The 2019 Draft was another good one for quarterbacks. Oklahoma QB Kyler Murray was the first overall pick to the Cardinals, Duke passer Daniel Jones was taken by the Giants with sixth pick, and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins was the 15th pick to Washington. The Broncos took Missouri Tiger Drew Lock with the 42nd pick, rounding out the class of top prospects.

Over the last 20 years, there were 56 quarterbacks selected in the first round, or just under three per year; there were also 68 quarterbacks taken in the first 50 picks, so the 2019 class was slightly more quarterback-heavy than normal.  It was also the 14th time in the last 20 drafts that a quarterback went first overall.

The draft below shows the draft capital — using the Football Perspective Draft Value Chart to assign draft capital to each pick — used on quarterbacks in all drafts since 1967.  As you can see, 2019 was not as quarterback-heavy as 2018, but it was still a draft that saw more draft capital used on quarterbacks than average.

In addition, based on yesterday’s post, we can see that on a per snap basis, quarterback was the position where the most draft capital was spent.  And not surprisingly, it mostly was done by the teams with the biggest need for a quarterback.

A couple of months ago, I analyzed the state of the quarterback market in the NFL.  I noted that two teams had basically nothing at quarterback: Washington and Miami.  The Dolphins passed on Haskins and Lock but traded for Josh Rosen, while the Redskins avoided trading up and let Haskins fall to them.

I noted five other teams were in a bit of a quarterback gray area: the Bucs and Titans with Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, and the Bengals, Jaguars, and Broncos with Andy Dalton, Nick Foles, and Joe Flacco.  Neither Tampa Bay nor Tennessee added a quarterback, although the Titans already have a capable #2 in Ryan Tannehill.  On the other hand, Denver selected Lock in the second round, the Bengals drafted N.C. State QB Ryan Finley in the fourth, and the Jaguars used a 6th round pick on Washington State’s Gardner Minshew.

The Giants were in quarterback purgatory, too, of course, and they finally used a premium pick on a quarterback in Jones.

So of the teams that entered the 2019 Draft class with legitimate question marks at quarterback, only Tampa Bay failed to select one.  But given how few teams had strong needs at the position, and how this was not lauded as a great quarterback draft class, it’s telling once again how much draft capital was spent on quarterbacks.