The NFL will move into a “quiet time” in terms of on-field events even as the commissioner and Tom Brady and the NFLPA begin the process of appealing Brady’s 4-game suspension coming out of Deflategate. OTAs and mini-camps are over; reports say that every high draft pick for every team looked good at those events. Of course, they take place in shorts and not in pads so the high picks had damned well better look good there or the GMs who made the picks need to be looking for other lines of work. I mention that because there were a plethora of reports about how good Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariotta both looked with their new squads. And that got me to thinking:
When quarterbacks are taken with the overall #1 pick AND the overall #2 pick in the draft, it seems that one does pretty well and the other flames out.
That is just a gut feeling from recent happenings and so I did a tad of research – nothing like what Dan Daly might do at profootballdaly.com to be sure – and here is what I came up with:
2015 Jameis Winston #1 and Marcus Mariotta #2: The jury is out and should not render any verdict before 2019.
2012 Andrew Luck #1 and RG-3 #2: Preliminary results say that Luck is the significantly better QB but neither career has run its course yet.
1999 Tim Couch #1 and Donovan McNabb #2: McNabb was clearly the better pick here. Oh and by the way, in 1999 another QB, Akili Smith, was taken with the overall #3 pick and he was the worst of the trio.
1998 Peyton Manning #1 and Ryan Leaf #2: There is simply no comparison here…
1993 Drew Bledsoe #1 and Rick Mirer #2: Bledsoe played for more than a decade and went to the Super Bowl with the Pats; Mirer played well as a rookie but never really was more than a journeyman.
1971 Jim Plunkett #1 and Archie Manning #2: In this case both QBs played well. It took Plunkett a while – and a change of scenery from New England – to blossom; Archie Manning played very well for a series of Saints’ teams that were significantly short on talent. Oh and by the way, in 1971 another QB, Dan Pastorini, was taken with the overall #3 pick. Interestingly, it was Pastorini’s broken leg that gave Plunkett the opening to start and to lead the Raiders to a Super Bowl victory in 1981.
1954 Bobby Garrett #1 and Lamar McHan #2: I have to admit I had to look both of these guys up. Garrett was drafted by the Browns but played the 1954 season for the Packers. That was his only year in the NFL. McHan played in the NFL for 10 years with four teams. His stats were not stellar but he clearly had the better NFL career.
Only in the 1971 Draft did both of the QBs taken at the top of the draft do well in their pro careers – with the caveat that RG-3 may improve to the point where he adds the 2012 Draft to that list. Three times, the player taken #1 overall had a significantly better career than the player taken #2; twice the player taken #2 overall had the significantly better career.
What does this portend for Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariotta? Probably nothing. However, it is “quiet time” for the NFL and that allows one’s mind to wander a bit…
Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot had these two cogent NFL observations recently:
“Static alert: Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant has every right to seek a long-term contract, but by complaining that he’s making only $12.8 million and threatening to hold out, he’s violating the first rule of rich people – no whining on the yacht.”
And …
“In passing: Johnny Manziel says he’s ditching his immature, look-at-me ‘money sign.’ Maybe he’s just realizing that there would be no sense in flashing it from the bench.”
In general, I am at the point where I am looking forward to the start of the football season with one minor hesitation. When the NFL games are on for real, that means the NFL Network is prone to put Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders on the same set with both of them in possession of live microphones. Let me just say this…
If there were such a thing as Crimes Against Syntax, Michael Irvin would have long ago been indicted, convicted and sent to 10 years of diagramming sentences.
When he and Deion are on the same TV set and I am sitting on my couch with the remote in my hands, the TV set is in danger of having the remote arrive at the screen traveling at a significant velocity.
Finally, here is a college football related observation from Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald:
“According to a World-Herald breakdown, NU [Nebraska University] is paying Bo Pelini $29,490.91 per week, $737.27 per hour, $12.29 per minute or 20.4 cents per second to not coach. For comparison’s sake, we only pay our state legislators $12,000 per year to not work.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
My reservations about the Winston pick at #1 is related to his off field behavior. On the field he can be electric. As I said about golf yesterday, 50% of being a pro athlete is physical. We’ll see if he handles his life better than Manziel. If he does, I think he can be a very good pro.
Doug:
Interesting… My reservations about Mariotta is that he never played in the kind of offense he will have to run in the NFL. I hope both of them succeed – but I am skeptical about both for very different reasons.
Jim Plunkett, 1971 #1, and Rick Mirer, 1993 #2. Both played for the Oakland Raiders. Which one had the better career?
Tenacious P:
Plunkett was clearly the better Raider QB. Plunkett’s early years were undistinguished to be kind but he went out on a high note. Mirer was good at the start of his career but sank to journeyman status rather quickly.
I dunno… I’d offer some of our lawmakers more money to just go away like Pelini has to….
Ed:
Me too… And I have a LONG list of lawmakers that I would be making that offer to.