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After going back and forth on where he should play football next season, be that at his current home, the University of Texas, for a new college football team like, say, Kenny Dillingham's rapidly ascending Arizona State program via the transfer portal, or at the professional level, Quinn Ewers has officially made things official: declaring for the 2025 NFL Draft.
Now, for fans in Austin, this is about as close as a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too situation as they could hope for, as they will now get to watch the Texas legend play in the NFL instead of for a future opponent while also getting to formally start the Arch Manning era, which has been unofficially going strong even if he's only seen the field every now again then in cleanup duty.
And as for Ewers? Well, he gets to join a draft class that is rather light on truly transformative arms behind the one-two punch of Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, even if a Michael Pennix Jr.-style vault into the first round feels rather unlikely for the Longhorns QB.
Why? Well, because according to NFL Mock Draft's consensus big board, Ewers is currently listed as the 51st-ranked prospect in the 2025 class.
Now granted, could that change rather quickly? Oh yeah, especially for quarterbacks, as multiple players who went in the first round last year didn't have a Day 1 grade in January. Still, as things presently stand, Ewers is not expected to go in the first round and, as a result, likely won't be going to a team that wants him to play right away. Fortunately, that's probably a good thing for the pride of Austin, as he likely isn't ready to go right away at the NFL level unless he's handed a perfect situation, which almost never happens for players who are selected high to typically bad teams.
So, with Ewers having the potential to go to pretty much any team in the NFL as a second-round player, which scenarios make sense for the former Texas starter? Why not take a look and find out.
1. Quinn Ewers could compete with the Las Vegas Raiders
For the second year in a row, it looks like the Las Vegas Raiders might have been just a little bit too good to land their quarterback of the future with a top-5 pick. That's right, after being connected with darn near every top-tier quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft at one point or another during the regular season, the Raiders now find themselves with only the sixth overall pick.
Mind you, maybe fans are being overly hyping this year's QBs like they so often do, and one or even both of the top arms will be on the board when the Raiders come up to bat. But it feels just as likely, if not more so, that the Raiders could have to pick between the likes of Mason Graham, Abdul Carter, and Kelvin Banks Jr. at the six spot, all of whom would fill a position of need, but not their biggest position of need.
In 2024, going best player available worked out pretty darn well for the Raiders, as Brock Bowers turned in quite possibly the best tight end rookie season in NFL history. But he still had to catch passes from Gardner Minshew and Aidan O'Connell on a below .500 team, which, in a way, makes his performance all the more impressive.
If the Raiders do miss out on a first-round QB, landing a blue chip guy at another position instead, then the addition of Ewers in the second could produce similar results to Will Levis' rookie season in Tennessee before, you know, he fell apart in at times comical ways.
Locked in with a new – likely offensive-minded – head coach, an A+ safety blanket in Bowers, and one of the greatest QBs of all time in Tom Brady as a shoulder to lean on from the owner's box, Ewers could compete for a starting spot right out of the gate, take the field when he's ready, and ultimately have a solid enough supporting cast to make sure he can succeed right out of the gates.
2. Quinn Ewers could learn from Matthew Stafford in LA
Alternatively, there's a longer-term path for success in the NFL for Ewers if he lands on a team that doesn't want to play him in 2025 or even beyond unless disaster strikes, including with the Los Angeles Rams, who have long been looking for a developmental passer behind Matthew Stafford.
They tried it with Baker Mayfield when they claimed the Oklahoma product off of waivers in 2022. They tried it again in 2023 when they drafted Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett before he took a year off of football. And then they did it once more in 2024 when they signed Jimmy Garoppolo as a potential heir apparent if things went really wrong and Stafford was shipped out of town midway through the season.
With the Rams currently two wins away from representing the NFC in the Super Bowl, their current core of Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Puka Nacua is probably going to stick around for the foreseeable future under Sean McVay's leadership. But what happens if Stafford fully falls off in 2025, and LA has to start that next era of Rams football whether they like it or not? Well, Les Snead may just deem that concern worthy of a Day 2 draft selection, with Ewers a great option if he's still on the board when the Rams are picking.
Would it be disappointing to see Ewers spend a year or two on the bench? For Texas fans, potentially so, but if the end result is tossing passes to Nacua and Kupp while Kyren Williams dominates on the ground for the foreseeable future under one of the best offensive coaches in the NFL? Yeah, I think that trade-off would absolutely be well worth the wait.
3. Quinn Ewers and Travis Hunter give fans hope in Cleveland
And last but not least, if the Browns decide to make do-it-all wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter their new two-way star, bypassing a top arm in favor of, say, trading for Kirk Cousins, they would instantly become the team to watch at the top of the second round if a player like Ewers is still on the board.
Now granted, the idea of being drafted to Cleveland could best be described as harrowing for even the most confident quarterback in college football, as the team has only had two quarterbacks who had led them to the playoffs in the modern history of the team and they were both eventually allowed to leave the franchise for greener pastures. Mayfield felt like the true savior of the organization before he was unceremoniously traded to the Carolina Panthers, and even a pushing 40 Joe Flacco was allowed to leave after his 2023 efforts in order to avoid a competition with Deshaun Watson.
With Watson now expected to be out indefinitely because of a second tear in his Achilles in three months, the Browns need an answer now and an answer indefinitely at the quarterback position. While Ewers' agent may not be over the moon about that prospect, there are much worse scenarios than playing in Kevin Stefanski's offense and throwing passes to Jerry Jeudy, especially if Hunter is also in the mix as a part-time pass-catching option in addition to playing major snaps as the starting outside cornerback opposite Denzel Ward. It might not be pretty, but it could work.
