Where Does Texas Quarterback Quinn Ewers Rank Among Top QBs in CFB?

Former national champion quarterback Greg McElroy sang high praise for the captain of the Texas Football offense, ranking the quarterback just behind Georgia's Carson Beck.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) sends a pass down the field during the Sugar Bowl College Football Playoff semi-finals at the Ceasars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, Jan. 1, 2024. The Huskies won the game over the Texas Longhorns 37-31. / Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA

Former Alabama quarterback and ESPN analyst Greg McElroy ranks Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers as the second-best quarterback in college football heading into the 2024 season.

Ewers threw for nearly 3500 yards and 22 touchdowns in his second year as a starter in 2024, completing 69% of his 394 passes while throwing just six interceptions.

“What I noticed last year was just how much more decisive he was,” McElroy said about Ewers, “Last year he didn’t waste anything, when things were open downfield he anticipated and hit them in stride. When things were open underneath, he hit them, he didn’t wait for the big play to come open downfield, he took what he had and continued to move the chains.”

McElroy referenced the weight loss journey Ewers went through during the offseason, losing over 10 pounds between the 2022-23 seasons. The athleticism got better, McElroy said, resulting in a faster and more decisive quarterback.

The top-10 list that McElroy unveiled on his “Always College Football” podcast featured some familiar names, as well as some the Longhorns will learn a lot about in 2024. Ewers edged out former Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who finished fourth in the final list, as well as placing over familiar names Jalen Milroe and Jalon Daniels, two players Texas has faced in the past. 

Alongside Milroe, two other SEC quarterbacks made the list. Texas won’t play the No. 9 quarterback, Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss, in 2024, but they will receive a visit from McElroy’s No. 1 on the list, Georgia’s Carson Beck. McElroy predicts that October 19th’s Georgia @ Texas game will feature the two best quarterbacks in the country.

Of the eight players in the top 10 list to play meaningful snaps in 2023 (Utah’s Cam Rising and Daniels both dealt with injuries), Ewers ranked right in the middle for passing attempts, yards, completion percentage, and yards per attempt, but McElroy is confident in another jump for the upcoming junior. 

“When I look at Quinn Ewers, he is the No. 2 quarterback in the sport heading into next season,” McElroy said.

It’s also important to note that Ewers is one of the three youngest players in the top 10 list and is in the back half of the group in career passing attempts. It can be easy to forget for Texas fans that Ewers was one of the youngest starters in the nation, and his 22 career starts to this point were 26 fewer than that of Michael Penix Jr., the sixth-year quarterback who beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl in 2023.

With another full offseason, Ewers is ready to become one of the best in the nation, and pundits like McElroy are already confident in his final leap in what could be his last year in a Texas uniform.