Most analysts agreed that the 2022 N.F.L. draft featured the weakest crop of quarterbacks in at least a decade. But few expected quarterback-needy teams to be almost historically unimpressed:
The Atlanta Falcons entered the draft having already signed Marcus Mariota as their starting quarterback. Mariota is so fragile he lands on injured reserve if he bumps into a porcelain vase. Yet the Falcons did not select a potential replacement for him until Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder in the third round.
Sam Darnold was rejected by the Jets after the 2020 season and has been losing ground ever since, yet his current team, the Carolina Panthers, waited until the third round before selecting Matt Corral of Mississippi as a possible successor.
The Seattle Seahawks’ starting quarterback is Drew Lock, whom the Denver Broncos tossed into the Russell Wilson trade like an extra packet of honey mustard with an order of chicken nuggets. With Geno Smith as the backup, the Seahawks did not select another challenger at the position. Nor did the Detroit Lions for Jared Goff, the quarterback equivalent of a seat filler at an awards show.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, chosen 20th overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers to supplant the free-agent journeyman Mitchell Trubisky, was the only quarterback drafted in the first two rounds. The last time the draft had such a quarterback drought was in 2000, when the Jets selected Chad Pennington with the 18th overall pick and the next quarterback (Hofstra’s Giovanni Carmazzi) was chosen 65th.
Liberty’s Malik Willis, who has first-round talent but tumbled into the third round because of his small-program unreadiness, will serve an apprenticeship under Ryan Tannehill for the Tennessee Titans, because few teams at the top of the draft order could afford to invest in a quarterback who might not be ready to play until after their coaches have been fired.
Several teams can be counted upon in most years to panic and reach for unimpressive quarterback prospects, so it’s unclear why the league was so sour on this particular group. Perhaps general managers have learned their lesson from drafting players like Goff first overall, Mariota and Trubisky second and Darnold third: Reach for a quarterback too high, and you will be reaching again in a few years.
Or perhaps teams found themselves distracted by a new problem.
Butterflies and Wide Receivers
The N.F.L. operates according to its own chaos theory: Just as a butterfly’s wings can change the course of a tornado, an impetuous decision by the Jacksonville Jaguars in March engulfed this weekend’s draft in a tsunami.