Eric Davis would be a good pick.

Flacco is flying because the defense effectively sets up the offense in the Ravens' case.

Yeah, I'm not sure about Flacco. When I've seen him, I haven't been very impressed, but I'm just saying that this is one of the few round one QBs that the team could have taken. We didn't, so it will be interesting to reflect, given our desperate need to fill the position.

As much as we complain, the Chiefs, generally, weren't in position to draft a top guy. They would have had to trade up in most instances.

I wish people would analyze this without going back to the 1970's. Everything is different nowadays - more teams, QBs leave school early, better athletes on defense, etc. etc. The track record is a less than 50% chance of success in the last 10 years. Fact.

That's skewed by teams making stupid picks like Rex Grossman, Vince Young and the like.

The percentages are a lot less for QBs outside of the top 5 and outside of round 1.

Going back to 1995 here are the QBs drafted by round. Calculate the percentage of finding a franchise QB.

top 5
Vince Young
Alex Smith
Eli Manning
Philip Rivers
Carson Palmer
David Carr
Joey Harrington
Mike Vick
Tim Couch
Donovan McNabb
Akili Smith
Peyton Manning
Ryan Leaf
Steve McNair
Kerry Collins

round 1
Matt Leinart
Jay Cutler
Aaron Rodgers
Jason Campbell
Ben Roethlisberger
JP Losman
Byron Leftwich
Kyle Boller
Rex Grossman
Patrick Ramsey
Chad Pennington
Daunte Culpepper
Cade McNown
Jim Druckenmiller

round 2
Kellen Clemens
Tarvaris Jackson
Drew Brees
Quincy Carter
Marques Tuiasosopo
Shaun King
Charlie Batch
Jake Plummer
Tony Banks
Todd Collins
Kordell Stewart

round 3
Charlie Whitehurst
Brodie Croyle
Charlie Frye
Andrew Walter
David Greene
Matt Schaub
Dave Ragone
Josh McCown
Chris Simms
Giovanni Carmazzi
Chris Redman
Brock Huard
Jonathan Quinn
Brian Griese
Bobby Hoying
Stoney Case
Eric Zeier

round 4
Kyle Orton
Stefan LeFors
Luke McCown
Seneca Wallace
David Garrard
Rohan Davey
Chris Weinke
Sage Rosenfels
Jesse Palmer
Joe Germaine
Aaron Brooks
Danny Wuerffel
Pat Barnes
Jeff Lewis
Danny Kanell
Rob Johnson
Chad May
Dave Barr
Steve Stenstrom

round 5
Ingle Martin
Omar Jacobs
Dan Orlovsky
Adrian McPherson
Craig Krenzel
Brian St. Pierre
Randy Fasani
Kurt Kittner
Brandon Doman
Craig Nall
Mike McMahon
AJ Feely
Tee Martin
Kevin Daft
Jay Barker

round 6
Bruce Gradkowski
Derek Anderson
Andy Hall
Josh Harris
Jim sorgi
Jeff Smoker
Drew Henson
Brooks Bollinger
Kliff Kingsbury
JT O'Sullivan
Josh Booty
Josh Heupel
Marc Bulger
Spergon Wynn
Tom Brady
Todd Husak
Matt Hasselbeck
Mike Cherry
Chuck Clements
Craig Whelihan

round 7
DJ Shockley
Matt Cassel
Ryan Fitzpatrick
John Navarre
Cody Pickett
Casey Bramlet
Matt Mauck
BJ Symons
Bradee Van Pelt
Gibran Hamdan
Ken Dorsey
Seth Burford
Jeff Kelly
Wes Pate
Tim Rattay
Jarious Jackson
Joe Hamilton
Michael Bishop
Chris Greisen
Scott Covington
Moses Moreno
Tony Graziani
Koy Detmer
Wally Richardson
Jon Stark
Kyle Wachholtz
John Walsh

Better players are more likely to be drafted higher. This is true at every single position, not just QB. But the success rate overall on QBs is low. The original post tossed around numbers like 70% for top 5 when that is not realistic in the modern NFL. It's less than 50% now. I'm not saying it's not worth it if you have real conviction about the guy - but you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that because a guy has a big arm he'll be Peyton Manning. He probably won't.

I advocated for Matt Ryan last year because I thought he had the completely off-the-charts work ethic, intelligence, and leadership skills that truly make the great QBs what they are. At this point I don't see that in the top QB candidates, although I don't know enough about Stafford yet.

2 years produced 4 of the 6 busts.

now that's a sample size to believe in. :)

I guess looking at it from say...1980 would make more sense.

cd can explain more about statistics than I can, but you have to good sample size to get an accurate read. The 1999 and 2002 drafts were quarterback busters. I went with top 5 QB's bc that is where we would be picking. The Blackledges, Klingers and such who are seen as horror stories were not even top 5 picks.

Go back to 1998, or 1990, or 1980....you'll see it was not just 2 fluke years. I think your research shows that picking a QB high was really successful in the 70's, but became less so over time. Again, I still think you should do it - but only if you have strong conviction. I did about Ryan, don't about Stafford or Bradford right now.

Amazing that in the best year ever for QB's - 1983 - only Elway was picked in the top 5.

You forgot
1970 Cleveland Browns took Mike Phipps 3rd overall

and if you include 6th and 7th overall picks
1976 jets take Richard Todd 6th overall
1979 Phil Simms. Works out very well, though if you remember, simms gets hurt and backup Jeff Hostettler takes them to super bowl victory anyway. I'm betting they win some super bowls with LT and Parcells and Belicheck if they pick simms here or not.
1981 Green Bay picked Rich Campbell sixth overall and Ronnie Lott went two picks later. Campbell was only in the league for 4 seasons, put up a whopping 3 tds,
1983 Todd Blackledge was the seventh overall pick by the chiefs , we know how that went. Bruce Matthews went two picks later.

1987 Cardinals took Kelly Stouffer sixth overall
1990 - Lions took Andre Ware seventh overall
1992 Bengals take David Klingler sixth overall
1994 Trend Dilfer taken by Tampa Bay sixth overall. He would go on to win a super bowl, but not with Tampa.
2003 Jacksonville took byron leftwich seventh.

and if you don't cut it off at 1970, in 1969 Bengals take Greg Cook 5th overall

So maybe the odds aren't quite what you were saying they were. I mean, most of the time the reason a QB goes 6 or 7 instead of top five is simply because top 5 teams don't have a need for qb.

round 6 almost seems better than round 1

I went top 5 bc that is where I knew the Chiefs would be picking and 1970 bc that is when the merger and the current NFL was in place. But the more you post you are scared to take a QB and want to be the 90's Chiefs.

I just thing quarterbacks are more of a gamble than other positions