2012 NFL Mock Draft: How Many QBs Will Go in the First Round?
If Baylor’s Robert Griffin III, Oklahoma’s Landry Jones and USC’s Matt Barkley all decide to enter the NFL draft this year, it will make for one of the deepest pools of quarterbacks to enter a draft since 1983.
That draft is still compared to today, when a deep crop of quarterbacks enter an NFL draft. The ’83 draft saw only two quarterbacks go in the first 10 picks, but six were drafted in the first round.
However, out of the four quarterbacks led by Stanford’s Andrew Luck, how many of them will get selected within the first 10 picks?
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If you look at the projected top 10 of the upcoming draft, you will see that aside from the Carolina Panthers, nine of those 10 teams could make a case that they are better off with one of those four quarterbacks.
However, teams like Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Minnesota and St. Louis all used high draft picks in recent drafts to select quarterbacks to be their future.
Would the Buccaneers give up on Josh Freeman after he regressed from his stellar 2010 season to draft a quarterback with the ninth selection? I would have to think that Tampa would not go a different direction after one bad season with Freeman.
Instead, you should expect Tampa to select LSU's Morris Claiborne to be that shutdown cornerback to help a passing defense that ranked 26th in the NFL this year.
Tampa will not give up on their young quarterback—just like Minnesota, St. Louis and Cleveland.
The jury is still out on if Christian Ponder can be an efficient quarterback for the Vikings.
In the eight games that he has started this year, he has seven games where he’s thrown for a touchdown pass. However, he has to cut down on his interceptions before he can win ball games for the Vikings.
St. Louis and Cleveland have seen their young quarterbacks show that they can lead them to big victories.
St. Louis was led by their No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2010 draft to within one game of the NFC West division championship last year. Sam Bradford hasn’t been healthy for a lot of the 2011 season, which has led this Rams team to a horrible 2-12 record.
Colt McCoy hasn’t had the same success as Bradford has in his two years at Cleveland, but McCoy has been solid in his limited time as the starting quarterback. In both of his seasons, McCoy has posted a passer rating of 74. As a rookie, McCoy led the Browns to huge victories over the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints.
The Browns and Rams have a lot of other holes that need to be filled over the quarterback position. You can expect St. Louis and Cleveland to take a big-play receiver and running back over one of these quarterbacks.
So, this leaves Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Miami and Washington as teams who will take quarterbacks with their first picks in the draft.
You should expect to see Luck go to the Colts, Barkley to the Jaguars, Griffin III to the Dolphins and Jones to the Redskins.
*Draft order determined by combination of current record and projected finish.
| 1. | Indianapolis Colts (1-13) | Andrew Luck, QB |
| 2. | St. Louis Rams (2-12) | Justin Blackmon, WR |
| 3. | Minnesota Vikings (2-12) | Matt Kalil, OT |
| 4. | Jacksonville Jaguars (4-10) | Matt Barkley, QB |
| 5. | Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-10) | Morris Claiborne, CB |
| 6. | Cleveland Browns (4-10) | Trent Richardson, RB |
| 7. | Buffalo Bills (5-9) | Riley Reiff, OT |
| 8. | Miami Dolphins (5-9) | Robert Griffin III, QB |
| 9. | Washington Redskins (5-9) | Landry Jones, QB |
| 10. | Carolina Panthers (5-9) | Quinton Coples, DE |
| 11. | Philadelphia Eagles (6-8) | Michael Floyd, WR |
| 12. | Kansas City Chiefs (6-8) | Jonathan Martin, OT |
| 13. | Seattle Seahawks (7-7) | Dre Kirkpatrick, CB |
| 14. | San Diego Chargers (7-7) | Alfonzo Dennard, CB |
| 15. | Arizona Cardinals (7-7) | Devon Still, DT |
| 16. | Tennessee Titans (7-7) | Vontaze Burfict, LB |
| 17. | Cincinnati Bengals (via OAK) (7-7) | Lamar Miller, RB |
| 18. | Chicago Bears (7-7) | Peter Konz, C |
| 19. | Cincinnati Bengals (8-6) | Janoris Jenkins, CB |
| 20. | Dallas Cowboys (8-6) | Luke Kuechly, LB |
| 21. | Detroit Lions (9-5) | Melvin Ingram, DE |
| 22. | New York Jets (8-6) | David DeCastro, OG |
| 23. | Denver Broncos (8-6) | Fletcher Cox, DT |
| 24. | New York Giants (7-7) | Zach Brown, LB |
| 25. | Houston Texans (10-4) | Mark Barron, S |
| 26. | Baltimore Ravens (10-4) | Dont'a Hightower, LB |
| 27. | Cleveland Browns (via ATL) (9-5) | Alshon Jeffery, WR |
| 28. | New England (via NO 11-3) | Courtney Upshaw, DE |
| 29. | Pittsburgh Steelers (10-3) | Cordy Glenn, OG |
| 30. | San Francisco 49ers (10-3) | Kendall Wright, WR |
| 31. | New England Patriots (11-3) | Mohamed Sanu, WR |
| 32. | Green Bay Packers (13-1) | Nick Perry, DE/OLB |
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