So who is #4? … NFL teams looking to draft a future franchise QB generally follow one of two patterns. They either identify one guy they really like and if they can make a move to get that guy if they need to. More often, though, teams identify a certain number of players they feel are worthy of a top ten, or so, pick and hope to get the best one still available when they make their selection. Talking to people around the league, one gets the impression that, at least at this time, there are currently 3 QBs who fit that ‘top ten worthy’ category: CJ Stroud of Ohio State and Bryce Young of Alabama, both of whom are considered to be top 5 prospects, and Will Levis of Kentucky. It had been thought that Anthony Richardson of Florida and Miami’s Tyler Van Dyke were also pretty close to that group, but neither has played all that well so far this year and, as redshirt sophomores could, and probably should return to school, if things don’t pick up over the course of the rest of the season.
On the other hand, there is something of a growing buzz out there regarding Hendon Hooker of Tennessee and Washington State’s Cameron Ward who appear to have replaced the Florida guys in the 4-5 spots in the QB positional ranking. Both have good size, are excellent athletes who can make plays with their legs, and have plenty of arm talent. However, neither is necessarily a lock to fit that ‘top ten worthy’ grouping. Hooker is already a 6th year senior who’ll be 25 when he gets to his first NFL training after spending 4 years at Virginia Tech before transferring to Tennessee prior to the 2021 campaign. And while he has been close to a 70% passer during his career and has taken very good care of the football, there are concerns that Hooker isn’t necessarily all that consistently precise when throwing from the pocket. In contrast, at least in football terms, Ward is still something of a novice; in fact he’s still only played 4 games at the FBS level after spending two years – albeit very productive years – at FCS Incarnate Word. And there are concerns after throwing 5 picks in those 4 games that he is still a very raw talent.
The other thing one tends to hear talking to people around the league about the 2023 QB class, is that there are as many as a dozen second-tier QBs out there who, while they wouldn’t be worth a first-round pick, or at least an early first round selection, are still good prospects who one would really like to get into camp to see if their physical tools and/or productivity would in fact translate to the pro game. We will be releasing our first full positional rankings for the 2023 draft later in the week, but for now here is the updated QB rankings for the upcoming draft.
