No NFL draft has ever had six QBs taken in the first 12 picks.
There were no quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 1996 and 1988 drafts. Going back to 1968, those are the only two drafts where that happened.
No other draft has had six QBs taken in the top 12 picks.
Prior to last night, the most ever taken in the first 12 was five in 1999. Those five were (in order): Tim Couch (1), Donovan McNabb (2), Akili Smith (3), Daunte Culpepper (11), and Cade McNown (12).
Two of those five were great NFL QBs; three were decidedly not. Those three combined to start 91 NFL games with the majority coming from Couch (59). The sixth QB taken in that draft was Shaun King, who started 24 NFL games in his career.
While the 1983 draft is remembered as the year of the QB, the 1984 draft actually had more total QBs drafted with 16 — the most ever in a single draft. Of course the draft had 12 rounds then.
Steve Young and Boomer Esiason were both drafted in 1984 (although Young was chosen in the supplemental draft). So if you discount that pick, then 1984 had no QBs taken in the first round but 15 taken after the first round. But 1984 was a weird draft. Technically Boomer was the first QB drafted, and he was taken 38th overall.
The other drafts with four QBs taken in the top 12 (beside 1999) were:
2021: Trevor Lawrence Zach Wilson Trey Lance Justin Fields
2018: Baker Mayfield Sam Darnold Josh Allen Josh Rosen
2011: Cam Newton Jake Locker Blaine Gabbert Christian Ponder
I could list the sixth QB taken in every draft, but the names will not be familiar to most. Suffice it to say, rarely does the sixth QB taken turn into a good NFL starter, but there are exceptions.
Some drafts never have a sixth QB taken. There were only seven taken in 2022 and only six in 2015. The fewest in the modern NFL was four in 1996, but the 1960 draft had zero QBs selected.
The sixth QB taken in 2023 was Clayton Tune — 139th.
The sixth QB taken in 2022 was Skylar Thompson — 247th pick.
The sixth QB taken in 2021 was Kyle Trask — 64th and has yet to start an NFL game.
The sixth QB taken in 2015 was Trevor Siemian — 250th.
For the sake of Broncos Country let’s hope that Bo Nix is more Dan Marino (the 6th QB taken in 1983) than Kyle Trask or Trevor Siemian.
But there have been some good NFL QBs who were the sixth quarterback drafted. Russell Wilson, for one. He was the sixth QB taken in 2012. Like him or not, Colin Kaepernick was the 6th QB taken in 2011. He was pretty good, particularly relative to some of the other “6th picked” QBs.
This makes the third time this century that the Broncos have taken the 6th overall QB. The third was Tom Brandstater in 2009. Another three “sixth QBs” — Trent Edwards, Chris Simms and Kyle Orton — spent some time playing for the Broncos (I didn’t look back beyond the 1999 draft).
I’m going to save the best for last. Some guy named Tom Brady, who was drafted 199th overall, was the sixth QB taken in the 2000 draft.
I think his career was decent. LOL.