All throughout the 2021 football season, the talk was that this year’s draft class featured one of the weakest crops of quarterbacks in recent memory. On Thursday night, that talk seemingly proved itself out.
For the first time since 1997, there was not a single quarterback selected among the top 19 picks. Instead, the Jacksonville Jaguars made Georgia edge rusher Travon Walker the No. 1 overall selection, and the rest of the top 10 went No. 2) Aidan Hutchinson (edge rusher) to the Lions; No. 3) cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. to the Texans; No. 4) cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner to the Jets; No. 5) edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux to the Giants; No. 6) offensive lineman Ikem Ekwonu to the Panthers; No. 7) offensive lineman Evan Neal to the Giants; No. 8) wide receiver Drake London to the Falcons; No. 9) offensive lineman Charles Cross to the Seahawks; No. 10) wide receiver Garrett Wilson to the Jets (you can check out our draft tracker with every pick and grades here).
The non-QB run continued with the next nine picks, until the Steelers finally ended the streak by taking Pitt’s Kenny Pickett at No. 20.
There hadn’t been a draft without a QB in the top 10 since back in 2013, when the first passer did not come off the board until the No. 16 pick, which the Buffalo Bills acquired via a trade-down from No. 8 with the then-St. Louis Rams. They took Florida State’s E.J. Manuel with that pick.
The last time a QB lasted past No. 19 was the 1997 NFL Draft, when the first QB off the board didn’t come until No. 26, when the 49ers took Jim Druckenmiller. No other QBs went in the first round that year, and the next one didn’t come off the board until Jake Plummer to the Cardinals in the second round at No. 42 overall.
