Top 10 Quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft: No. 10 Nate Stanley, Iowa

The 2020 NFL Draft is less than twelve weeks away. To help you get ready, we have prepared a Top Ten List of the best quarterback prospects in this year’s draft.

We are only a few months away from the 2020 NFL Draft and it seems like only yesterday we were getting ready to start Week 1 of the regular season: Planning for the inevitable rematch of Tua Tagovailoa and Trevor Lawrence in the postseason, wondering how much better Justin Herbert’s draft stock would be after the 2019 season. The regular season is never predictable, is it?

Last week we saw the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. The game and practices were illuminating for scouts and NFL teams trying to get an idea of which quarterbacks are ready for the big times, along with fans anxious to see the quarterbacks of tomorrow.

The Senior Bowl is arguably the second most important place for NFL scouts to review and observe prospects, outside of the Combine. With the college postseason over, it is getting close to that time where NFL and media draft boards get finalized and the best college football players prepare to enter the NFL.

This year’s draft class will have the most pro-ready quarterbacks since the 2018 Draft, where five starting quarterbacks were selected in the first round. In this year’s draft, there is likely to be at least three quarterbacks selected in the first round, with several others straddling the line between late first-round/early second-round picks.

Drafting a quarterback in the first three rounds can signal many things to different teams. For some, it is the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, as we saw last season with the New York Giants selecting Daniel Jones in the first round. The Giants’ drafting of Jones signified the end of the Eli Manning era in the Meadowlands, with Manning deciding to retire after last season.

For other teams, it is to groom a developmental quarterback to take the reins down the road. The Kansas City Chiefs did this a few years back with Patrick Mahomes, having the young quarterback sit for a season and develop behind Alex Smith.

Sometimes drafting a quarterback early is meant as a metaphorical shot across the bow: a warning to the current franchise quarterback to produce now or train your successor. Arguably, the Denver Broncos did this in the 2019 NFL Draft by selecting Drew Lock. By the end of the season, Lock was starting for the Broncos and looked like a quarterback to build around in 2020.

No matter what reason an NFL team drafts a quarterback, the general manager and scouts must get this pick right. Entire careers in the NFL have been made or lost because of a bad quarterback drafted. An elite quarterback that can carry a franchise for a decade or longer is worth more than any other player on the team. Draft a bad quarterback and general managers can kiss those stadium attendance numbers goodbye, along with their offices.

The quarterback most likely to be drafted first this year is LSU‘s Joe Burrow. He’ll roll into the 2020 NFL Draft with a Heisman Trophy and National Championship title on his resume and is extremely likely to go No. 1 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals.

But beyond Burrows, which quarterback is best for your team? Does your team need a starter or a backup? How early in the draft should they be selected? How should we judge what they did in college? Such questions can get daunting for fans and draft enthusiasts alike.

In a series of articles that NFL Mocks will be releasing daily, we’ll review the top ten quarterbacks available in the 2020 NFL Draft. We will review their time in college and see what they did well there, along with what they will need to work on once they are in the league. Afterward, we’ll predict which NFL teams they would make the most sense for and what round they could be drafted in.

To get this list started, we’ll travel to the heartland of the country and review the scouting report of Iowa senior Nate Stanley.

Check back with NFL Mocks tomorrow for the next quarterback on this list.