The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast - Joel Klatt ranks his Top 5 Quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

FOX Sports’ lead College Football analyst Joel Klatt ranks his Top 5 Quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft. He begins by discussing the two QB’s that could go as high as #1 in the entire draft: Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders and explains why he ranked one over the other. He dives into the question of who the #3 QB in this Draft is and whether a player like Alabama’s Jalen Milroe or Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart could sneak into the back-end of the First Round. Klatt then takes a look at 5 more potential candidates to get the last spot on his list out of a group of QB’s which includes Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Ohio State’s Will Howard. 0:00-2:03 Intro 2:04-5:52 Shedeur Sanders 5:53-9:04 Cam Ward 9:05-12:03 Draft discussion 12:04-15:56 Jaxson Dart 15:57-19:34 Jalen Milroe 19:35-32:26 Kyle McCord, Quinn Ewers, Kurtis Rourke, Will Howard or Dillon Gabriel at #5? 32:27-33:08 Will Howard 33:09-33:57 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He is more ready now to go in and be the starting quarterback than anybody else in this draft. Now, there are some talented players that I'll talk about, but he's the one that is ready right now. College football has never been better. Interest has never been higher. Believe that we are at the dawn of the golden age of college football. It was an epic day of college football. It was one of those days where you fall in love with the sport all over again. What's up, everybody?

Welcome into the Joel Clatt show. I am Joel Clatt. This show is always brought to you by Hampton by Hill. Milton as we continue on here in our draft coverage leading up to the NFL draft. Just a reminder, I will be at the NFL draft. I'll be covering it with the NFL network. Rich Eisen will be hosting our coverage along with Charles Davis. And of course, Daniel Jeremiah, I'll be on that desk on night one for the first round

and then night two for the second and third round there in Green Bay. Listen, I love this time of year. I think it's really exciting. And this is one of my favorite lists to do. I'm going to give you my top five quarterbacks available in this year's NFL draft. coming straight up. But first, just remember, go right and review us wherever you're listening to this podcast. And more importantly, go subscribe on the YouTube channel. That's really where all of our content is going. It's heading. And we have a lot of exclusive YouTube content, not only up on the

YouTube channel, but also coming to you in the Understanding Football series. So you're going to want to get over there, subscribe to the channel. Click that notification button so you know when all of our content drops and then get in the comments as well. I've been trying to get down there and chat it up with some of you as well. If you want to follow us on social media, you can do so wherever you like to social media. At Joel Clatio is where you can find us out on social. Okay, let's get started here. I'm going to go with the top five quarterbacks. And truth be told, I'm actually going to talk about, what, nine guys here. I'm going to have a big debate for that fifth spot. And so I wanted to kind of, I wanted to group all the guys that I considered for the fifth spot together. And we'll get to that

here in a little bit. But let's start right up at the top. Number one, my number one, my number one quarterback available in this year's NFL draft is Shudor Sanders from Colorado. Shudor is excellent. I think he is a phenomenal player. He is equal parts, and if you've heard me talk about him, whether it was during the games that I called this year and or even in that first mock draft, he is equal parts, surgeon and artist. And that's one of the reasons why I love his game.

And I think it's translatable to the National Football League. When he needs to be, he can be a surgeon. and he can sit in the pocket and just dice people up. And he anticipates as well as anybody in this draft. He's hyper-accurate. So he's got that ability to just be the prototypical pocket guy, dicing you up down the field, intermediate zones, driving the football, thrown with touch, and then taking easy throws on the outside as well or even in the middle of the field.

