NFL Analysis

2/29/24

8 min read

Building the Ideal 2024 NFL Draft QB Prospect

By Derrik Klassen

Film Analyst

No quarterback is perfect. Every draft season, the ideal quarterback prospect would be some funky amalgamation of the top five or six prospects. 

In 2024, that’s not entirely true. You could build a perfect quarterback from Caleb Williams and Drake Maye alone. Those two are exceptional prospects in their own rights and would help fill in each other’s weaknesses. 

For the sake of this exercise, however, we will limit how many times each quarterback can be used to three. It would be boring if every category was either Williams or Maye, so we’ll avoid that and give a few other guys a chance to shine.

Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joe Milton
Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joe Milton (7) drops back to pass the ball against the Georgia Bulldogs during the first half at Neyland Stadium. (Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports)

Size: Joe Milton, Tennessee

This is the easiest category to use a non-premier quarterback. There are plenty of quarterbacks who look the part. 

Joe Milton offers the best frame to work with here. Down in Mobile for the Senior Bowl, Milton measured at 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds. A couple of extra pounds would be nice for a player that tall, but Milton has plenty of muscle on his frame already.

Arm Talent: Spencer Rattler, South Carolina

If “arm talent” was purely about how hard and far a player could throw the ball, Milton would be the leader. 

There’s more to arm talent than that, though. Arm talent is about flexibility and accessibility from different platforms as much as it is about throwing the ball hard. Some players have one or the other, but the best quarterbacks find ways to be flexible and throw the hell out of the ball. 

Spencer Rattler, for all his other flaws, checks that box.

Rattler has an arm that is both loose and explosive, somewhere in the same realm as Patrick Mahomes. There’s a level of elasticity and flexibility to Rattler’s arm that makes zero sense when you see the ball come out of his hand with a smoke trail. 

Rattler can make any throw from anywhere. That’s real arm talent.

Overall Accuracy: Caleb Williams, USC

Accuracy is the ability to control arm talent consistently. Nobody in this class does that better than Williams.

He has a monster arm, of course. And like Rattler's arm, Williams’ is incredibly elastic and explosive.

The difference is Williams gets the ball where it needs to go with consistency. When Williams needs to gun it into a tight window, he does. When the throw requires a feathery touch to leave it over a defender, Williams delivers. 

It does not matter whether Williams is in or out of the pocket. It doesn’t matter whether he is clean or under pressure. Williams’ ball placement is reliable from any platform and to all three levels of the field.

Athleticism: Jayden Daniels, LSU

Almost every quarterback in this class can run. It’s the reality of modern football. 

Nobody runs quite like Jayden Daniels, though.

In a group filled with excellent scramblers and effective runners, Daniels is somehow in a tier of his own. He's explosive in tight spaces, which often helps him escape the pocket in the blink of an eye. 

Daniels is blazing fast in the open field, too. He’s probably not RGIII- or Anthony Richardson–level fast, but he’s a half-tier below that. The man can scoot. 

There’s a smooth, natural essence about Daniels’ ability to maneuver in the open field. It seems easy for him to weave and swerve through the second and third levels. Whether you count that as running instinct or athleticism, it’s still impressive. 

The only issue with Daniels as a runner is his light frame, but that doesn’t matter in this exercise.

Pocket Management: Drake Maye, North Carolina

Maye is a killer from the pocket.

The first thing that stands out is his ability to preempt pressure. Maye is exceptional at knowing when he’s getting heated up and where he needs to drift to combat that. Sometimes, it’s one slight step away. Other times, it’s an extended shuffle. Whatever the play requires, Maye knows and executes it. 

Maye also excels when the pocket is collapsing around him. He has a tall, athletic frame with an explosive lower body. He can easily navigate in the pocket and get off throws. Even better, Maye shows excellent ball-handling skills while shuffling around in the pocket. 

Maye knows when and when not to leave, too. He’s plenty brave enough to hang in tight pockets but quickly realizes when bailing is the best option.

Drake Maye throws the ball
North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Drake Maye (10) throws a pass against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the first half at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field. (Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)

Pre-snap Recognition: Drake Maye, North Carolina

Listen, sometimes Maye can run himself into trouble post-snap. He’s a bit of a chaos magnet. 

Pre-snap, though, Maye operates cleanly.

Maye was given a decent amount of control in UNC’s offense. Throughout his film, you can find him adjusting protections and getting the team out of certain calls.

Likewise, Maye is exceptional at identifying blitzes, as mentioned before. He’s got an excellent sense of how to solve problems before the snap and all the physical tools in the world to act on them.

Post-snap Decision-Making: Caleb Williams, USC

The book on Williams is that he’s a loose cannon who is entirely averse to playing in structure. That’s just not true. The mythologizing of his off-script ability has come to misconstrue his ability to be a normal quarterback, and it’s completely unfair. 

Williams is a good post-snap processor. Yes, he does abort an open quick pass two or three times a game, but that’s not because he doesn’t see it. Williams sometimes opted to go into Superman mode because the USC defense allowed 50 points a game (at least it felt that way). 

For the most part, though, Williams is a smooth operator. He plays with much better timing and footwork than he is given credit for, and he doesn’t excessively put the ball in harm’s way. 

Williams has also proven throughout his film catalog that he can progress like a real NFL quarterback. Getting to the back side is no issue for Williams. That’s not to say he’s a flawless processor, but all the bones of a serious NFL operator are there.

Playmaking: Caleb Williams, USC

Realistically, I don’t need to say anything here. Anyone halfway interested in the draft knows the whole selling point with Williams is what he does off-script. It might be the single most universally understood fact about this draft class. 

To be sure, Williams’ playmaking ability is extremely impressive. He may not be a perfect or generational prospect, but his improvisational skills are as real as they come. 

As a thrower, Williams has a unique gift for getting throws off from any platform. He doesn't just have the arm talent to do so — he plays with an unwavering confidence in himself and a rare creative flair. There’s no throw on the field Williams can’t make, and he plays like he wants to prove it.

Williams is a fantastic scrambler, too. Williams doesn’t bail the pocket and go into chaos mode nearly as often as people think, but when he does, he’s special. Williams is incredibly bouncy, agile and balanced against contact. He’s pretty fast in a straight line, too. Check the Arizona State game from this year if you need proof of what Williams can do with his legs. 

What Williams can do when plays break down is probably the best “superpower” any of these quarterbacks have.

Tags: NFL Draft

Derrik Klassen

Film Analyst

Derrik Klassen is an NFL and NFL Draft film analyst with a particular interest in quarterbacks. Klassen's work is also featured on Bleacher Report and Reception Perception.

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