As the 2024-25 NFL offseason begins, we see more mock drafts and scouting reports for college players for the 2024 draft.
Over the next few weeks, I will be releasing rankings and scouting reports for all positions for players in this upcoming draft. The following positions will be ranked together: guard and center will be called Interior Offensive Line (IOL) and pass rushers on the outside, whether they play in a 3-4 or a 4-3 defensive formation, will be called Edges.
Quarterbacks (QB) are the most important position in the NFL and the 2024 draft is stacked with great QB prospects with notable names, including Caleb Williams and Drake Maye. After watching film and these QBs play this season, here are my rankings of the top 10 QBs and scouting reports on the top four and the sleeper/gem.
Rankings:
- USC, Caleb Williams
- UNC, Drake Maye
- Michigan, J.J. McCarthy
- LSU, Jayden Daniels
- Washington, Michael Penix Jr.
- Oregon, Bo Nix
- FSU, Jordan Travis (sleeper/gem)
- SC, Spencer Rattler
- Tulane, Michael Pratt
- UT, Joe Milton III
Number 1: USC Caleb Williams
Williams was the 2022 Heisman winner (the MVP of college) with a statline of 4919 total yards, 52 total touchdowns (TD) and five interceptions (INT). Williams then had high expectations for the 2023 season. He slightly regressed to under 4000 total yards, 41 TDs (still insanely good) and five INTS. Stats do not tell the full story, though, as overall Williams had worse weapons around him and the playcalling overall felt worse. Williams is still expected to be the number one pick in this year’s draft.
Williams is considered the best QB prospect since Stanford QB Andrew Luck back in 2012. Due to this, Williams has been labeled as a “generational” prospect. I would agree with this, as everything on film from his great pocket awareness and manipulation to his insane arm talent gives him this label.
Another thing that makes Williams an elite college QB (and possible elite NFL QB) is how he makes everyone around him better. Williams’ offense is filled with late day two (round three) talent to day three (rounds four through 7) talent. He makes those guys look amazing with his elite placement and pocket movement. Now, that is nothing against those around Williams, but it just shows how good Williams is.
- Best Fits: Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, and Minnesota Vikings
- Comps: Chiefs Patrick Mahomes and taller Cardinals Kyler Murray
- Pros: arm strength; everything about the pocket and great throws off balance
- Cons: always looking for bigger shot (can be good and bad), loose with the ball when running, holds ball too long, looking for bigger play that can lead to unnecessary sacks taken and very cocky (can be good and bad)
Number 2: UNC Drake Maye
Maye is a very good QB and only showed that with these past two seasons at UNC. His combined statline was 9076 total yards, 78 total TDs, and 16 INTs. Now while the statline shows that he regressed from 2022 to 2023, context shows otherwise. Overall Maye had a worse offense around him whether that be his weapons or OL.
Maye falls into that same category Williams had where he has that NFL talent to make the guys much better around him. This is a key part of being an NFL QB as if you are failing to make the guys better around you, you may get replaced. Maye’s main strength is his insane arm talent. Arm talent can be the ability to fit a ball in the right spot at the right time; being able to zip the ball into a small window; or the ability to throw the ball insanely far. Throughout Maye’s film and games we see all of these things at once. An underrated part of Maye’s game is his athleticism. He is shockingly a lot faster than one may think and see. Now this may also be due to the long strides he takes with his good frame, standing at 6’4 and 230 lbs.
Maye’s weakness are interesting to breakdown. One of the major things I noticed was his tendency to scramble out of a clean pocket when unneeded. This could be for a number of reasons though such as: bad internal clock, distrust in OL, or it fits to his playstyle better. With that fear though he did have a tendency to throw careless INTs or take careless sacks by stepping up into them. All in all I would argue this class is a 1A and 1B QB class with Williams and Maye.
- Best Fits: Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders and New England Patriots
- Comps: Chargers Justin Herbert and former Cardinals/Bengals Carson Palmer
- Pros: Size, insane arm strength, ability to fit passes into tight windows, big frame and underrated athleticism
- Cons: Tendency to scramble out of clean pockets, bad internal clock, tendency to take careless sacks or throw careless INTs (rare though)
Number 3: Michigan J.J. McCarthy
The national champion QB has been slowly rising up draft boards and some (like myself) have started to put him over Daniels after watching more and more film.
McCarthy is very interesting prospect as his sample size for passing is small. This comes as Michigan had one of the better rushing offenses in the league. In the pass two seasons as a starter McCarthy has only passed the ball a total of 654 passes compared to other prospects such as Williams at 911 passes and Maye at 942. Even with all of that though McCarthy still put up a good statline of 3193 yards, 25 TDs and 4 INTs.
