2023 NFL Draft Breaks Record In First 150 Picks

2023 NFL Draft logo

Getty Image / David Eulitt


Heading into this year’s NFL Draft, the football world expected to hear the names of quarterbacks called early and often.

The draft lived up to that belief early on.

3 of the first 4 picks were quarterbacks.

After those 3 quarterbacks were selected, the draft began to defy expectation.

Will Levis, who was projected to be taken 4th overall, ended up being drafted in the 2nd round.

Hendon Hooker was believed to potentially be a 1st rounder. He ended up being selected in the 3rd round.

Despite those QBs falling much further than expected, there were still 11 taken within the draft’s top 150 picks.

According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, those 11 are the most ever selected in the first 150 picks of an NFL Draft.

The 11 QBs selected were Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, Anthony Richardson, Levis, Hooker, Jake Haener, Stetson Bennett, Aidan O’Connell, Clayton Tune, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Sean Clifford.

A pretty big chunk of the list likely won’t be seeing an opportunity to start any time soon. Tune and Thompson-Robinson were both drafted by teams who have stars at the position already. Clifford was drafted by the Packers, who just turned to Jordan Love as their starter.

However, the rest of the list could have some interesting opportunities. Young and Stroud will likely start week 1 for their teams. Richardson only has Gardner Minshew in front of him and should be given the reigns early in his career.

Levis is currently 3rd on the Titans depth chart, but he probably won’t take long to pass Malik Willis on the depth chart and Ryan Tannehill only has a year left on his contract.

Haener and O’Connell were both drafted by teams that just signed older QBs this offseason and could be looking to figure out who will take over in the future.

Hooker is in an interesting spot as Jared Goff played well for the Lions last season, but he only has 2 years left on his contract.

Stetson Bennett is currently behind Matt Stafford, but he has had multiple injury issues over the last year, leading to some speculation about how much longer he’ll play.

This year’s quarterback class had big expectations heading into the NFL Draft and now we’ll have to wait and see if their potential turns into results at the next level.

John Vaccaro avatar
Associate Editor/Writer at BroBible. An ASU Sun Devil who covers NFL, MMA, College Basketball, and resides in Phoenix, Arizona.