MUST Draft QB in Round One

-Coast

I am sick of this linebacker/defensive lineman garbage with the 9th pick in the draft. I understand, defense wins championships and all that but it isn't an accident that 95 percent of teams that make the playoffs every year have good quarterbacks. The exceptions? Those teams with defenses that rank in the top 5 in nearly every single defensive category.

Last year, the Jets ranked 1st in total defense, 1st in pass defense, 8th in rushing defense and 1st in points per game. The Ravens ranked 3rd, 8th, 5th and 3rd in those same categories. The other 10 playoff teams had quarterbacks named Brady, Manning, Palmer, Rivers, Romo, Favre, Brees, Warner, Rodgers and McNabb.

The starting quarterbacks (that played the majority of the season) from the Super Bowl champions since 1990 are Simms, Rypien, Aikman, Aikman, Young, Aikman, Favre, Elway, Elway, Warner, Dilfer, Brady, Johnson, Brady, Brady, Roethlisberger, Manning, Manning (Eli), Roethlisberger and Brees. Of these, all are or will probably be hall of famers except three...Rypien, Dilfer and Brad Johnson.

The defensive rankings of the 1991 Washington Redskins led by Mark Rypien were 2nd in points allowed and 3rd in yards allowed. For the 2000 Baltimore Ravens led by Trent Dilfer ranked 1st and 2nd in yards allowed and points allowed. Finally, the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by Brad Johnson, ranked 1st in points and 1st in yards allowed.

My point: 10 out of 12 of last years playoff teams had stud QBs. 85% of the last 20 super bowl champions had stud QBs. The only way to succeed if you don't have one is to have an all time great defense. The Bills do not have an all time great defense and even great defenses win the Super Bowl 15% of the time.

THE BILLS NEED A QUARTERBACK. I have been saying it since the season ended and will keep saying it. We could have gone out and got McNabb-we didn't. We could have made a play for Vick or Kolb-we didn't. There really is no one else there worth a shit. That brings us to the draft. Sam Bradford will definitely be gone by the time we draft, although it is possible Jimmy Clausen will be on the board. If he is, we HAVE to draft him, period, no questions asked.

The following is a list of all first round quarterbacks taken since 1998, the year Peyton Manning was drafted.

• Peyton Manning, 1998
• Ryan Leaf, 1998
• Tim Couch, 1999
• Donovan McNabb, 1999
• Akili Smith, 1999
• Daunte Culpepper, 1999
• Cade McNown, 1999
• Chad Pennington, 2000
• Michael Vick, 2001
• David Carr, 2002
• Joey Harrington, 2002
• Patrick Ramsey, 2002
• Carson Palmer, 2003
• Byron Leftwich, 2003
• Kyle Boller, 2003
• Rex Grossman, 2003
• Eli Manning, 2004
• Philip Rivers, 2004
• Ben Roethlisberger, 2004
• JP Losman, 2004
• Alex Smith, 2005
• Aaron Rodgers, 2005
• Jason Campbell, 2005
• Vince Young, 2006
• Matt Leinart, 2006
• Jay Cutler, 2006
• Jamarcus Russell, 2007
• Brady Quinn, 2007
• Matt Ryan, 2008
• Joe Flacco, 2008
• Matt Stafford, 2009
• Mark Sanchez, 2009
• Josh Freeman, 2009

In bold are the quarterbacks that are officially busts in my opinion. In italics are the quarterbacks that it is too early to tell and the rest have had success in the NFL. Other than the 4 who need more time to prove themselves, I believe that 13 out of the 29 other QBs are busts. That means we would have about a 16 out of 29 or 55% chance of hitting on a first round quarterback. TAKE A SHOT AT CLAUSEN AT 9. We would have a better than 50/50 chance at getting a quarterback who could actually be successful in this league. Also, we already whiffed on 1 so we are due to hit.

We do not have a single quarterback on our roster that is worth being better than 3rd string. Trent Edwards is my least favorite NFL player in history. Ryan Fitzpatrick is the most inaccurate QB in the NFL, college and ECIC section VI. Brian Brohm, a former 2nd round pick, was basically given away by Green Bay because a 7th round pick from the same draft is better. We need to try something...anything...to get a legitimate quarterback, and the draft is our only hope.