Let’s call it what it is — it’s a weird year for ranking SEC quarterbacks.

I say that for a few reasons. It’s not just that the league doesn’t return one of last year’s All-SEC quarterbacks. You had 5 SEC teams get quarterbacks selected in the front half of the NFL Draft. You’ve also got 10 new offensive coordinators, so even the most productive returning starting quarterbacks have some moving pieces heading into 2023.

Weird? A bit.

It’s shades of 2021, wherein your preseason All-SEC quarterbacks were Matt Corral and JT Daniels and a whole lot of unknowns behind them. Of course, by season’s end, Bryce Young won the Heisman, Corral finished 7th in the voting, Stetson Bennett IV led Georgia to its first national title in 4 decades and Hendon Hooker established himself as one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the country.

In other words, get ready for the SEC quarterbacks to exceed some rather pedestrian preseason expectations.

But with so much up in the air, it does make it tricky to do rankings, especially if you want to do 1-14. We’ve got quarterback battles still to figure out, first-time starters who are tough to rank, new offensive schemes, etc. So this year, I thought I’d rank my top 5 signal-callers and then add a little bit of context for some other guys afterwards.

As I always say with any preseason ranking, it is NOT a projection. My goal is not to say where a guy will finish. It’s where I think he should be based on what we’ve already seen him do. Sure, it helps when you’ve got better surroundings, but my goal is to level the playing field as much as humanly possible.

So let’s do that and not get too upset at the fact that I clearly hate your team’s quarterback:

5. Spencer Rattler, South Carolina

Yes, those last 3 games changed things. How could they not have? You could argue that Rattler might’ve had the best single-game performance of any quarterback in the country last year with his en fuego Tennessee showing.

He followed that up by leading the Gamecocks to a win at Clemson, where no visiting team had won since 2016. It was a drastic late-season turnaround that changed Rattler’s entire trajectory. It confirmed what every Rattler defender has been saying for years. He makes elite NFL throws, the arm strength is second to none and he’s mobile enough to keep plays alive and frustrate opposing defenses.

Having said that, we can’t totally dismiss the fact that for roughly 75% of the season, Rattler was nowhere near one of the league’s better quarterbacks. The SEC’s 2022 leader in interceptions is still likely to make a maddening mistake or two on a given Saturday. He’s got that Jay Cutler-like way about him. Fittingly, he’s now working with Dowell Loggains, who helped Cutler to his best season when he was the quarterbacks coach with the Chicago Bears. Rattler returns one of the 10 best receivers in America in Juice Wells, which should bode well.

But if you’re wondering why Rattler isn’t starting off in the top 2 or 3, it’s because up until that 3-game stretch, his lone multi-TD game vs. an FBS foe came against Vandy and his lone 250-yard passing game came against Arkansas, AKA the worst passing defense in America. There’s still room for the 5th year signal-caller to improve.

4. Will Rogers, MSU

If you want to put Rogers at No. 3, I have no problem with that. In fact, I expect he’ll be at No. 3. The guy ranks No. 8 in the SEC in career TD passes (82) and career passing yards (10,689). Even more impressive than that? In the last 2 years, he’s got a 49-1 TD-INT ratio in the red zone. The guy has had to learn how to fit throws into tight windows at an elite level.

Of course, none of that is really the question with Rogers. It’s how much of his success is attributed to the Mike Leach Air Raid, and how will it translate to Kevin Barbay’s offense? That, we don’t know just yet. Rogers has the ability to attack downfield, but obviously, 50-yard bombs weren’t a fixture of the Air Raid. Rogers only has 5 such completions on his 1,639 career attempts. Efficiency is always tricky to judge because of how unique the offense is, so it’s hard to hold his career 6.5 yards/attempt against him too much.

At the same time, there’s still a bit of a wait-and-see about Rogers in this new offense, which obviously won’t have the passing volume that Leach’s did. Can he bust the notion that he was the proverbial “system QB?” That’ll determine whether he finishes with an all-conference season for the first time in his prolific career.

3. Devin Leary, Kentucky

Surprised I have Leary this high? This dude was the preseason ACC Player of the Year last year. He didn’t end up at Kentucky because he was some backup. Leary is a stud and when he was healthy for a full season in 2021, the guy was one of the 10 best quarterbacks in America. The guy had a 35-5 TD ratio — he broke NC State’s TD pass record — and he threw for 3,433 yards on a team who finished No. 20 in the AP Poll. Against Power 5 competition that season, he was No. 5 in TD passes (28) and No. 9 in quarterback rating (156.3).

There was a good case to be made the Leary and Sam Hartman were the clear top 2 quarterbacks in the portal. Like Hartman, Leary wanted to get into an offense with some more pro-style concepts. He’ll get that at Kentucky, where Liam Coen returned after spending 1 year as Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams. Leary will be 24 years old in his 6th year of college this fall. He should be poised to avoid a lot of the mental mistakes that Will Levis struggled with behind a bad offensive line.

So why isn’t Leary even top 2? Well, the 2 guys ahead of him already showed that they could do it against SEC competition. Call that SEC bias, or just call it the ultimate feather in your cap to have success in the nation’s premier conference.

But with Leary’s favorable surroundings — Kentucky returns its top 3 receivers and it added 1,000-yard rusher Ray Davis from Vandy — there’s absolutely a path for him to finish with 1 of the 2 All-SEC spots.

2. Jayden Daniels, LSU

At times last year, Daniels might’ve been the most maddening SEC player to watch. He was like a rich guy who refused to wear anything but white undershirts and sweat pants. Daniels had one of the top group of pass-catchers in America, and so often early in the season, he wouldn’t trust them to make plays in man coverage. He would so often default to his legs instead of being afraid to make a mistake. It held the LSU offense back.

