Quinn Ewers is receiving big offers from other schools even before the end of his 2024 season with the Texas Longhorns.
According to Pete Nakos of On3 Sport, the senior quarterback has been offered nearly $6million to remain in College Football and enter the NCAA transfer portal rather than declare for the 2025 NFL Draft in spring.
According to Nakos, ‘multiple Power Four schools’ are working to get Ewers in the portal ahead of his final year of college eligibility.
Ewers, who has an NIL valuation at $4.3m, $100,000 more than LSU gymnast and social media star Livvy Dunne, is starting for the No.5 Longhorns against Arizona State in the College Football Playoff’s second round on New Year’s Day.
The winner of Wednesday’s Peach Bowl will advance to face either Oregon or Ohio State in the CFP semifinals.
The timing of the unnamed offer is curious, to say the least.
Per The New York Post’s Dylan Svoboda, it even borders on tampering and is a ‘brazen’ flouting of the rules.
“Given that Texas is in the middle of the season and Ewers is not in the transfer portal, it would be a brazen example of tampering if the report is true,” Svoboda wrote.
Former teammate Johntay Cook, who played alongside Ewers at Texas before transferring to Washington, also responded to the tampering reports.
Cook took a jab at the quarterback on social media, commenting, “Wasting y’all money fr [for real].”
Ewers committed to Texas in 2020 but decommitted to join Ohio State. He only took two snaps with the Buckeyes in 2021 before transferring to Texas for the 2022 season.
Ewers already made the decision to come back to school in 2024, but his draft stock has taken a hit in recent times.
In his third year as the starting quarterback for the Longhorns, Ewers has started 29 games and led Texas to 22 victories.
He has thrown for 7,378 career passing yards, surpassing Chris Simms for sixth in program history, and recorded 56 career touchdown passes, ranking fifth all-time at Texas.
He has also thrown a touchdown in 20 consecutive games, tying Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders for the longest active streak in the FBS.
Ewers, a former No. 1 recruit, clearly has a big decision to make.
$6m is difficult to turn down for anyone, and he may see the value of staying another year in college to work on his game and increase his draft stock ever further.
On the other hand, the chance to enter the NFL and embark on his pro career may be too attractive an opportunity to say no to.
When asked about his future ahead of the playoff, Ewers said he was “not sure yet” what he planned to do.
“I’m just trying to win these games. I haven’t thought about anything beyond that,” Ewers said.
Then there’s the situation around Arch Manning, the other Longhorns QB, who has waited two years as Ewers’ backup for his chance to run Texas’ offense.
Manning has already said he has no intention of entering the transfer portal this offseason and will be campaigning for the starting job in 2025.
It’s entirely possible Ewers’ window as the Longhorns’ QB1 is coming to a natural and obvious end.
A win over ASU followed by victory in the CFP semifinals could do wonders for his draft stock, and make choosing the NFL impossible to put off any longer.