College players to watch before this season starts

[Jclayton92]

Each day I am going to go position by position with the best college guys to watch for during the upcoming college football season.

Because the Qb position is so polarizing let's get it out the way.

QB
https://www.pff.com/news/college-football-10-quarterbacks-to-know-ahead-of-the-2025-nfl-draft

From PFF
CARSON BECK, GEORGIA
Beck isn't the kind of slam-dunk prospect Caleb Williams was last summer, but he should still be seen as the early QB1 favorite ahead of 2025. He's a signal-caller with precise accuracy and timing, placing in the top five of the FBS in both adjusted completion rate and average time to throw. His 91.5 overall grade ranked fourth among all quarterbacks in the country last season.

SHEDEUER SANDERS, COLORADO
Sanders is an advanced processor who earned the country's third-best clean pocket passing grade (92.9) this past season. The only two who posted better marks were the first two picks in 2024: Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels.

Sanders kept the ball out of harm's way, too, as his 1.6% turnover-worthy play rate ranked fourth among all FBS signal-callers.

JAXSON DART, OLE MISS
Dart took a major leap from his sophomore to junior year, improving his passing grade by more than 13 points (75.2 in 2022 to 88.7 in 2023). A major reason for that jump was the significant stride he made when forced outside of the pocket. In 2022, he posted just a 42.8 passing grade outside the pocket, 111th among FBS quarterbacks. Dart improved that mark to 74.6 this past season, 15th in the nation.

Overall, his 91.2 grade was tied for sixth among all signal-callers in the country. The question will be how much he was elevated in Lane Kiffin's RPO/play-action-heavy offense. He should be one of the top Heisman contenders next year and could launch up draft boards.

CONNER WEIGMAN, TEXAS A&M
Weigman got off to a rapid start to his sophomore season, earning a 91.9 grade through the first four games. Unfortunately, that's all we saw from the former five-star recruit, as he suffered a season-ending foot injury in Week 4.

The Aggies passer has a good arm but an inconsistent follow-through right now. If he can build off the few games we saw in 2023, he can be a dark-horse QB1 candidate next April.

My take
Expect these to be your top 4 next April assuming Weigman comes in and builds off last year. I left Milroe, Ewers, Ward, Aller, and Gabriel off because they are behind these guys for one reason or another. Ward could really be the one to launch up from this group depending on what he does at Miami but the rest have serious problems with parts of their game. Dart has the best weapons in college football, so he could be my Heisman front runner right now. Sanders has "it" even though we can't see it at all times because Colorado' oline was in shambles. That and Georgia Qbs scaring most national analyst because they are so hard to predict at the next level similar to Ohio St Qbs and you have a wide open qb class for the 2025 draft class.

Next up Rbs:

[Philosophers]

Each day I am going to go position by position with the best college guys to watch for during the upcoming college football season.

Because the Qb position is so polarizing let's get it out the way.

QB
https://www.pff.com/news/college-football-10-quarterbacks-to-know-ahead-of-the-2025-nfl-draft

From PFF
CARSON BECK, GEORGIA
Beck isn't the kind of slam-dunk prospect Caleb Williams was last summer, but he should still be seen as the early QB1 favorite ahead of 2025. He's a signal-caller with precise accuracy and timing, placing in the top five of the FBS in both adjusted completion rate and average time to throw. His 91.5 overall grade ranked fourth among all quarterbacks in the country last season.

SHEDEUER SANDERS, COLORADO
Sanders is an advanced processor who earned the country's third-best clean pocket passing grade (92.9) this past season. The only two who posted better marks were the first two picks in 2024: Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels.

Sanders kept the ball out of harm's way, too, as his 1.6% turnover-worthy play rate ranked fourth among all FBS signal-callers.

JAXSON DART, OLE MISS
Dart took a major leap from his sophomore to junior year, improving his passing grade by more than 13 points (75.2 in 2022 to 88.7 in 2023). A major reason for that jump was the significant stride he made when forced outside of the pocket. In 2022, he posted just a 42.8 passing grade outside the pocket, 111th among FBS quarterbacks. Dart improved that mark to 74.6 this past season, 15th in the nation.

Overall, his 91.2 grade was tied for sixth among all signal-callers in the country. The question will be how much he was elevated in Lane Kiffin's RPO/play-action-heavy offense. He should be one of the top Heisman contenders next year and could launch up draft boards.

CONNER WEIGMAN, TEXAS A&M
Weigman got off to a rapid start to his sophomore season, earning a 91.9 grade through the first four games. Unfortunately, that's all we saw from the former five-star recruit, as he suffered a season-ending foot injury in Week 4.

The Aggies passer has a good arm but an inconsistent follow-through right now. If he can build off the few games we saw in 2023, he can be a dark-horse QB1 candidate next April.

My take
Expect these to be your top 4 next April assuming Weigman comes in and builds off last year. I left Milroe, Ewers, Ward, Aller, and Gabriel off because they are behind these guys for one reason or another. Ward could really be the one to launch up from this group depending on what he does at Miami but the rest have serious problems with parts of their game. Dart has the best weapons in college football, so he could be my Heisman front runner right now. Sanders has "it" even though we can't see it at all times because Colorado' oline was in shambles. That and Georgia Qbs scaring most national analyst because they are so hard to predict at the next level similar to Ohio St Qbs and you have a wide open qb class for the 2025 draft class.

Next up Rbs:

If there is one thing we know is that all projected high in the Spring of preseason are expected to be high in the Spring postseason never rings true.  Third round projections become 1st rounders drafted.

[Jclayton92]

If there is one thing we know is that all projected high in the Spring of preseason are expected to be high in the Spring postseason never rings true.  Third round projections become 1st rounders drafted.

I agree to a certain extent, but most guys that get drafted high you know them in the spring, the two guys I can think of that vaulted recently were both from LSU in Daniels and Burrow. For the most part the top guys are the top guys. The one dark horse could be the kid in Arizona Noah Fafita. You are right though the Qb position tends to be the one with the highest chance for someone to leap up. RB, Oline, Dline etc the names seem to carry over albeit up and down some.

[Philosophers]

I agree to a certain extent, but most guys that get drafted high you know them in the spring, the two guys I can think of that vaulted recently were both from LSU in Daniels and Burrow. For the most part the top guys are the top guys. The one dark horse could be the kid in Arizona Noah Fafita. You are right though the Qb position tends to be the one with the highest chance for someone to leap up. RB, Oline, Dline etc the names seem to carry over albeit up and down some.

JJ McCarthy was a projected 3rd rounder.

Rome Odunze was not projected top 15 probably because few thought Penix and Washington would be so good.