In 2020 we saw plenty of teams play great even with the COVID-19 outbreak. A lot of teams, however, did not play well as well, so they all had to look towards one thing to save them, the NFL draft. Many teams flock there in need of one thing, a QB. Throughout the years many teams have failed the season before getting a savior in the first round the year afterwards. Unfortunately, this class of quarterbacks has completely blown up in the face of the teams who drafted them. This article will recap all 10 Quarterbacks drafted in the 2021 draft and their careers so far and see how well they have played.

Pick 1 – Trevor Lawrence (Jacksonville Jaguars)

The Jags were in desperate need of a new QB after a disastrous 1-15 season under Doug Marone which led to them drafting the best QB in this class by far. Lawrence was incredible at Clemson, over 10,000 yards and 90 touchdowns in his 4 years at the school led to him being a conscientious #1 pick. A dark storm, however, loomed over Jacksonville as Doug Marone was replaced by Urban Meyer. Urban was a college head coach for his entire career but he was pretty good at it, bringing Ohio State to a National Championship in 2014. Unfortunately, none of that translated to NFL success. Urban Meyer will probably go down in history as one of the worst NFL head coaches of all time. From abandoning the team after losses to boneheaded hiring decisions to assaulting his kicker before practice, he was horrible.

This did not help Trevor Lawerence at all during his first season with the Jags throwing for 3600 yards. Which is good, but it was capped with 12 touchdowns to over 17 interceptions. To put it in perspective, Lawrence only threw 17 interceptions in his entire college career. This gave the Jags a second first-overall pick the next year with a 3-14 record. Luckily, Urban Meyer was fired after the 1 season and was replaced with Super Bowl-winning head coach, Doug Pederson. This new head coach reinvigorated the Jaguars. After a shaky start, a little luck, and a Titans team collapsing, the Jaguars won the AFC South division with a 9-8 record. The wildcard game against the Chargers didn’t go too great in the first half with Trevor throwing 4 picks putting them down 27-0. They came back firing in the second half and eventually won the game because the Chargers became complacent. Trevor Lawerence has come back into his former college self and I see the Jagaurs as a Super Bowl contender.

Pick 2 – Zach Wilson (New York Jets)

The Jets were also in need of a new QB, probably even more than the Jags needed one. They went 2-14  In a desperate attempt to fix the problem they reached on a BYU QB named Zach Wilson. Wilson put on an incredible combine performance where talent does certain tasks for teams to judge prospects they want to draft. This completely overwrites the narrative of him being a pretty middle-of-the-road QB with only 7600 yards and 56 touchdowns. These are decent stats but those do not mean you should draft him with the 2nd overall pick. 

The Jets have plenty of experience in ruining all their hopeful QB prospects. Most recently with 2018 draft prospect Sam Darnold. Zach Wilson was thrust in with far too much hope and not enough weapons to give him success. He only had 2,334 yards with 9 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, which is awful.  This play was not helped by his coach, Robert Salah, also a first-year NFL head coach. However, they did do better the next year going 3-14 and drafting an edge rusher with the 26th overall pick. Wilson lost his job to Arron Rodgers this year after a massive trade with the Green Bay Packers. However, Rodgers went down with a torn Achilles in the first drive of the first game he played. The injury took him out for the entire year. It is now up to Zach Wilson to save the team. I don’t have a lot of hope in him but I truly want him to work out.

Pick 3 – Trey Lance (San Francisco 49ers)

This was a very weird pick, the 49ers had a good QB in Jimmy Garoppolo, who had taken them to a Superbowl in 2019. However, he did get injured in the 2020 season and this may have spooked the 49ers and made them want a new healthier QB. They had the 12th overall pick but traded up 9 picks with the Miami Dolphins to pick Trey Lance. He had one really good college season in 2019, but it was cut short due to COVID-19, which might have exposed or covered up problems he had. Lance had over 2700 and 28 touchdowns, which is incredible for a college starter, but he didn’t have anything else to back him up. It didn’t help that the 49ers gave up 3 FIRST ROUND picks to get him! The pressure was on for him to perform well… spoiler alert, he did not.

In his first season, he sat behind Jimmy Garapolo as his backup, which makes sense since he was just a rookie, so he could learn. Then the 49ers were trying to get rid of Jimmy G the season afterward but ended up keeping him. Trey Lance was given the starting role for the 2022 season and proceeded to get hurt for the whole season after 2 games. He was outperformed by the last pick in this year’s draft, Brock Purdy. Unfortunately for Lance, he was never given a chance with the 49ers. He didn’t perform well in the preseason this year and that led to him being traded to the Dallas Cowboys for only a 4th-round pick. This should have destroyed the 49ers but Brock Purdy ended up being an incredible quarterback under the 49ers offense. Trey Lance will probably go down as one of the biggest busts in NFL history for how much the 49ers gave up to get him and how little he did for them.