So he's got that surgeon capability, command capability that you would want to see from your NFL starting quarterback. But he also has something more. And this is why he's my number one. player is that he's got this ability to be an artist. Okay, so Chodor does an amazing job of creating when things aren't there, which he had to do quite a bit, by the way, because of who he played for. Remember now, this Colorado team when he arrived with his dad and some of his other teammates, they were a one-win team from the previous season, one win. And he's leaving. They're a nine-win team. They were in the race for the Big 12 championship game. They do not get to that point without

Shador Sanders. I understand that Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy. I get it. But the entire turnaround from an on-field perspective was about Shador Sanders. If you don't have a quarterback, you don't get to do what Colorado was able to do the last couple of years. So now we've seen him, which is, by the way, the case of what he's going to be asked to do at the next level, which is take an organization, take a program in this case with Colorado, but an organization now in the future that is struggling, that's falling way below expectations and raise the level of the team just because you're playing quarterback. He's already done that. So why is he my number one quarterback? He has proven exactly what he needs to do at the next level. Raise the level of the entire organization,

the entire team, the offense, everyone around him. He's already done that. If you look at his numbers this last season in 2024, he was outstanding. standing. 74% that's right up there with some of the great seasons in college football over the last decade. Bo Nix was 77. Mac Jones was 77. Joe Burrow in 19, that historically great run to a national championship. He threw for 76%. So Chador knows what he's doing. He's got great command of the offense and football in general. He anticipates incredibly well. My one knock on Chador is I think that he, because he believes in himself and because he can create, he holds the football a little bit too long. And that led to some of the sack numbers, which were egregious in the last couple of years at Colorado.

That's my one knock. But he is more ready now to go in and be the starting quarterback than anybody else in this draft. Now, there are some talented players that I'll talk about. But he's the one that is ready right now. You can plug him into an NFL offense next week, and he can start for you. He's that smart. He's that capable. So Chodor Sanders is my number one quarterback available on this year's draft. Surgeon, artist, he does it all.

He raises the level of all the boats around him. That's exactly what he's going to be needing to do next year when he goes to the National Football League. And if you remember in the mock draft, which if you haven't seen it, get over to YouTube and check it out, I have him going number one over there all with the Giants trading up to get him with that number one pick. Okay, number two. And truth be told, the whole discussion between. one and two was between two guys and there really wasn't a close third. So there is a clear top two in this draft and that second guy is going to be Cam Ward. I like Cam Ward a lot. I love his game.

It's different than Shudor Sanders, but these two guys have clearly separated themselves out and these two guys will absolutely get selected in the first five picks of the NFL draft. So I don't know if we'll have another first round quarterback. I really don't. But these two guys are the ones with the potential are the ones that are going to grab hold of kind of the scouting community and the entire NFL community and suggest that they can get taken way up their high in the first round. Ward is a bit of a gunslinger, which I like, by the way, but he'll take some chances out there. He's got a great arm. He will drift away a little bit. He will hold the ball a little bit too long at times. But man, like, he is the reason Miami was able to do what they were able to do.

All right, that was a team that needed desperately some sort of jolt, some sort of energy from any position, but namely the quarterback position. And he absolutely provided that. I love his game. I love his attitude. He's played a ton of football. He plays his way into the finalist for a Heisman trophy, led college football and passing touchdowns with 39, seconding passing yards per game with 332. Shador and Cam lit it up. They lit it up.

Cam was terrific at Miami. Now, was it as polished as Shador? Maybe not at times. I don't think he's as surgical as Shador Sanders from the pocket. And that's where I think he's going to need some growth. If you were to say like, well, what is Cam to Shador? He's just a bit unrefined because of that gunslinger mentality. And I don't know if he's ever going to be refined because of that mentality. But he will take chances down the field because he trusts himself, which is a great thing. He can trust himself because he's got a great arm. He delivers passes that are wow passes and plays that are wow plays. Fifty-seven career starts, highly experienced, 6-2-223 pounds. He fits the mold, and guys are going to love him in the

locker room. It was not an easy choice up here. I went with Chador because he's more pro-ready. I went with Cam at number two. I love him getting selected in the first five picks, probably in the top three picks, maybe even number one overall, if Tennessee wants to take him up there. But he's not quite as polished. That's just the name of the game. But he presents a bit better upside because of that gunslinger mentality and his strength from an arm perspective getting the ball down the field. He really trusts that. At times a little too much. And like I said, can fall away and drift away. And at the next level, you've got to be careful doing that because that can lead to turnovers.

