Ranking top QB prospects in 2025 NFL Draft by QBR

College football is nearly here. Week 0 of the regular season will feature four games on Saturday, including Florida State and Georgia Tech kicking off the action in Dublin .

Even before the season starts, there's plenty of buzz about the top quarterback prospects in the 2025 NFL draft class. A few returners from last year – Carson Beck, Quinn Ewers and Shedeur Sanders – are among headliners for the class, while a few transfers – Dillon Gabriel and Riley Leonard – are also set to further boost their draft stock.

With the regular season yet to begin, the best way to stack up these top prospects is to use some of last year's cumulative metrics. Here's how the top gunslingers in the upcoming draft class stack up according to ESPN's QBR rating for each of them from the 2023 season:

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ESPN's QBR explained

Every week, ESPN gives each quarterback a QBR (quarterback rating) for their latest performance. According to ESPN, the rating is intended to "incorporate all of a quarterback’s contributions to winning, including how he impacts the game on passes, rushes, turnovers and penalties."

QBR measures each play's degree of success and how much credit the quarterback deserves for the play. The statistic also takes into account the strength of opposing defenses faced. The final result is an efficiency rating as a number on a 0-to-100 point scale. The cumulative rating is averaged out on a per-play basis across the course of the season.

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Ranking top quarterback prospects by QBR

Here's how the top quarterback prospects stack up using their 2023 QBR ahead of the 2024 college football season.

1. Dillon Gabriel, Oregon (QBR: 87.3)
2. Kaidon Salter, Liberty (86.2)
3. Noah Fifita, Arizona (85.6)
4. Carson Beck, Georgia (85.2)
5. Kyle McCord, Syracuse (83.7)
6. Jalen Milroe, Alabama (83.6)
7. DJ Uiagalelei, Florida State (80.8)
8. Quinn Ewers, Texas (78.7)
9. Brady Cook, Missouri (77.2)
10. Garrett Greene, West Virginia (76.7)
11. Jaxson Dart, Mississippi (76.7)
12. Will Howard, Ohio State (75.3)
13. Drew Allar, Penn State (72.7)
14. Riley Leonard, Notre Dame (72.1)
15. Tyler Van Dyke, Wisconsin (71.0)
16. Cam Ward, Miami (FL) (65.1)
17. Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (63.0)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ranking top QB prospects in 2025 NFL Draft by QBR