Tracking down the ’04 QBs

With just over three seasons of play underneath them, the four quarterbacks selected in the… With just over three seasons of play underneath them, the four quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft have each performed at different levels thus far in their careers.

After a much-publicized refusal to play for the San Diego Chargers, Eli Manning was traded to the New York Giants, where he saw his first game action in the team’s opening game versus Philadelphia.

He completed three of his nine passes for 66 yards in that game, and improved markedly while playing in nine – and starting in seven – of his team’s season games.

Manning started all 16 regular season games in 2005, plus a playoff loss. He threw 24 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in 557 pass attempts, which is the highest number of pass attempts in the Giants’ history.

2006 rolled around and Manning once again led the Giants to the playoffs, but this time with more interceptions and a higher completion percentage.

Throughout his three-season progression from part-time starter in 2004 to a two-time playoff-caliber quarterback, Manning has yet to really show a quality of play that warrants his first-overall selection.

His passes are sometimes erratic and he misfires often. His defensive reading skills are subject. Maybe if he started going the New England route of stealing defensive signals then he would cut his interception numbers down. He has 45 career interceptions in 42 career games since his three-hour San Diego Chargers tour.

The man he was traded for, Phillip Rivers, has taken a slightly different career path toward starting for the Chargers.

He waited patiently behind Drew Brees for two seasons before Brees left via free agency to New Orleans. Then Rivers successfully took the reign.

In his first season as a starter, Rivers earned Pro-Bowl honors, passing for 22 touchdowns and only nine interceptions.

The next quarterback picked in the first round of the 2004 draft happened to win the 2005 Super Bowl and start his career 23-3 in his first two seasons.

Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers started out incredibly hot in his young career, and he was even compared to Dan Marino by legendary coach Bill Parcells.

While those two seasons for Big Ben started out great, he began to fizzle quite a bit last season. He was missing his targets often, which led to 23 picks.

Some say it was the hardships that the 24-year-old went through in the off-season (appendectomy and motor cycle accident), but Roethlisberger has said that they weren’t the reasons for his bad season.

As a team leader, Roethlisberger needs to say that it didn’t affect him, but we all know it did. We all saw that it did.

He looked back to form in his first game of this season, but that’s just one game, and only time will tell if he can regain his once celebrated quarterbacking form.

Enter J.P. Losman, the fourth quarterback taken in the first round of the 2004 draft. As the 22nd overall pick and the Buffalo Bills second first-rounder, Losman saw his first season shorted by a broken left fibula.

Losman returned as the starter in 2005, but he struggled early and was subsequently benched. He and Kelly Holcomb split time for the remainder of the season.

Up until the 2006 season, Losman was considered a bust. He found a groove as the starter in 2006 and performed well in two last-minute victories against Jacksonville and Houston.

If Losman keeps his confidence and continues to improve on his accuracy, he should continue to help the Bills progress throughout the future.

Progressing throughout the future is something that all of the quarterbacks will need to do, but all in all, it was an impressive first round of the draft for quarterbacks. All are starters and have seen some success.