NEWS AND NEAR NEWS

ESPN talks ‘muddy’ QB waters … For those that haven’t seen it, ESPN did a poll of NFL scouts and other personnel people asking which QB they’d take first at the 2025 draft. Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders got the most votes, but it was hardly unanimous which kind of confirms what we’ve been saying the past few weeks. Indeed, 5 guys got at least one, which as the article points out, is a relatively large number for this time of year when opinions have started to coalesce. One could also read between the lines a little and come away with the opinion that just maybe the QB a lot of teams are really intrigued by is Cam Ward of Miami, although they just aren’t quite ready to commit. And for those that haven’t seen Ward play yet, he’ll be featured later this evening when the Hurricanes play at surprising California on ESPN at 10:30 PM ET.

Wolfpack QB McCall out again after hit to head … North Carolina State QB Grayson McCall was carted off the field on a stretcher after taking a hit to the head in this afternoon’s game with Wake Forest. Unfortunately, its not the first such injury for McCall who transferred from Coastal Carolina this past off-season as he suffered a similar injury at Coastal which at the time was thought to be possibly career-threatening. If healthy, Grayson would be considered a second-tier QB prospect with later round potential.

Who to watch in college football this weekend … Unfortunately, we have yet another weekend coming up in college football without any real marquee must-watch type games. Indeed, there’s only one game this weekend between ranked teams and that’s #9 Missouri against #25 Texas A&M in the SEC. On the other hand, there are still a number of games this weekend featuring top prospects for the upcoming draft worth checking in on. That includes the Missouri-A&M game (which kicks off at Noon ET on ABC early Saturday afternoon) as the Tigers feature one of the top receivers in the country in Luther Burden (#3, 5-11, 200), a legit top 5-10 candidate who reminds a lot of pro teams of the 49ers Deebo Samuel; and Burden will be catching passes from QB Brady Cook (#12, 6-2, 215) one of several solid second-tier type prospects at the position for this year’s draft. a couple. Texas A&M also has an intriguing first round prospect of its own in rising DE Nic Scourton (#11, 6-4, 280), a dull-sized DE with the quickness to also play some snaps at LB.

In fact, there is a second relatively interesting games scheduled for Noon on Saturday with #7 Penn State hosting UCLA so keep those clickers handy. The UCLA-Penn State is another one of those new conference games between schools that are only about 2,500 miles apart. However, it does offer a chance to check out several Penn State players including QB Drew Allar (#15, 6-5, 235), a prototype pocket passer with a big arm who has finally making the most of his tools and appears to have pushed close to the opening round debate, DEs Abdul Carter (#11, 6-3, 255), a legit mid first candidate, and Dani Dennis-Sutton (#33, 6-5, 265), RB Nicholas Singleton (#10, 5-11, 230), TE Tyler Warren (#44, 6-5, 265), WR Julian Fleming (#3, 6-2, 210), LB Kobe King (#41, 6-1, 250) and S Jaylen Reed (#1, 6-0, 215).

Meanwhile, there are also a couple of games worth a look in the 3:30 PM ET window. And both feature a top QB looking for a little redemption after a loss last week as #5 Georgia hosts Auburn (on ABC) while #12 Mississippi plays at South Carolina on ESPN. For those that were out of the universe last week, Georgia QB Carson Beck (#15, 6-4, 225) arguably the top prospect at the position for 2025, had a very up-and-down outing last weekend in the Bulldogs loss to Alabama so he’ll be looking for a bounceback outing versus the Tigers. Pro scouts will also be interested to see where UGA DE Mykel Williams (#13, 6-5, 265) is at physically. There are teams that have him at the very top of their boards, but mostly because of his high ceiling as he hasn’t played much so far this year because of a foot injury. He did play last week against the Tide, but appeared to be somewhat limited. Meanwhile, Jaxson Dart (#2, 6-2, 220), college football’s leading passer to date this fall, will also be looking for a bounceback after the Rebels were upset by Kentucky last week. And he’ll get a challenge against the Gamecocks who feature one of the better pass-rushing DE combos in the country in Kyle Kennard (#5, 6-5, 255) and Dylan Stewart (#6, 6-5, 250). For good measure, the Gamecocks also have a rising safety in Nick Emmanwori (#7, 6-3, 225) who is built more like a LB but still runs like a DB.

