2019 NFL Draft: Dwayne Haskins is sure-fire franchise QB

The 2019 NFL Draft won’t have five first-round quarterbacks, but Dwayne Haskins has franchise quarterback skills and could be top QB selected.

The 2019 NFL Draft isn’t going to have five quarterbacks selected in the top 32 picks like the 2018 NFL Draft did in all likelihood. With that said, what has been mostly considered a ‘weak’ quarterback class could actually have a prospect at least on par with the likes of Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield as prospects coming out.

That prospect is Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, a first-year starter who made playing the quarterback position look so easy.

He’s decided to forego the rest of his college eligibility and leave for the 2019 NFL Draft.

Haskins didn’t need to stay in college for more seasoning as a quarterback prospect, but could have stayed for the chance to win a National Championship with the school he grew up dreaming of playing for.

He passed on that dream to pursue his other dream of playing in the NFL, and it should turn out to be a very wise business decision.

Haskins has a very good chance of being the first quarterback selected in the 2019 NFL Draft as opposed to a crowded and possibly loaded 2020 class.

He will be coveted in 2019.

He completed 70 percent of his 533 passes this past season at Ohio State to the tune of 4,831 yards, 50 touchdowns, and just eight interceptions. He added four rushing touchdowns in what was a Heisman-worthy season, though Kyler Murray edged out Haskins and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa.

Statistics do not necessarily make Haskins a top NFL prospect, so what does?

Haskins is obviously built physically to be an NFL quarterback at 6-foot-3, 218 pounds. He’s got every bit of arm strength needed to make throws at the NFL level, and showed throughout this past season at Ohio State that he can make ridiculous throws to any level of the field with pinpoint accuracy.

Not only can Haskins make all the throws, he makes great decisions with the football. It’s abundantly clear watching Haskins’ tape throughout the course of the 2018 season that he sees the field extremely well, exploits matchups he’s seen in film study, and understands how to win before the snap.

If I were a betting man, I would say the chances of some team trading up in the 2019 NFL Draft to acquire Haskins are about 99.9 percent, with a very outside chance teams stay put in their slots and wait for him to fall.

Aside from the top pick in the 2018 NFL Draft (Baker Mayfield), every first-round quarterback taken since 2016 was acquired via trade up.

Haskins could very well be the top player at his position off the board, competing with Drew Lock and Daniel Jones.