1st round QBs in recent history (1 of 29)

Hello all, chikmagnet here. You probably remember me as that annoying poster that is always bothering you in the Official NFL Draft Threads here on NinersNation.

Anyways, what I will be doing in this small segment is looking back in NFL history at 1st round quarterbacks. We'll look way back at these guy's college careers and try to remember what made them 1st round picks. We'll try to remember what their strengths and weaknesses were as college players. I'll try my best to provide you with some sort of video, some interesting facts, and possibly some quotes by the draft experts when they were evaluating these players.

Finally, we'll take a brief look at how they performed at the NFL level. It is here that we'll try to make the connection:

• Why was this guy successful/unsuccessful? and Which current NCAA quarterback compares to this player?

Now, given that the NFL Draft has been around since 1936, we have to limit ourselves somehow. I decided to just stick to the 2000-2010 drafts because they're fresh in people's memories and it's easy to find information from ten years ago.

Note: I want you to keep in mind that this is a community effort. I will not be able to find everything about these players. If you happen to remember specific incidents related to these players, please feel free to share your information in the comments section. Also, please give me your thoughts on the segment and tell me how I can improve these posts.

And so we will begin with the very first quarterback selected in this millennium: Chad Pennington!

I know, I know, I was disappointed too...

Chad Pennington played at Marshall from 1995 to 1998. But he wasn't exactly your typical 4-year starter, as he was benched in between years. In spite of this, he led Marshall to two championships (one when Marshall was in Div-II and another when Marshall moved to Div-I).

You may recall that Chad Pennington was teammates with a certain player by the name of Randy Moss while at Marshall. Some may jump to conclusions and say that Pennington was only successful at the college level because he had this beast to throw to. That is not the case; however, as Randy Moss and Chad Pennington teamed up for only one year (1997...which wasn't even Pennington's best year at Marshall).

Pennington had his best year in 1998 (right after Moss left...huh) when he led the Marshall Thundering Herd to a 12-0 record and finished with with 4,006 passing yards and 38 touchdowns.When you think about Chad Pennington you probably think about the man with the girly arm, so what allowed him to play so well?

His biggest strength was his brain. Pennington was a brilliant quarterback. He learned how to read defenses at the college level and used his knowledge to make quick and smart decisions on the field. As a result, he threw very few interceptions in his college career. The offense he ran at Marshall also helped prepare him for the NFL, as it was pro-style.

To sum up: He was a non-mobile, low-pedigree QB that was successful mainly because of his brains, intangibles, and sheer will to succeed.

How did he turn out in the NFL?

Well, his poor physical skills have always limited him, but we all know he was further hurt by those big injuries. He still does hold the record for highest ever career completion % though.
I think we can consider him a successful, albeit, unlucky QB. (He also gives hopes to schmucks everywhere. If Chad Pennington can be an NFL quarterback, then you can too!)

Here is a wonderful video of Chad Pennington's last drive while at Marshall

Here are his career stats