And that's the one area that a young quarterback cannot struggle is turning the football over. Great upside. Just needs a little bit of polish. That's all I would say. Like I said, really good player. Love him, and I would absolutely take him in the first few picks. Now, now you get to kind of the rest of the guys, and here's how we're going to do this. I've got two other guys right here, and they're going to go at three and four, and then I've got this next group. But before I go into who's next, I do not believe that anybody else is a first round pick. These two guys up top, Chodor and Cam Ward, will get selected in the top five. They just will.

And then I think it might be a while until we see another quarterback. It's fascinating because everybody that I'm going to talk about, including Sanders and Ward, are Uber experienced, which is different than what we saw last year and really throughout the history of the NFL draft. It speaks to the changing nature of the college game with NIL and. transfer portal, but it also speaks to, I think, the blueprint for players going out to have success at the next level. Let me give you an example. Like last year, for example, there's three guys drafted in the first round that are kind of the traditional route. You play for three years, you're talented enough to go. Bang, you're out of there. That's Caleb Williams, Drake,

May, and J.J. McCarthy. Then you have another three guys that take the non-traditional route, play a multiple schools, start gobs and gobs of games, and then bring all of that experience to the NFL level. Now, I know that Pinnix didn't play a ton for Atlanta, but he certainly was their quarterback moving forward at the end of the year. And if you're talking about Bo Nix and Jaden Daniels, those two guys were spectacular. So those are the three guys that had immense amount of experience last year in the NFL draft, were taken in the first round, and it really worked out for their teams. The others will see. J.J. J. McCarthy, of course, has the injury. Drake May doesn't really get the job until late.

We'll see what he does moving forward. And then obviously in Chicago didn't go well in particular after that Hail Mary against the commanders and Jaden Daniels. So they're going to need to get him help. I think experience is vital for these quarterbacks to go and succeed at the next level. I've said that for years. If you followed our draft coverage at all during the course of the last few years, you'll know that one of my big takeaways for quarterbacks, and I talk to coaches about this as well, and even GMs around the league, if you look at the Super Bowl winning quarterbacks

ever since Brady won his first, so really since 2000, what you'll find is, generally speaking, and there's only a couple of exceptions, really, but generally speaking, the quarterbacks that end up winning Super Bowls are highly experienced college quarterbacks.

And they've got 30, 35, 40 starts under their belt at the college level before they even go to the National Football League. They've got thousands of passing attempts in their belt in college football before they go to the National Football League. That's every one of the guys this year. And that speaks to the two things. Speaks to the changing nature of college. You can make enough money where you can stay.

You don't have to jump to the national. National Football League, but it also speaks to this draft class. I've already talked to you about Shador and Cam. They're going to get selected in the top five. Are either of them better than any of the six that were drafted last year? I don't know. I think getting selected in the top five, this year is going to be based more on need than it is. You just got to take these guys. Now, having said that, having said that, this group as a whole is more experienced. Okay? And we might not have the upside of maybe last year's draft, but there is some experience and let's get into some of that.

Let's go to number three. I'm going to go with the Ole Miss quarterback. That's Jackson Dart is going to be my third quarterback. Jackson Dart at number three. Okay, let me start with what I really like about Jackson Dart. First and foremost, he's a solid athlete. Okay? And so if you put him on the field in the National Football League,

he's not going to get overwhelmed. He's going to be able to escape a little bit. And from that standpoint, I like his game. I also like how quickly he can get the ball out of his hands. If you're looking at Lane Kiffin's offense, you're going to see quite a bit of RPO's, quite a bit of what I would consider to be like ratio throws or now throws. Those are the throws meaning like the leverage is correct based on the ratio of the defense, and you're just going to take a free completion right away.

So those ratio throws, leverage throws, whatever you want to call them, he excels in that. And so the ball is out of his hands quickly. He also excels right down the middle of the field. The seam throws, those hash marks. That's where Lane Kiffin loves to attack is right down the seam, and he did a great job of that for Ole Miss. He really did. This is a guy, again, with a ton of experience.

