QB watch list for the 2024 NFL Draft, led by Caleb Williams and Drake Maye
The quarterbacks you should know ahead of the 2023 college football season
The calendar has officially flipped to August, which means a few very important things.
First, football is back. The NFL has its annual Hall of Fame Game this weekend, and down a level, college football’s “Week 0” is just a few short weeks away.
Second, that means we are about to start yelling about draft quarterbacks again.
Draft season is always present, and here at SB Nation we are no different. After all, we dropped a “way too early 2024 NFL mock draft” of our own shortly after the 2023 NFL Draft drew to a close. But the summer scouting season is behind us, which means it is time to dive into the next draft class a little bit more.
When it comes to the quarterback class, it could be a tremendous group.
You know the names at the top — Drake Maye, Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr., and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams — but this could be a tremendously deep group as well. As you start your own work on the next NFL draft, here is the watch list we started our own summer scouting work with.
Here are 31* quarterbacks to watch, listed alphabetically.
*One of the listings is a team, and not a specific quarterback. More on that in a moment.
So ... this is nice and all but who is QB1?
Short answer? Ask me in six months.
...
You are not buying that are you.
The two names at the top of almost every watch list are the same: UNC passer Drake Maye, and USC quarterback Caleb Williams. Opinions on which QB is at the top are mixed, and after spending some time this summer studying both, I understand why. Both are enticing prospects, with a ton of potential for the next level. Beyond that, people whose opinion I value and respect are of differing minds. Some have Maye QB1 at the moment, others have Williams as QB1.
If forced to plant a flag, I’ll plant that on the USC passer’s hill. Williams is dynamic, athletic, and fits with the direction of the modern game. You can expect to hear a lot of comparisons to Patrick Mahomes, and while that seems outrageous, when you have true experts like Tom House making it, that carries weight. While Williams’s coach Lincoln Riley admitted at Pac-12 Media Day that Williams has “a long way to go to get to that,” the QB had perhaps the best response of all when speaking with Kevin Clark of The Ringer:
“The Patrick Mahomes thing, I’ve seen it. I don’t think anything of it. I’m my own self. I’m Caleb Williams, number 13 for the USC Trojans. I don’t think too much of it other than, it’s’ respect. Mahomes has been the best guy in the league basically since he got in the league. He’s been playing at the highest level. I just say respect. The man’s got two Super Bowls under his belt, and I’ve got not even one national championship. I just classify it as respect because I’ve been working my tail off to try and be the best.”
However, there is a lot to like about Maye, who has a tremendous release and can make some splash plays of his own.
Again, there is a long way to go for all of these quarterbacks. I’m old enough to remember the Sam Howell/Spencer Rattler QB1 battles of years gone by — more on Rattler in a moment — but if you are forcing me to choose right now, I’m leaning towards Williams.
For now.
What is this “Alabama QB1” business?
One of the more intriguing training camp position battles comes to us from SEC country, as three quarterback are vying to step into the shoes vacated by first-overall selection Bryce Young.
The leader in that battle might be Jalen Milroe, who stepped into the Alabama huddle last season when Young was sidelined with a shoulder injury. He got the start against Texas A&M following Young’s injury, and completed 12-of-19 passes for 111 yards and 3 touchdowns, but threw an interception and also fumbled twice while scrambling, leading Nick Saban to criticize his passer ahead of halftime. “Yeah, well he’s gotta get two hands on the ball in the pocket, they stripped him twice which led to both of their touchdowns,” said Saban at the break. “We played pretty well on defense except after those turnovers. So we can’t turn the ball over and we can’t get stupid penalties when we’ve got a chance to score. So you know, we’ve gotta play with more discipline.”
But there are two other options for Saban, who stated at SEC Media Days that the QB battle remains tight. “We have three guys that are competing for that position right now,” Saban said. “All those players are getting better and it’s important for us that all those players get better. I don’t think anybody has actually separated themselves yet to this point, and I don’t think it’s something that we’re trying to rush ... All the players are working hard. They all have a good attitude. They’re all competing well.”
