With all the talk of Luck, Mallet, Gabbert, and Locker being potential QB draft picks of the Redskins, I read a lot of comments about the need to draft up to snag one of them, and that maybe (just maybe) one may drop to us (note: this was when we thought we would have a worse draft pick than we do). Still, this surprised me, because I was actually thinking that despite all of these teams ahead of us that may have a "need" for a QB, that that many QB’s being drafted early was a bit odd.

I am going to make 3 major assumptions about draft day for this "hypothetical" suggestion- we cannot trade down (so PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT THAT WE SHOULD TRADE DOWN INSTEAD), we are definitely drafting a QB (so PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT THAT WE SHOULD NOT DRAFT A QB IN THE FIRST 2 ROUNDS), and any of those 4 aforementioned QB’s would be sufficient for Shanahan’s Shanaplan (so PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT THAT QB A SUCKS OR QB B IS THE ONE WE MUST HAVE). Given those 3 things as true(note: this is a hypothetical/not reality), then we should wait to draft a QB until round 2 (42nd overall pick), and use our 1st round pick on a position with less depth in the draft.

I decided to look at the QB’s drafted over the last decade in the first 3 rounds (current starters are bolded):

2010: 4 QB’s

1-1 Bradford; 1-25 Tebow; 2-48 Clausen; 3-85 McCoy

2009: 4 QB’s

1-1 Stafford; 1-5 Sanchez; 1-17 Freeman; 2-44 White

2008: 5 QB’s

1-3 Ryan; 1-18 Flacco; 2-56 Brohm; 2-57 Henne; 3-94 O’Connell

2007: 6 QB’s

1-1 Russell; 1-22 Quinn; 2-36 Kolb; 2-40 Beck; 2-43 Stanton; 3-92 Edwards

2006: 7 QB’s

1-3 Young; 1-10 Leinart; 1-11 Cutler; 2-49 Clemens; 2-64 Jackson; 3-81 Whitehurst; 3-85 Croyle

2005: 6 QB’s

1-1 Smith; 1-24 Rodgers; 1-25 Campbell; 3-67 Frye; 3-69 Walter; 3-85 Greene

2004: 5 QB’s

1-1 Manning; 1-4 Rivers; 1-11 Roethlisberger; 1-21 Losman; 3-90 Schaub

2003: 6 QB’s

1-1 Palmer; 1-7 Leftwich; 1-19 Boller; 1-22 Grossman; 3-88 Ragone; 3-97 Simms

2002: 4 QB’s

1-1 Carr; 1-3 Harrington; 1-32 Ramsey; 3-81 McCown

2001: 3 QB’s

1-1 Vick; 2-32 Brees; 2-53 Carter

Important points to note:

• Only 3 of the last 10 drafts have 4 quarterbacks gone before the 42nd overall pick (so staying put at the 42nd pick would likely yield one of the desired QB’s).
• In 3 of those 7 drafts, only 2 QB’s were taken before the 42nd pick (meaning there is a fair chance that we could even have our pick of the remaining QB’s by staying put in the 2nd round and waiting until then).
• Of the studs on this list, the Redskins managed only Patrick Ramsey and Jason Campbell (and now Rex Grossman) from their used 1st round picks from our previously incompetent front office. In fact on both of those 1st round picks, the Redskins traded up to get them (so trading up for a QB clearly hasn’t worked for us over the last decade).
• In 4 of the last 10 drafts, a top 4 QB was available in the 3rd round (so if we somehow accumulated a 3rd rounder via traded players, even then we would have a shot at one of these guys "historically speaking" (since some may argue the QB’s in some drafts had less potential than in this one)).

My suggestion "given those 3 assumptions above" is that we could use the first rounder on another position of need, and draft a QB in the second round instead. O-LINE (probably Center, maybe Guard) would be my suggestions since several WR’s will be available in free agency. If we somehow accumulate a 3rd round pick, and if on draft day the QB’s seem to not be flying off the shelf like all the Mel Kiper-wannabe’s out there believe, then we could also have the option to use our first 2 picks on something else and take a later QB instead (though I too think it is unlikely that this year those 4 QB’s will last into the 3rd round).