McCarthy has never really had to face pressure at Michigan as he had one of the best OLs in the nation. That said though he showed promise when he was under pressure, being able to get the ball out quick and smartly. Speaking of quickness, one of his strengths is his release. His quick release is another NFL level trait that McCarthy flashes on film. He is also very safe with the ball. This comes as McCarthy has shown the ability to process the field well. Similar to Maye his speed and athleticism is an underrated part of his game.
Lucky for McCarthy his weaknesses are more from a mechanical side of things compared to physical (outside of his weight for someone his height). His footwork could use a decent bit of work along with his drop back. Pocket presence could also use some work as when there seemed to be times where he would bail from a clean pocket.
Even with all of this said including strengths and weakness remember that with McCarthy’s small sample size makes it harder to judge whether it is “luck,” flashes or who he really can be. Overall McCarthy is a raw prospect but could easily succeed at the NFL level with the right coaching and development.
- Best Fits: Atlanta Falcons, Minnesota Vikings, and Denver Broncos
- Comps: 49ers Brock Purdy and faster Lions Jared Goff
- Pros: Good arm strength, good ability to fit the ball in tight windows, safe with the ball, high football IQ, speedy and keeps his eyes for a pass
- Cons: Limited sample size, pocket presence needs a lot of work, tendency to bail from clean pocket, needs to clean up footwork and would not hurt to put on some more weight
Number 4: LSU Jayden Daniels
I think Jayden Daniels is a little overrated. First I will say being overrated does not equal being bad.
To define “overrated” for a prospect we look at where they are projected to be picked (in Daniels case pick two or three) compared to where you believe they are projected or ranked in the class (11-14). Now, this is not the only way to metric how a player is “overrated,” but it is a simpler way.
Daniels is coming off a heisman season and a very impressive season. His statline was 4946 total yards, 50 TDs and four INTs. One may ask themselves with that statline and heisman trophy: why call him overrated?
Daniels is far from a bad QB but I believe people are way too high on him. My reasoning behind this goes behind his footwork, throwing motion and technique. A main reason he is valued so high by scouts is because of his athleticism and size (things that can not be coached).
Daniels’ size and speed is unmatched at QB. He stands at 6’4’’ and last time he ran a 40 yard dash, he was clocked at 4.5 seconds. He has likely gotten faster than that since then. His deep ball accuracy is very good. It only got better with having two great deep threats in fellow first round prospects WRs Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. His ability to hit WRs in stride is great as well. A similar argument that was used against Jordan Travis about having great weapons around him can be used against Daniels as his weapons mentioned above.
Daniels’ red flags are major. His arm strength is average and is lacking compared to other QBs in this class. This can hurt him sometimes in his deep ball. The ball may not get there fast enough or go the distance as needed. He struggles with reading the middle of the field. He fails to hit third or fourth reads a decent bit.
The biggest red flag for Daniels is the fact that he does not slide as much as needed. Colts’ QB Anthony Richardson, one of Daniels’ comps, can get away with that, considering he is a lot “bigger” in terms of weight and muscle. Daniels comes in at 210 pounds, which sounds good, but in reality when he goes to truck or shove a defender off as much as he does, he may get hurt with how much bigger hits are in the NFL compared to college. Richardson can get away with that as he has 35 pounds on Daniels. Daniels also lacks vision when running, meaning he runs more straight line and does not juke or try to fake out the defender. In the NFL, he may not be able to get away with that considering how much smarter the defenders are.
- Best Fits: Washington Commanders, Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders
- Comps: Bears Justin Fields and Colts Anthony Richardson
- Pros: size, athleticism, deep ball accuracy, speed and ability to hit WRs in stride well
- Cons: panics under pressure, fails to slide, takes unnecessary hits, has a run first instinct when scrambling and scrambles when unneeded even with a clean pocket
Sleeper/Gem: FSU Jordan Travis
Travis was having an amazing 2023 season until he suffered a broken leg playing against the North Alabama Lions late in the season. He finished the season with 2932 total yards, 27 TDs and two INTs. Travis was considered a first to second round QB up until that injury. He is now projected in the fourth to fifth round range. Many scouts fell in love with his leadership and pocket awareness. Unfortunately, the injury could have him sidelined for the first few weeks of the NFL season.
Something that could be used against Travis is that he had amazing weapons around him and usually did not have to play much hero ball or make any insane plays. Three of his top weapons are entering the draft this year with those being wide receiver (WR) Keon Coleman, WR Johnny Wilson and tight end (TE) Jaheim Bell. This is nothing against Travis or his weapons, as they are still making the plays out there, but it is still something to note as we have seen several QBs not transfer well to the NFL due to lack of weapons.
The main reason I have him as a hidden gem/sleeper pick is due to how much he has fallen due to his injury, yet still has all of that talent. Some team is going to get a steal with him in a later round.
- Best Fits: Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins
- Comps: Dolphins Tua Tagovailoa and Packers Jordan Love
- Pros: quick-thinking, good pocket presence and great deep ball
- Cons: coming off huge injury, average arm strength and fight or flights under pressure (good and bad)
