The 1983 NFL Draft QB class was historic. The 2024 QB class might end up in the same tier

The 1983 NFL Draft is celebrated for its quarterbacks, and for good reason. It produced three of the greatest quarterbacks ever: John Elway, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly.

It also had some misses. Ken O’Brien was solid but Todd Blackledge and Tony Eason were first-round disappointments. It’s almost impossible to have many quarterbacks taken in the first round and have them all hit.

So far, the 2024 NFL Draft class is making a run at perfection.

We’ve seen four of the six first-round quarterbacks in action and all four should get early grades as wins. Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye and Bo Nix have all given their franchises reasons to feel very good about the future. And J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix Jr. could also be very good, we just haven’t seen enough of them to know.

The odds of getting even a couple stars at quarterback in a draft are not great, even when six are taken in the first round. We might be seeing a special class.

Six quarterbacks were picked in the first 12 selections of the 2024 NFL Draft. (Yahoo Sports/Grant Thomas)

A special class of rookie QBs

The 1983 draft is shorthand for a best-case scenario for a quarterbacks in the same class, but maybe we should give the 2020 draft that title. That draft produced Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love and Jalen Hurts. We still need to see if there’s a Marino or Elway among that group, but that’s a deep class.

When this year’s class had a record six quarterbacks taken in the top 12 picks, it seemed inevitable that we’d see some busts. There could be some misses, but no obvious ones yet.

Daniels has starred most of the season, and he did again on Sunday with three passing touchdowns and another rushing touchdown. Daniels has a passer rating of 99.4, which is close to C.J. Stroud’s 100.4 mark last season and Dak Prescott’s rookie record of 104.9. Daniels also has 590 rushing yards and six scores on the ground.

That’s a remarkable season but he’s not in the clear for NFL Offensive Rookie…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-04 13:39:00

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