San Diego Union Tribune

Everything begins with a quarterback in football, and so will the story of the 2021 NFL Draft. It’s almost a certainty we have five quarterbacks selected in the first round on Thursday. As of now, I believe there’s a 50-50 chance they are taken in the first nine picks, with potentially the first four names we here called in prime time being signal callers (which would be a first). There have been three straight quarterbacks selected to open a draft in the Super Bowl era twice before: 1971 (Jim Plunkett, Archie Manning and Dan Pastorini) and 1999 (Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb and Akili Smith).