Exiting the combine, we are digging into this incoming rookie class for Dynasty rookie drafts, startups, and the potential these young players can have on the 2024 seasonal formats.
Even before the actual NFL Draft in April, rookies are available in Best Ball formats across all platforms.
Now that the NFL Combine has passed, we have a plethora of new athletic data on this upcoming rookie class.
That information can be applied to athletic models and used to shape the full portfolio for prospects to go along with production profiles, which is a general overlay of what these players put on tape for NFL teams.
Today, we are jumping into the quarterbacks.
We have also covered the tight ends, running backs, and wide receivers.
The quarterback position is the one that has the largest difference between what is considered a fantasy success and real-life success.
Scouting and analyzing how collegiate passers will translate to the next NFL has been an ongoing battle that has suffered more losses than wins.
The good news here is that we are not selecting these passers with the inherent real-life ramifications that an NFL franchise has when missing a player evaluation.
We also have the added benefit of knowing what types of archetypes of quarterbacks truly have access to fantasy upside and can adjust accordingly.
With SuperFlex and 2QB formats rising in popularity to add relevancy to the position, the top of the position has become more pertinent to invest in Dynasty rookie drafts.
That also gives a boost to the quarterbacks who could have floor capability as well, but that later bucket of passers has extremely limited value and is largely replaceable in formats that still only require you to start one player at the position.
While continuing to grow, until those formats that entail multiple starting quarterbacks become industry standard, the quarterback position remains a supply-and-demand game that lends favor to suppressing incoming rookies at the position since so many leagues are still starting one quarterback.
This was a major fulcrum point a year ago with Bryce Young being the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft but our third-ranked quarterback in fantasy leagues after the draft.
Post draft we will have the added influence of draft investment and landing spot to add to the layout.
That will be relevant for this class, especially, because we have a few tighter tiers, especially the secondary tier of the position.
From a top-down perspective, this quarterback class is strong.
Mock Draft Database currently has four quarterbacks in the first round with another pair of picks inside of the top-40 selections. Three of those players could end up as the first three players selected this spring.
This is also an interesting class because we have a handful of late bloomers that took maximum advantage of the added year due to COVID and the changes to the transfer portal.
You can find previous versions of this post from the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons through these links.
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Tier 1 Rookie Quarterbacks
This top tier of quarterbacks are the two players who fit the larger criteria that we are looking for in fantasy. They come with both passing and rushing acumen.
In today’s fantasy landscape, you need access to rushing production to not only compete via a floor perspective but also crack those elite seasons that can pace the position.
Caleb Williams, USC
Final Year Age: 22.1
Williams has been anticipated to be the No. 1 overall pick in this draft since over a year ago.
He exits college with a 97th percentile score in career passing production in my prospect model for all quarterbacks going back to 2000.
For his career, Williams ranks in the 92nd percentile in yards per pass attempt (9.2 Y/A). He averaged over 9.0 yards per pass attempt in all three seasons at college.
He is in the 96th percentile in touchdown to interception ratio (6.6:1), and in the 85th percentile in completion percentage (66.9%).
Williams has drawn comparisons to Patrick Mahomes in the way that he moves and routinely makes insane throws off platform and out of structure while being paired with incredible arm talent.
No quarterback in this draft class had more pass attempts outside of the pocket in 2023 than Williams did (88) per Sports Info Solutions.
On those plays outside of the pocket, he averaged 9.4 Y/A (third in the class) with a 12.5% touchdown rate (also third).
Inside of the pocket, Williams averaged 9.4 Y/A, only behind Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix in this class.
He also comes with an 88th-percentile career mark in rushing production.
I do not believe Williams will be a rusher to the degree of the top-flight runners in the NFL. I believe he will be more touchdown-dependent in that regard than an outright scrambler, but he can be used in the read-option game as well as near the goal line.
Paired with his passing profile, Williams could be in the bucket of what we had in early-career Deshaun Watson from a fantasy-lens as an apex outcome.
