Playoff berths
Six first-round rookie signal-callers – Dan Marino, Bernie Kosar (’85 Browns), Ben , Ryan, Flacco and Mark Sanchez – paid immediate dividends, guiding their teams into the playoffs in their inaugural seasons while starting at least half of their squad’s games.
Nine other quarterbacks reached the playoffs in their second seasons as majority starters, and 18 others followed in either their third or fourth seasons.
Five more took five seasons or longer to gain the postseason, but a full 40 never did or never have (including 21 of the 41 top-10 selections from 1980 through 2011), meaning a slight majority never did – or have yet to – guide their teams past the final game of the regular season.
Postseason wins
Winnowing things down even further, only 25 (or slightly less than a third) of the 78 QBs drafted in the first round since 1980 have led their original teams to a playoff victory. Twelve of those 25 were top-10 draft picks, meaning a full 29 top-10 resumes don’t include a postseason win.
Roethlisberger, Flacco and Sanchez are the only three of the 25 to quarterback their teams to playoff wins in their rookie seasons, surprisingly leaving Sanchez as the lone top-10 drafted QB to accomplish the rookie-year feat since 1980.
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