Every week on the “With the First Pick” podcast, Rick Spielman and I do a segment called “Pop or Drop.” In its simplest form: Draft-eligible players who ball out from the previous weekend’s games usually find their way onto our “Pop” list, while players who don’t live up to the hype find their way onto the “Drop” list.
To be clear, hearing your name called is neither a season-long endorsement nor an indictment; it’s just a shortcut to grade their efforts, make a note and then reevaluate them throughout the season and, of course, in the months leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft.
With that in mind, and with Week 5 upon us, I thought it made sense to Pop or Drop it up in this space, looking back over the first month of the college football season. Who impressed? Who has some work to live up to the preseason hype?
Let’s take a look.
Poppin’
Cam Ward, QB, Miami
Ward, who transferred from Washington State, and before that, transferred from Incarnate Word, gets better each season. At times, yes, he plays what Rick might describe as “backyard ball,” but he continues to get better inside the pocket and has shown improvement at playing on time, too.
(This is where I point out that Caleb Williams, who spent much of the 2023 season running for his life behind a suspect USC offensive line, raised concerns about his ability to play on time in the NFL. Hero ball is great when you’re the best athlete on the field; less so if you’re middle-of-the-pack athletically and trying to run away from 6-5, 265-pound defensive ends who all run 4.55. Here’s the thing: When Williams has played on time this season, as a rookie, he has been good. When he holds the ball and plays out of structure … not so much:
The overarching point: Ward’s out-of-structure talents are obvious, fun and oftentimes lead to big plays. But it’s not sustainable in the NFL, so the more we see him play in structure, the better for him and his draft prospects.
Ward also looks like he plays with a heart rate that never gets above 50 beats per minute — and that’s not to say he’s lackadaisical because he’s anything but; it’s just that he never seems rattled, whether it’s facing pressure in the backfield, following a bad play, or if the game’s on the line. He’s always the same, always even-keeled, always looking to the next snap.
And I suppose it’s easier to be that way when you can do the things Ward does. He has a big arm, he’s not afraid of tight-window throws, he’ll throw with anticipation on intermediate routes, and shows not only the ability to layer those throws but his deep-ball accuracy has been impressive, too.
In talking to scouts over the summer, the consensus is that they wanted to see Ward improve his footwork and getting through his reads as well as playing from the pocket. Because he can throw from any arm angle once he escapes the pocket, and his athleticism in the open field makes him even more dangerous.
NFL teams aren’t yet willing to put Ward in the first round, but I am — and to quote Shrine Bowl Director Eric Galko, “He’s not Day 1 yet but you’re going to get there by the end of the year so just do it now.”
Kyle McCord, QB, Syracuse
A year ago, McCord was the game-managing quarterback for Ohio State. He looked hesitant and unsure for much of the season, and entered the portal last December, before the Buckeyes bowl game. Now in Syracuse, McCord looks like a completely different player. He’s decisive, accurate, rarely fooled by the coverage, consistently makes good decisions — and, oh by the way, he can run too:
And he’s done it with not nearly as good players around him — and that’s no slight to the upstart Orange, who have been fun to watch, but it’s not a stretch to say that Ohio State’s offensive line and wide receivers room are usually among the best in the country.
McCord has gone from late Day 3/priority free agent to a top 100 player. I say it all the time about young QBs in the league, but it holds at the college level too: Fit matters, and McCord has hit his stride in Syracuse.
Garrett Nussmeier, QB, LSU
Rick and I have been co-piloting the Nuss Bus since the summer and he’s off to a solid start for LSU this season. Yes, he can get loose with the ball at times, but like McCord, he’s rarely rattled, throws on time and accurately. It helps that he comes from a football family; his dad played quarterback in the league and is now the Eagles QB coach. He’s a good athlete, has a good arm, is rarely rattled and has an innate sense for pressure in the pocket. He also hasn’t played a lot of football so there’s plenty of room for growth. I think he has a real chance to find his way into Round 1.
Aireontae Ersery, LT, Minnesota
Even among offensive linemen, Ersery is immense. He’s listed at 6-foot-6, 330 pounds, and if you told me he was taller and heavier, I’d believe you. He is dominant in the run game, consistently running defensive ends out of the play and occasionally, it seems, out of the stadium. He executes combo blocks with ease, getting to the second level and finding his target, and on one snap this season, I watched him come off that second block and hunt up a safety, too. Ersery has some work to do in pass protection — he can sometimes play with a high pad level and that leaves him susceptible to both speed and power. But you can’t teach his size or the freakish athleticism.
Droppin’
Conner Weigman, QB, Texas A&M
The expectations were through the roof — and probably unfair — heading into the season. There was media talk that not only was Weigman a first-round talent, but he could find his way to the No. 1 overall pick if everything fell into place. The opener against Notre Dame was a tough showing, and he was a little better in a blowout win over McNeese State a week later. But Weigman hasn’t played in two games because of an injury. And while there’s plenty of season to go, and one bad game doesn’t define who he is, part of me wonders if Weigman might be better off returning in 2025. There’s no rush to leave school, he’s just a junior, and he hasn’t played a lot of football (he appeared in just four games last season before a foot injury sidelined him).
DJ Uiagalelei, QB, Florida State
This has been worst-case scenario for the Seminoles this season, and while Uiagalelei has found himself the target of a lot of the criticism, he’s not the reason this team has been so underwhelming. In the opener in Ireland against Georgia Tech, the defense had few answers. But the offense also failed to pick them up. The issue with Uiagalelei — and this goes back to Oregon State and Clemson before that — is that he struggles at times to see the whole field and it looks like he predetermines his reads. One phrase you’ll hear from scouts is “too robotic,” and while he does have the ability to throw off-platform, he doesn’t push the ball downfield enough, in part because he doesn’t throw into tight windows (or throw receivers open), which is a requirement in the NFL. By all accounts, Uiagalelei is a great human being, and I think some of the criticism has been unfair. But he also needs to play better if he wants an opportunity to play at the next level.
Shavon Revel, CB, ECU and Harold Perkins, LB, LSU
Neither Revel nor Perkins has done anything to hurt their draft stock this season. In fact, both have looked like first-round talents through the first few weeks. I mention them here because both suffered ACL injuries, and both are done for 2024. We’ll see what that means for their 2025 draft prospects, but ACL injuries are usually an eight-month recovery, best case, and typically it takes another 8-12 months for players to return to their pre-injury form. With NIL, there’s no rush to hurry off to the NFL, so perhaps we see them again in college in ’25. That said, WR Jameson Williams tore his ACL in January, declared for the draft and the Lions selected him 12th overall in 2022. (The team took a similar approach with QB Hendon Hooker a year later, but he wasn’t drafted until the third round.) Williams didn’t see the field until Week 13 of his rookie season, and didn’t really break out till 2024, his third year in the league.