Williams rushed for 27 touchdowns in college.
With the NFL using their quarterbacks more than ever near the end zone on the ground, Williams led this draft class with seven of his 11 rushing touchdowns in 2023 coming inside of the five-yard line.
While we have touched on the good, we also have to flip to the other side of things.
Williams was once again cruising to another potential Heisman in 2023 before the wheels came off for the first time in college.
Through six games, USC was 6-0 while Williams had thrown 22 touchdowns with just one interception. He was averaging 10.9 yards per pass attempt over that stretch to open the season.
Then over the final six games, USC went 1-5 while Williams threw just eight touchdown passes to four interceptions while averaging 8.2 Y/A.
He also fumbled nine times, losing three.
That back half of the season filled with adversity also included the only two games this past season in which Williams faced top-10 defenses.
One of those was the worst game of his career by far against Notre Dame.
The other was against Oregon, in which Williams completed a season-low 55.9% of his passes.
While the highs from Williams have drawn ceiling comparisons to Mahomes, Williams was nowhere close to Mahomes regarding sack avoidance.
Williams took a sack on 21.6% of his pressures this past season, the third-worst rate in this draft class.
For comparison, Mahomes was only sacked on 9.8% of his pressures in his final season in college and has gone on to be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in avoiding sacks on pressures. Since entering the league in 2017, Mahomes has been sacked on just 12.2% of his pressures, the lowest rate in the league.
If you need some added background on why this is vital, avoiding a sack doubles your rate of scoring on a drive while tripling the success rate of scoring a touchdown at the NFL level.
When pressured this past season, Williams logged a 49.4% on-target rate per SiS, the lowest rate of this draft class.
When he was not pressured, that rate spiked to 80.1%, which was third-best. His 10.3 Y/A when he was not pressured was second in the class.
The interesting component for Williams here is that he was great at avoiding sacks outside of pocket.
He was sacked on just 4.3% of his dropbacks outside of the pocket (third-best in the class) despite having the most dropbacks on the move.
Compare that to someone like Jayden Daniels, who was sacked on a class-high 18.8% of his dropbacks outside of the pocket.
And therein lies the question for Williams and his six-game drop-off to close his college career that gets highlighted as the premier negative.
How much of the hero-ball we saw to end the season was actual hubris surrounding ability and how much can we credit to his overall surroundings?
The truth surely lies in both camps, but USC also ended the season with an underperforming offensive line and a defense that allowed 34.4 points per game.
While we should not disregard the close to his collegiate career when the surroundings declined, we still have a larger sample of Williams providing elite production that showcases the ceiling we want to pursue.
For all of his turnover-worthy plays, Williams was still great where it mattered the most.
Despite being pressured on 36.7% of his red zone dropbacks in 2023, he did not throw a red zone interception. His 79.2% on-target throw rate in the red zone was the best in this draft class.
On third and fourth down passes, Wiliams still led this class with 9.6 Y/A and did not throw an interception on those downs despite being pressured on 42.6% of those dropbacks (third-highest).
An added element here is that if Williams does end up being selected No .1 overall by Chicago, the Bears are actually in a better position than the majority of teams making the No. 1 pick to provide a positive runway for a passer out of the box.
Chicago already has D.J. Moore in place as a WR1. They took an offensive tackle first last season that started all 17 games. Outside of having the first pick, they also hold the No. 9 pick to potentially add one of the top offensive tackles or one of the top three wide receivers in this draft class to the fold.
The Commanders and Patriots take a lot more squinting in providing a strong year-one landing spot.
Jayden Daniels, LSU
Final Year Age: 23.0
I believe there is an absolute case to make for Daniels being the QB1 in this class, especially when looking at things through a fantasy lens.
While Williams is going to add a rushing component to his game, Daniels will be built around it.
Daniels rushed for 60.1 yards per game over his collegiate career with 34 touchdowns, registering a 96th-percentile career rushing score on my end. In 2023, he rushed for 1,134 yards and 10 scores.
