Each NFL team’s best ever 1st-round draft pick

QB. Stanford. John Elway. '83. player. 45. <p>The 1983 draft class was too special had but I promise this is the last player from it on this list. The six players from that class is by far the most of any other draft class and it isn’t even close. That was the year the Denver Broncos took quarterback John Elway from Stanford at No. 1 overall.</p> <p>Not only was he the best quarterback of the class but he was the best quarterback of all time. Everyone screaming Tom Brady’s name out these days doesn’t know just how commical that sounds. Forget stats and Super Bowls, which are team accomplishments anyway, just give it the old eye-test.</p> <p>Elway had the best arm in NFL history, once throwing the ball 60-yards in the air for a TD while running to his left. He could run and break one 50 yards on you and at 6’3″, 220 pounds, he was strong and could take the pounding he took in the pocket. Elway had a lighting-fast release, was accurate and had ice in his veins at crunch time.</p> <p>Besides the arm, the biggest difference between Elway and Brady was his toughness. If you can hit Brady, he gets jittery (see both Giants Super Bowls) but Elway will keep coming, unfazed by hits. He lost his first three Super Bowls because he amazingly took three teams that had no business there.</p> <p>The back-to-back Super Bowls he won from 1997-98 where with a great team with Elway as an old man. If he would have had that kind of team in the ’80s, he would have had a dynasty in the ’80s. He also could have used a better coach back then but as it is, he went to nine Pro Bowls and is in the Hall of Fame.</p>