Post spring Big Ten quarterback rankings for 2023

Where does your favorite quarterback land?

Much like the rest of the college football landscape, the Big Ten saw plenty of upheaval at the quarterback position.

The newcomers include quarterbacks who transferred in from Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, SMU, Tennessee, and Texas. Michigan State and Nebraska saw their starters hit the transfer portal in the late window, with Payton Thorne already finding a home with limited slots available.

Last year’s conference champions will roll with their starting quarterback, J.J. McCarthy. The season didn’t end like many envisioned with a loss to TCU in the CFP semifinals.

Our initial rankings will likely look different by season’s end but trying not to project too much, we put together the initial post-spring power rankings for all 14 quarterbacks who are expected to start in 2023.

Watch: Badger quarterback explains reason for staying

Although the Badgers brought in many new options in the transfer portal, redshirt freshman QB Myles Burkett said that he’s never leaving.

Although the Badgers brought in many new options in the transfer portal, redshirt freshman quarterback Myles Burkett said that he never considered leaving Wisconsin following the 2022 campaign.

Burkett is expected to be a depth option again in 2023 behind the likes of transfer quarterbacks Tanner Mordecai (SMU) and Braedyn Locke (Mississippi State), but he seems to be more focused on the team as a whole.

The Franklin, Wisconsin native appeared in two games last season, completing 4 out of 5 pass attempts for 84 yards in relief of Graham Mertz. With Mertz (Florida), Deacon Hill (Iowa) and Chase Wolf (Unspecified) leaving the quarterback room following last year, Burkett seems dedicated to see Luke Fickell and his staff through in 2023.

Myles Burkett.

Wired differently.

The redshirt freshman on all the transfer quarterbacks the #Badgers brought in, including two freshmen.

"I was never gonna leave here." pic.twitter.com/sOGuwqiOqn

— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) April 12, 2023

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Ranking expected Big Ten starting quarterbacks in 2023

Who takes the top spot?

It’s a fascinating lineup of possible Big Ten starters in 2023 with a little bit of everything mixed in.

You have highly touted recruits getting their first taste of real Big Ten action: Drew Allar and Kyle McCord. You have transfers who have succeeded elsewhere trying to lead a Big Ten team to new heights (hello, Tanner Mordecai). And you have everything in between.

From players who have never started a college game to standouts a year ago looking to take another step forward, there are a number of names to watch. Here is how we sorted out the quarterback rooms this spring:

Ranking Big Ten quarterbacks by Total QBR after Week 9

Re-examining the Total QBR rankings for every Big Ten signal caller after Week 9.

The Big Ten football season is more than half over, and it’s time to check in once again on which conference quarterbacks are doing the best at their position, including Ohio State football’s C.J. Stroud.

The metric we like to use more than any other is ESPN’s Total QBR rating. We find it to be a better indicator of performance because it takes into account many aspects others don’t, including the level of competition.

So what is Total QBR exactly? According to ESPN, Adjusted Total Quarterback Rating “values the quarterback on all play types on a 0-100 scale adjusted for the strength of opposing defenses faced.”

OK. we’re game.

So where are Stroud and other Big Ten signal-callers following Week 9 of the college football season? Here’s a ranking of the top 13 based on quarterbacks that play an average of 20 action plays per game.

Updated Big Ten quarterback total QBR ratings after Week 3. Where is C.J. Stroud?

Is Stroud still on top? If so, did he widen the gap after the impressive performance against Toledo? #GoBucks

College football is a quarterback-driven game and has been for a long time now. Gone are the days of being a game manager with handoffs and short passes when needed. It hasn’t been that way for a long, long time now.

You simply can’t go special places anymore without having a dynamic player under center and Ohio State has a good one in C.J. Stroud.

However, he’s not the only good quarterback in the Big Ten. Though Stroud is one of the frontrunners for the Heisman Trophy, there are still other signal-callers in the league that can spin it when called upon.

One of the best metrics we like to look at when it comes to a quarterback’s performance is Total QBR, and we’re going to take a look at it each week upon the completion of games. Where is Stroud after this week when he lit up the Toledo defense for five touchdowns? What about other quarterbacks in the league? You might be surprised at where the league gunslingers rank using this metric.

