Lost in the excitement over Drew Lock probably being a first-round draft pick and Clemson transfer Kelly Bryant becoming his heralded successor is one fairly plain fact.
It’s extremely difficult for college teams to replace a quarterback talented enough to go in the first round and have their offense not miss a beat the next season.
I looked at the 30 quarterbacks who have gone in the first round of the NFL Draft in the past decade — the 2009-18 drafts, the 2008-17 seasons — and saw how healthy their teams’ passing and total offenses were during the quarterbacks’ last years on campus, then in their first year in the league.