The 2025 quarterback class wasn’t widely viewed as a strong one, and nearly a full season in, that consensus seems like a fair one. No draftee looks like a surefire franchise guy.
However, four players — Cam Ward for the Tennessee Titans, Jaxson Dart for the New York Giants, Shedeur Sanders for the Cleveland Browns, and Tyler Shough for the New Orleans Saints — have at least demonstrated enough to conceivably ward their teams away from drafting a replacement in 2026. In the cases of Dart, Sanders, and Shough, each began the season as the backup to a weak incumbent and were eventually elevated to the starting role. Of the three, Shough has graded the most highly, ranking 14th among 40 qualified quarterbacks by Pro Football Focus’ grades (Dart ranks 20th, and while Sanders hasn’t taken enough snaps to qualify, he’d rank 39th, just behind Ward).
Shough has been fine through the air — all of his rate metrics out-pace most of the other rookie starters but lag behind his backup in New Orleans, Spencer Rattler — but what has really set him apart is his ability to make plays with his legs. In the Saints’ Week 14 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Shough was poor through the air but turned seven rushes into 55 yards and two touchdowns (Rattler has never scored a rushing touchdown in his 14 career starts). As a result, he finished with 22.3 FPTS, his third performance in his last four games of at least 19 FPTS — a mark that Rattler, Ward, and Sanders have each only reached once this season. Among his peers, only Dart has been more fantasy-viable than Shough.
His rushing ceiling should continue to be high: during his seven-season college career at Oregon, Texas Tech, and Louisville, scouts lauded his athletic traits outside the pocket, and he rushed for 733 yards and 11 touchdowns across 42 games. Coming out of college, scouts compared his mobility favorably to that of Rattler and of all of his rookie peers except Dart, and his 4.63-second 40-yard dash time is among the fastest of any starting NFL quarterback. He also exhibited quick decision-making both in college and in his first five NFL starts. Plus, with just 14.0 rushing attempts per broken tackle, he ranks 11th among all 73 quarterbacks to record a rushing attempt this season.
To be fair, his performance came against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have allowed the most rushing yards and rushing touchdowns to quarterbacks this season, but his Week 15 opponent, the Carolina Panthers, aren’t that much better. Sure, the Panthers have allowed the fewest rushing yards to signal-callers, but that’s predominantly attributable to low volume, as their overall rush defense metrics are less impressive than Tampa Bay’s. Shough might scramble less than he did against the Buccaneers, who blitz more frequently and get more pressure, but 42 of his 55 yards came on designed runs, against which Carolina is just as vulnerable as Tampa Bay. Plus, he takes the majority of his designed runs down the left side, and the Panthers’ right outside cornerback, Jaycee Horn, ranks 81st among 101 qualified cornerbacks in rush defense grades.