Here’s a ranking of the top 12 Big Ten quarterbacks based on Total QBR ranking after two full weeks of the 2022 season. Stats are courtesy of ESPN.

*Note: To qualify, a player must play a minimum of 20 action plays per team game

Ranking Big Ten quarterbacks by PFF grade through Week 2

Where do the Big Ten quarterbacks rank?

After a wild week in college football, where do the Big Ten quarterbacks stand?

If you had told Badger fans that Wisconsin was going to be upset by Washington State in Week 2, everyone would have immediately thought that Graham Mertz struggled mightily. It was quite the opposite for the Kansas native, as Mertz had one of his better games on Saturday despite the upset defeat.

Around the conference, J.J. McCarthy appears to have taken the starting job at Michigan, while Evan Simon is likely the long-term starter at Rutgers. Where did Pro Football Focus rank the Big Ten quarterbacks this week? Here is a look:

Where Graham Mertz ranks compared to fellow Big Ten QBs in Athlon’s position rankings

Where does the Badger starter rank in the conference?

There are a number of storylines headed into the 2022 Wisconsin Badgers football season. There are a variety of positions and players that could help to write the narrative of this season. However, the ceiling of this team will likely depend on the heights that Graham Mertz can reach in year three as a starter.

The first two seasons of Mertz’s time as a starter have had more downs than ups, but the flashes of positive play have been there. Where does the Wisconsin starter rank among the conference’s signal callers?

Steve Lassan at Athlon Sports recently ranked the top quarterbacks in the nation, including the Big Ten’s expected starters. Here is where Mertz ended up:

Ranking each Big Ten quarterback situation according to ESPN’s QB tiers

A look at how ESPN sees the Big Ten QB situations

The Big Ten quarterback rooms are a mixed bag as we enter the 2022 football season. There are teams with a surefire starter expected to be in the Heisman race, while others are still in the midst of a battle for who is taking the first snap of the season.

ESPN’s David M. Hale recently ranked all 131 college football quarterback situations and grouped the teams into different tiers. Where did Wisconsin land? Who led the way in the Big Ten? Which teams have more questions than answers at the quarterback position as we flow into summer? Here is a look at where each Big Ten team landed in those rankings, going from worst to first:

Ranking Big Ten quarterbacks heading into 2022 season

Where would you rank Payton Thorne amongst the Big Ten quarterbacks? See where Spartans Wire has Thorne and the rest of the Big Ten signal-callers in our quarterbacks rankings

The Big Ten will surely be part of the College Football Playoff conversation this upcoming season, and part of that is due to the numerous high-level signal callers in this league.

Spring ball is in the books and teams are turning their focus to the 2022 season that is only a few months away. As part of that, we at Spartans Wire are turning our focus to the upcoming campaign and looking at how each team’s projected quarterback ranks.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on Twitter @RobertBondy5.

Ranking all fourteen Big Ten quarterbacks heading into 2020

Who are the best Big Ten quarterbacks heading into the 2020 season. We ranked them all from No. 1 through No. 14.

It’s the most important position in football these days — the quarterback. Gone are the days of trying to find a good game manager and surrounding that player with weapons. Yeah, there’s still some of that today, but the teams that tend to win conference championships and national titles generally have a dynamic playmaker under center and playmakers around him.

It’s no different in the Big Ten. Just look at the last few years. Ohio State has won three-straight conference championships, and each time, has also had a guy pulling the trigger that has won the Big Ten’s Griese-Brees Quarterback of the Year. J.T. Barrett won it in 2017, Dwayne Haskins followed up with the award in 2018, and then Justin Fields was honored last season.

So, with that in mind, what does the field (no pun intended) look like entering 2020? We’ve stack ranked all projected starting quarterbacks for all fourteen teams in the Big Ten and are ready to dive into all the fun.

As a bit of an asterisk, some of these are still entrenched in position battles, and there could be injuries and other things that impact what happens at each school, so please don’t dunk on us too hard.

Next … No. 14

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