Greg McElroy endorses Graham Mertz over DJ Lawgway as Florida starter vs. Texas A&M

As Florida heads into its SEC opener against Texas A&M, all eyes are on the quarterback position.

Senior Graham Mertz should be back from a concussion after failing to appear on the team’s injury report on Wednesday. But star freshman DJ Lagway was outstanding in his debut start against Samford last week.

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Which direction Florida turns will be fascinating. And at least one ESPN analyst believes there’s a definitive right answer.

“So we look at kind of where things are, I look at where this program’s at,” analyst Greg McElroy said. “And while everybody wants DJ Lagway, everybody wants him, he’s got great potential, he’s a five-star, might be a program-savior down the road, I know what I’ve got with Graham Mertz. I would go with Graham Mertz in a game like this, especially knowing the defense that he’s going to be going against.”

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It’s true that Texas A&M will represent a bigger challenge defensively than Samford, though the Aggies haven’t been great at stopping the run so far this year and the pass-rush has been surprisingly quiet through the first two games.

More than anything, McElroy seemed to suggest the Samford game probably wasn’t a truly representative sample for Lagway and that hoping he can replicate that against an SEC team is probably a fool’s errand.

“Because when I saw DJ Lagway play against Miami it was not overly impressive,” McElroy said. “I think he’s got a crazy high ceiling, but right now Graham Mertz has helped me win big games against great competition in the past. Remember, Graham Mertz led us last year to a win against Tennessee. I’m going to ride Graham Mertz at this moment, but the leash will be a little bit shorter in the event in which he’s not seeing the field very well.”

That’s not to say McElroy is unaware of the dynamic at play in the Florida fanbase.

Fans want Lagway because he represents more upside and potential. They’ve seen Mertz for quite some time. And while he’s been good and certainly hasn’t been the root of the team’s problems, the upside is probably a little limited.

Even McElroy seemed to point out some of the eye-popping stats that Lagway racked up last week.

“We all know who Graham Mertz is, we all know what Graham Mertz has accomplished,” the former Alabama quarterback said. “We’ve seen him play a lot of football. We now were introduced to DJ Lagway and he had an amazingly efficient game last week. 456 yards passing, that’s breaking the school freshman record by nearly 200 yards. He had nine completions that went for 20-plus, that’s the most by a Gators quarterback in a game over the last 20 years. Clearly he’s very capable throwing it downfield. On throws that traveled way downfield, 20-plus yards, he was 4-of-6, and that was the best completion percentage on throws downfield since Emory Jones back in 2021.”

Still, McElroy believes Mertz is the answer in the short term.

Florida and Texas A&M are scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff in the Swamp on Saturday, with a national broadcast slated for ABC.