A Hater’s Guide To The 2025 Rookie Quarterback Class

A Hater’s Guide to the 2025 Rookie Quarterback Class

Jaxson Dart | © Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

For the last several seasons, I have written my Hater’s Guide to the NFL Draft. There are several of them, and if you think you’ll enjoy looking back at me trashing picks in years passed, you can find them on my DLF author page. As a pessimist, this is my favorite thing I do every year. The pre-draft process is such a big part of the NFL and arguably even a bigger part of dynasty fantasy football, so when we finally watch the NFL draft and everyone can’t wait to sing the praises of their favorite rookies, all I can think if is all the reasons why they’ll fall flat on their faces.

Let’s see why this year’s horrific quarterback class will all be cut from your rosters by 2028.

1.01 Cam Ward, QB TEN

Kicking this off right away with the first pick in the draft. When you can take a quarterback first overall who started his collegiate career at Incarnate Word, you just do it. Just look at this list of studs that fill the Incarnate Word to NFL pipeline we have all come to know and love, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Sprinkle in the fact that the Titans have been absolutely crushing it at evaluating quarterback talent over the years, drafting such studs at Will Levis, Malik Willis, Cole McDonald, Luke Falk, Marcus Mariota, Zach Mettenberger, Jake Locker, Rusty Smith, Vince Young, and Kevin Daft in the post Steve McNair years, how can you not trust their process?

1.25 Jaxson Dart, QB NYG

You’ve gotta love an athlete who wants to compete. After his freshman season at USC, the program brought in head coach Lincoln Riley, who was followed by his former quarterback Caleb Williams. Eager to test his mettle against another top quarterback prospect, Dart did what any fearless competitor would do… transfer to Ole Miss. Fortunately, he’ll have no competition with the Giants. Except veteran, Super Bowl-winning signee Russell Wilson. And former first overall pick Jameis Winston. And fan favorite Tommy DeVito.

2.08 Tyler Shough, QB NO

Fun fact I recently learned somewhere: Tyler Shough will be the last ever NFL player drafted who was born in the 1900s. That’s not even a joke. He was in the same high school recruiting class as Trevor Lawrence, who will be starting his fifth NFL season this year.

In his third of seven college seasons, Shough transferred to Texas Tech where he had to compete with Henry Colombi, Maverick McIvor, Donovan Smith, and Behren Morton for the starting job. I mean, if you can come through that gauntlet to win a starting job at a Big XII school, the sky’s the limit.

3.28 Jalen Milroe, QB SEA

A quick glance at Lance Zierlein’s analysis of Milroe will reveal that “he lacks accuracy, touch and decision-making when he’s inside the pocket. A lack of anticipation and timing leads to interceptions and contested throws to intermediate areas of the field”. Now, I’m not a professional quarterback coach or scout, but something tells me that accuracy, touch and decision-making are important traits for an NFL quarterback, so those being your known shortcomings is probably not a good thing.

3.30 Dillon Gabriel, QB CLE

Check out these measurables from mockdraftable.com:

5.06 Shedeur Sanders, QB CLE

Legendary. When you sign veteran signal caller Joe Flacco, trade for former first-rounder Kenny Pickett, draft Dillon Gabriel two rounds earlier, and still have the worst quarterback contract in NFL history on the books with Deshaun Watson still in the building, you just must add a fifth quarterback. Especially if every single day will be a media circus with camera crews and social media nonsense and a wildly famous, overbearing, over-involved father. At least the head coach and GM seemed thrilled when they drafted him, right?

6.05, Kyle McCord, QB PHI

Welcome to the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad, young man!

6.09 Will Howard, QB PIT

Currently, only Mason Rudolph is ahead of him on the roster. But don’t worry, soon enough Aaron Rodgers will be in the building to stunt everyone’s development and do everything in his power to avoid taking Howard under his wing and pass along any helpful or meaningful information that would be useful for him in the NFL.

6.13 Riley Leonard, QB IND

Looking at Lance Zierlein’s analysis again, “He needs a solid running game and advantages at the skill positions to function on a pro level, but even then his play might be more dependent on his legs than his eyes and arm,” it sure sounds like the Colts have a type. Unfortunately, that type is bad at playing quarterback in the NFL.

6.21 Graham Mertz, QB HOU

I can’t be bothered to even Google his name. At some point, I looked him up, as I did the following pick, Cam Miller, and in my head now it’s the same person.

6.39 Cam Miller, QB LV

See Mertz, above. The quarterback-depth needy Raiders had to play chicken to avoid ending up with Shedeur Sanders, and waited until someone stupid (Hello Browns!) pulled the trigger ahead of them. After they exhaled, and avoided that sideshow, they wound up with this guy- who I would rather have than Sanders anyway. Nobody in the locker room is going to be distracted by Cam Miller’s new signature cologne or reality show drama, and Pete Carroll will never have to answer questions about why Miller isn’t getting first-team reps over Geno Smith.

7.11 Kurtis Rourke, QB SF

Rourke is the second-best professional quarterback in his family, and his brother plays in the CFL.

7.15 Quinn Ewers, QB MIA

Ewers was reportedly offered an $8 million NIL deal to transfer and play one more year in college. Instead, he entered the draft. Where he was drafted, he is expected to make approximately $4.3 million over his four-year contract. I’m terrible at math, but eight million bucks to stay in college, take a few classes, and party for another year as the new big man on campus for sure seems like the better move to me. Sit tight, maybe in 2029 you’ll land yourself a nice lil backup deal. For reference, if I’m not mistaken, Jarrett Stidham has the biggest backup quarterback deal in the NFL, two years for $12 million (not including players like Kirk Cousins who lost their jobs), so that is Ewers’ best-case scenario.

I hope you enjoyed this look at why every single quarterback prospect is doomed for failure going forward. Be sure to check back in the coming days as I look at running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends next, and if you enjoyed this, go check out previous seasons’ versions as well.

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John DiBari

Contributor at Dynasty League Football

Like a true degenerate, John has over 20 years of fantasy experience across all sports. Nowadays he primarily focuses on dynasty and redraft football, fantasy golf, and fantasy hockey and has written about each across multiple platforms for nearly 5 years. He loves rookie mock drafts and can always find a negative, pessimistic angle on all your favorite players.