Option B might be redshirt freshman Ty Simpson. The five-star recruit, and fourth-ranked quarterback in the class of 2022, arrived early on campus his freshman year and while he redshirted a season ago, Alabama has turned the keys over to redshirt freshmen a few times in recent history.
Tua Tagovailoa and Young being the two most-recent examples.
Option C might have an inside track of his own, transfer QB Tyler Buchner. Buchner made a handful of starts for Notre Dame last season, under Tommy Rees.
The new offensive coordinator at Alabama.
Three quarterbacks, but just one football to go around. This will be the battle to watch over the next few weeks, and whoever emerges victorious will be worth studying this fall.
Is the Pac-12 the conference to watch this year?
Far be it for us to tell you which conference to focus on, but you might want to stock up on coffee and/or other caffeinated beverages for the fall, especially if you like watching quarterbacks and live on the East Coast.
Because the passers in the Pac-12 are going to be certified fun.
We’ve talked about Williams, but Bo Nix at Oregon and Michael Penix Jr. at Washington are lurking in the early-round QB discussion. Those two already gave us a memorable game last season, trading shots like Ivan Drago and Rocky Balboa did one Christmas Day years ago.
Round two is slated for October 14, at Washington.
But they are just two of the quarterbacks worth studying this fall in the Pac-12. Cam Rising at Utah and Cameron Ward at Washington State are worth keeping an eye on, as is former Clemson passer DJ Uiagalelei, who is looking to write a redemption story at Oregon State. Then there is Shedeur Sanders, who is making the leap from the FCS to the FBS. Colorado may struggle in their first season under Deion Sanders, given their tough schedule, but Sanders has a ton of potential.
For those who are getting early work in for upcoming drafts, keep an eye on UCLA. Ethan Garbers was the backup for the Bruins a season ago behind Dorian Thompson-Robinson, but UCLA pulled off a coup when Brian Kelly and Ethan Young, their Director of Player Personnel, flipped five-star quarterback Dante Moore from Oregon to UCLA last December. Early word out of UCLA is that Moore had a strong spring with the Bruins, and make play a big role in the fall.
Obviously he is not eligible for the 2024 draft, but as we stated at the outset, draft season never ends, it just starts earlier and earlier each year.
There are going to be some great QBs to watch in the Pac-12 this year.
Hopefully they get a TV deal figured out by the time games roll around.
The Spencer Rattler Redemption
As outlined earlier, some of us are old enough to remember the Spencer Rattler: QB1 discussions.
Those seem like a lifetime ago.
After all, there was a time when the young and dynamic passer under Lincoln Riley was Rattler, and not Williams. But when Rattler struggled during the 2021 season, Riley made the switch to Williams, and the older passer’s next move was to the transfer portal.
Rattler landed in South Carolina, and while he got off to an uneven start for the Gamecocks, things certainly clicked for him late in the season, particularly in a six-touchdown performance against Tennessee, then the fifth-ranked team in the nation.
While Rattler is unlikely to get himself back in the QB1 discussion, given the names at the top of that list, the fact we are discussing him at all shows that his redemption story is underway.
A story I am fascinated to see conclude this season.
Who is this year’s QB riser?
Outside of debating who QB1 is, the next discussion every draft season is the rush to identify the next “QB riser.”
After all, in recent years we have seen QBs like Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and perhaps most notably Joe Burrow, rise up the ranks with incredible final seasons on campus.
Who could join them this year?
One option? Michael Pratt at Tulane. The Green Wave are coming off one of their best seasons in school history, and Pratt was a huge reason for their success. He hit on 63.9% of his passes a season ago for 3,009 yards and 27 touchdowns, against just 5 interceptions.
Riley Leonard from Duke is another option, as is Joe Milton III, who has an incredibly strong arm and could put together the kind of rise we saw from Hendon Hooker a season ago in that Tennessee offense.
A quarterback I’ve loved studying? Jordan Travis from Florida State. Very intriguing.
Then of course there is this option: Someone we just do not see coming.
Part of what makes this all so fun.