There’s also a potentially interesting game Saturday evening when #4 Tennessee plays at Arkansas. at 7:30 on ABC. And some may forgive some of the Tennessee if they start to wonder if the Vols have moved to the Southwest or some such Conference as their last game was at Oklahoma a couple of weeks ago. They won that and are favored here with a lineup that includes DE James Pearce (#27, 6-5, 245), who is considered to be one of the top 2-3 non-QB prospects for 2025, although he is off to something of a slow start. The Vols also feature one of the better OGs in the country in rugged Javontez Spraggins (#76, 6-3, 330), who has at least some second-day potential, while WRs Bru McCoy (#5, 6-3, 230) and Squirrel White (#3, 5-9, 170), C Cooper Mays (#63, 6-3, 310), and RT John Campbell (#74, 6-5, 330) all have mid-round possibilities. Of course, the Vols are also led by sophomore QB Nico Iamaleava (#8, 6-3, 220) one of the best young QBs in the country, although he won’t be draft eligible until 2026. For its part, Arkansas has at least a couple of quality prospects to watch in full-sized DE Landon Jackson (#40, 6-5, 275) and RB Ja’quinden Jackson (#22, 6-1, 235) who is averaging just over 100 yards and 2 TDs per game so far this fall.

Big Board, positional rankings updated … With the first month plus of the college season now in the books we have updated both the GBN Big Board ranking of the top 50+ prospects for the upcoming draft, along with the specific positional groupings (as per the drop-down menu above.) A couple of things that kind of jumped out. First, at least at this time, there doesn’t appear to be a clear #1 prospect either at QB or at the other positions. We finally settled on Georgia DE Mykal Williams for that spot this time around based largely on his unlimited ceiling at a high-value position, but there are as many as a half dozen other players for whom one could also make a case. Same story among the QBs where, as we have noted in earlier reports, there is still a ton of sorting out to be done. Also note that players who have made big moves the past month include QBs Drew Allar of Penn State, USC’s Miller Moss and Garrett Nussmeier of LSU; Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty; and WRs Tre Harris of Mississippi, Isaiah Bond of Texas and UNLV’s Ricky White.

QB fallout from Tide-Dawgs thriller … We have had more than a few readers asked who we think is the better QB prospect for 2025, Carson Beck of Georgia or Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, in the wake of Saturday’s thrilling SEC battle between the Tide and Bulldogs. In fact, we don’t like to make such evaluations based on one game, but what one did see on Saturday were two very different QB styles. On the one hand, Georgia’s Beck is a classic drop-back passer who stands tall in the pocket, has a textbook set-up and release, and throws a beautiful ball. He’s also very accurate, but also was clearly frustrated by the Alabama pressure early in the game and appeared to throw a number of passes without really being aware of what kind of coverage he was throwing into. And while Beck throws a perfect spiral, we were also left wondering on occasion whether the ball was actually getting to the target as quickly as needed. Milroe, on the other hand, is much more of a dual-threat type along the lines of the NFL’s Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts; he’s an excellent athlete with an explosive first step, an extra gear and the agility to change direction on the fly. As a passer, though, Milroe is still a little rough around the edges. He has a bit of a wonky release, although he still gets the ball off in a hurry and throws darts, but his ball placement isn’t always as precise as one would like; we also didn’t see much off-script stuff from him, at least in this particular game.