Daniels could have a rookie-season impact on the Robert Griffin spectrum in his range of outcomes.
If Daniels ends up as an above-the-board passer in the NFL, then his ceiling is in contention to be the QB1 in overall scoring in a given season.
The difference the 2023 Heisman winner has compared to someone such as Anthony Richardson from a year ago is that his passing resume is so much stronger. He takes less projection in outright flatlining.
As a 19-year-old freshman at Arizona State, Daniels averaged 8.7 yards per pass attempt while throwing 17 touchdowns to just two interceptions.
He is coming off a season in which he just put up video game output, throwing for 11.7 Y/A with 40 touchdowns to just four interceptions through the air to go along with those gaudy rushing stats we highlighted.
From a final-season perspective, Daniels was in the 99th percentile in yards per pass attempt, 96th percentile in TD-to-INT rate, and 96th percentile in completion rate.
Those rates propelled him to career marks in the 86th percentile in yards per attempt, 91st percentile in TD-to-INT rate, and 80th percentile in completion rate.
Daniels threw for a class-high 11.2 Y/A on throws that did not come with play action or an RPO.
He had a 73.9% on-target throw rate against the blitz, which was second in the class. He was blitzed on 39.2% of his dropbacks, the fourth-highest rate in the class.
On throws 10 yards or further downfield, Daniels sported a class-high 68.3% on-target throw rate with an insane 23.8% touchdown rate on those passes. On 122 passes 10-plus yards downfield last season, Daniels threw 29 touchdowns with just one interception.
The question surrounding his enormous 2023 season is how much he was aided by the surrounding scheme and talent paired with his overall collegiate experience of playing in 55 collegiate games.
Daniels had his best season turning 23 years old in season while playing attached to two first-round wide receivers.
You can make the chicken or the egg case for those wideouts being attached to Daniels, but I have a ton of confidence that Malik Nabers is the real thing.
Just 16.2% of Daniels’ pass attempts in 2023 came against top-25 defenses. Willams was at 35.4%.
When I look at Daniels from a top-down lens, I see a lot of similarities with Justin Fields exiting Ohio State.
Fields was a player who had superb passing efficiency in college that he was unable to match once removed from playing in prestige conditions.
That is not a complete negative.
Even with his faults as a passer, Fields lives as a fantasy QB1 through his front-end rushing output. He pushes to be the QB1 in any given week in which the passing output goes along for the ride.
But his shortcomings as a passer also prevent him from carrying premier stability in getting there weekly.
Like Fields (and to a degree Williams), Daniels has struggled in the quick game and taking sacks when sped up.
Daniels took a sack on 22.0% of his pressures in 2023. Fields took a sack on 21.2% of his pressures exiting Ohio State.
Since entering the NFL, no quarterback has been sacked on a higher rate of pressures than Fields has (28.3%).
As noted above, while Williams took a lot of sacks in 2023, he was great at avoiding sacks when leaving the pocket, which could lend some credence to the issues surrounding the USC offensive line.
While Daniels is an elite rusher, he also was sacked on a class-high 18.8% of the time outside of the pocket.
Despite having a monster 2023 season in the efficiency department, Daniels was second to last in this draft class in on-target rate (60.5%) in the red zone with a 6.1% sack rate (ninth) in that area of the field.
Tier 2 Rookie Quarterbacks
The next two quarterbacks are our final two early-declare options at the position.
Both of these passers do come with a sprinkle of rushing acumen. There are no zeroes in that area. But they each also project to be passing-driven options for fantasy.
That means their ceiling outcomes for fantasy are more in the bucket of the Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and Trevor Lawrence tier.
While nobody will be upset if either of these players joined that tier through a Dynasty lens, we also have seen the fragility that group carries while being largely replaceable in 1QB formats in a given season by other passers driven by their passing efficiency firsthand.
I believe that tier of quarterback is the most overvalued pocket of fantasy assets at the position in Dynasty (and redraft for that matter).
