The football media landscape was once again rocked by EA Sports College Football 25 on Wednesday, just hours ahead of Big 12 Media Days. With the Colorado Buffaloes scheduled to take the podium in Vegas during said Media Days, it’s only fitting that Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders is once again at the epicenter of the shocking revelation around EA Sports’ top players in their return to the college football landscape.
EA Sports Top Quarterbacks Revealed
We got a glimpse of the top 100 players on Wednesday, and it was fair to say there were very few complaints. However, when we adjusted the sliders, changed the filters, and looked at the rankings by position, it became clear: The quarterback rankings were shocking, at least at the top.
Let’s list the top eight quarterbacks, as EA Sports has revealed, and get into a bit more below.
- Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (Overall: 93)
- Carson Beck, Georgia (Overall: 93)
- Quinn Ewers, Texas (Overall: 92)
- Dillon Gabriel, Oregon (Overall: 92)
- Jalen Milroe, Alabama (Overall: 90)
- Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (Overall: 90)
- Jalon Daniels, Kansas (Overall: 90)
- Kaidon Salter, Liberty (Overall: 90)
Straight to the point, Sanders outranking each of the seven quarterbacks below him was shocking on its own, but Sanders toppling Georgia QB Carson Beck was the most heinous.
Is Sanders talented? Absolutely.
Is Sanders the best quarterback in the country? Absolutely not.
Here’s how we ranked the top eight quarterbacks in our original ratings projections.
1) Carson Beck, Georgia (Overall: 98)
2) Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (Overall: 97)
3) Brady Cook, Missouri (Overall: 96)
4) Dillon Gabriel, Oregon (Overall: 95)
5) Jalen Milroe, Alabama (Overall: 95)
6) Quinn Ewers, Texas (Overall: 94)
7) Kaidon Salter, Liberty (Overall: 94)
8) Jalon Daniels, Kansas (Overall: 93)
Off the bat, EA not having Brady Cook in the top eight seems egregious, especially considering the talent he has around him, the familiarity he has with his coaching staff that was retained, and his actual talent. Now, maybe Cook is the ninth-best quarterback in the game, something we’ll see when the game itself is live, but going down the list of our projections before we get to Sanders is also eye-opening.
9) Noah Fifita, Arizona (Overall: 92)
10) Grayson McCall, NC State (Overall: 92)
11) KJ Jefferson, UCF (Overall: 92)
12) Mikey Keene, Fresno State (Overall: 92)
13) Seth Henigan, Memphis (Overall: 92)
14) Shedeur Sanders, Colorado (Overall: 91)
First off, I applaud EA for having Kaidon Salter from Liberty in their top 10. All too often, national publications (or in this case, video games) leave off the Group of Five schools, but it doesn’t appear to be the case in EA Sports College Football 25.
And clearly we were very close with some of our projections as Gabriel and Milroe each fell exactly where we projected while Salter and Daniels simply swapped spots by one. But Sanders just feels wrong.
Even Sanders being above the fellow Group of Five quarterbacks he’s next to in our rating projections would be fine, but not all the way atop the rankings system as the top overall quarterback, that’s where we draw the line.
Looking even further, the individual ratings for each quarterback that led to their overall rating is a fun exercise. EA gave fans a glimpse at each players ratings in the following categories:
- Speed
- Acceleration
- Strength
- Awareness
- Jumping
The most beneficial factor to know for a quarterback in the game of those categories is absolutely awareness. Studying that feature indicates where Sanders’ top billing may have come from.
Here’s how they stacked up in awareness ratings:
- Dillon Gabriel: 99 awareness
- Shedeur Sanders: 98 awareness
- Quinn Ewers: 97 awareness
- Carson Beck: 96 awareness
- Kaidon Salter: 94 awareness
- Jalon Daniels: 93 awareness
- Jaxson Dart: 93 awareness
- Jalen Milroe: 93 awareness
You could argue that Sanders had to be that aware due to his offensive line failures in front of him last season. And EA certainly got it right with Gabriel leading the pack, as he’ll likely finish second all-time in passing yards in college football history after all.
We all know awareness buoys a rating for most players, specifically quarterbacks, but was that 98 awareness mark enough to push Sanders to the top? Is that even justified?
Guess we’ll have to wait for the game next week and play for ourselves to find out.
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