A Way-Too-Early Look at Shedeur Sanders, Potential 2025 NFL Draft QB Class

It’s always the right time to talk about quarterback prospects.

The NFL draft industry is all about peddling hope, and no position does that better than quarterbacks. Even after a record six first-round QBs in April, there are still plenty of teams and fanbases wondering about the future behind center. The wheel keeps on spinning.

That brings us to the 2025 quarterback class.

Truth be told, living up to the top of last year’s crop won’t be easy for this incoming class. Caleb Williams’ generational status alone puts the 2024 class in rare territory, let alone Drake Maye with his prototypical tools and Jayden Daniels’ historic Heisman campaign.

We knew Williams and Maye were certified top-five talents heading into the year, too. At least from the outset, the 2025 class doesn’t have anyone like that.

This ain’t the 2022 class, though. We’re not going to be stuck with a bunch of fifth-year seniors with incomplete profiles and mediocre tools.

The 2025 class instead has a smorgasbord of viable prospects and players bursting with first-round potential. Nobody looks to be a sure thing yet, but there are so many different profiles and stylistic flavors to choose from.

It’s just a matter of which quarterbacks take the step from interesting prospect to fully fledged first-round player.

No quarterback in this class gets the discourse popping like Shedeur Sanders.

The name alone does a lot of heavy lifting, but it’s more than that. Good quarterback prospects on terrible teams are always lightning rods for extreme takes, and Colorado was a bad program last year.

Mash those two factors together, and you get a prospect that gets everyone up in arms for one reason or another.

Narratives aside, there’s a lot to like about Sanders as well as a few things he needs to fix to make a firm case as a first-round pick.

Sanders has the goods from a tools perspective. While there isn’t a single elite trait that stands out, there’s nothing to worry about either. He’s solid to good across the board.

The 22-year-old is on the smaller side at 6’2″, 215 pounds, but it’s not too inhibiting. Athletically, he is better the more he gets to stride out. His explosive ability and shiftiness in small spaces is more functional than threatening. When he gets to roll outside the pocket or take off as a runner, though, he can punish a defense for turning its back away from him.

Sanders’ arm passes the eye test as well. He plays with a firm and consistent over-the-top release that lends itself to easy arm strength. He can heave the ball 50-plus yards well enough, and he has the velocity to fit every throw on the field with the right timing.

Better yet, he is exceptionally comfortable throwing on the move. He doesn’t lose any control or speed when he is throwing on the run. It’s not an elite arm, or even a great one, but he’s got everything he needs to be effective in the NFL.

Play style-wise, it’s kind of hard to pin Sanders down.

Sanders is aggressive in so far as he will throw the ball down the field without hesitation, but he also won’t attack the middle of the field with confidence. He isn’t the type of passer who wants to fit the ball between sliding doors between the numbers. He would much rather take his risks outside the numbers where the ball can more easily soar out of bounds or take off outside the pocket to “break” the play.

He greatly improved his ability to throw with bodies around him in tight pockets as the year went on, but he also remained too quick to bail those pockets in the first place. Understandably, of course. That Colorado offensive line was a disaster. That doesn’t change the fact that Sanders will need to become a bit more grounded in the pocket moving forward.

His decision-making and rhythm also depends on how late in the down he is. There are stretches of quality play in the underneath area, but Sanders can quickly unravel as plays drag on. When things do unravel for him, he defaults to erratic movements in the pocket and sometimes aimless vision across the field. Again, considering he is fighting for his life every other snap, it’s understandable. That’s going to have to get ironed out in the pros, though.

Sanders should not be a lock to go in the top 10 as things stand today. I’m not even sure he should be guaranteed a first-round slot. However, he is a Day 2 pick right now and has enough going on physically to grow into a more complete and dynamic player.

Hopefully, the infrastructure at Colorado gives him a real chance to show that kind of growth.

Carson Beck is the easiest bet to be a top-10 pick among this year’s quarterback crop.

He checks just about every box and has the benefit of leading a back-to-back national champion program. There won’t be many holes to poke in his profile by the time we arrive at next year’s draft.

