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For a while, “SEC first-round quarterback” was a myth on par with the Abominable Snowman.
When the New York Jets selected Alabama quarterback Richard Todd to replace Joe Namath in 1976, the SEC had produced a nice string of signal-callers, players like Steve Spurrier and Archie Manning.
Then the well went dry — for 18 years.
By comparison, as the NFL has become an increasingly lucrative league for quarterbacks, 11 SEC players at the position have gotten selected in the first round in the last 18 drafts.
Elite quarterback play in the SEC is a pretty recent phenomenon, one that was in part responsible for the league winning seven consecutive national championships.
Don’t expect the SEC to add to its total of 22 first-round quarterbacks all-time, though. At least not next week. Blake Sims, the SEC’s best chance to get drafted, is a third-day pick at best, while Auburn’s Nick Marshall should get taken — as a cornerback.
The SEC never has produced two first-round quarterbacks in the same year, though in 2011, the Carolina Panthers selected Auburn’s Cam Newton at No. 1 overall and Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert, then a part of the Big 12, went to the Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 10 overall.
Forced to choose the best NFL draft class for SEC quarterbacks, I’m going with ’98 — the year the Indianapolis Colts selected Peyton Manning. One of the all-time greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Manning could stake a claim for No. 1 if he had performed better in the postseason.
Here’s a complete list of the SEC’s first-round picks, followed by a few observations.
| Year | Player | School |
|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Y.A. Tittle^ | LSU |
| 1949 | Johnny Rauch | Georgia |
| 1951 | Y.A. Tittle^ | LSU |
| 1952 | Vito “Babe” Parilli | Kentucky |
| 1954 | Lamar McHan | Arkansas |
| 1965 | Joe Namath | Alabama |
| 1967 | Steve Spurrier | Florida |
| 1971 | Archie Manning | Ole Miss |
| 1972 | John Reaves | Florida |
| 1973 | Bert Jones | LSU |
| 1976 | Richard Todd | Alabama |
| 1977 | Steve Pisarkiewicz# | Missouri |
| 1994 | Heath Shuler | Tennessee |
| 1998 | Peyton Manning | Tennessee |
| 1999 | Tim Couch | Kentucky |
| 2003 | Rex Grossman | Florida |
| 2004 | Eli Manning | Ole Miss |
| 2005 | Jason Campbell | Auburn |
| 2006 | Jay Cutler | Vanderbilt |
| 2007 | JaMarcus Russell | LSU |
| 2008 | Matthew Stafford | Georgia |
| 2010 | Tim Tebow | Florida |
| 2011 | Cam Newton | Auburn |
| 2011 | Blaine Gabbert# | Missouri |
| 2012 | Ryan Tannehill# | Texas A&M |
| 2014 | Johnny Manziel | Texas A&M |
#School was not an SEC member at the time.
^Drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1948, Tittle instead joined the Baltimore Colts of the All-America Football Conference, who joined the NFL in 1950, but then folded. Subsequently, Tittle again got drafted in the first round by the San Francisco 49ers in 1951.
SCHOOLS RANKED BY FIRST-ROUND PICKS
1. Florida 4
2. LSU 3
T3. Kentucky 2
T3. Georgia 2
T3. Alabama 2
T3. Ole Miss 2
T3. Tennessee 2
T3. Auburn 2
T3. Missouri 2*
T3. Texas A&M 2*
T11. Arkansas 1
T11. Vanderbilt 1
T13. Mississippi State 0
T13. South Carolina 0
*Again, not an SEC member at the time of at least some of the listed first-round picks.
Texas A&M didn’t produce a single first-round quarterback from 1936, the first NFL draft, through 2011. But now the Aggies claim two: Ryan Tannehill and Johnny Manziel.
Tannehill played his last season in College Station as a part of the Big 12 conference, otherwise A&M, in the span of three years, would’ve gone from zero first-round quarterbacks into a tie for third in SEC history, and not far behind Florida and LSU.
Even now, there are only 32 starting quarterback spots in the NFL. Players like Tom Brady, Aaron Rogers, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Joe Flacco and Russell Wilson — the list goes on — occupy plenty of those spots, often for a decade or more.
The SEC’s low numbers aren’t indicative of a weak quarterback league so much as a scarcity of first-round picks at quarterback.
Florida and LSU have combined to produce seven of the conference’s 22 first-round quarterbacks all-time, while Mississippi State and South Carolina are the only two SEC programs never to produce a first-round pick at the position.
SEC FIRST-ROUND QBS BY DECADE
1940s: 2
1950s: 2
1960s: 2
1970s: 4*
1980s: 0
1990s: 3
2000s: 6
2010s: 3
*Numbers do not include Missouri or Texas A&M defensive linemen drafted in the first round prior to SEC membership for those schools.
The 1980s was a terrible decade to play quarterback in the SEC if you wanted to parlay your college days into a professional career. Even the Gators, which produced an All-American quarterback in the ’60s, ’70s, ’90s and ’00s, couldn’t produce a first-round pick that decade.
(Florida’s Kerwin Bell earned SEC MVP honors in ’84, then got drafted in the seventh round by Miami in ’88, but barely played in the NFL.)
The SEC will not produce a first-round quarterback next week, so the conference has four more drafts to produce three more first-round picks if it wants to equal the 2000s in the current decade.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
