Haven’t seen it mentioned, but Parcells violated these rules himself when he took Drew Bledsoe with the first pick of the 1993 draft. Bledsoe had left Wazzou after his junior year. So it seems that even for Parcells and even for the highest of picks, they are really more for guidance than hard and fast rules.”

Did Parcells have final say in the draft decisions when the Pats took Bledsoe? It was the same power structure in place there, I think, when he made his famous comment a few years later, about if he is asked to cook the meal he should be able to shop for the groceries. Oh, I think given the Pats situation at the time, that he would have most likely still taken Bledsoe if did have final say so re the draft. Then again to a guy like Parcells, played like Marvin “Shade Tree” Jones and John Copeland must have looked very tempting.

I think it’s important to keep in mind, though, that these are guidelines for drafting a QB — and presumably drafting one in the early rounds. The Cowboys took a flyer on Romo when he went undrafted.

Second, I always hate when QBs are judged on superbowl wins. Even if superbowl wins is the end-goal and the quarterback position is the most important position, football is a game where a team can rarely be carried by only one player. Evaluate the Tuna Rules to some other criteria besides superbowl wins. Pro Bowl nominations are still flawed but might be better.

I remember having this discussion back when Quinn was drafted (he would have also have met FO/Lewin criteria, by the way). At the time I took a look at his stats and remember there was a huge difference between his numbers against lower level teams, i.e., teams with losing records. In the NFL, all the defenses you face are great (relative to college), and even though your skill players are better too, there’s not a huge differential between the talent of your offense and the talent of the defense you are facing, in most cases. In college, against really poor teams a QB can rack up big numbers.

I’m not a GM or an NFL scout, but I’d want to know what a QB’s numbers were against competition equal to the level of talent on his college team. If he is Tarzan against the cupcakes and Jane against the upper level teams, that would raise a red flag for me.