Pick 4 – Justin Fields (Chicago Bears)

The first 3 QBs off the board were all taken in a row, now we take a small break until pick 9 for the Chicago Bears to take Justin Fields. Fields was and is known as a rushing QB, he can run for miles, which is great… as long as it is complimented with good passing stats as well. In college, he seemed pretty good at passing. He threw for 5,000 yards and 67 touchdowns in his college career. He also rushed for a thousand yards and 19 touchdowns. The Chicago Bears were led by QB Andy Dalton at the time who would be the starter in Field’s first year. But the Bears went for an odd split between veteran and rookie. Fields would pass for 1800 yards and 7 touchdowns plus rushing for 420 yards and 2 touchdowns. 

After his first season with the Bears, he became the official starter for the team. The Bears, however, forgot to invest in an offensive line for Fields to work with. His second season in the league was an absolute disaster. Fields faced pressure from defenses constantly causing him to run for his life while his O-line forgot what blocking was. He physically couldn’t throw the ball without being sacked most of the time. He was able to throw for 2,200 yards and 17 touchdowns to 11 interceptions. He put up nearly 1200 yards in rushing alone which is huge for a QB. However, that was the Bear’s main offense last year which will kill a QBs career quickly if mishandled. The Bears went 3-14 last year earning themselves the first overall pick. The pick was traded to the Carolina Panthers for draft picks and the Panthers star receiver, DJ Moore. This should help Fields a lot this season with a new offensive weapon to work with.

Pick 5 – Mac “McCorkle” Jones (New England Patriots)

Now this is the big one for most fans around here. Mac Jones was the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft and out of Alabama, one of the best College football schools in the USA, he had a lot of hope for patriots fans after a 7-9 season with Cam Newton at QB. He was able to beat Cam Newton for the starting role in 2021 and brought the team to a 10-7 record. Jones threw for 3800 yards and 22 touchdowns which was great for New England fans hoping for the next Tom Brady. Unfortunately, they were crushed by the Buffalo Bills in the wildcard round in 2021. During the offseason, Bill Belichick hired Matt Patrica as offensive coordinator. A slight problem with that is Matt Patrica was more of a defensive coordinator and when he touched the offense being the Detroit Lions’s head coach, he was offensive. He went 13-29-1 in Detroit and finished the NFC North in last place in both of his seasons there. 

Mac Jones would take a massive regression under Matt Patrica’s offense. He wasn’t allowed to throw the ball very often and that hurt the offense. It doesn’t help that Bill Belichick thinks that the Tom Brady system will work with a different quarterback. Tom Brady never had great weapons most of his time in New England besides Rob Gronkowski. That doesn’t work with a rookie quarterback like Mac Jones who needs time to develop. The Patriots went 8-9 last season and with a new offensive coordinator in Bill O’Brian, he should have a good shot at another chance. If he fails under this new system I could see the Patriots looking for a new QB in the 2024 draft.

Pick 6- Kyle Trask (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Now we reach the part where this becomes a lot easier to write. Kyle Trask was taken in the third round by the Bucs just to be a developmental Quarterback to be behind Tom Brady in his final years. He didn’t play in 2021 and only had 23 yards in a game last season. He was in contention for the starting job this year against Baker Mayfield but he lost that job as well. Probably won’t go anywhere and will fade out of the league in a few years.

Pick 7- Kellen Mond (Minnesota Vikings)

Another Kyle Trask-type pick, Kellen Mond, was taken a few picks after Trask. He didn’t even stay with the Vikings for a season before being waived by the Browns. Mond played for the Browns on the practice squad and had 5 yards in a game once. Mond was released from the Browns and hasn’t signed to another team yet. 

Pick 8- Davis Mills (Houston Texans)

Davis Mills was taken right after Kellen Mond and became an immediate starter for the Texans after Dashuan Watson was traded away to Cleveland.  Mills was supposed to be a backup his whole career probably but he ended up starting for 2 seasons and put up decent numbers in his 2 seasons, about 5800 yards and 33 touchdowns. It wasn’t anything special and he’s back to being a backup to the Texan’s new rookie QB, CJ Stroud.

Pick 9- Ian Book (New Orleans Saints)

Ian Book was taken in the 4th round by the New Orleans Saints. He played in 1 game in 2021 putting in 135 yards and 2 interceptions. He was also sacked 8 times which is not great. He then didn’t play again in 2022. He was released by the Saints in 2023 and recently to this article’s writing was signed by the New England Patriots. 

Pick 10- Sam Elingheer (Indianapolis Colts) 

The last QB taken in this draft was Sam Elingheer by the Colts. The Colts were hoping for a new QB to take over when ready. He didn’t play at any point in the 2021 season behind Carson Wentz. After coaching changes and Matt Ryan being a terrible QB in Indy Sam was sent in as the starter for 4 games, he put up 573 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions. He will probably stay as a backup for the rest of his career bearing freak circumstances. 

The 2021 QB class was one of the worst with multiple QBs being bad for the teams. Trey Lance nearly sank the 49ers organization if it wasn’t for a lucky pick last year. Zach Wilson was a major bust for what the Jets needed at the time and it still isn’t what they need now. Justin Fields and Mac Jones are on their last legs and, if they fail this year, their organizations will probably be looking for a quarterback next draft. This draft can have effects that would stretch over the next 5 years at least if they don’t pan out well.