We also like to make the point in these matters that it really doesn’t matter what folks like ourselves think about different players. What matters is what the NFL thinks and our best reading at this time is still that most teams would take Beck over Milroe if given the choice, but what was once something of a no-brainer would currently be a much tougher decision as Milroe has clearly closed the gap between the two. Beck, for example, is still generally considered to be one of the top 3 QBs in this year’s draft class along with Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Quinn Ewers of Texas, but he clearly is not having the same kind of dominant season that he had last fall; indeed, his completion percentage (63%) is down ten points from 2023, while his interception rate is almost double that of last year. In contrast, Milroe is the guy with the plus 70% (72.9%) completion rate and the 10:1 TD to pick ratio so far this year.

Of course, Milroe isn’t the only second-tier to QB to make a move this year as Miami’s Cam Ward is also following a similar trajectory. And the guy who’s actually leading college football in passing – with almost 360 yards per game – is Jaxson Dart of Mississippi who is quietly putting together the same kind of year Jayden Daniels produced at LSU last fall, although Dart is coming off a disappointing game this past Saturday when Ole Miss was upset by Kentucky. We should also note that there is a bit of a buzz that the Big 6 QBs could actually be 7 as Penn State’s Drew Allar, who may have the best pure arm talent of anyone in the 2025 draft class, but who had not been able to really put together prior to this season, is in fact doing just that this fall. In the end, how this year’s QB class ultimately grades out may come down to what happens post-season in the pre-draft testing more so than in past years. Stay tuned.

Raiders’ WR Adams appears to be headed out the door in Vegas … The oft-troubled relationship between Las Vegas and star WR Davante Adams appears to be headed for a divorce. Adams has reportedly told the team that would like to be traded, while several sources around the league have indicated that the  Raiders have let it be known that Adams is available and are suggesting a 2nd round pick plus other considerations would get the bidding started. Neddless to say there are several teams around the league that would love to add a player of Adams’ pedigree, although he likely would have to agree to a revised contract as he is owed monster cap years in both 2025 and 2026. Certainly, Kansas City, which lost Rashee Rice, their ace receive, on the weekend, although the Raiders may not be too keen to send Adams to a division rival. The Jets are also expected to be interested as Adams and QB Aaron Rodgers are known to be close. In truth, though, there aren’t many contenders out there that wouldn’t have at least some interest in Adams.

Making sense of the NFL’s new KO rules … We’ve had several readers ask what we think of the NFL’s new kick-off regulations in the past couple of weeks. Truth be told, other than thinking it all just looks kinda weird, we tend to be somewhat agnostic on the subject in that it really hasn’t changed the game other than maybe that teams are starting their drives after kik-offs at the 30 rather than the 25. That said, it has also been kind of entertaining watching the teams themselves try and make sense of the new rules, none more so than last night’s Tennessee win over Miami in which the Titans’ coaches were beside themselves when their returner didn’t fair catch an onside kick, when in fact the player didn’t have to as he knew the rule that the kick had cleared the landing zone and wasn’t legal. Here’s a quick summation of the league’s new KO format.

Browns’ DT Hall gets 5-game suspension … The NFL announced earlier today that rookie Cleveland DT Michael Hall, a 2nd round pick by the Browns this past April, has suspended for 5 games without pay for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. Hall plead no contest to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct stemming from a domestic altercation back in the summer. Hall, who has not played in any of the Browns games to date will be eligible for reinstatement after their game this weekend.

Titans win; Jags last still winless team … Thanks to what can only be called an inept Dolphins’ offence, Tennessee was finally able to get its first win of the season in one of the two Monday night games this week. Of course, there’s a bit of a caveat to Miami’s struggles as star QB Tua Tagovailoa, who remains sidelined as a result of yet another concussion, was replaced by Tyler Huntley who has been in Miami for less than two weeks after being signed off Baltimore’s practice squad. All that leaves 0-4 Jacksonville as the league’s last remaining winless team, and needless to say, sitting on the #1 pick overall were the 2025 draft to be held this week. The Jags would be followed in this week’s selection order by New England, which has the weakest SOS figure of the ten 1-3 teams, Miami at #3, Cincinnati at #4, Cleveland at #5, Tennessee at #6, the LA Chargers at #7, Carolina at #8, Arizona at #9, the LA Rams at #10, and the NY Giants at #11. For the record, we will be posting the initial full, updated selection order at the conclusion of next week’s Monday nighter.