Both Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy can move, but for each to regularly flirt with contending for QB1 overall scoring output, they are going to have to post elite passing numbers. Williams and specifically Daniels have more outs without front-end passing output.
Drake Maye, North Carolina
Final Year Age: 21.3
While we have touched on two quarterbacks who are potentially undersized compared to the historical profile desired at the position, Maye is a quarterback who fits exactly what has garnered appeal from NFL teams.
Maye is 6-foot-4 and 223 pounds attached to a howitzer.
He can also move.
You will see a few Josh Allen comparisons thrown his way, but I see Maye more on the Jordan Love spectrum in the NFL.
Maye is a cleaner prospect than Love was, but he does not have as strong of a complete resume as these first two quarterbacks.
Maye exits college in the 85th percentile in career touchdown-to-interception rate (3.9:1) but sits in the 73rd percentile in career yards per pass attempt (8.4 Y/A) and 71st percentile in completion rate (64.9%).
What drags down Maye compared to the first two passers is that his final season was not nearly as strong.
From a final-year perspective, Maye was only in the 62nd percentile in yards per attempt (8.5 Y/A), the 45th percentile in completion rate (63.0%), and the 41st percentile in touchdown-to-interception rate (2.7:1).
Maye’s 66.5% on-target rate in 2023 ranked ahead of only Devin Leary (66.4%) in this draft class.
Maye only posted an on-target rate of 69.8% from a clean pocket, which was also the second-lowest rate in this class.
He was also dead last in on-target rate (65.1%) from inside of the pocket.
Maye was hurt by his desire to push the rock down the field.
No quarterback in this class averaged more air yards per throw than Maye in 2023 (10.7 yards).
On those passes, his 49.4% on-target rate was also the second-lowest rate in this class.
Those wonky rates are why I use the Love comparison.
There are a lot of NFL and Dynasty teams that would like a redo on taking a chance on Love at this point.
Love had more runway than Maye will be given in the NFL based on expected draft capital, but despite the lackluster objective production from Maye, the plays when it all comes together you can see the upside and allure from teams.
Maye will turn just 22 years old this August and only has 26 career starts under his resume.
Those starts did not come attached to Lincoln Riley or the team LSU put on the field last year for the players we have covered so far.
In his two seasons starting at North Carolina, Maye also rushed for 1,209 yards and 16 touchdowns.
What I do believe will be different from Maye in the NFL versus Williams is the designed runs called for each.
41.4% of Maye’s rushes in 2023 were outright scrambles, which was more than Daniels (40.7%) and Williams (33.3%). That number will likely decrease in the NFL while the other two quarterbacks get their number called more on designed runs.
J.J. McCarthy, Michigan
Final Year Age: 20.9
McCarthy is perhaps the most polarizing quarterback of the top prospects in this class.
He is the youngest player at the position, turning 21 just this past January.
The top-down thing with McCarthy is centered around the conditions he was placed in.
He is viewed by some as a caretaker. We have seen quarterbacks in this offensive system attached to Jim Harbaugh have efficiency-based results that do not always match the overall perception of the player.
Assuming McCarthy is selected in the first round in April, the only other quarterbacks selected in the first round since 2000 with fewer final season pass attempts per game than McCarthy (22.1) will have been Jason Campbell (20.8), Cam Newton (20.0), Trey Lance (17.9), and Michael Vick (16.1).
All of those guys were limited in passing volume because of how good they were on the ground.
But McCarthy’s low-passing volume can easily be explained outside of the normal Harbaugh stigma.
Michigan lost one game with McCarthy as their starter over the past two seasons.
Not only that, but they also trailed at halftime just three times, and just once in 2023 did they trail at half. They led by double-digit points at the half in nine of their games.
Blowing out many teams, McCarthy threw 34 total passes in the fourth quarter this season. He did not even play in seven different fourth quarters this past season.
Interestingly enough, the things we do know about McCarthy’s output could be the most tangible since he does not have empty-calorie inflation anchoring his production.
