2020 NFL Draft Preview: Potential franchise quarterbacks abound
Mar 17, 2020, 6:12 AM | Updated: Apr 10, 2020, 10:30 am
The NFL Draft is slated for April 23-25, providing seven rounds for the Broncos and other teams to find their stars of the future. At this point, Denver is slated to have 11 total picks, five of which will fall within the first 95 selections. In other words, John Elway will have plenty of assets to work with throughout the weekend.
What will he do with those picks? That’s anyone’s guess. But in the coming weeks, 1043TheFan.com will provide an overview of the best prospects.
Today, we kick things off by looking at a position where the Broncos appear to be set for 2020 – quarterback. That said, Elway and Vic Fangio have been slow to fully endorse Drew Lock as Denver’s signal caller of the future. So it’s not outside the realm of possibilities that they make a splash, move up in the draft and try to land one of these top QBs.
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Top Five on the Board
1. Tua Tagovailoa – If not for the serious hip injury he suffered late in the 2019 college football season, Tagovailoa would be the consensus No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Even though everything has checked out medically post-surgery, some teams will still be scared off, letting him tumble a bit in the first round. But whoever takes the gamble will get the best pure passer in the draft. His 2018 campaign at Alabama says it all. That season, Tagovailoa threw 3,966 yards, 43 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Incredible.
2. Joe Burrow – Unless something drastic happens between now and the draft, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner will be the first player selected. And for good reason. He had a season for the ages in 2019, throwing for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns while leading LSU to the national championship. Burrow doesn’t have the strongest arm in this year’s class, but he can make all the necessary throws, has an ability to make plays off schedule and carries himself like a franchise quarterback.
3. Justin Herbert – Herbert’s stock has been all over the board. At one point, he was a consensus top-five pick. Midway through the college season, however, there were rumblings that he might fall out of the first round, similar to what’s happened to Jake Fromm. But after a strong finish to the season, as well as a pro day at Oregon where he showed off a monster arm, Herbert is once again projected to go high in the draft. He has big-time talent and is a great teammate, making him a top-10 prospect.
4. Jordan Love – When it comes to rising stocks, the hottest IPOs on Wall Street would have a hard time competing with Love. Last season at Utah State, he threw for 3,402 yards and 20 touchdowns, but also tossed 17 interceptions. He was on no one’s radar as a first-round prospect. But after a strong showing at the Senior Bowl, as well as the Scouting Combine, Love has become “the next Patrick Mahomes” in the minds of some teams. He could go in the top 15, which would be a meteoric rise.
5. Jacob Eason – There’s a big fall off from Love to Eason, at least in terms of where they’re projected to go in the draft. Eason is most likely a day-two selection, partially because he’s a bit of an unknown. After two seasons at Georgia, where he got supplanted by Fromm, Eason transferred to Washington. There, he got a bit lost in the shuffle, as the program wasn’t as prominent as it had been in recent years. But at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, he’s a big, strong quarterback, with the arm to make NFL throws.
