SEC QBs lead the pack with impressive surges in Heisman Trophy race and NFL Draft projections
No conference in college football has shown as much talent at quarterback as the SEC has this season. The league’s top group of signal callers is showing off their talent College Football Playoff intentions happy with the stats and starting to Selections to watch out for in the 2025 NFL Draft,
this week’s Five SEC teams rank in the top six spots in the Associated Press Top 25 pollFour of these are led by draft-eligible quarterbacks. The SEC became the first conference in the modern era to have four quarterbacks selected in the first three rounds of the 2023 NFL Draft, with Bryce Young, Anthony Richardson, Will Lewis and Hendon Hooker all getting the call.
Earlier this spring, Heisman winner and former LSU star Jaden Daniels finished second at this spot and now, SEC could be in top spot in 2025 cycle If Carson Beck of Georgia or Quinn Evers of Texas are approved.
Beck and Evers are widely regarded as the top prospects at quarterback from the SEC, two years after the league’s record-setting number of signal callers were taken eclipse With this star-studded 2025 group, Behind the Bulldogs and Longhorns captains, the league features rising stars Jackson Dart (Ole Miss), Garrett Nussmeier (LSU), Jalen Milroe (Alabama) and Brady Cook (Missouri). These are just a half-dozen SEC signal callers who could be selected in the first few rounds.
Three games into the season, Dart leads the nation in passing yards (1,172) and completion rate (83%), Nussmeier ranks No. 2 in touchdown passes (10), and the SEC has four of the top 6 leading Heisman candidates — represented by Dart and Milroe — according to the latest oddsmakers, via SportsLine,
Looking ahead, there are also two quarterbacks moving at Space X-level speed who aren’t draft-eligible: Tennessee’s Niko Imalewa and Texas’ redshirt freshman Arch Manning. The Vols have averaged a college football-best 63.7 points per game during Imalewa’s first season as a starter, while Manning has scored a total of five touchdowns. The first extended action of his career during Saturday’s win over UTSA Evers had to leave the field with an abdominal injury.
Only three times since the SEC’s initial expansion to 12 teams in 1992 has the league produced three quarterbacks with 30 or more touchdown passes in a single season, those feats occurring in 2007, 2012 and 2021. This fall, there’s a chance the league produces five Prompt more callers than the number.
The conference has more star power than ever before, and that’s no exaggeration. The fact that most of the league’s torchbearers have been in the same system for multiple seasons means something. Beck sat behind Stetson Bennett before becoming Georgia’s starter in 2023, while Nussmeier was a second-team option at LSU during Jaden Daniels’ run for the Heisman last season.
Both teams changed coordinators during the offseason, but schematically, the playbook and philosophy are nearly identical. At Ole Miss, Dart is Lane Kiffin’s right-hand man for the third consecutive year and the same goes for Cook at Missouri. Ewers left Manning for the second consecutive offseason at Texas and Steve Sarkisian Full confidence in both Longhorns players who can run his attack almost to perfection.
The only major change at Alabama is Milroe, who started the final 10 games of the 2023 season at offensive tackle for the Crimson Tide under the direction of Tommy Rees. After Kellen DeBoer replaced Nick Saban in the offseason, Milroe had to adjust to a more wide-open scheme and now, he has scored a total of 14 touchdowns in three starts as a junior.
As college football’s opening month approaches, quarterback play in the SEC is once again dominating the national discussion ahead of the first expanded playoffs, and the production at the position shows no signs of slowing down.
