Depending on the preference of the Tennessee Titans, or whichever team trades up for the top overall pick, either Miami’s Cam Ward or Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders likely will be the first player taken in this year’s NFL Draft.
Regardless of the order, Ward will be the first ACC quarterback off the board.
It will mark the 4th time in the past 5 years and the 7th time in the past 9 that the ACC has had a passer taken in the opening round. North Carolina’s Drake Maye (No. 3 overall in 2024), Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett (20th, 2022), Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence (1st, 2021), Duke’s Daniel Jones (6th, 2019), Louisville’s Lamar Jackson (32nd, 2018) and UNC’s Mitchell Trubisky (2nd, 2017) are the others.
It’s a trend that has a good chance of continuing next season with the arrival of several high-profile transfers to an already strong class of returning quarterbacks.
As we turn the page on one season and start to look ahead to the next, here are the leading candidates to be the first ACC quarterback drafted in 2026:
Cade Klubnik, Clemson
Klubnik might have been a first-round pick in this year’s quarterback-thin Draft had he decided to turn pro after his breakthrough 2024 season. But even with a more crowded 2026 QB class, he could still be first off the board if he’s able to put up similar numbers.
The early Heisman Trophy front-runner put together a season that ranks among the top 5 in Clemson history in passing yardage (3,639), completion percentage (.634) and touchdowns (36) while earning ACC Championship Game MVP honors for the second time in 3 years. His stats were comparable to those put up by first-round NFL Draft picks Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson. Even though Clemson lost its opening-round Playoff game to Texas, Klubnik distinguished himself by throwing for 3 touchdowns against a Longhorns secondary that had allowed only 4 touchdown passes in its 13 games combined.
It took 2 full seasons and an upgrade in the Tigers’ receiving corps for the former No. 1 ranked quarterback prospect in the country to finally begin reaching his potential. But now that it has happened, with the return of top targets Bryant Wesco Jr., TJ Moore and Antonio Williams, Klubnik is poised to finish his college career on a high note.
Carson Beck, Miami
Beck won’t produce as many highlight-reel plays as his predecessor Ward. He’s more of a rhythm passer than a downfield bomber.
But he’s a winner.
After spending his first 2 seasons as an understudy to Stetson Bennett on Georgia’s back-to-back national championship teams, he went 24-3 with a pair of trips to the SEC Championship Game in his 2 seasons as a starter. He might have accomplished even more had he not suffered an elbow injury that kept him out of this season’s Playoff.
Beck threw for 3,485 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2024. Although his completion percentage was down from the previous year (from 72.4% to 64.7%) and his interceptions were up (from 6 to 12), there’s no reason he shouldn’t make a smooth transition into Shannon Dawson’s high-powered offensive scheme if his elbow is fully recovered from the surgery he underwent in December.
Miller Moss, Louisville
Jeff Brohm is well on the way to replacing Southern Cal’s Lincoln Riley as college football’s resident quarterback whisperer. So it’s only fitting that his latest transfer project comes to Louisville courtesy of Riley, who benched Moss in favor of Jayden Maiava for the final 3 games last season.
Moss threw for 2,555 yards and 18 touchdowns with 9 interceptions in the 9 games he started for the Trojans. And he has a 4-star pedigree.
After sending Aidan O’Connell to the NFL during his time at Purdue and turning reclamation projects Jack Plummer and Tyler Shough into success stories in his first 2 seasons at Louisville, there’s no telling what Brohm and Moss – a blue-chip passer who was once groomed to be the heir apparent to Heisman winner Caleb Williams – will be able to accomplish together.
Haynes King, Georgia Tech
King is a dynamic playmaker who led the ACC in touchdown passes 2 seasons ago and set a single-season school record by completing 72.9% of his passes in 2024 while leading the Yellow Jackets to their second straight winning season.
Those raw numbers, however, don’t paint the full picture of just how impressive a leader he has been for Brent Key’s team since arriving as a transfer from Texas A&M. Despite being hampered by a shoulder injury that limited his ability to throw downfield, King still found ways to help his team win with his legs, rushing for 597 yards and 11 touchdowns.
His grit and determination were on full display in the regular-season finale when he accounted for 413 yards of total offense and 5 touchdowns in almost single-handedly taking Georgia to 8 overtimes.
Max Johnson, North Carolina
OK, this is a stretch. A big stretch, because there’s a 50-50 chance Johnson won’t even be on UNC’s roster after the spring transfer window. But if he does stay and wins the starting job in 2025, it will be intriguing to see what the son of Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson could do under the tutelage of 6-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick.
Johnson started his college career at LSU and threw for 27 touchdowns in 2021 before transferring to Texas A&M. He played just over a half for the Tar Heels last season, going 12-of-19 with 71 yards and an interception to go along with a rushing touchdown before suffering a season-ending leg injury that required multiple surgeries to repair.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