There’s nothing spectacular about Beck physically or athletically, but he clears every bar. His 6’4″, 220-pound build is right in line with other franchise QBs such as Trevor Lawrence and Jared Goff. A tad skinny but not alarmingly so.

As an athlete, the 21-year-old brings just enough agility and open-field scampering ability to keep plays alive when necessary. It’s not a strength of his, but he isn’t a statue, either. He’s got more of a spark than Goff.

Beck’s arm won’t break his receivers’ fingers, but it’s more than adequate. The velocity he can get on the ball, especially outside the numbers, kind of grows on you the more you watch.

Every throw within structure is on the table for him. He has the juice to slide one way and rip the ball across his body to the other sideline, and it’s rare that tight windows close on him purely because of lack of velocity. The only time he loses a bit of velocity and control is when he’s on the move, but it’s not detrimental.

For comparison, Beck’s arm is a clear step above guys like Mac Jones and Tua Tagovailoa. Those guys take throws off the table; Beck doesn’t. Brock Purdy or Steve Sarkisian-era Matt Ryan are probably better comparisons for where his arm is at.

What really makes the Bulldogs QB stand out as a prospect is the mental side of the game. For someone who turned 21 halfway through last season, he plays well beyond his years.

His rhythm within the Georgia offense never falters. He’s always right on time and throws with unwavering confidence. That goes for the hardest throws on the field, too. He will gun in a contested seam route or throw a deep dig right before the break because he believes in his preparation and precision.

Beck also shows some subtleties you rarely see out of young players. While he does well to adhere to the X’s and O’s, he also understands what’s happening right before his eyes. He does a great job of adjusting his ball placement relative to a defender’s leverage. He’ll throw low if a safety is pinning down on a crosser or throw back high if he knows an underneath zone defender is cutting off a route. He gets where the ball needs to be at all times.

Overall, his game is so easy to copy/paste into an NFL offense. He is both aggressive and adaptable as a pocket passer. He checks the boxes well enough physically and already plays with some of the nuance typically ascribed to veteran quarterbacks. He is a hell of a lot more consistent than most of his collegiate peers, too.

If there’s any major criticism of Beck, it’s that his ceiling is more good than great. He has the tools to cut it in the NFL, but superstardom may be out of reach. It’s safer to assume he is a more dynamic iteration of Goff than a true stud.

That kind of outcome would make Beck a top-half-of-the-league quarterback, though, and any team picking inside the top five would take that as a win.

If any quarterback prospect can overhaul their image this season, it’s Riley Leonard. Transferring from Duke to Notre Dame might be the change of scenery he needs to unlock his full potential.

The 21-year-old was on the NFL radar during the last draft cycle before an ankle injury ended his season for good. His year was a roller coaster before that, though.

Duke’s offensive line had him fighting for his life every play, and the receiving talent wasn’t much better. The offense wasn’t equipped to throw down the field often, and the general execution of the offense constantly fluctuated. He never really got to show the full extent of his skill set.

That’s a real shame because Leonard might be the most talented quarterback of the bunch. He is all of 6’4″, 212 pounds with an elastic, powerful arm and dangerous athleticism.

Leonard brings solid B+/A- level arm strength and can access that strength instantaneously from any platform. He had to make sudden throws under pressure all the time at Duke and often did so with ease. Moreover, his arm and overall upper body are pretty flexible. He can summon odd throwing platforms out of thin air when need be.

His athleticism is even more of a weapon. In 20 games over the last two seasons, he ran for 1,051 yards and 18 touchdowns on 182 carries. He’s got the balance and explosiveness to wiggle free from pressure in the pocket as well as the long speed to separate past second-level defenders. He is somewhere in the realm of Daniel Jones and Jalen Hurts in that way. That’s an easy 500 yards per year in the NFL.

As a thrower, Leonard is promising but unproven.

He is tough as nails from the pocket. That much is certain from his time at Duke. There’s no pocket too cluttered for him to function, and he’s perfectly fine making throws without a clean platform.

