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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a starting quarterback battle between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask for 2023, but the team is projected to be in the market for one of the top signal-callers in the 2024 NFL draft. Caleb Williams and Drake Maye have garnered much of the attention looking ahead to next year’s class, but there are several other quarterbacks worth keeping an eye on, including Texas star Quinn Ewers.
The quarterback initially entered Ohio State as a highly touted five-star recruit and the No. 1 ranked player in the country, per 247Sports. After one season in Columbus, Ewers transferred to the Longhorns where the early indications have the signal-caller fighting off Arch Manning for the QB1 spot. TheDraftScout.com’s initial 2024 mock draft has the Bucs selecting Ewers at No. 7 as the third quarterback projected to come off the board.
“There was talk of the Buccaneers taking a quarterback in the first round of the 2023 draft but they didn’t go that route,” The Draft Scout detailed on May 1, 2023. “With Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield battling it out this season I expect the Bucs to be drafting high enough to get their future quarterback in 2024.
“Quinn Ewers has been a top 2024 draft prospect since his sophomore or junior year of high school. The Texas transfer has already had a big spring by beating out Arch Manning for the starting job in Austin. If Ewers can come close to living up to his recruiting hype there is no way he will be available at No. 7. This Longhorns fan hopes he can do it.”
Potential Tampa Bay Buccaneers Target Quinn Ewers Was the No. 1 Ranked High School Player in 2021
Few players entered college football with the level of expectations that Ewers did with his signature mullet and $1 million NIL deals before playing a down. Ewers heads into a pivotal season that will likely determine whether the quarterback can emerge as a first-round pick in 2024.
Thanks to a deep quarterback group at Ohio State, Ewers has only played one college football season. The star threw for 2,177 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing 58.1% of his passes during 10 appearances in 2022. Ewers has a wide range of evaluations as an NFL prospect with The Athletic’s Dane Brugler putting the Longhorns star as his No. 5 ranked quarterback for the 2024 draft.
“If the draft were to happen tomorrow, I don’t think Ewers would be a first-round lock,” Brugler detailed on July 10. “He’s just not there yet. But the Longhorns’ QB, who recently turned 20, is on a promising trajectory and it will be interesting to see the jump he makes in 2023.”
NFL Draft Rumors: Texas QB Quinn Ewers Could ‘Explode Up the Board,’ Says Insider
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer believes Ewers could still “explode up the board” heading into the 2024 draft. Ewers’ draft stock is challenging to predict given his small sample size of games.
“If there’s one [college quarterback] who could explode up the board, Ewers might be it,” Breer noted on July 10. “Still raw, and once a historically highly-rated recruit, the Ohio State transfer had plenty of wow moments in his first season as a Longhorn (which actually would have been his true-freshman year, had he not reclassified and skipped his senior year of high school).”
As for the Buccaneers, there is still a chance that Mayfield or Trask could emerge as a viable long-term solution at quarterback. Yet, the nature of Mayfield’s one-year, $4 million contract shows Tampa Bay is also open to making another move at the position next offseason if the team is not pleased with the play in 2023. The good news is with Williams, Maye, Ewers, J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix and Michael Pennix among others, the 2024 quarterback group appears to be deep.
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