65.1% of McCarthy’s pass attempts this season came in the first half of games, the highest rate of this draft class.
On those throws, he was third in completion rate (73.1%), fifth in on-target rate (75.1%), and fifth in yards per pass attempt (9.2 Y/A).
On third and fourth downs, McCarthy completed 71.3% of his passes (second) with 9.3 yards per pass attempt (second).
He also attempted a class-high 49.7% of his passes against top-25 defenses.
McCarthy also averaged a class-high 10.1 Y/A when pressured in 2023.
It is okay not to jump all in on McCarthy and question what his rate stats look like with increased passing volume, but we do have push back on the idea he was not trusted to throw the football. A lot of his depressed volume was circumstantial on top of the inherent attachment to Harbaugh.
McCarthy has a sprinkle of mobility as well.
He rushed for 632 yards and 10 touchdowns at Michigan.
He did not have to scramble a lot given his environment, giving him a 35.9% rate of designed runs on his ledger. Only Daniels (258) and Joe Milton (187) had more rushing yards than McCarthy (166) on designed runs in 2023.
That said, his overall rushing still likely falls in the Herbert-Lawrence range.
I am more open to the pro side of the coin of McCarthy, but the question remains in what we are getting for fantasy.
Can he be a quarterback who regularly pushes to be a weekly QB1?
If his rushing falls in the area of those two passers, he will have to be someone who regularly flirts with 35-plus passing touchdowns to get to those levels.
In the majority of outcomes, I see McCarthy maxing out as someone who moonlights as a fantasy QB1.
McCarthy may not end up like Alex Smith, but his margin to be an elite fantasy quarterback is still thin overall. He will get a larger boost in 2QB formats.
Tier 3 Rookie Quarterbacks
The top two tiers covered the four quarterbacks that are projected to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
That all but ensures that those players will be 2024 starting quarterbacks, which gives them immediate floor-based value in 2QB leagues.
If a quarterback is selected outside of the first round, all bets are off on projecting a successful NFL career.
In 2023, only Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, and Brock Purdy were fantasy QB1 scorers who were selected outside the first round of the NFL Draft.
There are some positives to spin within this tier to give them a pulse in 2QB rookie drafts, however, if those players are selected in a position to compete for a starting job sooner than later.
Bo Nix, Oregon
Final Year Age: 23.9
It is going to be interesting to see where Nix is selected in April.
The unique circumstances through COVID and the new transfer rules allowed Nix to develop and max out his collegiate career with a massive season at Oregon.
He closed his career out ranking in the 91st percentile in final season yards per pass attempt (9.6 Y/A), in the 99th percentile in touchdown-to-interception rate (15.0:1), and the 99th percentile in completion rate (77.4%).
We also have to ask if his age, experience, and surroundings elevated a quarterback who appeared to play himself out of things at Auburn.
Nix has a 98th-percentile final-season production score in my prospect model but also has just a 60th-percentile career production score.
Nix is a rare five-year starter, appearing in 61 games.
If he were to slip into Round 1 this April, that would be the most appearances for any first-round quarterback since 2000.
The only other quarterbacks selected in the first round with more than 50 appearances were Carson Palmer (53) and Kenny Pickett (52).
What makes it even harder is that perhaps no quarterback we have covered so far had as optimal playing conditions as Nix had in 2023.
He played behind the highest-graded pass-blocking offensive line in college per Pro Football Focus.
Nix was pressured on just 16.1% of his dropbacks, the only quarterback in this class under 20%.
He was pressured on just 28.6% of his blitzed dropbacks, also the lowest rate.
He averaged only 6.3 air yards per pass attempt, the fewest in this draft class. The next closest was a full yard over him at 7.4 yards downfield.
67.0% of his passes were credited as thrown to open receivers per Pro Football Focus, the highest rate in this class.
Nix threw 60.1% of his passes in under 2.5 seconds, the highest rate in this class. There was just one other prospect here that was over 50%, and that was Western Kentucky’s Austin Reed (54.2%).