First team, All-SCC in 2024, led the FBS in yards per attempt at over 10. He's a three-year starter with 41 career starts under his belt. He's got good size, not great size, but good size. He's 225 pounds. He's 6.2. I like his game. Now, where are the struggles? Well, the reason he's not going to be a first round pick,

or at least in my estimation, unless someone reaches, is that he's got to show a better command after the second read. So you heard me talk about he does a great job of getting the ball out of his hand quickly. That's right. When he can get the ball out of his hand fast, an RPO, a ratio or leverage throw, a seam ball right down the seam, is generally the first or second read. He's very good. But as soon as he needs to go from the early foundation number one, number two, and try to get to three or four, he quickly loses

connection with his feet and what's going on with his eyes. And then it can kind of deteriorate. It deteriorated against Florida, right? And he turned the football over. That wasn't very good for them, which I brought up to Lane on Twitter. But generally speaking, if he's in rhythm, if the ball can leave his hand quickly, it's solid. I like it a lot. At the NFL level, that's not always going to happen for you. And you have to show the ability to have command and connection in both your feet and your eyes and what's going on from a command perspective in terms of the way you're reading the defense. You have to show that to three to four and the ability to control the entire field, a full field read. And that's where I think he's going to need some growth. So do I like him? Yes. Do I

think he's a first round pick? Probably not. But I could see him getting selected in the second round, there's going to be teams with a quarterback need that do not get one of those top two guys, and they certainly will look at a guy like Jackson Dart, I think, maybe even early in the second round in the first 15 picks of the second round. That brings us to number four. My number four quarterback in this year's draft is a guy that's just so incredible as an athlete that you just have to take a look. He's so explosive. And he's immediately. the most dangerous player on the field as soon as he steps foot on the field, and that's Jalen Milro from Alabama. So listen, Jalen Milrow is a guy that's going to be polarizing in this

whole setting because people are going to get mad if you call him just a running quarterback, and then if you say he's got to work on throwing the football, you know, people get all upset. And here's the thing. Jalen did a lot of great things at Alabama, in particular in 2003. His growth in that season was fantastic. Last year, he regressed a little bit. Generally speaking, when I watched Jalen Miro, this is what I see. He makes hard things look really easy, really easy, like too easy. Like, hold on this. second. You're not supposed to be able to do that. Whether it's using his legs, throwing the football down the field, he is great throwing the football down the field. However, he can make easy things

look hard. And that's something that it's hard to overlook from an NFL evaluator's perspective. Because to be a great NFL quarterback, you have to execute first principles before you can go past the X's and O's. You see, and this is what was so brilliant about guys like Peyton Manning, guys like Tom Brady and the excellent quarterbacks now, even Mahomes does this. You've got to make the plays that are there to be made that are easy because you don't get second chances. You've got to make the layups. You have to. If you don't, you can never get to the point where the above the X's and O's traits show up. That's just kind of. of the nature of the game. Now, in college, you can kind of get away with it because the margin

between the great athletes on the field and the average athletes is far different than the margin between the great athletes on the field and the average NFL athlete. That margin is much tighter. So your ability to affect and impact the game as just a unique skill set is minimized, which means you've got to do the basics incredibly well. And that's one area where I think that he has struggled, and he's going to have to show growth. Now, is he tantalizing to select? Maybe even late in the second round? Yeah, maybe early in the third round.

Why? Because he is the most dangerous person you can put on the football field on the offensive side right away. And when you're snapping him the ball, then the ball is going to go through him. You're going to have to defend him in the run game. You've got to defend down the field because of his ability to throw it down the field. So there's enough there to select him. There's no doubt, which is why he is my fourth quarterback on the board.

