Drew Bledsoe, Patriots, 1993

A highly-touted product of Washington State, Drew Bledsoe was supposed to be the savior in New England.

That never quite happened, but from the moment he arrived in New England, Bledsoe made them competitive at least, including four playoff appearances in his first six years.

Bledsoe wound up guiding the Patriots in his first season to a 5-7 record (they were 0-4 in the games he didn’t start and had just two wins the season before).

He wound up throwing as many touchdowns (15) as interceptions and finished with 2,494 yards despite completing fewer than half his passes.

5. Peyton Manning, Colts, 1998

All No. 1 draft picks have huge expectations saddled on them, but not many have more thrown their way than Peyton Manning.

He came out of Tennessee as the Next Great Thing, and while the Colts would go 3-13 in his first season, he showed time and again the talent that would make the Colts a playoff regular over the course of the next decade.

He threw for 3,738 yards, the most for a No. 1 draft pick, although Newton has a great chance to obliterate that number.  

4. Sam Bradford, Rams, 2010

The Rams got the first pick in the 2010 draft on the strength of a one-win 2009 season, and they invested much of their money and most of their hope in Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford.

To put it mildly, Bradford was something else. He didn’t start a game in the preseason, but showed enough to win the job and wound up starting all 16 games for St. Louis. The Rams had a chance for the playoffs going into the final weekend of the season, but finished at 7-9 and missed out.

Bradford finished with 3,512 yards and 18 touchdowns, among the best ever for No. 1 picks.

3. Carson Palmer, Bengals, 2003

There were some questions about Carson Palmer coming out of USC, but he landed in a good spot and made the most of it, brushing aside his critics along the way.

Palmer got 13 starts for the Bengals as a rookie and guided them to a 6-7 record in those games. Cincinnati had been an 8-8 team the year before.

For his part, Palmer threw for 2,897 yards with 18 touchdowns while completing almost 61 percent of his passes.

2. Jim Plunkett, Patriots, 1971

The Patriots were 2-12 in 1970, enabling them to go all the way across the country to pluck quarterback Jim Plunkett out of Stanford.

History would prove that Plunkett was a winner; he made it to the Super Bowl with the Raiders in 1980 after he’d been written off.

As a rookie, he pushed the Patriots to a 6-8 record, throwing more passes than all but five other quarterbacks and logging 2,158 yards despite being the second most-sacked quarterbacks in the league.

He wound up with 19 touchdowns, more than any No. 1 pick in the draft ever, although Newton may move past that in the final couple weeks of the season. 

1. Cam Newton, Panthers, 2011

Carolina's Cam Newton has already proven himself to be the most statically prolific No. 1 draft pick quarterback in NFL history.

He’s already thrown for 3,722 yards and will pass Peyton Manning on the yardage list next week. He had two touchdowns Sunday in a win over playoff-bound Houston and has thrown for 17 touchdowns against 16 interceptions.

When you mix in his threat as a runner—he has 13 touchdowns and 609 yards, averaging more than 5.2 yards per carry—he has had a greater impact on the Panthers offense than any quarterback taken with the first pick in the draft.

He ranks with the best rookie quarterbacks ever, including Greg Cook (1969 Bengals), Bob Waterfield (1945 Rams who was the NFL MVP as a rookie) and Dan Marino (1983 Dolphins), who was the sixth quarterback taken in the first round of the 1983 draft in which John Elway was the top pick and who finished with 20 TDs and only six interceptions.