Accuracy is a plus for Leonard as well. He’s got a smooth yet powerful release. He can gun it in with some mustard when he needs to as well as take speed off for some touch.

The problem is he rarely got to show that off with the Blue Devils. The offensive-line woes were such that their offense was a flurry of quick game concepts and little else.

Leonard handled himself well in the instances he got to show more, but it’s worth wondering what he will look like in a more expansive offense at Notre Dame. That said, I’m less concerned about his ability to make it work and more curious.

He has the highest ceiling of this summer’s crop of QB prospects but is also one of the biggest question marks. Between Duke’s offense not unlocking his full capabilities and his recovery from injury, it’s hard to get a clean read on what he will be at Notre Dame.

However, Leonard’s tools are tantalizing. He’s also got the right pocket demeanor and problem-solving ability to make good on those tools.

Beck is probably a safer QB1 bet right now, but Leonard has the goods to supplant him by the season’s end.

Cameron Ward is the ideal Day 2 quarterback prospect.

He has tools worth investing in and certain skills that translate to immediate success, but he’s also flawed in a handful of ways that cloud his path to firmly taking hold of a starting spot in the long term.

Ward sports an average build at 6’2″, 223 pounds, but he is wickedly talented in every way. His release is quick and powerful, and the ball jumps off his hand. Athletically, he has all the tools to be a prolific playmaker. He’s sturdy and balanced as well as explosive, allowing him to navigate in and out of the pocket with ease. He has the speed to be an effective scrambler, too, even if he’s not a true burner.

It’s not just the tools that get me excited about the 22-year-old, though. It’s his demeanor. He plays with a cool, confident style that’s hard not to appreciate. He’s both incredibly aggressive within the structure of the offense and calm as can be when things break down around him.

In the pocket, he is willing to make the grown-up throws. He will pin a dig route in someone’s chest or rip a post route right over the outstretched hands of a centerfield safety. If he sees a safety rotate away from a vertical shot pre-snap, you can bet your life he is making the aggressive throw the other way. He’s a quarterback with ambition, and that’s something I’ll always appreciate.

At the same time, Ward isn’t a reliable quick-game operator right now. His timing and trigger in the quick game randomly come and go. He’ll be as crisp as ever for a couple drives and then refuse to throw anything on time the next possession. He is going to need to find consistency there in 2024, especially given he’s already an older prospect with lots of experience.

Ward also goes on the fritz at least once a game. Completely loses his marbles. He’s a cool, calm operator on the whole, but he just goes haywire every now and then. It’s as if he gets so in his head about how a play is going to go and freezes when the picture changes on him right away.

Cutting out those random instances of dizziness could go a long way. They’re the kind of mistakes that separate functional spot starters from the solidified starting quarterbacks.

On the flip side, Ward is usually a great problem-solver once he gets to moving. He flashes the ability to slide in the pocket and create from there, but he often does his best work outside the tackle box.

It’s not just that Ward is a good athlete, either. There’s an almost eerie calm about him when he’s trying to sort things out on the run, as if he’s done it thousands of times before. That’s not to say he’s batting for 1.000 on throws outside the pocket, but he always seems in control.

Ward is the kind of quarterback I like to bet on. Not only does he have the arm talent and athleticism of a pro, but he also has the ambition of a dangerous pocket passer and the creation ability necessary to cut it in today’s NFL.

Imperfect as he may be, Ward has the right stuff to hold the league’s attention.

Conner Weigman is the mystery-box quarterback prospect this summer.

On one hand, the NFL has been in the cards for the Texas A&M signal-caller for some time. He was a five-star recruit and third-ranked QB in 2022, per 247Sports. Only Penn State’s Drew Allar and Clemson’s Cade Klubnik outranked him.

Conversely, Weigman has barely played for the Aggies. He earned a handful of starts late in 2022 as a true freshman, but that stretch was a roller coaster. Though he seized the starting job for 2023, a foot injury ended his season just four games in. He only has about 250 pass attempts to his name, and about a quarter of those are against vastly inferior competition such as New Mexico and Louisiana-Monroe.

