Just for kicks, here are the #1 picks over the past 25 years.
With the thought in mind that QB is the most vital position, teams have drafted 18 of them in that period.
Of those, two (Manning, Stafford) have won the SB. Carr has a ring, but as a backup, and was pretty mediocre, if not rotten, otherwise. His brother Derrick seemingly got most of the QB talent in the family…but had the misfortune of mostly playing for the Raiders.
2000 Courtney Brown DE
2001 Michael Vick QB
2002 David Carr QB
2003 Carson Palmer QB
2004 Eli Manning* QB
2005 Alex Smith QB
2006 Mario Williams DE
2007 JaMarcus Russell QB
2008 Jake Long T
2009 Matthew Stafford QB
2010 Sam Bradford QB
2011 Cam Newton QB
2012 Andrew Luck QB
2013 Eric Fisher T
2014 Jadeveon Clowney DE
2015 Jameis Winston QB
2016 Jared Goff QB
2017 Myles Garrett DE
2018 Baker Mayfield QB
2019 Kyler Murray QB
2020 Joe Burrow QB
2021 Trevor Lawrence QB
2022 Travon Walker DE
2023 Bryce Young QB
2024 Caleb Williams QB
#1 will get you at least a good player, but a game changer, or leader to glory? No guarantees of that.
Then you have Mr. "Purple Drank" Russell, perhaps one of the biggest draft busts of all time. Even Tony Mandarich came back and had something of a career.
