Below, you'll find my current Top 5 quarterbacks for the 2025 NFL Draft.
We still have plenty of games left to play out, followed by the pre-draft process — so things can and will change. But if the draft were tomorrow, this is how my board would look:
Top 5 Quarterbacks for the 2025 NFL Draft
- Shedeur Sanders | Colorado | 6’1/215
- Cameron Ward | Miami (FL) | 6’2/220
- Jalen Milroe | Alabama | 6’2/225
- Garrett Nussmeier | LSU | 6’2/200
- Kurtis Rourke | Indiana | 6’4/231
Check out my other prospect ranks here: Top 5 QBs | Top 5 RBs | Top 5 WRs | Top 5 TEs
Breaking Down the QB class
Sanders has been my 2025 QB1 since the end of last season. He’s accurate, poised under duress, and he’s shown the ability to be a full-field reader. What isn’t discussed enough is the degree of difficulty he faced in helping immediately turn around one of the FBS’ worst teams, throwing behind a shoddy offensive line and without help from a running game.
He, along with Ward, are 1.01 possibilities. Ward made himself millions of dollars by pulling out of last year’s NFL Draft after initially declaring, to transfer to Miami—a prime example of NIL helping both college football and the NFL. Ward would have been a Day 3 pick last year—now he could be a top-3 pick. Ward’s aDOT is up nearly two yards, his YPA has improved by more than two yards, and his big-time throw rate has spiked; meanwhile, his turnover-worthy play rate has been slashed.
Milroe remains raw as a thrower, but he’s got a shot at Round 1 due to his toolset—he’s a ludicrous athlete with a huge arm. There’s a wide band of outcomes here. Milroe’s stock could surge if he plays well down the stretch. But if his ending to the season is not emphatic, there is also the possibility of the redshirt junior returning to Tuscaloosa for one more season.
It goes without saying that Milroe will immediately become one of the most dangerous scramblers in NFL history whenever he begins his career. He’s bigger than Lamar Jackson and he runs with more power, with analogous straight-line speed. Jackson is more evasive. You can think of Milroe’s scrambling as a cross between Jackson and Jalen Hurts.
Passing refinement is the key for Milroe. If he doesn’t show much of it, he’s in danger of drawing less attractive comps, like Anthony Richardson or Malik Willis.
LSU’s Nussmeier, the son of NFL coach Doug Nussmeier, has put himself on the Round 1 radar with a breakout season. The former four-star recruit waited his turn behind Jayden Daniels and has shown exciting arm talent in his first full year as a starter.
Nussmeier has very good pocket awareness and a gunslinging mentality—on his best reps, he looks like a young Tony Romo. But the redshirt junior still struggles with consistency. After starting the season with an 18/6 TD/INT rate, he’s posted a 3/5 TD/INT rate in consecutive losses to Texas A&M and Alabama. Like Milroe, Nussmeier has another month-and-a-half to decide whether he wants to declare for the NFL or return for a final season of eligibility.
Indiana’s Rourke is one of this class’ biggest risers. His brother Nathan got a cup of coffee in the NFL and is now in the CFL. Kurtis Rourke is bigger, and he has a stronger arm. Rourke’s work navigating Indiana to an undefeated start has secured his slot in April’s draft. He ranks No. 1 in the FBS in PFF passing grade, and he’s No. 2 in overall grade, just behind Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart.
Before suffering a season-ending injury in mid-November 2022 at Ohio, Rourke ranked No. 1 in the FBS in overall QB grade and No. 3 in passing grade.
Outside Looking In
The most surprising omission from this list is Carson Beck (Georgia). I was lower than others on Beck coming out of last season, and his issues reading the entire field and throwing with consistent accuracy downfield have reared their ugly heads this fall without help from Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers.
Jaxson Dart (Mississippi) will be an interesting early-Day 3 flier—the former top recruit has tools, and he’s put up video game stats, but the Rebels’ system gives him lots of easy reads. Drew Allar (Penn State), Quinn Ewers (Texas) and Cade Klubnik (Clemson) should probably all return to school. If Ewers elects to do that, he’ll be one of the offseason’s biggest portal prizes—he and Arch Manning won’t be on the same roster next fall one way or the other.