Bengals end winless skid; Jags don’t in early action … It wasn’t necessarily easy but Cincinnati finally got its first win of the season earlier this afternoon with a 34-24 win in Carolina. However, Jacksonville wasn’t as lucky as the Jags fell to 0-4 with a tough 24-20 loss in Houston when the Texans pushed across the game-winning score with just seconds left on the clock. That leaves the Jaguars as just one of two remaining winless teams and Tennessee can make it just one with a win over Miami tomorrow evening. Needless to say, we can’t say which team will come out of the weekend sitting on the top pick in the early selection order for the 2025 draft until after the Monday night game between the Titans and Dolphins.

Tide edges Dawgs in SEC thriller … Just in case anyone missed it last evening, but #4 Alabama edged out #2 Georgia 41-34 in a thriller in Tuscaloosa that wasn’t decided until freshman CB Zabien Brown picked off a Carson Beck pass in the Alabama end zone in the final minute to seal to end Georgia’s final drive. It was an an unfortunate end to what had been a wild rollercoaster of a night for Georgia’s Beck who looked flustered throughout the first half as Alabama raced to a 30-7 lead, but then looked like a potential #1 pick overall as he rallied the Bulldogs who actually took the lead on a 67-yard TD pass by Beck to Dillon Bell with less than three minutes to play. However, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, who had been quiet most of the 2nd half, hit star freshman WR Ryan Williams with a 75-yard scoring strike on the very next play to put the Tide ahead for good. For the record, Milroe finished the night completing 27 of 33 passes for 374 yards and 2 TDs and a pick, while he also ran for 116 and 2 more scores. For his part, Beck was only 27 of 50 passes, but for 459 yards and 3 scores, but he had 3 picks and lost a fumble. Of course, this may not be the last we see of Georgia-Alabama as the two could conceivably play at least twice more times this year in either/or the SEC championship game in December or the new 12-team CFP playoffs.

‘Horns QB Ewers sits SEC opener … Probably no big surprise, but Texas QB Quinn Ewers, potentially one of the first 2-3 QBs selected at the 2025 draft who has been listed as questionable all week long with a strained abdominal muscle, is not playing in this afternoon’s SEC opener against Mississippi State. Ewers is again being replaced by Arch Manning, the nephew of former NFL QBs Peyton and Eli. The expectation, though, is that Ewers will be back next week as the #1 ranked Longhorns enter a crucial two-game stretch during which they play old rival Oklahoma and then host 2nd ranked Georgia in back-to-back weeks.

Who to watch when #2 Dawgs play #4 Tide … Every once in a while there’s a college football that just has a national championship feel and Saturday’s titanic SEC match-up between 2nd ranked Georgia and #4 Alabama which kicks off at 7:30 PM ET on ABC Saturday evening has all that feel. And why not as the two schools have combined to win three of the 4 previous national titles as well as 5 of the last 9 and 8 of the past 15. As well, as if there wasn’t enough drama surrounding this game already it also features a head-to-head match-up between two of the top QB prospects for the 2025 draft in the Bulldogs’ Carson Beck (#15, 6-3, 220) and Jalen Milroe (#4, 6-2, 220). Beck, for example, could ultimately get some consideration to be the first player selected next April, while Milroe, an athletic dual-threat type, is currently one of the hot prospects in this year’s draft class.

