There has been no shortage of hype surrounding quarterbacks Bryce Young (Alabama) and CJ Stroud (Ohio State) ahead of the 2022 college football season.
But they aren’t the only two talented signal-callers in the upcoming class, which is loaded with talent at the position across several conferences. With this, it’s easy to get the sense that several passers could be selected in the early rounds of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Here’s a look into 10 quarterbacks outside of Stroud and Young to keep a watch on this season, in no particular order:
1. Grayson McCall, Coastal Carolina.
McCall could easily be a top-five quarterback in 2022 as he prepares to take the next step within one of college football’s most complicated offenses -- one he’s shown incredible mastery of a short period of time. Within Coastal Carolina’s triple-option offense with RPOs, a quarterback must have a high football IQ and make quick decisions, both things McCall has shown that bode well for him when he goes on to the NFL.
The Chanticleers signal-caller showed solid anticipation on several difficult throws last season, maintaining a high level of accuracy at all levels of the field and moves well within the pocket, with the ability to make throws on the run and without his feet set. Questions have been raised about McCall’s arm strength at times, but he’s shown it’s non-issue on throws like the one below. McCall may not have a cannon for an arm and won’t rank as highly as some of the other quarterbacks on this list in that category, but it is adequate enough to get the job done.
In addition to being a reliable passer, McCall’s greatest “it” factor may lie in this gritty, electric type of mobility he brings to the table.
“I’m a quarterback but I’m also a football player,” McCall told me earlier this offseason. “I don’t mind the contact, sticking my nose in there and being tough. I like watching guys like Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers. Their toughness and their grit and the way they extend plays and the way they throw on the run. I don’t model my game off of anyone in particular, but I do like watching those guys.”
He will be up against the “small-school stigma” in a class that has appealing prospects from larger conferences, but quarterbacks should be judged based off of what they can do as an individual, and McCall checks a lot of boxes. It’s also worth noting that McCall very well could have entered the transfer portal and contended against tougher competition without issue, but his loyalty to Coastal Carolina and the new heights he’s helped the school reach are important to him and there’s nowhere else he’d want to finish out his career.
“Coastal Carolina kind of made me into who I am,” McCall said. “I started here and I want to finish here. I love this school and I love the people here. I love the program and the coaches. I’m right down the road from my family. I want to stay here and I want to leave a legacy here and give this school everything that I have.”
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound redshirt junior ended 2021 with a 73% completion percentage, 2,873 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and just three interceptions. While Stroud and Young hold firm on the QB1 and QB2 spots in preseason position rankings for now, it’s easy to get the sense McCall is among the strongest candidates to surpass one or both of them if any draft-eligible quarterback is able to.
Grayson McCall with a beautiful throw on the run pic.twitter.com/ptFc6Ax0tq
— Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno) October 29, 2021
2. Jake Haener, Fresno State.
The Washington transfer Haener got off to one of the best starts among college football quarterbacks in 2021, throwing for 300 yards or more in his first six games of the season with a single-game high of 455 yards over that stretch. He ended the year with a 67.1% completion percentage, 4,096 passing yards, 33 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
One of Haener’s biggest moments of last season -- the one he caught the most national attention for -- was knocking off No. 13-ranked UCLA while gritting through a right hip injury.
🚨 DOWN GOES NO. 13 UCLA 🚨
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 19, 2021
Fresno State QB Jake Haener — in some noticeable pain — leads his team 6 plays, 75 yards in 40 seconds for the go-ahead touchdown.
🎥 @MountainWest pic.twitter.com/Lp5IAARYye
“I have never been in that situation before, with that pain while trying to throw,” Haener said after the game. “I literally felt like I could barely throw the ball at that point, so that kind of sucked. That was really the first time that I’ve had to do that in that situation…I couldn’t really rotate. I was just trying to keep my balance so I could use whatever I had to get the ball out there and try to make something happen with whatever time we had left. You’ve just got to find a way at those points, and we made it happen.”
It was working though the injury that played a role into Haener not touching a 60% completion percentage in four of the games over the weeks 6-10 stretch.
“I was battling through some injuries and some things I needed to get over… I had some problems with my lower leg and my hip and stuff like that was kind of lingering and it was really an issue for me,” Haener told me. “I had to wear different cleats and do a bunch of things with my cleats and find ways to get out there and play and tough it through things. It was just a matter of responding. Even the best of players have bad games, everybody has bad games. You learn from your failures and try to be more successful down the road.”
It’s hard not to wonder just how much more buzz Haener could have gotten if it hadn’t have been for the injury issue as he was entering the conversation for one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Heading into 2022, though, he’ll be fully healthy and have a chance to answer that question. There’s a lot to like about Haener’s game -- he couldn’t be stronger from an intangibles perspective, is a reliably accurate passer and remains poised in the pocket regardless of the situation at hand. He’s a quarterback who has shown the ability to make plays out of structure, puts the right amount of zip on his passes with the desired amount of arm strength and has made several difficult throws, though his overall ball placement could stand to improve a bit in 2022.
