Welcome all to my final positional rankings. I do these in lieu of a big board. We are starting off tonight with the quarterback position. This years quarterback class is a really shallow as far as depth and even strength at the top. This class reminds some people of the 2022 draft where Kenny Pickett was the first and only first round quarterback in the class. He didn’t go until pick 20. I don’t feel its as bad as that class, but its close. I have only two quarterbacks with 1st round grades. So lets get to my top 10 quarterbacks in the class.
Top Five Quarterbacks
- Shedeur Sanders – Colorado: Of the two quarterbacks with first round grades Sanders has the highest floor in my opinion. He has his warts of course. He has some Caleb Williams in him. He will pass up easy completions to big game hunt and he will hold the ball for far to long sometimes resulting in him being one of the most sacked quarterbacks. His arm and his athleticism are average. Even with all that, his accuracy and ball placement are high level. He can go through progressions and read the field. He also has a very good release with an elastic arm. Sanders is smart and a good leader.
- Cameron Ward – Miami: Ward might have the highest upside as a passer in this class. He has a cannon for an arm and can throw from many angles. He’s a good athlete too and can be a running threat. Ward can make some really crazy throws and has had a bunch of 4th quarter comeback type games. His problem is he still makes boneheaded decisions and throws too many interceptable passes. Some of his 4th quarter comebacks were because he put his team in a hole early. Like Sanders he will hold the ball too long as well. He could bust in the wrong situation, but in the right one could be a perennial pro bowler.
- Jalen Milroe – Alabama: Milroe entered the draft despite playing poorly as a passer the last half-ish of the season. He threw five touchdowns and nine interceptions over the last seven games of the season. He is a great runner at 6’1 220 with 4.3 speed. I have even heard some teams see him as a running back in the NFL. Milroe has a good not great arm and has shown he can change his arm slot. He is just so far right now from being an NFL passer that he needs to go to the right situation where he can sit a year or two if he wants to be an NFL quarterback.
- Jaxson Dart – Ole Miss: Dart has a lot of things going for him. He has good size at 6’2 217, a very good athlete, a three-year starter, a leader, pretty good accuracy and each year has put up better and better numbers. His flaws though are he has kind an average arm and the offense he plays in has often been called a “cracker jack offense” meaning everything is made easy for him and everything is schemed for him. He doesn’t have to go through a lot of progressions. When he is asked to he can be a bit slow. There is low level starter upside in him, but at the very least he should develop into a solid back up quarterback.
- Quinn Ewers – Texas*: Quinn Ewers has been a draft prospect for what seems like five years. Obviously he isn’t, but he has always displayed the upside and talent to be a very good NFL QB. He is athletic, can throw from almost any angle, and has a decent arm. The problem is that he hasn’t shown much growth and has always been hot and cold from game to game, sometimes even play to play. His frame is also worrisome as he only weights 205 at 6’2″ and he seems to get injured every year. The question is can he improve? If he declares the best thing for him would be to go somewhere with no pressure and he can sit and learn for a couple years.
The Best Of The Rest: Six Thru Ten
6. Tyler Shough – Louisville: Shough has had an interesting journey. He started off at Oregon, spent three years there with one as the starter, he transferred to Texas Tech spending three years year in and out of the line up due to injuries but this past season he played for Lousiville and finally stayed healthy and he really showed why he was a highly rated recruit coming out of high school. Despite being 6’4 230 he is pretty athletic and has a good arm, with a really quick release. Of course due to spending seven years in college he is a lot older (he will turn 26 his rookie year), but this can be seen as a positive in that he is probably one of the most NFL ready QBs in this class. At the very least he should be a solid back up in the NFL.
7. Kurtis Rourke – Indiana: Rourke is another transfer that spend five years at Ohio and it was thought he would enter the 2024 NFL draft, but he decided to transfer up and prove he could play at the power five level. It definitely helped. He put up big numbers at Indiana and proved he could hang with the big boys. For being such a big guy his arm is pretty average, but he is smart and a leader. It was found out after the season that Rourke had played the whole season with a torn ACL which of course brings into question his ability to play next season, but will earn him brownie points with NFL teams. The offense at Indiana was pretty simplistic, but he still has NFL talent and upside.
8. Max Brosmer – Minnesota: Brosmer really moved up as the season went. He continued to player better and better each week. He has NFL size and arm. His release might be one of the best in the class. He transferred in from New Hampshire where he had pretty prolific 2022 and 2023 seasons. He showed he could be in the Big 10, though despite not having gaudy numbers playing in a run oriented offense at Minnesota. There upside there too where he could develop into a starter in the NFL at some point, but likely will be a back up.
9. Riley Leonard – Notre Dame: Leonard had a lot of hype of him after his 2022 season. It was thought he might have even declared, but he went back and just had a disastrous 2023 season. He threw just three touchdowns and three interceptions. He transferred to Notre Dame hoping to recapture that magic from 2022. He has played a lot better this season, but hasn’t played like he did in 2022. He seems more fit for the caretaker QB role. He just plays within himself and takes what the defense gives him and doesn’t try to go outside of himself. If he develops some more he might be able to make it as a back up.
10. Will Howard – Ohio State: If you had asked me at the beginning of the season where I saw Will Howard I would have told you late day 3 or as a undrafted free agent. The 6’4 243 pound quarterback started off the season like the same player he was at Kansas State, a nice college quarterback that could run, but had questionable accuracy and didn’t do anything to wow you. Over the last few weeks of the season and the play offs he has shown some flashes of upside. He made a few difficult throws that he just didn’t have on film before. His arm is still average by NFL standards, but he had his best season and really improved his accuracy, jumping up to 72% where his previous high was 60.9%. His upside is probably still limited, but there is a chance he could be a good back up in the NFL.
* = Ewers has not yet declared for the draft as of the publishing of this article. If he decides to go back or transfer, everyone would move up one spot and #10 would be Ben Wooldridge from Louisiana – Lafayette.
Note: I originally had Carson Beck in here, but took him out once he put his name in the portal. It is expected that he will end up at Miami.
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