Florida's 5-star freshman labeled 247Sports' top backup QB in 2024

Florida football’s five-star freshman quarterback DJ Lagway is considered by many as one of, if not the best, backup quarterbacks in the country.

Lagway knows that he still has plenty to learn and there’s no one much better to sit behind and study from than Graham Mertz.

When Lagway spoke with Gators Wire last July, he mentioned how Mertz has helped him a lot in terms of learning and development.

“Just being a professional, walking around the building — you can just tell that he’s (Mertz) doing it the right way,” Lagway said. “And I just look and learn from him, you know? It helped me early on, with learning the playbook and different things like that, giving me different study habits.”

Lagway went on to say, “I’ve just been so thankful and grateful to have Graham Mertz in my corner to help me with my development.”

What 247Sports says about Lagway

Sports writer Clint Brewster of 247Sports labels Lagway as the best backup quarterback in college football.

Brewster wrote, “A future Heisman winner will be one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in college football and the best Florida signal caller since Tim Tebow.”

Those are some very high expectations but it’s understandable given that Lagway had video game-like numbers during his high school career.

In his senior season, Lagway won the Gatorade Player of the Year after he threw for 4604 yards and 58 touchdowns.

Top 10 backup quarterbacks

Making up the top five, Brewster has Lagway as the No. 1 backup quarterback followed by Arch Manning (Texas Longhorns), Jayden Maiava (USC Trojans), Ty Simpson (Alabama Crimson Tide) and CJ Bailey (NC State Wolfpack).

Beau Pribula (Penn State Nittany Lions), Walker Howard (Ole Miss Rebels), Dante Moore (Oregon Ducks), Kevin Jennings (SMU Mustangs) and Jaylen Henderson (Texas A&M Aggies) round out the top 10.

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