His prospects require a ton of projection right now, but there are interesting traits to cling onto.

Weigman is almost robotic in the way he operates right now, but that does more good than harm. He plays true to what the system asks of him and will gun in some incredibly difficult throws over the middle without a second thought.

There’s no throw he’s too scared to make, which is always a valuable trait in the pros. Not to make the easy former Aggie comparison, but there are shades of Ryan Tannehill to his game in that way.

Weigman has the arm to back it up, too. He puts some spin on that ball. Whether it’s a deep dig or a corner route or some other tight-window endeavor, he always has the strength to get the ball there.

Placement and touch are a different discussion, though. The 20-year-old has a funky and rigid throwing motion. He doesn’t have the same fluidity of motion you see from Beck, Sanders or Leonard.

In turn, Weigman is a lot more prone to random misfires even when the pocket is squeaky clean. Hopefully that’s something he can clean up with another offseason as the entrenched starter.

I’m not going to dig too much further into him. It’s just not worth it at this point given his relative lack of film. He does at least fit the bill of an NFL-style passer with his frame, arm talent and willingness to make the hardest throws on the field.

That’s not enough to make Weigman a first-round pick right now, but it’s enough to put him firmly on the radar.

Quinn Ewers makes sense as a top-flight prospect on the surface.

A former-five star recruit, he has a cannon for a right arm and a good bit of hop in his step when he hits the open field. That’s sure to garner first-round talk at any program, let alone a program basking in the national spotlight like Texas.

He’s the kind of player who checks the simplest boxes for someone who should have a chance to make some real NFL draft noise.

Ewers is years away from being a serious first-round prospect, though. For as talented as he is and productive as he was in 2023, he is rough around the edges.

Accuracy is an area of concern for the 21-year-old. When he’s feeling it, he has the ability to make any throw on the field. He has that kind of arm. The highlight tape of his 10 best throws is as good as or better than his peers in this class.

Ewers plays with a funky sidearm release, though. Quarterbacks with low, sidearm-style releases tend to be line-drive throwers. They struggle to get the ball up and down, which is what creates that feathery touch you get from the best quarterbacks. As a result, his accuracy varies greatly on throws where he’s not just gunning it straight into a window. Throws that require a little finesse often elude him.

Moreover, the Longhorns QB doesn’t have that innate understanding of where the ball needs to be relative to defenders. He knows where a throw should be based on the X’s and O’s and what should happen in his mind, but he’s not adaptable.

There are so few instances on his tape of him throwing against the leverage of a defender or into crafty little crevices between zones. It’s the polar opposite of what you see out of a savvier player like Beck.

It’s also clear Ewers needs reps when it comes to processing speed and throwing from congested areas.

There are too many instances where you can see Ewers buffering in between reads, taking a clear beat to gather himself and move onto the next read. Some of the better prospects in this class, Beck in particular, are much more fluid in the way they progress.

Likewise, Ewers tends to rush himself when the pocket gets hot. I’m willing to give him some time to sort that out, though. Some prospects just need a few years of live bullets to get the game to slow down for them in those moments. He is absolutely talented enough to give him some grace there.

Ewers is a popular name at the top of the class, but he’s more of an idea than anything right now. The recruiting prestige and raw arm talent only go so far in my eyes.

For now, he’s a Drew Lock type of prospect: A fine Day 2 gamble with immense arm talent but far from a guarantee to develop into a franchise prospect.

We’ll see if another year at Texas can elevate Ewers from that status.

Jalen Milroe, Alabama

Few quarterback prospects are as complicated as Jalen Milroe right now.

From a talent perspective, the 21-year-old has it all. He rocks a sturdy 6’2″, 220-pound frame with explosive athleticism and a snappy arm. His best plays, though too few and far between right now, make you sit up in your seat. It’s no wonder he was a four-star prospect.

Milroe also greatly improved over the course of the year. He was shaky early on in the year before going in and out of the lineup. By the back half of the season, he recaptured the starting job and was playing with more consistency than before. That kind of work ethic is clearly valuable.

