The 2025 NFL Draft kicks off in just over two months.
NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah held his annual pre-combine conference call this week, where he answered questions from reporters from all across the country.
Jeremiah covered a wide variety of topics, including, of course, the top quarterbacks in this year’s draft class.
Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders are widely considered to be the top two signal-callers in the draft. In his original ranking of this year’s top 50 draft prospects, Jeremiah had Ward at No. 10 and Sanders right behind him at No. 11. However, in the next edition of his prospect rankings, set to be released next week, the draft analyst said he will have some separation between the two.
“When I first watched the quarterbacks, I stacked them right next to each other, and they’re totally different in terms of their strengths and weaknesses,” Jeremiah said on the call when asked about how the two quarterbacks fit in with the Giants and Jets. “The more that I’ve done, the more I’ve kind of created some separation, and that will be reflected when the top 50 comes out next week, the updated top 50.
“I like Shedeur. I think Shedeur is — when you look at the things he does really well, the accuracy, anticipation, toughness, he just keeps getting up after taking a beating, but some of the other things that Cam has, he doesn’t have, which is just a little bit more twitch in his body. He has a more live arm. I think he’s more equipped to play in that division, in that stadium, in that environment that you’re going to get with weather. I think Shedeur makes more sense just as relying a little bit more as a touch thrower than a power thrower.”
The 2024 NFL Draft saw six quarterbacks get selected within the first 12 picks, which tied the 1983 record for most QBs taken in the first round.
Of course, Jeremiah was asked where Ward and Sanders would rank among last year’s first-round quarterbacks.
“I always tend to be a little bit more let’s chase the up side a little bit when we’re up there,” Jeremiah said about the teams selecting at the top of the first round. “That’s the direction I would go. When you look at this group compared to last year, I’ll just pull up my list from last year, I had him — I had Cam Ward with the same grade as Bo Nix, so that would put him behind the top four for me, so he would be in the fifth range.
“Michael Penix I had just slightly ahead of Shedeur, so Shedeur would be behind those guys, behind Caleb, Drake, Jayden, McCarthy, Nix, Penix. Then I would have Shedeur right behind that group.”