Ahhhhh so this is Jake Haener. pic.twitter.com/x7Foe6Qo8T
— Ryan Roberts (@RiseNDraft) September 21, 2021
3. Devin Leary, NC State.
Leary was hardly on anyone’s radar ahead of the 2021 season even with it being a so-called “weaker” quarterback class. But he earned his way into the conversation of being potentially the best quarterback in the ACC with his play last year. Leary finished out the season with a completion percentage of 65.7%, 3,433 passing yards, 35 touchdowns and five interceptions, showing notable improvement in taking care of the football and not forcing things that aren’t there. In fact, according to Pro Football Focus, Leary had the lowest rate of turnover-worthy plays among quarterbacks in 2021 (1.8%).
It’s easy to see why Leary broke into the late Heisman conversation, between an already impressive level of mental processing that it is ever-improving, his ability to make plays in unlikely situations between his overall talent as a passer, mobility and ability to evade pressure, the velocity he puts on his throws and from a broader perspective, the way his team is never truly out of the fight with Leary taking the snaps. He showcased that best when he threw two touchdown passes in 63 seconds to knock off in-state rival UNC, 34-30.
Devin Leary deserves a statue outside of CF pic.twitter.com/mlRGZ2HoFy
— WolfpackNation (@NCSUFans) November 27, 2021
NC State offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tim Beck has praised Leary for his leadership ability and his ability to pick things up now on his third offense of his college career. Leary continued to progress throughout the spring and should be expected to be getting the ball out faster in 2022.
“This spring, one thing we worked on was a quicker release,” Beck told me in April. “We do a lot of the RPO stuff and making the decision hasn’t always been the issue, sometimes it’s being a little bit longer, you’re trying to get your feet set, trying to be on platform, like the perfect throwing mechanics, right? Well, that doesn’t work all the time – he’s got a really strong arm and we’ve worked a lot on off-balance throws, different arm angles and I thought he really made a jump there. I really like what he did.”
4. Tyler Van Dyke, Miami.
The Mario Cristobal effect has taken root in Miami and will only get stronger as the team moves through the year. This could mean huge things for Van Dyke, who showed as in 2021 that he could rise to the occasion in the midst of adversity in place of D’Eriq King. He played in 10 games last season, completing 62.3% of his passes for 2,931 yards with 25 touchdowns and six interceptions. One of his best showings came against the No. 17-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers as he recorded a 76.2% completion percentage, passing for 426 yards with three touchdowns and one interception in a 38-34 win.
The third-year sophomore looks to have the best arm in the upcoming draft class and has a prototypical frame at 6-foot-4 and 224 pounds. Just about everything about his game last year was impressive considering he was a freshman first-year starter thrown into the fire. He’s an overall accurate passer with sound lower-body mechanics who throws with good anticipation and placement, unaffected by pressure. Another aspect of his game that’s not so talked-about is mobility. He’s not Lamar Jackson, but he can move when he’s forced to leave the pocket.
When I spoke with Van Dyke during spring football, he noted studying defense more in-depth as an area he was focusing on and was pleased with his growth during the 2021 season.
“Last year, I feel like what I got better at was my decision-making, my poise in the pocket, when everything breaks down, just staying calm,” Van Dyke said. “Moving forward, I’m focused on watching more film, getting better at reading defenses, knowing where the defensive guys are going to be on each and every play will help me get to the next level.”
Tyler Van Dyke in the second half of the 2021 season:
— PFF College (@PFF_College) January 18, 2022
▪️Top 10 in yards
▪️Top 10 in touchdowns
▪️Top 10 in big time throws
Only QB in the FBS 🙌pic.twitter.com/aBEluPiyCf
Moving forward, his pre-snap responsibilities will be somewhat different, as should be expected when a team changes coaches.
“It’s a little different,” Van Dyke said. “Last year, we had to say the protections to the line and tell the line the play, and now it’s the complete opposite. The line looks over to the sideline and they get the play and so I don’t have to do that anymore. I do look to see if I have to flip the protection and what not. In terms of overall pre-snap responsibilities, it’s similar in some ways but also different.”
Van Dyke has shown all right stuff to this point, it’s just a matter of him continuing to do that over a larger sample size.
