Mitchell Trubisky’s run in Chicago is coming to a close. One of his final home starts, as luck would have it, comes against one of the transcendent quarterbacks that he was chosen before in 2017. With the 3rd pick of the 2017, the Bears could have chosen Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson. Instead, they traded up to No. 2 to pick Trubisky.
It can be argued, of course, that the vast majority of teams missed badly on Mahomes and Watson. Almost every team, with the benefit of hindsight, should have moved heaven and earth to trade up into the top 10 to selected those guys, giving away established veteran star quarterbacks along the way.
But the Bears are the poster child for failure, being the only team that selected a quarterback with those two guys on the board.
Trubisky goes head-to-head against Watson today.
It got me thinking about blown quarterback picks of the past, and how wildly different the NFL could have been with a few different decisions.
On this one, I limited myself only to top-10 overall picks. So no mention of Dan McGwire and Todd Marinovich being selected before Brett Favre. To make this list, the team must have used a top-10 pick on a quarterback when there was a dramatically better quarterback still available.
| TOP-10 MISFIRES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Selected | Instead of … |
| 1979 | Bengals | Jack Thompson | Joe Montana |
| 1982 | Colts | Art Schlichter | Jim McMahon |
| 1983 | Chiefs | Todd Blackledge | Kelly, Marino |
| 1999 | Bengals | Akili Smith | Daunte Culpepper |
| 2001 | Falcons | Michael Vick | Drew Brees |
| 2005 | 49ers | Alex Smith | Aaron Rodgers |
| 2012 | Redskins | Robert Griffin III | Russell Wilson |
| 2017 | Bears | Mitchell Trubisky | Mahomes, Watson |
| 2018 | Jets | Sam Darnold | J.Allen, L.Jackson |
| 2018 | Cardinals | Josh Rosen | Lamar Jackson |
—Ian Allan