NFL Draft QB Prospect Provides Steelers Legendary Combine Quote

The Pittsburgh Steelers met with several prospects heading into the 2025 NFL Draft, including Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers.

Ewers, who spent three seasons with the Longhorns, isn’t commonly mentioned in the first-round quarterback discussion. Through three seasons as the starter at Texas, Ewers threw for 9,128 yards, 68 touchdowns and 24 interceptions while completing 64.9% of his passes across 36 games. Yet, despite all the attention surrounding Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Sheduer Sanders, Ewers remains among the most intriguing quarterbacks for teams — including the Steelers — to consider.

When meeting with Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin, the 21-year-old offered an answer all prospects could relate to about a simple topic: the college experience.

“It’s like what Cardale Jones said, we didn’t go to college to play school,” Ewers told Tomlin, per ESPN.

Jones was selected in the fourth round (139th overall) of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, following his three-year run at Ohio State. The 32-year-old, formerly the third-string Buckeyes quarterback, wasn’t fond of attending college classes with football being the No. 1 priority. Jones expressed his academic frustrations on social media with a 2012 tweet that caught global attention, including Ohio State’s, and inspired Ewers 13 years later.

“Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS,” Jones tweeted.

Granted, Jones missed out on the millions college athletes net during today’s NIL contract era. Jones spent a lone campaign (in 2016) with the Bills, logging just one appearance in the fourth quarter of the team’s regular-season finale. He got waived after the Los Angeles Chargers and Seattle Seahawks took a flier on him, leading Jones to stints in the XFL, the CFL and most recently with the Massachusetts Pirates of the IFL.

Ewers, with a significantly more impressive collegiate track record by his side, doesn’t feel discouraged by being overlooked by experts. He even offered a bold claim during the Scouting Combine regarding where he stacks up against the other quarterback prospects from this year’s draft class.

“I think I’m the best (in the class) and the most ready for the NFL because of what I’ve been through,” Ewers told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “… I think I’m the most ready for the situations that occur in the NFL, injuries, playing through injuries, having a big name behind you, continuing to play through that amount of pressure, continuing to be confident after being benched– it’s hard to do.”

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