NFL: Two Former Overall No. 1 Picks Back in Starting Lineup for Week 8

There are currently nine former overall No. 1 draft picks that play quarterback in the NFL. Last week, seven of them were QB1 on the depth chart – Matthew Stafford (2009), Jared Goff (2016), Baker Mayfield (2018), Kyler Murray (2019), Joe Burrow (2020), Trevor Lawrence (2021), and Caleb Williams (2024).

Because of a pair of injuries this week, we will have all nine of the quarterbacks to go No. 1 in the starting lineup.

Jameis Winston – Cleveland Browns

When the Cleveland Browns lost Deshaun Watson to a torn Achilles tendon on Sunday, they turned to second-year quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, a fifth-round pick from UCLA. But then DTR left the game with an injured hand, and he was replaced by emergency quarterback Jameis Winston.

Thompson-Robinson has been a full participant in practice. But head coach Kevin Stefanski has decided to start Winston this week and for the foreseeable future. For the former overall No. 1 pick in 2015 out of Florida State, this will be his first start since Week 3 in 2022, when he was a member of the New Orleans Saints. Winston also spent all of 2023 in New Orleans and threw passes in four games, but he did not start in any of them.

Winston started the first seven New Orleans games of 2021, and he was the full-time starter for his first team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, from 2015 through 2019.

Winston was a Pro Bowler in that 2015 rookie season, and in 2019, he led the NFL in passing with 5,109 yards. But he also led the NFL in interceptions that season with 30 picks, and that’s why the Buccaneers moved on from Winston to a guy named Tom Brady, a seventh-round draft pick.

Since Winston left Tampa Bay, he is 6-4 as a starting quarterback, with 21 touchdown passes to 11 interceptions.

The Browns are at home this Sunday and hosting the Baltimore Ravens, who are currently 8.5-point favorites. Winston’s over/under on passing yards for the game is 228.5, and he is +165 to throw for at least two touchdowns.

Bryce Young – Carolina Panthers

Quarterback Andy Dalton’s family was involved in a car accident on Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, and thankfully, the only injury that was suffered was a sprained thumb by the quarterback. Mom, kids, and the family dog are fine, but Andy Dalton – himself a second-round pick – will miss Sunday’s game because of the thumb injury.

That has opened things up for the return of Bryce Young, the overall No. 1 pick of the Carolina Panthers in 2023. He started the first two games of this season after a full year of starting in 2023. But with an overall record of 2-16 as a starter, he was sent to the bench. In his two games played this season, Young threw three interceptions, including on his first pass of the season, and no touchdowns in his two previous starts this season.

He’s only 23-years-old and the Panthers made a huge commitment to Young, trading two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fourth-round pick, and wide receiver D.J. Moore for the right to draft him. So perhaps this is an opportunity for Young to save his career in Carolina, and for the Panthers to save their investment.

The fly in the ointment, at least for this Sunday, is the Denver Broncos, who are allowing the fifth-fewest yards through the air, and only two quarterbacks this season have thrown for more than 200 yards against Denver – Aaron Rodgers and Justin Herbert.

The Panthers are 9.5-point underdogs in Denver on Sunday, and through the first seven weeks of the season, they are just 1-6 against the spread. In the two games previously started by Young, the Panthers were 3.5-point underdogs to the Saints, and lost by 37. They were four-point underdogs to the Los Angeles Chargers, and lost by 23.

If Young manages to throw a touchdown against the Broncos, the payout is +750.