Top 100 NFL Draft Prospects: April 2011

The 2011 NFL Draft has a few potential headlines. They’ll either involve a player slipping in the draft, for example, the rumors of Blaine Gabbert slipping out of the top ten. But what the headline should be, no matter what, is about how many defensive linemen will be drafted in the first round. There will at least a dozen of them. That’s crazy. Unheard of. But with all these teams who need a QB, that may not pan out.

Sure, four or five quarterbacks will likely go in the first round, maybe even more, who knows. But this trend doesn’t have anything to do with talent, it has to do with how desperate a handful of teams are for a quarterback.

San Francisco is about three years late with drafting a new franchise QB. Carolina is about to draft a quarterback in the first two rounds for two straight years. Arizona should’ve found a replacement for Matt Leinart in Ken Whisenhunt’s first year. Tennessee went all-in with a quarterback possessing maturity and accuracy issues. Minnesota sold its soul to the devil for a dick pic. Cincinnati has perpetually drafted idiots and bad teammates, now Carson Palmer wants out. Washington, well, they’re being Washington. Miami put all its eggs in one “Chad Henne basket” then conveniently forgot to give him an offensive line. Buffalo has a decent quarterback, but hey, he’s not a “franchise QB” so they may as well look for a new one, right? Seattle is the only team who’s done it the right way, it just didn’t pan out as well as they’d hoped with Charlie Whitehurst.

So ultimately, since the quarterback position is such a casual fan-friendly subject, the media will focus on it, as will the GMs across the league during the draft. They will all compete against each other’s self-interest. But at least it’ll make for good television.