Not surprisingly, though, both teams are loaded with prospects at other positions. Georgia, in particular, appears to  be on pace to be one of the dominant teams at the 2025 draft as Beck could be joined in next year’s opening round by safety Malachi Starks (#24, 6-0, 205), one of the most dynamic impact defenders in college football, while the Bulldogs best prospect could actually ultimately be DE Mykel Williams (#13, 6-5, 265), who has all the tools to be the next great pass-rusher in the NFL; Williams, though, has been dealing with a foot injury and likely will be a game-time decision. The Bulldogs also feature one of the best offensive lines in the country anchored by LT Earnest Greene (#71, 6-4, 320), another possible first rounder next fall, while OG Dylan Fairchild (#53, 6-4, 315) and RT Xavier Truss (73, 6-6, 320) have mid-round potential. Same for RB Travis Etienne (#1, 5-9, 205), DT Nazir Stackhouse (#78, 6-3, 320), LB Smael Mondon (#2, 6-2, 235), WR Dominic Lovett (#6, 5-10, 190) and TEs Oscar Delp (#4, 6-4, 245) and Ben Yurosek (#84, 6-4, 245).

Unlike Georgia which is actually a relatively experienced team, Alabama is relatively young with just a handful of seniors. And truth be told, Alabama’s record streak of having at least one player selected in the first round for 17 straight years could very well be in some jeopardy this coming April as no one on the roster is considered to be a lock at this time to be selected in the opening round in 2025. Even QB Milroe, who is clearly the Tide’s best prospect at this time isn’t quite yet a lock. However, what Alabama does have is a solid group of early to mid second-day type prospects including OG Tyler Booker (#52, 6-4, 325), C Parker Brailsford (#72, 6-2, 290), MLB Jihaad Campbell (#11, 6-2, 245), ER Deontae Lawson (#0, 6-2, 240), safeties Keon Sabb (#3, 6-1, 210) and Malachi Moore (#13, 6-0, 205), DTs Jaheim Oatis (#10, 6-5, 325) and Tim Smith (#50, 6-3, 315), and TE CJ Dippre (#81, 6-5, 265). Booker, Brailsford, Campball, Sabb and Moore are each among the top prospects at their respective positions; however, they all play positions that are not usually considered high-value at the draft. Meanwhile, scouts will also be keeping an eye on freshman WR Ryan Williams (#2, 6-0, 175), who won’t be draft eligible for several more years, but has already shown some big play ability as he’s averaging almost 30 yards a catch thru the Tide’s first three games.

USC DT Alexander to sit out year … In something of a surprise move, Southern California DT Bear Alexander has announced that he intends to sit out the rest of the season to preserve a year of eligibility. The 6-3, 315-pound Alexander, who has exceptional quickness for somebody that size, came into the year projected as a potential second-day prospect, but hasn’t played much in the revamped Trojans’ defence. Alexander says he is staying at USC, but given that he hinted at transferring this spring, it is hard to see him not moving on eventually. Alexander was a 4-5 star recruit who signed originally at Georgia, but transferred to USC after one year with the Bulldogs and was named to several all-conference teams last year when hae had 47 total tackles including a couple of sacks.

College QB walks away because of unmet promises … Strange situation out at UNLV where starting QB Matt Sluka has walked away from the 3-0 and almost ranked Runnin’ Rebels because he claims ‘certain representations were not being met.’ Translated, according to Sluka, promises made his NIL opportunities with the program when he transferred were not being fulfilled. Sluka was a FCS All-American at Holy Cross before transferring to UNLV this past winter, although he has always been more of a running QB than a pure passer. Since the introduction of the NIL phenomenon in college football, we’ve had a lot of people ask if players would now be more likely to stay in school rather than enter the draft given the opportunity to get paid while playing in college, but this is the first instance of a player leaving because he wasn’t being paid. By leaving this week, Sluka saves his year of eligibility and likely will resurface somewhere else next year, but may ask for his money upfront! Stay tuned.

Bengals-Titans share top picks in early 2025 selection order ... As we have noted, we won’t be posting the full, updated first round selection order for next April’s draft for a couple of more weeks, but if the draft were held after this past weekend’s games Cincinnati and Tennessee would share the top two picks as they currently have the same strength of schedule figure, while Jacksonville, the league’s third still winless team would be third. At the same time, quite literally half the NFL’s 32 teams – 16 to be exact – have 1-2 records. Of those, New England, Cleveland, Las Vegas and the LA Chargers all have the weakest strength of schedule number (.451), while Carolina and Indianapolis both come in at .471 and Miami at .490.

