Speculation about the order in which the 2014 NFL Draft's top quarterback prospects will be chosen has taken on varying combinations in recent months, with UCF's Blake Bortles, Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel and Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater taking turns as the flavor of the moment.
But it's Bortles who will be the first quarterback off the board, a league source told the Florida Times-Union, and it won't take very long. And the same source echoed growing speculation that Bridgewater could be in for a tumble.
"(Bortles will go) to somebody in the first five or six picks. ... But based on a lot of things that could play out, you might see Bridgewater fall into the late part of the first round," the source said.
A quarterback, be it Bortles or someone else, would be no surprise as a top-five pick given that four clubs -- the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns and Oakland Raiders -- are very much in need of one. The sixth pick? A different story, as the Atlanta Falcons pick No. 6 and are set at quarterback with Matt Ryan. If Bortles goes at No. 6, the Falcons would likely have traded out of the slot with a team looking to move up or down to solve its quarterback quandary.
As for Bridgewater, his place in the passing pecking order no longer seems nearly as certain as Bortles'. In fact, NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah now projects him to be the fourth quarterback chosen, behind Bortles, Manziel and Fresno State's Derek Carr.
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