Last year, in 2017, Deshaun Watson was the third quarterback off the board with the 12th overall selection, and he was the leading favorite for rookie of the year before tearing his ACL in practice. In 2018, it is expected that the first three picks in the NFL Draft will be quarterbacks, just like it was in 1971 and 1999. That’s the best-case scenario for the third QB, but every draft is different: in 2015, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota were the first two picks, and then the third QB selected was Garrett Grayson with the 75th pick. Twice, the third QB in the draft wasn’t taken until the 6th round! In 1988, it was Syracuse’s Don McPherson going at pick 149 in a draft that didn’t see a quarterback go in the first two rounds. In 1985, Steve Bono was taken with the 142nd pick as the third passer off the board.

The graph below shows the draft position where the third QB was selected in each draft from 1967 to 2018, with the assumption being that QB3 will go with the third pick this year:

Here is the full list:

There’s more than a few hits on there (Favre, Kelly, Roethlisberger) but then again, there are 52 QBs on this list and all were the third passer selected in their draft. Of the highest drafted QBs that were 3rd in their class, you have Pastorini, Smith, Tannehill, Gabbert, Roethlisberger, Cutler, Watson, Miller, Kelly, Freeman, and Boller.