NFL Draft
1/11/25
8 min read
Quinn Ewers 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Texas Longhorns QB
Height: 6020 (unofficial)
Weight: 210lbs (unofficial)
Year: Redshirt Junior
Pro Comparison: Will Grier
Scouting Overview
Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers should be regarded as a developmental quarterback prospect. He boasts noted throwing ability and a live arm, allowing him to make aggressive plays to the far side of the field or down the field.
However, Ewers’ aggressiveness can get the best of him at times, and he lacks discipline and risk mitigation. Accordingly, he’s too erratic to be trusted as an early starter and will need to be molded into a more deliberate player at the position. Ewers is at his best with play-action ball fakes, RPO ball handling, and quick decisions with the football, but durability, ball security, and pocket presence all threaten his future pathways to playing time.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Slick ball handling ability yields impactful ball fakes, play-action, and RPO influence
- Possesses a variety of arm slots and release angles to help create throwing windows in muddy pockets
- Natural throwing ability is evident with the ability to drive the ball & do so from unorthodox platforms
Negatives
- Pressure mitigation is poor, and answers under duress too often illustrate haphazard ball security
- Field vision and decision-making on traditional progression reads appear to hold major blind spots
- Durability issues have lingered across each of his three seasons as a starter at Texas, plus his final season at the HS level
Background
Ewers was born in San Antonio, TX, and played high school football for Carroll Senior HS in Southlake, TX. He was a standout baseball player, in addition to his role as a quarterback. Ewers was a highly regarded quarterback recruit who garnered a ton of interest — he was a 5-star player (247 Sports) and ranked as the No. 1 player in the country who partook in the Elite 11 before his college career started. Ewers initially committed to Texas before opening up his recruitment again and committing to play at Ohio State.
Ewers lasted one season at Ohio State, playing in just one contest and taking two snaps before entering the transfer portal at the end of that true freshman season. Ewers returned to Texas to play for the Longhorns and claimed the starting job entering his redshirt freshman season in 2022.
Ewers started 10 games that season, missing three starts with a right collarbone injury against Alabama. In 2023, Ewers started 12 games, missing two with an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder. In 2024, Ewers started 13 games but missed two and a half games of action with an oblique strain against UTSA. Ewers also missed 6 games with an abdomen injury in 2020 at Southlake Carroll.
Ewers has twice been recognized with season awards for his play. He was named Second Team All-Big 12 in 2023 (plus the Big 12 Championship Game MVP) and named Second Team All-SEC in 2024.
Tale Of The Tape
Ewers has been on the NFL Draft radar for quite some time, thanks to his lofty status as a prized 5-star recruit coming out of high school. You see plenty of glimpses of the talent that had him so coveted as a player. He has apparent arm talent and can be a catalyst of big plays.
However, the sustainability of his play is very much the question that teams have to reconcile. Ewers has played with one of the best play callers in college football for the past three seasons, had an offensive line loaded with NFL caliber talent, and a slew of NFL skill players at his disposal between Bijan Robinson, Jordan Whittington, Ja’Tavion Sanders, Jaydon Blue, Jonathon Brooks, Xavier Worthy, Adonai Mitchell, Gunnar Helm, Matthew Golden, Isaiah Bond, and more at his disposal.
Such a cast leading to a heavily focused schemed throw offense as frequently as Texas had with Ewers at the helm, particularly when contrasted to their more aggressive and downfield passing attack when Arch Manning was called upon, begs some questions.
The full-field progression resume for Ewers highlights some poor feel for deep safety rotation and coverage presence, both when feeling high-low leverage and spacing across the deeper portions of the field. Ewers cuts loose a number of throws that lack the proper velocity and trajectory relative to the defender’s relationship to his target — exposing his pass catchers to violent collisions over the middle or exposed shots as they adjust to the football at the catch point. These instances are far too often and are compounded when he’s forced into long & late situations.
Ewers’ consistency with pressure is troublesome, and the root theme of the issues involved is his trust in his arm. In the Georgia game alone, Ewers twice threw comebacks against man coverage from a muddy pocket and trusted his arm to drive the throw on target. Both throws missed inside and lacked the zip that would have safely delivered the throw outside the numbers and were picked off.
While Ewers’ arm talent is evident in his ability to drop his arm slot and throw around a free runner or creatively shovel a pass out while on the move, the accuracy spray becomes too vast in hurried situations.
Further complicating his success within the pocket is the sense of pressure. He often climbs into pressure, and his vision will narrow when his eyes drop, and he’s forced to navigate the rush. If he catches zone coverage and defenders latch onto him moving off his spot, he has shown the ability to push the ball over the middle of the field and find big completions — as he did for a touchdown against Michigan. But his feel of compromised edges or escape hatches too often yields frustrating added sacks taken while running into pressure.
Yet, Ewers illustrates a number of traits that make him hard to sell completely. He shows good rotational velocity as a passer and gets good RPM on the football with a casual release. His throwing delivery is snappy, and he can whip the ball out to drive throws from a firm foundation.
The big moments have yielded some big successes for him, too. Ewers has found plays to be made in and out of structure in a number of big spots — most recently against Arizona State in the second round of the 2024 College Football Playoff. He’s made huge plays in games against teams like Alabama on the road.
Ewers shows good short-area quickness and agility within the pocket, too. If he’s got a free runner off his side, he can slide late and buy some extra time. The escapability of the first rusher is a likable bonus to his game.
While the Texas offense put a number of barriers around Ewers, he actually does execute the primary functions of their offensive design quite well. He’s a crafty ball handler and does well with his ball fakes to extend and show the football to defenders before collecting and resetting to throw.
He’s quick with his hands to flash fake and does well with RPOs to ride the mesh point and quickly pull and zip the throw out to the perimeter on run plays with a tagged route or on authentic RPO passes. These reps, plus quick game and screen passes, are mainly where the Texas offense lived in 2024.
Teams will have to reconcile the medical background here. He’s had several abdomen and right shoulder injuries in the past five years that have cost him playing time in every season he’s been a starter. That, plus his warts with hasty decision-making, casual mechanics that yield inconsistent accuracy, and ball security, will need to be resolved before he’s considered anything but a developmental talent.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Ewers projects best into a West Coast offense. Yes, he has the arm strength to attack the field, but his production and efficiency dip notably as he’s asked to hold the ball longer in the pocket.
Taking advantage of his ball-handling skills and ability to get outside the pocket offers the most desirable structure to keep his decisions “on schedule” as a quarterback. That said, this is a developmental talent whose decision-making as a whole is not ready for NFL snaps.
Grade: 71.50/100.00, Fifth Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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