ESPN Grades Florida’s Transfer Pickup of Graham Mertz Through Six Games
Graham Mertz's career resurgence at the University of Florida earned national recognition on Thursday morning. The Gators quarterback earned a B+ grade on ESPN's scale assessing 46 transfer signal-callers for his performance through the first half of the 2023 regular season.
Read ESPN's evaluation of the Florida quarterback through his first six games in orange and blue below.
2023 stats: 1,474 passing yards, 9 TD passes, 2 interceptions, 2 rushing TDs
How he has fared so far: Mertz sought a fresh start under Billy Napier after never truly panning out at Wisconsin despite being the program's highest-rated quarterback recruit ever (ESPN's No. 21 overall prospect in 2019). His accuracy has spiked with the Gators. He came in as a career 59.5% passer but has hit on 80% of his passes through five games, which ranks second nationally behind Oregon's Bo Nix. Mertz hasn't had a game with more than six incompletions since the opener at Utah and has only two interceptions in 175 attempts. His improvement hasn't really accelerated the offense, though, as Florida ranks 80th nationally in scoring (27.2 PPG). He also struggled early against Kentucky when the game was still in doubt, completing just six of his first 11 pass attempts with an interception.
Knowing he had to replace quarterback Anthony Richardson, who went No. 4 overall to the Indianapolis Colts in the 2023 NFL Draft, head coach Billy Napier and his staff evaluated 24 passers in the transfer portal before pinpointing Mertz as the bridge piece for Florida to move from Richardson to current 2024 pledge DJ Lagway.
On Wednesday, Napier addressed the impact of the program's usage of the transfer portal as it pertained to acquiring Mertz this offseason.
"Yeah, just the world we're living in. And thank the good Lord for it," Napier said when asked about the impact of the transfer portal on passers from the 2019 class, including Mertz and Florida's Week 7 opponent in South Carolina's Spencer Rattler. "We certainly have benefitted from it. As many headaches as there's been that come with it, I'm certainly happy for the players we've been able to add to our team.
He continued to say the trend of adding talent, specifically at the game's most import, will remain a critical factor in roster building moving forward.
"But I think it's going to continue to be that way, especially at quarterback. Because you've just got one starter and as time goes, there's just movement, because everybody wants to prove that they're the guy and that they can play. You know, there's some positive experiences that come from that."
The former Wisconsin Badger visited Gainesville on Dec. 10. He committed to the Gators nine days later on Dec. 19.
Mertz's early returns have been positive from a statistical standpoint, as the pocket passer has accounted for 1.474 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions through the air in six appearances.
He's shattered external expectations for his anticipated performance, namely due to his striking accuracy on the year, as he's completed 80% of his passes thus far. His ability to find open wideouts in the short and intermediate levels of the field and game-manager play style coincides with the criteria the Gators staff had when they pursued him this offseason.
While it hasn't directly elevated the Gators' offense, Mertz has lived up to the internal billing he received from Napier.
He lands in the B+ range on Adam Rittenberg and Tom VanHaaren's grading scale for transfer quarterbacks in 2023 as a result.
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