• Intriguing QB class: Big-time performances from Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward and Jalen Milroe have made this year's QB class look stronger than it did before the season.
• Tetairoa McMillan puts on a show: McMillan appears to be the favorite to be this draft class' WR1 after his 10-catch, 304-yard and four-touchdown performance this past weekend.
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Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
With Week 1 of college football in the books, it’s time for our first draft takeaway article of the year. It’s a star-studded article this week, as a lot of the top names had notable performances – we’ll be sure to get to some of the more unknown risers throughout the year.
This quarterback class just got very interesting
As they always are, the quarterbacks were a big storyline in Week 1. As QB3 on the PFF big board, Colorado‘s Shedeur Sanders had an excellent start to his season, throwing for 445 yards with five big-time throws and a 91.9 passing grade. He impressed under pressure once again, earning a 93.5 passing grade with three big-time throws in those situations. Georgia’s Carson Beck did not have a big-time throw in his game against Clemson, recording a 63.7 passing grade, but he looked fine overall. Texas A&M’s Connor Weigman was the most disappointing of all the top draft quarterbacks this weekend. In the lowest-graded game of his career (28.4), he threw three turnover-worthy plays and recorded no big-time throws. The Notre Dame defense made him uncomfortable all game, and he just did not look calm and collected enough to operate the pocket the way we saw him do so in the few games he started last year.
As for the rest, Alabama’s Jalen Miloe and Texas’ Quinn Ewers both took care of business against their opponents and got off to good starts. The star of the weekend was Miami’s Cam Ward, who — in his first game with the Hurricanes — went into The Swamp against Florida and earned a 90.3 passing grade, the highest single-game grade of his career. His unorthodox throwing style is sometimes tough to trust, but his confidence and how in control he was all day soothes those worries. More games like that and he could soar up the draft board.
To round things out, we had quite the quarterback showdown between LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier and USC’s Miller Moss on Sunday night. Both of these quarterbacks have been waiting their turn at their respective programs, and it looked like the time to prepare paid off for both of them. Both threw for over 300 yards and showed legit NFL arm talent, but in the end, Moss won the dual with five big-time throws and a 93.9 passing grade.
Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan takes the WR1 lead
The 2024 season kicked off with a neck-and-neck race for WR1 in the upcoming draft between two stellar players: Missouri’s Luther Burden III and Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan. Burden started his campaign off solidly with four catches, 49 receiving yards and a touchdown against Murray State, but McMillan went nuclear against New Mexico with 10 catches, 304 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
McMillan was already going to win the body battle, as he is listed at 6-foot-5, 212 pounds compared to Burden at 5-foot-11, 208 pounds. However, McMillan won in a way we weren’t expecting to see him win as successfully as he did against New Mexico State, and that was with yards after catch ability. He finished the night with 176 yards after the catch, showcasing acceleration and speed that is rare for a player who also possesses his level of height.
This wide receiver battle will go back and forth all season long, but for now, McMillan takes the early lead.
Notre Dame’s Benjamin Morrison making his CB1 case
Michigan’s Will Johnson got most of the publicity this summer as the top cornerback for the 2025 NFL Draft and with good reason; he is very talented, and is, in fact, at the top cornerback on our big board to start the season. However, Notre Dame’s Benjamin Morrison was not talked about enough as CB2, and the gap between them is not as large as people may believe.
Morrison showed that this past Saturday against Texas A&M, earning a 72.6 coverage grade on 36 coverage snaps. In total, he played 68 snaps, which was second most on the defense. Sixty-four of those snaps came as their wide cornerback, but he also had some key plays in the slot, including sticky man coverage rep as Texas A&M was trying to get into scoring position on their last drive of the first half. At 6-foot and 190 pounds, Morrison will be a key part of one of the better defenses in the country this season.
How high can Colorado’s Travis Hunter go in the draft?
What more can we say about Travis Hunter at this point? Against North Dakota State, Hunter played 57 snaps on offense as a receiver, earning an 81.4 receiving grade with seven catches, 132 yards and three touchdowns. He also played 72 snaps as a cornerback, earning a 65.5 coverage grade while allowing just 14 yards on two catches. His incredible all-around performance promoted social media debates on whether or not he would be more of a receiver or a corner at the NFL level.
The truth is he can play both. He likely won’t unless he chooses to be a cornerback primarily. There is a world where he could mostly play cornerback but the offense uses him for a handful of plays at receiver, but it is unrealistic to think that a defensive coach would let him just go out there and play a few snaps at cornerback if he primarily plays receiver.
Nonetheless, it truly feels like this is so special of a player where the top five might be his floor depending on how many quarterbacks are graded that highly.
Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is a first-round running back
If you watched any sort of college football this weekend, there is a good chance that at some point whatever network you were watching cut away to some highlights from college football. If they did, Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty rushing for 267 yards on 20 carries for six touchdowns was probably mentioned.
The sheer stats are enough to make Jeanty alluring in the upcoming NFL draft. But common rushing stats can often fool you when it comes to true value for a running back and how high you should draft them. Thankfully for Jeanty – PFF’s No. 1 running back entering the season – his higher value metrics are also stellar. His 0.52 missed tackles forced that game is one of the higher marks we’ll see from any back in any single game all season, as were his 11 missed tackles forced in total. He also gained 7.8 yards after contact, a metric we like to lean on to showcase how well a back runs the ball independent of their offensive line. His work as a receiver in this game wasn’t anything to write home about with only four yards, but he finished last season with an elite 91.6 receiving grade, so we already know he is an asset in the passing game.
We don’t often say that running backs hold enough individual value to be considered in the first round, but Jeanty is making a strong case for that.
South Carolina’s T.J. Sanders is a name to know
The Gamecocks were in a much closer battle with Old Dominion than many of us expected, but a big bright spot for South Carolina was their play on the defensive line. Five-star freshman edge rusher Dylan Stewart looks like the real deal, earning a 94.4 pass-rush grade, and draft-eligible interior defensive lineman T.J. Sanders also looked the part of a future NFL player with an 86.9 overall grade and 82.5 pass-rush grade. As a three-technique defensive tackle, he recorded five total pressures and a 21.4% pass-rush win percentage. He’s a name to know in the defensive line group for 2025.
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