Poll - Colorado's Shedeur Sanders tops 'muddy' race for 1st QB drafted - ESPN

BERKELEY, Calif. — Nearly halfway through the college football season, there's still a fascinating race among the sport's top quarterbacks to see who'll be first one taken in the NFL draft this spring.

Heading into Week 6, there's still five quarterbacks who could claim the top spot, making this a particularly «muddy» year as one veteran scout termed it. Part of that lack of conviction comes from the caliber of the quarterback crop, as it's considered a distinctly lower-quality quarterback class than the record class of six quarterbacks drafted in the Top 12 picks last year.

ESPN polled 20 NFL scouts and executives who evaluate college players to see where they stood right now on the top quarterback for the 2025 NFL Draft. The variance of answers proved telling, as Colorado's Shedeur Sanders got nine votes, Georgia's Carson Beck got five and Alabama's Jalen Milroe got four. Both Miami's Cam Ward and Texas' Quinn Ewers got one vote, with Ward rising in the NFL and Ewers' standing likely hurt after missing the last two weeks with an injury.

The poll should be regraded as more of a bellwether for the uncertainty in the class and potential volatility between now and the draft more than any type of definitive predictor.

Executives agreed it's rare to have this many quarterbacks in the conversation and this much uncertainty around the quarterback position. There's been unanimous feeling in scouting circles that there's a significant step back in top quarterback talent from last year's historic haul, which isn't a surprise. «Definitely a strange year,» observed one veteran executive. «Obviously need to see more.» Both Ward and Milroe can be considered the risers in recent weeks, as two scouted noted that they had Ward second on