I think the NFL is going to be polarized on Jalen Milrow, but count me as one of the guys that believe in him. I think the growth that he showed in 23 in the run to that playoff performance and appearance with Nick Sabin and his last year was incredible. It was incredible. All of these guys that I'm talking about, Shudor Sanders, Cam Ward, Jackson Dart, Jalen Milrow, highly experienced guys, they've done a ton.

Okay. Now for the fifth spot. This is going to be a little bit different. because it was easier for me to land on these top four, and it's become much more difficult to like, well, who's the fifth? And I had a big debate between five guys for the fifth spot. So let me list the five guys, and then I want to talk about each of them before I actually land on the guy that I'm going to put in that fifth spot.

Okay. So here's the group of players that I'm debating between. Will Howard from Ohio State, Kyle McCord from Syracuse, Curtis Rourke from Indiana, Quinn Ewers from Texas, Dylan Gabriel, from Oregon. That's kind of my next group. And, you know, there are some other guys that I left out of that. But that's the group that I kind of settled on as like, who am I taking from that group? Who's elevated themselves or whose traits do I think belong in the fifth spot versus the, you know, ninth spot?

I'm not going to rank them all the way to nine. But I just wanted to group them this way to show you that after those top two, there's a gap. And then after the top four, there's going to be another gap. There's a chance that all of these five guys don't even get drafted. Now, there's a chance that maybe one of these, a team falls in love with and selects all the way up into the third round. But I think that the evaluations are going to be all over the place because of some of the strengths and weaknesses that I'll be talking about right here. Let me start with Kyle McCord. Kyle had a really solid year for Syracuse, really solid year. After what was an incredibly difficult exit, you would say, from Ohio State.

Huge production. Led the country in passing and had a phenomenal year at Syracuse. Now, when I watched the film leading up to the Holiday Bowl, which we had him in, and he played great in down in San Diego, there are a lot of RPO's and then there are a lot of quick game. and he did a great job of getting the football out of his hands quickly. Now, truth be told, he anticipated much better than he did the previous year at Ohio State. He worked through progressions much better than he did the previous year at Ohio State. And overall, he was just a much better player. Like I said, that's how you lead the country in passing, 368 yards per game. Set an ACC record, by the way, for passing yards in the season at just over, what, 4,770,

something along those lines. He did that in the bowl game. So there's a lot to like it about his game, including, including this idea that he overcame a difficulty already in his life. You see, I used to have this theory. And when I played, when I was briefly with the Lions, John Kittner was the starting quarterback. And Josh McCown was one of the backups. And Dan Rolofsky was also with us. And we used to talk a lot about you can't be an only child quarterback. And I'm not talking about where these guys came from from an upbringing standpoint, as much as it is, is that we believed, through our history playing the position, that it paid huge dividends to go through something difficult, to go through a quarterback battle, to go through something difficult, to be

benched at some point in your career, because you learn a lot about yourself, a lot about yourself. And quarterbacks that just have it handed to them and they're always the number one guy and just, hey, you know, he's QB1, no questions asked. we called him only child quarterbacks. And so there's something to be said about a guy that has dealt with adversity, come through it, and really performed well on the other side. And that's exactly what Kyle McCord did this last year after leaving Ohio State

and getting a spot at Syracuse. When I talked to Fran Brown in the lead up to that holiday bowl, he kept talking about how he just gave the keys to the program to Kyle McCord. I thought it was so interesting when talking to Fran Brown, because he said, like, there's me, there's Kyle, and then there's the rest of the coaching staff, not just everybody else, the coaching staff. So he put Kyle above the other coaches in terms of like who had the keys to the program. So that's how much he thought of him, his experience level and his maturity.

