It remains a delightfully maddening fact: Quarterback is the most important position of any team sport, but despite having all the data in the world available at this point, we're not really any better at projecting who will actually be particularly good at it in the pros.
Among the NFL's top 10 in Total QBR last season were three former No. 1 picks (Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, Kyler Murray), the third and fifth QBs taken in the 2018 draft (Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson), the fourth and fifth QBs taken in 2020 (Jordan Love and Jalen Hurts), the ninth QB taken in 2022 (Brock Purdy), a rookie (Jayden Daniels) and, well, Patrick Mahomes. Some had extensive track records in college, and some had smaller, spottier résumés. Some were considered system QBs, and some were considered alarmingly small or skinny. Meanwhile, the No. 1 picks in the 2021 (Trevor Lawrence), 2023 (Bryce Young) and 2024 (Caleb Williams) drafts ranked 15th, 20th and 28th, respectively, in Total QBR.
It's still a bit of a mystery figuring out who will succeed and how long it might take a guy to click, and it sometimes seems as if the quality of the organization selecting a given QB matters as much as the QB himself. But as mysterious as this all can seem, we still know a lot about these guys, and by the time they leave college, we at least have a pretty good idea of why a quarterback prospect will succeed or fail. So, for the 11 quarterbacks ranked among Scouts Inc.'s top 300 prospects, let's walk through the best and worst traits for each one.
(Note: Unless otherwise noted, all rankings below are based on a sample of 65 QBs with at least 16 FBS starts in 2023-24.)
Jump to a QB:
Ward | Sanders | Dart | Shough
Milroe | Howard | Ewers
Gabriel | McCord | Rourke | Henigan