5. Brennan Armstrong, UVA.
Perhaps there would be even more talk of Armstrong right now if he wasn’t held back by a rib injury that hampered him in the second half of the season. Armstrong played 11 games in UVA’s Air Raid offense last season, completing 65.3% of his passes for 4,444 yards with 31 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on 501 passing attempts. That’s a touchdown-to-interception ratio he’ll need to improve a bit in 2022, although it is obviously more mathematically probable for a quarterback to throw more interceptions in a pass-happy offense. He throws well with touch and velocity and knows when to throw with which, placing the ball well where only his receiver can grab it and doesn’t have an issue with tight windows.
Armstrong throws one of the best deep balls in the country, and unlike some other Air Raid quarterbacks, which are largely pocket passers, he has the ability to keep defenses honest with his legs when the situation calls for it. Maneuvering the pocket well and having the ability to evade pressure are boxes all quarterbacks must check, but what he can do on the ground goes beyond that. Injury issue and all, Armstrong managed two games where he came within six yards or less of hitting the century-mark on the ground. Despite this, Armstrong needs to do a better job of hanging in the pocket moving forward as he’s shown a tendency to want to bail early.
Armstrong’s stat line as a passer is something that instantly catches the eye. One of the first things an analyst usually does when they see numbers like this is question if they’re inflated or not. Armstrong’s success is a result of his own doing and isn’t just a yards after the catch thing, considering his average depth of target was 11.1 yards -- third in the Power Five.
Virginia's Brennan Armstrong has thrown plenty of bombs this season 💣
— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 14, 2021
His 32 Big-Time Throws leads all P5 QBs 🎯pic.twitter.com/xf6k65LBTU
6. Will Rogers, Mississippi State.
Rogers took a notable step in 2021, growing particularly in his decision-making, release time and ball placement throughout the year. The Bulldogs signal-caller has been praised plenty for his intangibles and the way he brings a locker room together, but he seems to finally be coming together in every aspect of quarterbacking. Rogers operates in the Air Raid system which puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback, who essentially becomes a coach on the field in their last two years or so within the system.
Head coach Mike Leach noted Rogers was assuming a bit more pre-snap responsibility when I asked him about the quarterback during spring football.
“I think he’s more consistent. I think he can kind of aggressively check more of the package on his own,” Leach said. “The other thing is – he’s been good at this but even better now perhaps – he brings energy to the offensive unit.”
Rogers finished out the season as one of the statistically strongest passers in the country, completing 73.9% of his passes for 4,739 yards with 36 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He broke a number of program records, also surpassing the SEC single-game completion percentage record (minimum of 30 attempts) when he was good for 92.3% of his passes in the 31-17 upset win over No. 12-ranked Kentucky back in November. Rogers continuously got more accurate as time went on last season and began to get the ball out faster after being frequently knocked early on for holding onto it for too long, leaving only the short pass to the running back available by the time he let it go. That’s something that causes issues quickly, considering the defense knows exactly where the ball is going by the time it’s out in that situation.
The game is slowing down for Rogers and it’s reasonable to expect to see more deep-ball success from him in 2022 after the glimpses of that he gave in the back half of the season. If he can continue to take the next step and build off what he showed toward the end of 2021 and in the spring, Rogers could quickly become the unanimous SEC QB2.
Will Rogers had one of the greatest QB performances in Mississippi State history yesterday.
— Tru Maroon Nation (@TruMaroonNation) November 14, 2021
🎯 44/55
🔥6 TDs
📈 179.4 QB Rating
🐶 25-point comeback
✅ win over Auburn at Jordan-Hare pic.twitter.com/6PLdyT9gbH
7. Will Levis, Kentucky.
Levis has gotten a lot of hype this offseason as a player who some consider QB3 in this upcoming draft class. He’s seen some development as a passer since playing in the Kentucky offense, transitioning from the “Lion” role at Penn State that was Taysom Hill-esque. So he certainly brings an intriguing level of athleticism and versatility in addition to having a cannon attached to his arm.
But there are still some strides to be made in his overall consistency in regards to his lower-body mechanics, ball placement, going through his progressions and not putting the ball in harm’s way. How well he makes those will have a lot to do with how long he remains toward the top of most analysts’ quarterback rankings and if he can remain in the Heisman conversation that he’s been named one of the early favorites for.
Levis finished out his first season with the Wildcats with a 66% completion percentage, 2,827 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and nine scores on the ground.
I know for the national media folks the Will Levis hype feels sudden and forced, sure some of it is. He might not be the first overall pick, but he can do this, and that's enough to garner the attention he's getting. pic.twitter.com/c3cZBR05Nj
— Jesse Riffe (@JesseRiffe) May 10, 2022
8. Phil Jurkovec, Boston College.
Jurkovec wasn’t able to play out a full season due to a hand injury that limited him to just six games, but the Notre Dame transfer had started to garner some attention as a potential early-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft before he was sidelined. Over those six games, he completed 52-of-96 passes (54.2%) for 914 yards with seven touchdowns and four interceptions. Given the wonky season Jurkovec had where injury is concerned, it’s hard to put a ton of emphasis on numbers alone.