And he delivered with a great season and Syracuse obviously had a great year. Now, he wouldn't always find the right spot with the football in his past. Sometimes at Ohio State, he would struggle with that. He did a better job of that at Syracuse. But that's one area where I would want to see continue. progress from Kyle McCourt. All right, here's another one of these five guys. Let's go with Quinn Ewers. Okay, so Quinn Ewers, the potential is obviously there with Quinn Ewers. He has been a highly rated quarterback for a long time and rightly so. The guy makes a lot of big time throws,

a lot of big time throws. He, I would say NFL throws. He's smart. He does things from an armed talent perspective that other guys just don't do, he can throw off platform and do it accurately. He can throw going to his left. He can throw going to his right. So there's a lot to love about his game. It is there. Now, I wish he was a little bit bigger. He's only about 210 pounds, 2-2-10. I think that that's led to some of the injury issues that he's had at Texas, and he wasn't always reliable for staying on the field. Now, it was better this last year, but he still got banged up. Arch had to go in. So we've still yet to see Quinn go through a year and not get banged up. And that's worrisome from the NFL's perspective. Potential is there. NFL throws are there.

He's got great command of the system. He knows where to go with the football. He's dealt with high pressure environments being the number one quarterback, his whole life, you know, even going up to Ohio State and then back down to Texas. It's been there. Now, he does an amazing job. throwing with touch. Great accuracy. And he throws with touch as well or better than anybody else on the list today. Because of that, I do think he can rely on that a little bit too much. So there are times when I'm watching film and I really want him to drive the football into a tight window area in particular and intermediate zones. And he throws with touch to those zones. And I'm just telling you right now, that won't work all the time at the NFL level. He's going to have to find some more velocity, or at least be willing to step up and really drive the football onto the frame

of the wide receiver in some intermediate spots. That's going to be crucial for him. And I think that's one of the reasons why he won't get selected up high is the injury issue, and then that issue, like I said, relies a lot on touch. All right. Next up, Curtis Rourke. I'm a huge fan of Curtis Rourke, and you might even be surprised that. I put him in this group of five. I believe Curtis Rourke is going to find a spot in the NFL. He's huge, first of all, big frame. And I tell you what, man, when you watch his film,

majority of the film, outside of playing Ohio State at Ohio State and Notre Dame, it was exquisite. When he's in rhythm, man, he is in rhythm. And he does an incredible job of finding the right spot with the ball. his offense in his past was not like the offense that he ran at Indiana, and yet he came in and he learned it right away and he did a great job with it. He dissected coverages really fast. He goes in there to Indiana. He's the reason why they're a playoff team. Second team, all Big Ten, kind of led them. 29 passing touchdowns, only five interceptions, makes great decisions with the ball. He's got 46 career starts also going back to his time at Ohio. Like, he's 6-5-223 pounds.

I like this guy a lot. When you watch his film, you're going to see hyper-accurate. He's an anticipatory thrower. He can do a great job, great job from the shotgun, getting the ball out quickly, and really hurting the defense, in particular with things like tight-end routes and running back routes. You saw some of that if you were watching YouTube. Now, what's going to be the knock on Curtis Rourke? Well, he's immobile largely.

And so NFL evaluators are not going to love that. that he doesn't move around very well. And he was taken out of that rhythm that I just gushed about very quickly. Ohio State took him out of that rhythm incredibly quickly. Notre Dame took him out of that rhythm incredibly quickly. Now, do I think it was unfair some of the criticism that Indiana and maybe Curtis got during the course of the playoff? Absolutely, absolutely.

That team only lost two games and it was to the two teams that ended up playing for the national championship. Like, I think we all forget that. Just because he has IU on his helmet doesn't mean that we, can just take shots. He had a phenomenal year. And in a lot of respects, he's going to be a guy that NFL evaluators will look at and be like he could probably be on my team and he likely could be a backup in the NFL. Let's see. I've got a couple of more here. Let's go with Will Howard. Will Howard from Ohio State. I think he's actually going to get more positive reviews as people

evaluate his game further getting closer to the draft. Will Howard played unquestionably, his best football late in the season. I don't think people realize how good Howard was in the playoff. Now, did he play great against Michigan? No, he did not. Was part of that getting banged up and possibly getting nicked up from a head injury perspective? It could have been. It could have been.

