NFL Draft: a timeline of all the league’s biggest quarterback draft mistakes since 2017 that have shaped the modern landscape of the NFL.
An NFL team is far more likely to make a mistake when drafting a quarterback than they are to make the right pick.
And often enough, teams make an equally bad mistake when passing on a quarterback, letting him fall and be taken by rivals that then dominate the teams that passed on him for many seasons to come.
The last eight drafts have featured an annual frenzy of these mistakes, costing general managers their jobs and many passionate fans their sleep.
These mistakes are among the most consequential moments that have shaped the current NFL hierarchy.2017 Draft — 10 teams pass on Patrick Mahomes, Bears pick Mitch Trubisky
The seeds of the NFL’s current and preeminent dynasty, the Kansas City Chiefs, were planted in 2017 when 10 teams passed on Patrick Mahomes.
The Browns, Bears, 49ers, Jaguars, Titans, Jets, Chargers, Panthers and Bengals all decided Mahomes wasn’t worth their first-round pick, before he fell to the Bills at 10.
The Bills also made the decision not to take Mahomes, but to make things worse for themselves for the next eight years, they agreed to trade their pick to the Chiefs. The Bills would get their franchise quarterback a year later, but sending Mahomes to Kansas City set up the Chiefs to beat the Bills in four straight playoff games since then.
But at least the Bills got something out of it in the trade. The Bears were the only other team bold enough to take a quarterback in the top 10 but used their pick on Mitchell Trubisky, who was out of Chicago after just four seasons.
Meanwhile, none of the other eight teams that passed on Mahomes currently have a quarterback with a single MVP award or Super Bowl ring, let alone anything comparable to Mahomes’ two MVPs and three championship rings. 2018 Draft — 2 QBs taken before Josh Allen; 4 QBs, 31 picks taken before Lamar Jackson
The current generation of great NFL quarterbacks began to take shape in 2018, when Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson joined Mahomes in the NFL.
But before either of those two MVPs were taken, a string of franchise-soiling mistakes had to happen first.
The Browns used the No. 1 pick that year on Baker Mayfield, which came as a surprise to many. Mayfield didn’t end up being the biggest mistake of that draft, leading Cleveland to its first playoff win. But in hindsight, passing on Allen and Jackson left the Browns with plenty of second-guessing since then, especially now with Mayfield gone and their quarterback situation uncertain.
The Jets may have gotten even less out of their decision to pass on Allen and Jackson with the decision to take Sam Darnold. Darnold never came close to sniffing the playoffs in just three seasons with the Jets, and he was more remembered for infamously «seeing ghosts» in a poor performance in 2019.
On top of that, letting Allen wind up in Buffalo gave the Jets their next big bully as soon as they were coming to the end of having to deal with Tom Brady in New England.
But the team with the biggest quarterback blunder from 2018 was the Arizona Cardinals, who made the decision to trade up to the No. 10 pick to take Josh Rosen. Allen was already gone at that point after the Bills traded up to No. 7 to get him, but the Cardinal’s decision to concede for Rosen yielded one of the lowliest returns of any trade-up for a quarterback in recent history.
Rosen lasted one season in Arizona, going 3-10 as a starter before he was ousted and had to settle for backup and practice squad roles up until 2022.
Meanwhile, plenty of other teams made the mistake of not taking Jackson after that, and he fell all the way to the final pick of the first round before the Ravens traded back into the round to secure their future MVP.