All of that makes it hard to accurately judge Nix’s 2023 as development or something anchored by circumstance.
That said, we do not have to completely run and hide here if Nix does draw an opportunity to start for someone in 2024.
He is still a former five-star recruit who improved his yards per pass attempt in every season in college.
When tasked to push the football downfield, he excelled.
Nix had an on-target rate of 65.6% on throws 10 yards or further, which was second in this class. His 17.9% touchdown rate on those throws was also second.
On throws 10 yards or further and outside of the numbers, Nix was second in the class with an on-target rate of 61.8%.
He has enough ability to escape pressure and create with his legs.
Nix rushed for 38 touchdowns over his five seasons, averaging 26.4 yards on the ground per game for his career.
I do believe that while McCarthy gets treated on the Alex Smith spectrum, that is likely the apex outcome for Nix.
Michael Penix, Washington
Final Year Age: 23.8
Penix is not dissimilar in the path taken to this point of his career than the one Nix has.
He is only a few weeks younger than Nix, and Penix played six collegiate seasons.
But unlike Nix, Penix suffered a multitude of injuries along the way.
Before the 2022 season in which he transferred to Washington, Penix had not played in more than seven games in any of his four seasons at Indiana.
He tore his ACL in 2018 as a freshman and then dislocated his shoulder in 2019 after Indiana opened the season 7-2.
In 2020, Penix opened the COVID-shortened season with 14 touchdown passes through five games, including throwing for 342 yards against Michigan and 491 yards against Ohio State.
He then tore his same right ACL again in late November the following week after the Ohio State game.
He got off to a rocky start in 2021 before suffering a dislocated shoulder in his throwing arm.
Cleaning the slate, Penix transferred to Washington, where he flourished.
Penix threw for 31 and 36 touchdowns the past two seasons while averaging 8.4 and 8.8 yards per pass attempt.
While Penix did post solid counting stats, his underlying metrics were not as strong as Nix’s since he threw more interceptions, averaged fewer yards per pass attempt, and completed a lower rate of passes.
He ended 2023 with a final-season yards per pass attempt (8.8 Y/A) in the 73rd percentile for prospects in their final season while closing in the 55th percentile in touchdown-to-interception rate (3.3:1) and the 63rd percentile in completion rate (65.4%).
The injury history alone is enough to suppress Penix’s draft capital for those who see that as the only hindrance for him.
Those injuries could have limited him as a runner, but Penix only rushed for 100 total yards the past two seasons.
Some of that was climate-controlled in the same vein as why C.J. Stroud did not run a lot at Ohio State. Penix simply did not have to run a lot while he played with a great receiving corps. But two ACL injuries are definitely in play for taking something away here.
I do believe Penix will run a lot more in the NFL than he did in college, but this is also a quarterback who played in structure and struggled to create passing production out of it.
Penix threw for just 4.2 yards per pass attempt outside of the pocket in 2023, which ranked ahead of only Kedon Slovis in this class.
In the pocket, Penix averaged 9.4 Y/A, fourth in this class.
His on-target rate when he was pressured (53.4%) was 10th in this class. He went from 9.5 Y/A when kept clean down to 7.0 Y/A when pressured.
On non-play-action or RPO passes, Penix was 10th in this class with 7.9 Y/A while ranking second in the number of those throws.
Not only did Penix have some hiccups when pressured, but Penix also had issues in the money situations for quarterbacks.
His 66.1% on-target rate in the red zone was 10th in this class with a 7.0% sack rate (11th).
On third and fourth downs, Penix was 11th in this class with 6.7 Y/A.
Spencer Rattler, South Carolina
Final Year Age: 23.3
Rattler is the last of our highly touted recruits whose early collegiate career did not go as planned.
A former five-star recruit to Oklahoma, Rattler was the quarterback who lost his job to Caleb Williams in 2021.