Boston College QB Phil Jurkovec is 6-5, 226 pounds with good wheels, maneuverability and arm-talent for the position. #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/uGvx3icS7p
— WBG84 (@WBG84) May 7, 2022
The 6-foot-5, 226-pound Jurkovec is generally classified as a pocket passer, he has shown he ability evade pressure and throw on the run when defenses bring the pressure (feel free to take the below as a prime example) and has an underrated sense of athleticism that has given opposing defenses problems throughout his career. One of the reasons Jurkovec chose to come over from Notre Dame to Boston College was because of the NFL-style offense it runs, something that will help him when he transitions to the NFL -- and he operates it well. Between Jurkovec’s arm talent, ability to make deep throws into tight windows down the sideline and chemistry with wide receiver Zay Flowers, he should be an exciting player to watch through the air this year and could end up being one of the more slept-on quarterbacks in the country ahead of the season if he builds upon the flashes he’s shown since arriving on the scene at Boston College. One area he seems to have progressively gotten better in is timing on throws, something he’ll need to continue into 2022 that should naturally grow as chemistry grows.
I'm going to be keeping an eye on Phil Jurkovec at Boston College this CFB season. pic.twitter.com/k5MeAYUx4Z
— Kyle Yates (@KyleYNFL) June 29, 2021
9. Tanner McKee, Stanford.
McKee initially lost the QB1 competition to Jack West in the preseason, but quickly claimed the top spot early on in the season and held on for the entirety of the season, eventually garnering some pre-draft buzz. He finished the season with a 64.7% completion percentage, 1,722 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and a mere three interceptions.
McKee could have declared after last season but felt there was more he could work on by returning for another year in Stanford’s West Coast offense. In addition to playing in an offense that has a lot of concepts that carry over to the NFL, the 6-foot-6, 228-pounder’s quick release, accuracy, ability to push the ball downfield and take shots into tight windows give him a solid base as a quarterback as he prepares to take the next step.
In addition to intangibles like his leadership ability, McKee prides himself on having an incredibly high football IQ, something that will show through as Stanford adds some new things it its offensive scheme in the upcoming season.
“We’re bringing in some new concepts and we have a lot of guys who have been hurt that I feel like I have good timing with who are coming back—a lot very talented wide receivers, running backs, O-linemen, we didn’t really lose anybody on the offensive side of the ball,” McKee told me in March. “Our expectation is to put up 40-50 points per game. We’re not going to settle for anything less. We feel like we have that capability and we should be able to do that.”
Tanner McKee: 65.4 completion %
— PFF College (@PFF_College) February 11, 2022
1st among Pac-12 QBs in 2021 🥇pic.twitter.com/fobdUusnzO
10. Sam Hartman, Wake Forest.
Hartman was initially the starting quarterback for the Demon Deacons as a true freshman in 2018, forced out of action early on in his career before losing the top spot on the depth chart to Jamie Newman. He earned his way back onto the field in 2020 and has remained Wake Forest’s starting quarterback since, experiencing a rise all the way into the midseason Heisman conversation as he led the Demon Deacons to an 8-0 start and an ACC Championship Game appearance.
Hartman was among the most exciting players to watch last season as the dual-threat signal-caller rose through the ranks, making a consistent impact both through the air and on the ground. It wasn’t all pretty, though. Hartman ended the season with a completion percentage of 58.9% with 4,228 passing yards, 39 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Hartman had eight games with at least one interception and and three games with at least two interceptions, the worst of which was his four-interception showing in the title game against Pittsburgh, so taking care of the football within Wake Forest’s “Clawfense” will be paramount for him in 2022.
Among Hartman’s positive traits are his composure in the pocket that’s remained a constant for him even under heavy pressure, his ability to accurately make off-platform throws, throw with touch, timing and anticipation and drive short throws. He does need to clean up overall accuracy, though, as is reflected by the sub-60% completion percentage he’s finished each season with. Last season, Hartman also became the first quarterback to throw for 30 or more touchdown passes and rush for 10 more scores since Lamar Jackson did it at Louisville in 2016.
Sam Hartman points toward Donald Stewart before this fourth-and-9 conversion ...
— Conor O'Neill (@ConorONeill_DI) November 16, 2021
Guessing he knew the stack coverage meant CB blitz coming and that's where the ball needed to go. pic.twitter.com/X0ucKwDPCI
Others of note: Hendon Hooker (Tennessee), Cameron Rising (Utah), Cameron Ward (Washington State), Aidan O’Connell (Purdue), Taulia Tagovailoa (Maryland), Tyler Shough (Texas Tech), Nate Cox (Nevada), Hank Bachmeier (Boise State), Michael Pratt (Tulane)
