ESPN's Matt Miller predicts Quinn Ewers as player who can rise up 2025 NFL Draft board

When looking at the quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft, the two prominent names are Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward. But once the pre-draft process gets underway, a player suddenly moves up the board – and ESPN’s Matt Miller predicted that would be Quinn Ewers this year.

Ewers entered the 2024 season with high expectations after opting to run it back at Texas. However, injuries got in the way, which impacted his statistical production. The Longhorns still made the College Football Playoff semifinals, though, with Ewers making big-time plays in key spots along the way.

Once a highly touted recruit, Ewers will now look to improve his draft stock this offseason, starting with the Senior Bowl. Miller thinks he has a chance to do just that because of the traits evaluators saw coming out of high school.

“I’ll say the name to watch through the pre-draft process – someone always rises – Texas’ Quinn Ewers,” Miller said. “He did not have the year he wanted. There was the oblique injury, the ankle injury. That certainly affected him. But when you talk to scouts, they talk about, who’s a clean prospect that could rise throughout this process? Ewers was, [at] one time, one of the highest-rated high school prospects of all time. Now, did the career go at Texas like he wanted? Maybe not statistically, but they were in the College Football playoff semifinals in back-to-back years.

“Ewers is going to be an interesting name to watch. We know there was some inconsistency there. But the tools that made him that five-star prep player are certainly still there.

Ewers generated buzz as one of the best underclassmen prospects in some cycles coming out of Southlake (TX) Southlake Carroll, On3’s Charles Power wrote. He forewent his senior season, but was still a Five Star Plus+ prospect in the 2021 cycle, meaning he was one of the only players ranked by all four major recruiting media companies as a five star. Ewers was the No. 1 overall player that year, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

When it comes to this year’s draft, though, Ewers isn’t in Mel Kiper Jr.’s Top 5 quarterbacks on his Big Board. But he’ll look to rehab his value through the pre-draft process, beginning with a trip to Mobile next week for the Senior Bowl.