After throwing for 28 touchdowns and 9.6 yards per pass attempt as a 20-year-old starter in 2020, Rattler did not throw more than 19 touchdown passes over the following seasons while his 8.0 yards per attempt in 2023 was his best season since that breakout.
I still have some Devy teams with Rattler on them, so maybe it is hopium, but some metrics under the hood give him some outs.
No quarterback in this class was pressured at a higher rate than Rattler in 2023.
Pressured on 37.0% of his dropbacks, Rattler was first in this class in on-target rate when pressured (74.5%).
He was second in on-target rate (80.7%) when kept clean.
Rattler has a 95th career percentile score in completion rate (68.5%), but he also comes with a 42nd percentile career touchdown-to-interception rate (2.4:1).
Make no mistake, Rattle still takes a sturdy leap of faith.
He took a sack on a class-high 8.7% of his dropbacks and 23.6% of his pressures.
Never giving us a season with front-end mobility, Rattler averaged just 8.5 rushing yards per game for his career.
Tier 4 Rookie Quarterbacks
Michael Pratt, Tulane, Final Year Age: 22.3
Jordan Travis, Florida State, Final Year Age: 23.7
Joe Milton, Tennessee, Final Year Age: 23.8
Kedon Slovis, BYU, Final Year Age: 22.7
Sam Hartman, Final Year Age: 24.4
Devin Leary, Kentucky, Final Year Age: 24.3
Austin Reed, Western Kentucky, Final Year Age: 23.9
Bringing things home here, none of these quarterbacks are currently projected to be selected until Day 3 of the NFL Draft.
The most appealing of these players through a fantasy lens is Joe Milton.
Milton has an absolute hand cannon and offers some rushing appeal.
Milton would rival QB1 in this class if the NFL was only go routes.
He is 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds but also will be 24 years old as a rookie with one starting season in college.
His physical profile will surely get him drafted, but his lack of career development over six collegiate seasons still gives him long odds to hit.
Taking over for Hendon Hooker at Tennessee, Milton had 650 career passes, but his 61.5% career completion percentage ranks in the 40th percentile of prospects since 2000.
My prospect model suggests keeping the lights on for Jordan Travis since he has an 85th-percentile career rushing score paired with 74th-percentile marks in career yards per pass attempt (8.5 Y/A) and touchdown-to-interception rate (3:3:1).
But Travis is also 6-foot-1 and checked in at only 200 pounds at the combine while being on the older end of the prospect table.
Sam Hartman and Devin Leary will both be 25-year-old rookies.
The only quarterbacks that were drafted turning 25 years old or older in their first season with multiple QB1 campaigns are Carson Palmer and Marc Bulger.
Michael Pratt has a contingency out there.
Pratt is a four-year starter who threw for at least 20 touchdowns in all four years.
He also ran for 24.9 yards per game over his career, which is sixth in this class.
He ranked 13th in this class in yards per attempt under pressure (6.1 Y/A).
2024 Rookie Quarterback Fantasy Football Rankings
Rank | Player | College | FY Age | Tier |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Caleb Williams | USC | 22.1 | 1 |
2 | Jayden Daniels | LSU | 23.0 | 1 |
3 | Drake Maye | North Carolina | 21.3 | 2 |
4 | J.J. McCarthy | Michigan | 20.9 | 2 |
5 | Bo Nix | Oregon | 23.9 | 3 |
6 | Michael Penix | Washington | 23.8 | 3 |
7 | Spencer Rattler | South Carolina | 23.3 | 3 |
8 | Joe Milton | Tennessee | 23.8 | 4 |
9 | Michael Pratt | Tulane | 22.3 | 4 |
10 | Jordan Travis | Florida State | 23.7 | 4 |
11 | Kedon Slovis | BYU | 22.7 | 4 |
12 | Sam Hartman | Notre Dame | 24.4 | 4 |
13 | Austin Reed | Western Kentucky | 23.9 | 4 |
14 | Devin Leary | Kentucky | 24.3 | 4 |