Heisman Trophy Predictions: Projecting 2024 winner, finalists

On3’s JD PicKell provided his Heisman Trophy predictions and projected the winner and finalists for the upcoming season.

Here are the players that just missed the cut, per PicKell: Caleb Downs, DB – Ohio State; Luther Burden, WR – Missouri; Cam Ward, QB – Miami; Jaxson Dart, QB – Ole Miss. As he put it, it’s primarily a quarterback award at this point.

Below are Pickell’s finalists and winner for this year’s Heisman Trophy.

Carson Beck, QB – Georgia

Beck is the betting favorite and leads a team that is the favorite to win the College Football Playoff National Championship. The stats back it up though.

Last season, Beck threw for 3,941 yards, 24 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 72.4% completion percentage. That was just his first year as a starter! Imagine what this year brings.

Dillon Gabriel, QB – Oregon

Gabriel certainly has the stats to back up this claim from PicKell. At stops with UCF and Oklahoma, Gabriel’s been nothing but productive in his time as a college quarterback.

Bo Nix put up historic numbers last season when he played for the Ducks. So the same can be expected of Gabriel in the same system with weapons around him. Big Ten title winners?

Quinn Ewers, QB – Texas

Ewers could certainly take another leap this season as long as he’s fully healthy. He proved he could take his team to a conference title and a CFP appearance. Now, here comes the SEC.

Ewers’ Heisman moment might come against Texas A&M, according to PicKell. Wouldn’t that be quite the grand stage for what could be a career-best season?

Jalen Milroe, QB – Alabama

PicKell is a big believer in Milroe’s abilities and Kalen DeBoer’s offense will be the biggest reason for a massive jump in 2024. The QB showed off the arm talent and dual threat ability last year.

Once he responded from being benched earlier in the year, Milroe led Alabama to an SEC title and the Rose Bowl at the CFP semifinals. It sounds like the final stretch of the season in the SEC

Winner: Quinn Ewers, QB – Texas

PicKell’s winner is Ewers, lighting it up for the Longhorns this season. However, he eliminated two of his finalists right off the bat.

“When it comes to picking this year’s Heisman Trophy winner, a first year quarterback in a new system … has not won the Heisman Trophy since Johnny Manziel,” PicKell said on Wednesday’s Hard Count. “So that would eliminate Jalen Milroe, new system with DeBoer, that would eliminate Dillon Gabriel, even though I think both guys will crush it.” 

While Beck could be really successful as well, Ewers will win the Heisman by simply standing out a bit more.

“And then I worry a little bit about the way that Georgia is going to operate offensively,” PicKell said. “Not in the sense that I don’t think they’re gonna score a lot of points. But there’s this Georgia stigma … It was a thing with Stetson Bennett, it’s been a thing with Brock Bowers. The Georgia stigma is they play such good complimentary football to you don’t know who to give credit to is the defense. It’s the run game. It’s the quarterback. Yeah, but like they got a lot of balls around him and like whether we agree with that or not. I think that’s going to be a factor in the Heisman Trophy race.

“I think Steve Sarkisian will go to even another level of this offense with him being his third year in the system. I love the weapons, I love the schedule, I think Quinn Ewers wins the Heisman Trophy. And I think that ultimately he is the guy that hoists that hardware, because of all the reasons I just mentioned.”

So the predictions are in and Ewers is the projected winner of this year’s Heisman Trophy. Buckle up because this season is going to be a wild one.