2018 NFL off-season thread: Mr. Alex Smith goes to Washington

1) Because Bengals
2) Goddamn, he threw a great-looking deep ball

 

26th pick in ‘97 draft. One pick before Rae Carruth.

Pace No. 1 and Gonzalez No. 13 were big hits, but the rest of the first round was dreck.

 

So did RG3.

 

The ‘99 draft seems to be where the QB obsession really started.

There was the Manning-Lead debate at the top in ‘98, but next year it was Couch, McNabb, Smith 1-2-3, then Culpepper at 11 and McNown at 12.

 

TRADE CADE!

 

The '83 draft is still the record I think with six QBs in the first round. But the search for QBs was always a if not the big draft story as far back as I can remember. The lust for big stiffs who throw balls through armor plate was a thing then, too. Norm Snead!!! And there wasn't a doubt expressed about Russell Wilson that wasn't said decades earlier about Fran Tarkenton. If there's one thing Belichick was able to pound into my head in the five years I covered him, it's that there's never very much truly new under the NFL sun.

 

All I can remember about Cade McNown in the NFL was a story written about him where the writer drove up the Bears' practically empty facility.... and McNown's car was parked in the handicap space.

 

The ‘83 first round was an outlier in terms of the QBs exceeding expectations. Three Hall of Famers and a solid guy in O’Brien.*

*And another SB starter.

 

Wasn't Eason the only starting quarterback in Super Bowl history to fail to complete a pass?

Blackledge was the true bust, but Eason was quite crappy, too.

 

Eason had his moments, but he got hurt a lot. Also, the veterans wanted one of their own, Grogan, as the QB. Final also, Eason got tired of football in his last couple seasons, although "got tired of perpetual rehab" might be more accurate.

 

He's also famous for being banned from the Playboy Mansion and being the ex of Tim Couch's wife.