But when he got into the playoff, man, that dude was lights out. He was lights out. Such a completion percentage record at the Ohio State University, which that's something to be said for that. He leads him to a national championship under all of that pressure and scrutiny even after losing to Michigan. Third team all beat Big Ten, 43 career starts going back to 27 at Kansas State. And then obviously this year, he's 6-4, 235 pounds. He's run the football well in his past.

And like I said, you turn on that film in the playoff man. And it is really good. He's got great command of what's going on. And in fact, if you talk to Chip Kelly and Ryan Day, they will tell you that he had at his disposal a lot of times out there, the ability to get Ohio State into the correct play. And you only do that. Think about it now. Ryan Day and Chip Kelly are like two of the most experienced and smartest guys in football.

And they're giving Will Howard the keys to the castle on the field in some of the most crucial points in the season and in their careers in a lot of cases in terms of the pressure to win last year at Ohio State. It speaks to the level of maturity, experience, and also. General Smarts from Will Howard. Real good command on the field. So I like his game. And again, when you watch it, he anticipated really well in the playoff. The last guy I will talk about is Dylan Gabriel.

Gabriel is like this quintessential point guard on the field. Plays quickly. You can tell he processes information quickly. He's very smart. The ball rarely goes to the wrong spot. if you take a look at that game against Penn State in the Big Ten championship game, you will see a guy manipulating the pocket beautifully. He did that also in the mid-season win over Ohio State.

Listen, it's not his fault that that team got completely ambushed by the Death Star Supernova Ohio State team in the Rose Bowl. Like the Oregon defense had no shot, and thus that Oregon offense had no shot. In fact, the only reason that they were even, I don't want to say, in the game, but got up off the mat is because of what Dylan Gave is, Gabriel did in the late second quarter and into the third quarter in the Rose Bowl. Like this guy is an excellent player. He said an FBS record for total touchdowns with 189 and starts with 63 passing the former

Oregon quarterback now Bronco quarterback Bo Nix. He was a Heisman finalist in 2024. He played at UCF. He played at Oklahoma. He played at Oregon. So you know he can come in, learn a new system and then put it into implementation. He did it right away at Oregon. His size is not there.

That's obviously going to be a hindrance. And it's one of the reasons why I'm not going to put him at number five. And that's where I'll go in terms of who goes to number five. It's not going to be Dylan Gabriel. I think that the size is just too much for me to overcome. At the NFL level, it's a big man's game and only standing six foot. You better have rare traits elsewhere. And that's not really what Gabriel has.

I thought about all of these guys. At first, I was kind of leaning towards Kyle McCord. then I went towards a Quinn Ewers, and then I finally, as I was watching that playoff run, and I was watching what Will Howard did and his size, his ability to run, his anticipation of the playoffs, I'm going to go with Will Howard from Ohio State at number five. With the caveat being that I don't think it's a clear-cut difference between him and those other four guys that I talked about, the clear-cut difference is between four and five and then two and three. So you're going to have really three distinct tiers in this year's NFL draft.

it relates to quarterbacks. The top two, Shador, Sanders, and Cam Ward. Then you're going to have some combination of Jackson, Darden, Jalen, Milrow. And then you're going to kind of have everybody else. Do I think all of those guys are going to get drafted? Probably, likely, but I don't know about too many more. So that's where I'll go with this year's quarterback ranking, quarterback ranking. Shadur, Cam, Jackson, Jaylon, and Will Howard. All right, that'll do it for our top five quarterbacks. We will be back. I'm going to have a defender's list. I'm going to do a lot of these lists as we lead up to the NFL draft. And here's what you can expect is that you will have fresh Joel Clashio content each and every Monday.

That's our goal is that every Monday you wake up and you're going to have a new YouTube and a new podcast to get right here all of your draft information. You can also get our content on social media whenever you want at Joel Clatshow, wherever you like to social media. but really we just want to drive you over to that YouTube page. Subscribe to the YouTube page. We're going to have Understanding Football episodes coming out, and we've got a lot of content there, and that's really the hub, the baseline for the Joel Clad Show. Thanks for listening, everybody.

Have a wonderful week, and we'll be back next Monday.