Unless a team trades into the bottom part of the first round, QB Paxton Lynch might not hear his name called on the first night of the 2016 NFL Draft.
With quarterbacks almost certainly going to the two teams that traded to the very top of the 2016 NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles, the thought is that there might be a bit of a run on signal-callers in the first round. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, though, that thinking could be wrong.
Someone may be laying in ambush, but unless Dallas trades back into first round, hard to find a landing spot for QB Paxton Lynch in round 1.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 28, 2016
Memphis’ Paxton Lynch is thought of by most as the third-best QB option in this draft, trailing the two gentlemen expected to be off the board right away, Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. There has been buzz about the Cowboys considering a quarterback since the 2015 season gave them a horrifying look at what life without Tony Romo might be like, but even with the mercurial Jerry Jones involved, no one really thinks they would take Lynch or any other quarterback with the No. 4 overall pick.
What is surprising about Schefter’s tweet is that there are already some QB-needy teams picking later in the first round. Both the New York Jets, picking 20th, and the Denver Broncos, picking 31st, would seem like logical landing spots for Lynch, but Schefter seems to be at least implying that they wouldn’t be interested.
Even the Arizona Cardinals could consider a quarterback to groom behind the aging Carson Palmer and might have the luxury of doing so without any gaping holes on their roster, but if Schefter is correct, they wouldn’t be doing it on Thursday. Any slippage by Lynch is bound to impact marginal first rounders like Connor Cook and Christian Hackenberg as well, so it’ll be interesting to see if the top two spots are the only quarterback action the first night of the NFL Draft has in store.
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