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It's been a wild ride for Quinn Ewers-and not the kind he expected. After years of hype, promise, and perseverance at Texas, the quarterback who once drew comparisons to NFL legends found himself selected in the seventh round of the 2025 draft by the Miami Dolphins.
The fall wasn't just painful on the ego. It came with a $7.2 million price tag.
Ewers reportedly turned down a lucrative $8 million NIL offer to stay in college for one more season, hoping to lock in a higher NFL payday instead. But a mix of injury concerns, inconsistent pressure reads, and rising draft stock from peers like Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward pushed him down to pick 231. Now, he's locked into a four-year rookie deal worth around $4.31 million-with only $131,576 guaranteed.
From five-star phenom to seventh-round steal-what happened?
It's not hard to trace the root of the slide. Ewers battled injuries throughout his career, including a torn oblique early in the 2024 season against Michigan. Despite gutting it out and finishing the year with 3,472 yards and 31 touchdowns, NFL scouts remained skeptical. ESPN and PFF analysts pointed to his pressure-to-sack rate (a shaky 23.2%) and a history of missed games dating back to high school.
The Dolphins offer a fresh start-but not an easy one. Miami head coach Mike McDaniel runs one of the league's most aggressive, high-speed offenses. FOX Sports' RJ Young put it bluntly: "You're either lighting up the scoreboard or getting lit up yourself." He compared Ewers' new world to the brutal Martz-era Rams, where quarterbacks threw deep but took brutal hits.
Through all this, Ewers hasn't lost from Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, who recently addressed critics head-on. "He gave everything to our program,"Sarkisian said. "People forget these are young men making life decisions. He did everything right-he just bet on himself."
Ewers will now try to turn that bet into something more than a cautionary tale. He's got the talent. He's got the toughness. What he needs now is time-and a little luck-in Miami.