You have to look hard to find gems like Tom Brady lurking in the later rounds of the NFL Draft.

BBD Contributor: Peter Bukowksi

Tom Brady is an aberration. New England didn’t think they’d taken the greatest quarterback ever to put on a helmet when they drafted the Michigan senior with the 199th pick in 2000. The Patriots got lucky and they will readily admit that.

You draft a player because you think he will be good for your team, yes, but a guy in the sixth round doesn’t usually turn out to be a Hall of Fame player, particularly not a quarterback.

If you want a franchise quarterback, the first three rounds are where you’re going to likely find them, but then why draft one late?

The reasons are myriad, but there is a better way to look at later round quarterbacks. Usually, they can be separated in one of three categories: projects, system quarterbacks, and career backups.

Of course, there will be some who fall into the last category sort of by default, while others will begin as projects and teams will realize they are really just not that good.

There’s a reason a quarterback gets picked late in the draft: there are some pretty obvious flaws. But in order to more clearly see the delineations, let’s look at the 2013 draft through this lens.
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