Whatever happens, we’re gonna have a lot to say about the 2018 NFL Draft quarterback class

Quarterbacks have been the story of the last four months of NFL Draft hemming and hawing, so it’s no surprise that they were the story of Round 1 on Thursday night.

Four quarterbacks, beginning with Baker Mayfield at No. 1, were drafted in the top 10, which was the first time that has happened since 1949. One of those players, Josh Allen at No. 7, was one of the polarizing passers ever, and that was even before his old tweets surfaced, creating a divide between those who “know” the NFL and those who form their opinions based on what their eyes and statistics tell them.

That latter group tends to believe Lamar Jackson — the fifth quarterback taken in the round, selected 25 picks later than Allen by the Baltimore Ravens — is the much better player. He was polarizing for a completely different set of reasons, but by falling he may have landed in the most nurturing environment of any of the First Round Five.

This quarterback class had it all — two Heisman winners, all sorts of nit-picky “character” issues, and the full spectrum of skillsets. There was a short guy, a tall guy, a smart guy, a guy who was one of the most electric players ever to play college football, and a guy whose most demonstrable skill is the ability to throw a ball over them mountains.

All of those players are entering an NFL that is finally waking up to college offensive principles. Take it together, and it adds up to a QB class that, successful or not, we will likely be talking about for a long, long time.

We’ve seen NFL teams reach for quarterbacks mostly on the basis of great measurables before. Recent examples include Ryan Tannehill, Blake Bortles, Brock Osweiler, and Jake Locker. None of those of picks were as egregious as Allen, though.

By the numbers, it’s hard to say what, if anything, Allen actually does well. Our own Jason Kirk tried really, really hard to find statistics that showed Allen in a positive light. A sampling:

Football Outsiders’ QBASE formula mixes conventional wisdom with stats, giving a boost to players who are popular among scouts and mockers. Its all-time college top 10 — Rivers, Palmer, McNabb, Mayfield, Wilson, Peyton Manning, Mariota, Byron Leftwich, Rodgers, and Roethlisberger — gives it credibility as an NFL predictor.

Well, Allen’s sub-zero results are “horrifying,” in FO’s words: “Since 1997, there have been 27 quarterbacks chosen in the top 100 with QBASE ratings below zero. The best was either Josh McCown or Brian Griese.”

The Bills traded up to get someone they can only hope to be Brian Griese. That sort of confidence toward a player ought to be reassuring, but the last two offensive players the Bills were geeked out about in the first round of the draft were EJ Manuel and Sammy Watkins. Neither is on the team anymore, and the latter cost them their 2015 first- and second-round picks in a trade with Cleveland.

Mayfield, for all of his success, may be one of the most chronically aggrieved football players of all time. He’ll find a way to turn being picked No. 1 overall into a chip on his shoulder. (Unfounded Johnny Manziel comparisons might do the trick.)

As for Rosen and Jackson, they don’t need to manufacture any resentment. Rosen, who critics tried to suggest was actually too smart, might have dropped the quote of the night after going off the board at No. 10 to the Cardinals.

Jackson — whose biggest mistake during the NFL Draft process seemed to be that he is too good an athlete — would have fallen out of the first round altogether if the Ravens hadn’t traded up to No. 32 from the second round. But although many critics have questioned Jackson’s ability as a passer (which, we remind you, is better than Allen’s by almost any objective measure) and suggested he should play wide receiver, Jackson has always insisted he’s a quarterback.

And after he was finally and mercifully picked, he boldly called his shot:

NFL quarterbacks have a reputation of being measured, diplomatic, often boring faces for their franchises. In Mayfield, Rosen, and Jackson, three of the NFL’s potential future superstars have shown they won’t be holding back when it comes to competing and proving any doubters wrong.

Five potentially franchise-changing first-round quarterbacks in one draft is a big deal. The only time more quarterbacks have been drafted in the first round was 1983, when six first-round quarterbacks were drafted including John Elway, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino. Of those six, four played in Super Bowls, four played in Pro Bowls, and three were eventually inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

It would be very difficult for the Class of 2018 to live up to that level of success, but it can still leave a similar impact. This is an important time for the NFL. We just watched one of the first NFL teams to incorporate run-pass options into its offense at scale win a Super Bowl over another team that doesn’t hesitate to dabble in college principles. Across the league we’re seeing coaching staffs experiment with new ideas, and that means that the traditional model of what an NFL quarterback should look like need no longer apply.

Hopefully this evolution means we can see more players like Mayfield and Jackson succeed — players who don’t have prototypical NFL quarterback builds like Allen or Sam Darnold, but make up for it in a myriad of ways like speed and moxie. There’s good reason to be hopeful. We have seen Air Raid or spread quarterbacks like Jared Goff, Pat Mahomes, and Marcus Mariota have success already, none of whom look or play much like one another.

The NFL seems to be on the verge of a significant offensive shift, and that evolution and injection of variety should make football much more interesting in the coming years.

As for the more “traditional” passers, all of them are compelling stories in their own ways. The gulf between what “experts” and common sense think about Allen is so wide that he could become one of the most scrutinized football players in years. Darnold was perhaps the least divisive of the First Round Five, but he’s headed to the New York market for a Jets’ team that had a very complex relationship with another former USC quarterback. And though the ado about what Rosen thinks and says is largely overblown, he may already be one of the league’s most outspoken players.

Some of the great quarterback classes of the past took time to become memorable. Take, for example, the 2011 class, which had enigmatic players like Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick, and Ryan Mallett, and notorious first-round reaches in Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, and Christian Ponder.

The Class of 2018, however, isn’t waiting. They’re eager to perform; and we’re eager to watch what feels like an instant classic group of players. It has all the makings of a quarterback class that we already can’t soon forget.