Many people here are rightfully upset with our QB situation, and I'm one of them. Fans are demanding a 1st round draft pick QB, and I can understand that sentiment, but I'd like to temper those demands a bit by looking back at the 2011 draft.

In 2011, there were 4 first round QBs taken off of the board. Cam was a consensus pick at number 1 overall and has performed pretty well, although his performances haven't necessarily translated into as many wins as Carolina would like. The other 3 QBs taken in round 1 were reaches then, and they've performed like the reaches that they were. Ponder, Gabbert, and Locker have all struggled in their 2 years, and their teams are still clamoring to find their QBs of the future. However, the next 2 QBs selected were taken in round 2. Dalton and Kaepernick have outperformed their draft slots, and have rewarded their teams for their patience.

Let's look at Cinci's 1st two rounds in particular, as they had a top 5 draft pick and a need for a QB. Sounds like a team near and dear to our hearts, doesn't it? Cinci took AJ Green with the number 4 overall pick, and then obviously took Dalton in the 2nd. What that means to me is Cinci probably would have taken Cam with the number 4 pick had he fallen, but they didn't have any other QB rated high enough to select at 4 overall. So they took a freak athlete and one of the top 2 WRs available and waited to get value in the 2nd round. I'd be more than thrilled at that if I were a Bengals fan. Green/Dalton looks a hell of a lot better than Locker/Titus Young (Locker was the 2nd QB selected, and Young was the first WR to go in the 2nd round).

My point is, I agree we need better QB play, but I don't want to reach for a QB that isn't worth a top 5 pick. If the front office doesn't grade any of these guys out to be worthy of that pick, let's take an impact player at another position of need and draft a good value QB in the 2nd round. Outside of the top QB per draft, there seem to be very few can't miss guys. What I typically see is one great QB per draft, and then a bunch of guys that could end up being pretty good lumped together. The problem is we saw the exception to that last year. There were two once in a generation QBs that came out, and we are clamoring for a Luck or a RGIII type of player this year. The problem is we are grasping for guys that just aren't in this draft. Let's improve our QB situation by going QB in the 1st or 2nd round, but let's not roll the dice by drafting a guy way too high and potentially missing out on another stud because of our desperation to see better QB play.