The Crimson Tide QB is still so far away, though. His footwork is sloppy and fidgety, which leads to accuracy woes. Likewise, he struggles to take speed off on short throws. He’s constantly ripping throws past his targets in the underneath area.

Processing is still a work in progress for Milroe as well. He takes a clear beat going between progressions right now and is often late to trigger. That area of his game got slightly better when he reasserted himself as the starter but not so much as to make him a major draft prospect yet.

Milroe has the tools and is someone worth monitoring. There’s a lot of work to be done, though. It’s more likely than not he stays in school through 2025 barring a remarkable level of growth this season.

Drew Allar, Penn State

Drew Allar is barely a prospect right now.

A five-star mega-recruit two years ago, he was billed as the savior for Penn State football. That’s hardly been the case so far, though.

Allar played OK within the confines of the Nittany Lions’ lifeless offense in 2023. Accuracy was a major issue for him, especially when things broke down around him, but the flashes of five-star talent shined through every now and then.

The 20-year-old clearly has a hose and made a couple of incredible throws per game amid otherwise uninspiring stretches of play.

Allar has the potential to be something, no doubt about it. He’s at least another year away from realizing that potential in any meaningful way, though.

Hopefully 2024 is a step in the right direction.

Donovan Smith, Houston

Donovan Smith is the kind of quarterback prospect everyone wants to be good. The tools are a siren song.

The Houston signal-caller stands out on size alone, sporting a 6’5″, 241-pound frame. His frame is both sturdy and lean. His athletic frame lends itself to shockingly smooth movement ability for a player his size.

Despite being a hulking mass of a man, he moves pretty effortlessly in and around the pocket. He’s got a good bit of flexibility when it comes to delivering from awkward platforms as well.

The arm talent is there for Smith as well. He doesn’t have quite the cannon quarterbacks of similar stature have, but there’s not a throw on the field he can’t make.

At the same time, the 22-year-old is a major work in progress. Though comfortable hanging in the pocket late in the down, he can struggle to stay on time. It’s easy to see him stuttering a bit between each read, and he tends to trigger late on throws beyond his first read. Some of that is natural for a first-year starter, but it also needs to get fixed. Reps and budding confidence would do wonders for his game.

Smith also needs to slow things down under pressure. He too often speeds himself up in a way that destroys his accuracy. That is especially true on shorter throws. He has got to find a way to breathe a little and trust his talent to win out even when he’s taking a shot to the ribs.

He isn’t anything more than a late Day 3 pick right now, but he’s the kind of player who will be fun to keep tabs on. The universe didn’t make a whole lot of quarterbacks with his size and athletic ability.

If Smith can iron out some of his inconsistencies, he may well play himself into being a draft pick.

Will Howard, Ohio State

Big man, big arm. That’s the gist of it with Will Howard.

Almost all of what was said about Conner Weigman could be copy/pasted onto the Ohio State QB and it would fit. He just has more experience and, somehow, less consistency with his accuracy as of now.

Howard will get a fresh start with a loaded Buckeyes receiving room, though, and he has the aggressive mindset and arm talent to make that offense hum in a way it struggled to a year ago.

We’ll see if the new environment can bring the best out of the 22-year-old.

Noah Fifita, Arizona

If you want the diet version of Bryce Young—who is already the diet version of other quarterbacks—then look no further than Noah Fifita.

The 20-year-old is an electric Saturday player. His elusiveness and creative spark are a nuisance for defenses to deal with, and it helps that he has a receiver as talented as Tetairoa McMillan at his disposal.

Sadly, Fifita doesn’t cut it from a tools perspective. He is generously listed at 5’11”, 194 pounds, but he doesn’t have the posture in the pocket to be a serious NFL passer.

The Kyler Murrays of this world have enough arm talent to override their short stature, but the Wildcats QB isn’t in the same boat.

Fifita is a cool player, but he’s fighting an uphill battle as a Sunday prospect.