2025 NFL Draft: Mel Kiper Jr. tabs surprising choice as QB3

The 2025 NFL Draft is only a few months away, but that doesn’t mean that chatter surrounding one of the most anticipated events in sports hasn’t started to heat up. With the draft comes hope for fans across the country and for many quarterback-needy franchises out there, they’re wondering what top quarterback prospects will be available.

ESPN NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. has already crowned Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward as his QB1 and QB2 of the 2025 class. On Wednesday evening’s NFL Draft Special on ESPN, Kiper tabbed former Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart as his QB3.

Mel Kiper also ranked his top 5 quarterbacks

“Jaxson Dart is, right now. Mobile, he’s athletic. He’s a tough kid and he can make NFL wow throws. We saw that with him rolling left and rolling right. Jaxson Dart. Ole Miss. My QB3,” Kiper explained.

Kiper’s current quarterback rankings for the 2025 class are: 1. Shedeur Sanders, 2. Cam Ward, 3. Jaxson Dart, 4. Jalen Milroe, and 5. Kyle McCord.

Jaxson Dart posted prolific numbers with Ole Miss

Dart’s standout performance in his bowl game was nothing new. In three years at Ole Miss, he became the program’s all-time passing leader, surpassing longstanding record-holder Eli Manning.

Jaxson Dart finished the 2024 campaign with 4,279 passing yards and 29 touchdowns while completing nearly 70% of his pass attempts.

Dart wrapped up his decorated SEC career finishing fourth all-time in SEC history in total offense. He’s only behind three players, Aaron Murray of Georgia (13,562 yards), Drew Lock of Missouri (12,630 yards), and Tim Tebow of Florida (12,232 yards). It makes Dart just the fourth player in SEC history to tally over 12,000 career yards. Dart also shattered Chad Kelly’s single-season passing yardage record (4,042 passing yards) and his total offense record (4,542 total yards), both set in 2015.

The 2025 NFL Draft will take place in Green Bay, Wisconsin at historic Lambeau Field. It will be on April 24-26, 2025.

On3’s Grant Grubbs also contributed to this article.