Leftover notes and observations from USC-UM thriller … Several things from the terrific USC-Michigan game Saturday evening that the Wolverines won 27-24 with a last minute TD. First, Michigan TE Colston Loveland, the top prospect at the position for the upcoming draft, did not play because of an unspecified injury. On the surface, comments from the program don’t suggest that it is anything serious, but it is something we’ll be watching. It also certainly appears that Wolverines’ RB Donovan Edwards, who was hoping for a break-out year now that former UM All-American Blake Corum is off to the pros, has actually been displaced as the team’s top back by Kalel Mullings. Mullings is an interesting story in his own right in that he was a reasonably well regarded RB in high school, but actually played LB in college until mid-way thru the 2022 campaign. Against the Trojans, Mullings exploded for a 50-yard plus TD early on that got the Wolverines off and running and then turned in the key play of the game when he turned a 4th and 1 into a second 50-yard plus run that set up Michigan’s game-winning TD. For the record, the 6-1, 235-pound Mullings is averaging 8.5 yards per carry this fall, almost twice Edwards’ number. A couple of other defensive players that jumped out during the USC-Michigan game were UM ER Josiah Stewart and Southern Cal LB Eric Gentry. Both are somewhat odd-sized in that Stewart is just 6-1, 245, while Gentry is an angular 6-5, 215-pounder who looks more like a basketball small forward. However, Stewart was almost unblockable as he was just exploding off the snap while also showing the ability to dip his shoulder and bend around the edge. Meanwhile, Gentry was all over the field for the Trojans and showed up well both defending the run as well as busting into the backfield. We should also note that Michigan’s DT combo – Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant – both of whom are considered to be 1st round candidates for 2025, were very stout against the Trojans.

LSU LB Perkins out for year … LSU has confirmed that star LB Harold Perkins will miss the rest of the year after tearing an ACL in the Tigers win over UCLA on Saturday. Perkins was being considered as a possible mid-firs round pick at the 2025. Like ECU CB Shavon Revel who also tore an ACL in the past few days, Perkins likely will be ready for the start of the 2025 season should he still opt to enter the upcoming draft, but it is highly unlikely that he’ll be available for pre-draft testing this winter.

The meek, or at least the winless, did inherit the earth today … Heading into the weekend, there were still 9 winless teams in the NFL. Two of those – Jacksonville and Cincinnati – do not play until tomorrow evening, but of the 7 0-2 taems that did play this afternoon, 6 were winners. That included Carolina which throttled Las Vegas with veteran Andy Dalton replacing a struggling Bryce Young at QB for the Panthers; the NY Giants which held off the Browns in Cleveland; Denver which crushed Tampa Bay; Baltimore which held off the Cowboys in Dallas; the LA Rams which came from behind to edge San Francisco on a late FG; and Indianapolis which edged Chicago. In fact, the only 0-3 team at this hour is Tennessee which got walloped by Green Bay with former Titans’ QB Malik Willis leading the way for the Packers. However, the Titans could still be joined at 0-3 by either/or Jacksonville, which travels to Buffalo, and/or Cincinnati, which hosts Washington, in a rare Monday night doubleheader tomorrow night. As such, we can’t say which team will be sitting on the #1 pick in the very early 2025 selection order until later tomorrow evening.

Panthers have gotten inquiries about QB Young … According to several sources, including ESPN, Carolina has received inquiries about the availability of QB Bryce Young, the first player picked in the 2023 draft who was benched this week in favor of veteran Andy Dalton. The Panthers have said at this time that they do not intend to trade Young, who thru the first two weeks of the schedule had a 55% completion mark with 0 TDs and 3 picks and a league-worst 44.1 QB rating as Carolina has averaged barely 120 passing yards per game. If they did move Young its unlikely they’d get much more than a late round pick. What does seem pretty clear is that Carolina, right now the odds on favorite to end up with the #1 pick again this coming April, will almost certainly be looking at QB again this year..