Joel Klatt predicts only two quarterbacks will be selected in first round of 2025 NFL Draft

The 2025 NFL Draft is one that has a two-quarterback class despite some veteran depth at the position as you go.

Joel Klatt made that point during his show where he ranked the top-five quarterbacks in the draft class for ’25. Once you get past Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward, he doesn’t think there’s going to be much more value, in comparison, with just a pair after those two before multiple worth mention beyond that.

“Now you get to kind of the rest of the guys and here’s how we’re going to do this. I’ve got two other guys right here and they’re going to go at three and four and then I’ve got this next group,” Klatt explained on Monday. “Before I go into who’s next? I do not believe that anybody else is a first-round pick. These two guys up top, Shedeur and Cam Ward, will get selected in the top-five. They just will. And then I think it might be a while until we see another quarterback.”

After Sanders and Ward, Klatt has Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe. Then, from there, Ohio State’s Will Howard finished his top-five while he also noted Syracuse’s Kyle McCord, Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke, and Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel.

However, while few of those have the upside at the position as some of the other names in recent drafts, Klatt does think all nine of those have the one thing that you can’t teach, which is experience with each having several years of collegiate starts on their resumé. That should be an aid to all of them in trying to make their own careers now in the NFL.

“It’s fascinating because everybody I’m going to talk about, including Sanders and Ward, are uber experienced, which is different than what we saw last year and really throughout the history of the NFL Draft. It speaks to the changing nature of the college game but it also speaks to, I think the blueprint for players going out to have success at the next level,” said Klatt. “I think experience is vital for these quarterbacks to go and succeed at the next level. I’ve said that for years.

“If you’ve followed our draft coverage at all during the course of the last few years, you’ll know that one of my big takeaways for quarterbacks – and I talk to coaches about this as well and even (general managers) around the league. If you look at the Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, ever since Brady won his first, so really, you know, since 2000? What you’ll find is, generally speaking – and there’s only a couple of exceptions really. But, generally speaking, the quarterbacks that end up winning Super Bowls are highly-experienced college quarterbacks and they’ve got 30, 35, 40 starts under their belt at the college level before they even go to the National Football League. They’ve got thousands of passing attempts on their belt in college football before they go to the National Football League. That’s every one of the guys this year.”

Still, Klatt doesn’t think any of these quarterbacks are can’t miss per se, especially in comparison to ones from the past few drafts. Sanders and Ward are in a different tier but, of the nine that he discussed, he thinks they’d almost all be picks more so out of need at the position rather than them being must-haves themselves even with that experience.

“I’ve already talked to you about Shedeur and Cam. They’re going to get selected in the top-five. Are either of them better than any of the six that were drafted last year? Eh. I don’t know,” Klatt said. “I think getting selected in the top-five this year is going to be based more on need than it is you’ve just got to take these guys. Now, having said that, having said that this group as a whole is more experienced, okay, and, we might not have the upside of maybe last year’s draft but there is some experience.”

It’s currently unlikely that any other quarterbacks besides Sanders and Ward will be picks in the first round on night one – with that being the fewest to start a draft in three years. There’ll be options on days two and three, though, with these known names from college hoping to hear their names as selections.