by Patrick Caulden

Created on: May 21, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Quarterbacks in the NFL are what most pundits measure a good team to a bad team. Often times, you can directly correlate why a team has been unsuccessful. Finding the right quarterback may be tougher than finding the right player for any other position. He is the coach on the field and leader in the clubhouse. Coaches, general managers and team presidents have been fired because they selected the wrong quarterback.

Whether it is the first pick overall or the last week in the first round, most NFL teams have selected their future franchise quarterback. Today, more than ever, coaches analyze and critique the quarterback position. They may be overanalyzing what in reality is a crap shoot.

The college football teams today are very similar to the NFL. They are in a win now mode. Take a look at a couple of scenarios. Nick Saban won a National Championship with LSU and parlayed it into the head coaching job at Miami. He then left Miami after two years and zero playoff berths for Alabama. Alabama threw obscene money to Saban because it had been too long since they competed for a national championship.

Ron Zook was fired from Florida even though he had a good winning percentage and was replaced by Urban Meyer who turned down his dream job at Notre Dame because Notre Dame would not guarantee lowering their academic standards. Meyer went on to win a national championship in his second year.

College coaches are in a win now mode because the pressure is the same as the pros. If you lose you are out of a job and quickly and in some cases if you do not compete every year for a championship you are out. This has forced coaches into a mindset of win at all costs.

They may not develop a quarterback's full potential talent. College coaches will create offensives which will never work in the NFL but are very successful in their ranks. Take for instance Steve Spurrier. He left Florida and went to the Washington Redskins. He implemented the Fun and Gun. Two losing seasons and he was gone. Back in the college ranks as the most sought after coaches.

This leads to the point of where to go when selecting a franchise quarterback in the NFL. Since 1982 there have been 54 quarterbacks selected in the first round. Some names you remember while others were forgotten a long time ago. Busts are a common phrase when some of the names are mentioned and for good reason. Of the 54 quarterbacks selected in the first round, only 14 ever made it to the Super Bowl. Of the 14 which made it, only

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