• The film shows a promising talent, albeit on a small sample size: Weigman played just three-and-a-half games in 2023 but posted elite PFF grades nonetheless.
• PFF's stable metrics suggest Weigman is in for a great season: If the Texas A&M signal-caller can stay healthy, he is on track to put up big numbers and become a top draft prospect.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
As strange as it sounds for a draft analyst to say, one of my favorite periods of the yearly cycle is the summer.
The draft has come and gone, yes, and no NFL or college games are being played. How could this be one’s favorite time on the football calendar? The answer is summer scouting, which is when we take an initial deep dive into the tape and the PFF data for the upcoming draft class.
Before summer scouting, my opinions of college football underclassmen who aren’t draft-eligible are based on what I’ve seen on TV or in person. My football fandom leaves me parked on my couch with multiple screens to soak in the action on Saturdays and Sundays, but I am just there to enjoy the next year’s draft prospect highlights until the summer arrives, not really digging into the depths of how they play and how it could translate to the NFL.
Summer scouting has begun for the 2025 class, and I’ve now made my way through early evaluations for 15 of the upcoming draft-eligible quarterbacks. My early scouting for the class’ QB1 title led me to names such as Carson Beck from Georgia, Shedeur Sanders from Colorado and Quinn Ewers from Texas. All three are in my early top eight, with Beck and Sanders both in my top three. But another, less-lauded player barely edged them out for the top spot heading into the 2024 college football season.
Conner Weigman of Texas A&M.
Highest-Graded SEC Quarterbacks | 2023
A Promising Start
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Weigman was a five-star recruit coming out of high school as the No. 3 quarterback and No. 22 overall player in the 2022 recruiting class. He was also a top baseball recruit and originally committed to Texas A&M to play both football and baseball. He never ended up playing baseball, since he became QB1 for the football team in the second half of his true freshman season.
Weigman was QB3 entering that 2022 season, but injuries to Haynes King and Max Johnson thrust the freshman into a starting role. Not considering the game in which he came off the bench for the first time, Weigman finished the 2022 campaign with a 69.0 PFF overall grade and a 65.1 passing grade in five outings. With a full offseason under his belt, he entered 2023 as the Week 1 starter. That lasted all of three-and-a-half games before a foot injury sidelined him for the rest of the year. His meager workload still yielded an elite overall grade (91.9) and an elite passing grade (90.9).
Weigman’s competition level in those three-and-a-half games wasn’t the best. First was a home affair against New Mexico, then a road contest against Miami (FL) before Texas A&M hosted Louisiana-Monroe and Auburn. If you want to throw Weigman’s early QB1 case out the window because of a lack of competition and experience, I can’t fight you. But if you watch the reps, you’ll see a really exciting quarterback prospect.
The Metrics
Bigger sample sizes are always better when looking at PFF grades and metrics, as they provide more confidence in the data. Weigman lacks such a sample, but he still recorded a 4.5% big-time throw rate and just a 2.1% turnover-worthy play rate in 2023. He also posted a 73.8% adjusted completion percentage, an adequate clip for a starter. It’s the stable projection metrics that really make Weigman intriguing, though.
The Texas A&M signal-caller earned an elite passing grade from a clean pocket (92.6), on early downs (91.2) and when there was no play action (92.4). He also placed in the 98th percentile in avoiding negatives (10.3%), meaning how often he earned a negative grade on a dropback. He finished in the 88th percentile in avoiding sacks behind an offensive line that was the second-worst such unit in the SEC during the aforementioned three-and-a-half-game stretch.
Under-pressure PFF passing grade is more unstable but provides important information, and Weigman’s 86.5 mark placed in the 97th percentile. On third-and-7 or longer, he earned an 87.9 grade, another strong showing in a key metric.
Film Reigns Supreme
Even here at PFF, the film is king; you have to see the database numbers translate to the field. Weigman’s film contains more flashes than volume due to a lack of games played, but the promise was there. He was comfortable and confident both in shotgun and under center. He showed natural touch and ball placement on intermediate and deep passes. His multi-sport background gave him a natural feel for moving around the pocket, escaping pressure and even picking up yards with his legs. His throw power was adequate for the NFL level, and he saw the field well. He was not locked into primary reads and even allowed himself to get through frontside and backside progressions when he had time.
Weigman’s leg sometimes kicks wide on his follow-through, which is common for quarterbacks with a baseball background. There were times when he thew off his back foot, fading away simply because he knew he could. And the biggest issue was that against his toughest opponent (Auburn), he looked the most uncomfortable. Was that a true concern of his against better competition, or was it just a moment in time on a small sample size?
Once again, if experience and competition level weigh heavily in your scouting grades, you likely won't have Weigman among your top three quarterbacks entering the season. But in a quarterback class where there is no surefire top-10 pick, I liked the building blocks I saw from him in 2023. Here’s to a fully healthy 2024 for Weigman, a quarterback who has the chance to be one of the first at his position off the board if we get a complete season from him.
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