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Quinn Ewers Is a Longhorn Legend. Not a Tragic Figure.

by:RT Young•05/04/25
Quinn Ewers
Quinn Ewers (Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

I hit the refresh button on my phone frantically last Saturday. I’ll admit, looking at the Day 3 draft results felt exactly like the hopeless feeling of being in the stands while your team blows a big lead. You’re powerless to it, and you can’t stop it.

I just wanted to see Quinn Ewers’ name next to a team.

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Round 7 and the last QB taken for the quarterback who once had a perfect recruiting ranking?

The kid whose commitment to Tom Herman’s Longhorns made me pull over my car on South 1st and slap the steering wheel in excitement. His commitment literally crashed Inside Texas.

The passer whose entrance into the transfer portal renewed a sense of hope which had been missing for years. He was the leader who delivered the greatest road victory I can remember in Tuscaloosa. The final Big 12 Championship. Two golden hats and a win in Texas’ return to College Station. Then 4th and 13. There are moments associated with Quinn Ewers, and Texas fans should never forget.

But the clips of him being drafted were upsetting to watch. It was clear the draft slide into the last round hurt Ewers and his family. Additionally, his slide into the seventh round resurfaced Longhorn-on-Longhorn arguments about whether or not Ewers should have been benched last season for Arch Manning. Our reactions to those clips and dissection of Ewers’ decision to enter the draft, fans ignore something important.

Quinn Ewers is neither a tragic figure nor a cautionary tale.

As Joe Cook wrote last week, his decision to forego millions in the transfer portal and enter the draft as a Texas quarterback, was a decision influenced by legacy. Fans cannot lament the state of college football, its lack of loyalty, while also criticizing Ewers’ decision to go to the NFL.

He might not have always matched what fans thought they were getting when they first heard about the mulleted gunslinger from Southlake who could sling the ball 80 yards. He was a lot more nuanced than that, no matter how ubiquitous his name might have been across college football. It is true that his name will always be one of the first players fans think of when they remember this era of college football. Because he was one of the first athletes whose college career played out entirely in the NIL era, influenced by it to a large degree.

The fact of the matter is he’s now a Miami Dolphin, but a Longhorn forever. When someone leaves the Forty Acres, they deserve Longhorn fans’ support, not their “I told ya so’s” or even their pity.

Hopefully, the slide will light a fire inside of Ewers that he’s never felt. Because, seventh round or not, he’s still likely to start games for Miami.

ESPN’s Todd Archer wrote in a great pre-draft profile of Ewers that Quinn is an “underdog for the first time” in his life. He’s no longer a perfectly rated quarterback, but one that 31 teams bet against. The article quoted his agent, Ron Slavin, as well, who tried to explain the draft slide by talking to a dozen or more teams.

“They thought he was a third- or fourth-round pick, but too big of a name to be a clipboard holder,” Slavin said. “Which I think is chickens—.”

Said one personnel chief, “There’s only so many reps to go around for young quarterbacks. You can justify it at other positions, but if you can’t get a quarterback the amount of work to develop him, then you’re almost wasting a pick.”

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Ewers will now have to bet on himself more than ever.

And Texas fans should be behind him.

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