How many college spread/shotgun QB's have been drafted in the 1st and 2nd?
 

There is a lot of talk about how college spread QB's don't do well in the NFL. I was wondering, is their rate of failure any greater than non-spread QBs. Roethlisberger, Brees, Young, Smith, and Orton (3rd rounder) were all shotgun and/or spread QB's.

Who else I am missing? If you look at QB's the last 6 years do the spread QB's in the first 2 rounds have a higher failure rate than their pro style counterparts?

Well, you just named the only two successful shotgun/spread QB's in the history of the league, so you answered your own question.

Ben and Drew are successes and Young is still somewhat questionable. You have Smith as a definite failure. In the last 5-6 years, in the first two rounds, there have been 4 shotgun/spread QB's taken and 2 are successes, 1 failure and 1 undecided??

Is that right? If so, why in the world has the spread QB taken so much criticism? Are those rates (albeit a very small %) much worse than pro style QBs?

Andre Ware, Akili Smith, and David Klingler were all drafted in the first round.

Rex Grossman

That makes it:
2 success, 5 failures, 1 undecided (going back 10 years)?

On the other side of the coin for success you have: McNabb, Culp, Pennington, Palmer, Eli, Rivers, Rodgers.

For bust you have: King, Carter, Carr, Harrington, Ramsey, Boller, Loman, Leinart, Jackson, Russell, Clemons, Quinn, Beck and Stanton.

Some guys on the fence: Vick, Kolb, Cutler.

From a quick look:
Spread: 2 success, 6 failures (include Leftwich), 1 questionable.
Pro-Style: 7 success, 14 failures and 3 questionable. (To be fair it looks like Ryan and Flacco will be a success).

Kolb is a shotgun spread guy.

When Pennington was on Marshall were they shotgun as well?

I don't know, but they were when Leftwich was there.

Actually, you could count Steve McNair as a success. When he was at Alcorn State, they threw the ball 60-70 times a game.

Pat White is another spread QB, and he'll never amount to anything.