Draft analyst says 2025 will be a bad year to select a QB

With the 2024 NFL Draft just two weeks away, it’s a safe bet that many teams have already started preliminary work on next year's draft.

Quarterback is expected to be the position that dominates the top five this year, but that likely won’t be the case in 2025, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, who recently stated on the “NFL on Fox” podcast that the lack of depth in next year’s crop of QBs might force some teams to draft one this year.

“Next year’s quarterback class doesn’t look very exciting,” Brugler said. “There’s not one quarterback you can point to and say, ‘Oh, definite No. 1 pick type of guy that we’d be excited about.’ I mean, there’s a lot of talented guys [but] in terms of being legitimate top-five quarterbacks, the feedback I get from teams and just from my own scouting… it’s not a lot of guys to get excited about.”

The list of potential first-round quarterbacks next season is small. Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, and Georgia’s Carson Beck are in the running to be the first passers off the board. 

Everyone else — a group that includes Penn State’s Drew Allar, Miami’s Cameron Ward, Texas A&M’s Connor Weigman, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard and Ohio State’s Will Howard — is slated to go between Round 2-7, which is why Brugler believes QB-needy teams might prefer taking one of the 15-plus draft-eligible passers this year.

“A lot of these quarterbacks this year are going to go pretty early,” Brugler added. “How many we see in the first round, I would guess five. Obviously, the four are going to go early, one more maybe gets in there, then we’re going to see probably three go on Day 2, then another 5-6 on Day 3. We’re going to see a lot of quarterbacks drafted. Part of that, at least part of it is because teams are looking toward next year.”