But somewhere around that Florida game, Daniels figured it out. Call it comfortability in the Brian Kelly/Mike Denbrock offense or just call it a dude realizing he had a golden opportunity. Daniels seized it. His improvement played a major role in getting LSU to an SEC West title, which wasn’t considered a realistic possibility entering 2022. The raw passing numbers weren’t anything spectacular (17-3 TD-INT, 144.5 QB rating, 7.5 yards/attempt), but Daniels offers so much as a runner. He finished in the top 10 in the SEC in rushing, and he was No. 3 with 11 rushing scores.

Ideally, Daniels won’t finish No. 1 among FBS quarterbacks in rushing attempts like he did in 2022. What should help prevent that is getting a full offseason in the offense after he enrolled mid-spring last year. Actually, Daniels is 1 of 3 returning SEC starting quarterbacks (Jaxson Dart and AJ Swann are the 2 others) who returns his offensive coordinator.

A 4-year Power 5 starter who beat Alabama on his first try is absolutely worthy of a top-2 spot.

1. KJ Jefferson, Arkansas

If you followed me on social media this offseason, you already knew where I was going with this. Before you point to Arkansas’ record or you tell me that Jefferson didn’t get any better as a passer, answer me this. Have you watched him? Because if you have, you can’t not like him. You can’t not want him to be your guy. With how difficult he is to bring down at that size, there’s some Ben Roethlisberger to his game.

Oh, and here’s him doing that same thing but instead running for a massive gain

Mercy. He’s got over 1,300 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns with his legs the last 2 years, which doesn’t really tell the full story. He might not attack downfield like Milton or Rattler, but Jefferson ranked in the top 10 in FBS in quarterback rating each of the last 2 years. The only other returning quarterbacks who can say that are Caleb Williams and Grayson McCall.

If you watched Jefferson last year, you saw him get better throwing over the middle and trusting receivers more, which was a major question in a post-Treylon Burks world. He essentially repeated his 2021 passing numbers with 2 fewer games because he was banged up. The good news for Jefferson’s short- and long-term health is that in this new offense with Dan Enos, he shouldn’t be subjected to quite as many hits. He’ll be asked to throw more — Jefferson will even take some snaps under center — and read defenses in a different way.

At this point of his career, I’m confident in Jefferson’s skill set translating well. Even if he doesn’t necessarily have Heisman Trophy upside, Jefferson has such an immensely high floor. You could make the case that with the uncertainty of Arkansas quarterback room behind him that he’s as valuable of an SEC player as there is heading into 2023.

For now, though, I’ll keep it simple. KJ is QB1.

Carson Beck is … ___________.

… the guy I almost put at 5, but then I realized I’d be going against my own parameters too much. If I’m betting today, yes, I believe Beck will finish as an All-SEC guy. I’ve been incredibly impressed by the limited sample size we’ve seen from Beck, especially last year. Kirby Smart didn’t make the mistake he made with Justin Fields. Beck actually got to throw the ball in garbage time, and as a result, he seemed to get a lot better. If Beck is in the Heisman Trophy conversation, I won’t’ be surprised.

But I realized that putting Beck in the top 5 to start would be based on a whole lot of reps in lopsided games and reports/scrimmages out of spring. For me, I’d rather default to what we’ve seen in meaningful SEC reps. He’ll be in the top 5 in a hurry.

Why don’t I have Joe Milton in my top 5?

Again, this isn’t a projection. Milton might’ve played well in garbage time and in the 2 games after Hendon Hooker went down, but he still has a major question to answer. Can he actually hold on to a starting job? Twice, Milton lost his starting job at 2 different Power 5 programs. We can talk about all the physical tools — he might have a historic cannon better than Uncle Rico — but until we see Milton handle week after week of being the guy, we can’t get ahead of our skis.

Anyone who says Milton is a preseason All-SEC guy is doing so because the Josh Heupel offensive floor is extremely high, and so is Milton’s physical potential.

And what about Jaxson Dart?

I wrote an entire column about being in “wait and see” mode with the returning Ole Miss starter.

Conner Weigman is working against history, but man, I’m bullish

Here’s something. Jimbo Fisher hasn’t had a quarterback earn all-conference honors at season’s end since Jameis Winston. It’s been 9 years. Weigman is probably the most talented quarterback that Fisher has had to work with since Winston, and the limited sample size as a true freshman was more promising than not. Of course, the question is about whether Bobby Petrino will have total control of the offense. If he has that and it looks like the more tempo-heavy offense that we saw in the blowout against LSU, look out.

Weigman should be protected by loads of experience on that A&M offensive line and with Ainias Smith, Moose Muhammad III and Evan Stewart, the Aggies are loaded with reliable pass-catchers in this revamped offensive scheme.

There’s a path for Weigman to have a 30-touchdown season for the most improved offense in the SEC.

Sorry, Alabama fans. You don’t get a blind top-5 ranking.

I’m still of the belief that Ty Simpson will get the offense and run with it. History tells us that Nick Saban’s quarterback isn’t something that goes back and forth midseason.

But even as someone who thought Simpson had intriguing potential to run the Tommy Rees offense, I can’t pretend that’s a certainty. We know Jalen Milroe can make jaw-dropping plays, and we also know that Tyler Buchner’s post-spring addition to a room with 4 blue-chip scholarship quarterbacks was noteworthy. What we don’t know is how this will play out with 3 guys who have 4 combined starts at the college level.

As a result, this Alabama quarterback room remains a bit of a mystery. But hey, want some good news, Tide fans? The last time you missed out on a preseason All-SEC quarterback was 2021, AKA the year that Bryce Young went on to win the Heisman.

In other words, big things await the next Alabama quarterback … whoever that is.