NFL Draft: As Cam Ward tops yet another class of transfer QBs, Nico Iamaleava’s future looks wide open

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When Tennessee football announced over the weekend that it was moving forward without starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, an NFL talent evaluator raised their eyebrows.

A program dismissing a quarterback due to alleged financial demands?

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“I understand the money aspect of things and trying to leverage your situation,” the AFC evaluator told Yahoo Sports this week, “but at a certain point, the main focus needs to be on becoming the best player you can in order to prepare for the NFL.

“That million-dollar difference could cost him even more when it comes time for his evaluation with us.”

The evaluator focused on the risk Iamaleava is incurring. If he struggles at his next stop, which is reportedly trending toward UCLA, NFL scouts may not give the 2024 Tennessee starter grace for struggling to adapt to what seems to be a money-prompted split.

And yet: If Iamaleava succeeds at his next stop, as a host of transfer quarterbacks drafted into the NFL recently have, expect evaluators to disregard or even applaud his move. Because franchises that want to fault collegiate players for factoring financial security alongside winning into their decision are increasingly learning they have little to gain by taking a hard line.

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Questioning a transfer player’s loyalty and competitive nature has become “a little antiquated,” an NFC talent evaluator said.

“When someone transferred maybe 5-10 years ago, [we’d] be like, ‘Oh, he quit on his team,’” the evaluator told Yahoo Sports. “And now it’s like, ‘Oh, this is an opportunity for him to be able to help his family.’

“NIL has obviously changed the quantum so much with how you’re kind of evaluating these guys.”

NCAA transfer portal rules and NIL money have changed the NFL Draft, coaches and front office executives say.

A year after nine first-round draft selections played at multiple colleges, eight transfer players cracked the first round in Yahoo Sports’ latest 2025 mock draft. Plenty more followed in later rounds, as FBS transfer numbers rise annually.

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No position is immune to the trend. But one position has been uniquely influenced: quarterback.

Additional collegiate experience raising the floor for QBs in NFL Draft

When the Denver Broncos drafted Bo Nix 12th overall last year, skepticism followed the decision to select a sixth quarterback in the initial 12 picks for the first time in NFL history.

Nix wasn’t unanimously viewed as a first-round caliber prospect and he didn’t have the athletic ceiling of classmates like first overall pick Caleb Williams. But Broncos head coach Sean Payton had a vision for the quarterback who played a whopping 61 college games in five years across Auburn and Oregon.

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“From a scouting standpoint, it does give you more exposure to more people who are familiar with the player,” Payton said this spring at league meetings. “In Bo’s case, everything that’s positive about the portal and a transfer [happened]. Found a better fit, took advantage of it, excelled with a new team, new head coach.

“It did give us multiple looks.”

Payton was focused on Nix’s breadth of experience as well as his depth. And the Oregon offense that helped Nix’s completion percentage jump from 59.4% at Auburn to 74.9% at Oregon?

“It helped us see him as a passer,” Payton said.

Put another way: The more mental reps and varied exposure quarterbacks get in college, the more data NFL teams have to project players’ scheme fit and ability to adapt at the pro level.

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Nix shocked the league as he led the Broncos to 10 wins as he threw for 3,775 yards and 29 touchdowns to 12 interceptions.

Nix then, and Iamaleava if he reaches the draft some day, are no longer the exception but the rule.

Of the 11 quarterbacks selected in the 2024 NFL Draft, eight transferred during their college careers. Four of the six quarterbacks selected in the 2024 first round played at multiple stops.

This year, all five quarterbacks on Yahoo Sports’ consensus big board transferred.

The expected first overall pick, Cam Ward, began his career at FCS-level Incarnate Word before playing two seasons at Washington State and his final year at Miami. Had he stayed at Incarnate Word, evaluators doubt he’d be a first-rounder. One AFC evaluator estimated teams would value Ward’s talent as his initial school as worthy of a fifth-round pick and practice squad spot.

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“If he would’ve stayed at Incarnate Word and dominated, is he going No. 1? We can’t bet [per NFL rules], but if I was in Vegas, I’d bet the under that he would get drafted later,” Rams general manager Les Snead told Yahoo Sports. “To see him adjust and play where the competition gets closer to the NFL?

“It’s not the NFL, but it’s closer.”

Transfer portal has changed NFL scouting process — mostly for the better, evaluators say

Clubs have tweaked elements of the scouting process in light of roster exoduses.

Area scouts pool information on a player to ensure background work canvasses each stop the player made, even as that can span multiple areas like Ward’s journey from the NFL’s southwest scouting region to the West Coast and then the southeast.

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Sometimes, scouts struggle to find athletics staffers with the knowledge they seek because the staff has worked with a player for one to two years instead of the historic three to four. Other times, a player thrives in a new environment and NFL teams take note of the growth.

“Sometimes these guys can reinvent themselves a little bit,” Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan said. “They know maybe what they lacked at the previous school and they can spread their wings in a different way when they get to a new place.”

When character reports conflict from two schools, scouts band together to determine why.

“If there’s a hint, how do we read through the lines, read between the lines?” one NFC talent evaluator described the process. “How can we dive deep into this?

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“There is a bit of game theory to it. You kind of have to play the odds and put yourselves in the best situation for your guys to succeed.”

On the field, that means tracking how players who transferred picked up a new offense and understanding which learning tools most spoke to them. A player won over his new locker room and mastered an offense quickly, a la Arizona State to LSU product Jayden Daniels last year and Ward this? Teams will credit them — knowing that perhaps weathering change at the college level will strengthen their ability to navigate it in the pros.

Some coaches and executives think that varied pre-professional experience helps explain the deep success of last year’s rookie quarterbacks. The soft skills and football acumen adjusting required after the draft didn’t feel as new to them; nor did money, for those who were paid handsomely through NIL.

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In aggregate, especially at the quarterback position, evaluators appreciate how the transfer portal helps tailor players for a professional game that has no minor league option. Will careers last longer on this account? Perhaps not. But will players enjoy more success during the time of their career because they’re readier when they leave school?

Draft trends suggest yes.

“Maybe they play less years in the NFL because of it, but I do think the years (of experience) are very valuable of being able to come in and have success,” Snead said. “Learning a new system isn’t the easiest thing and that’s what you have to do in the NFL. So players who can bounce around and learn new systems and still play just as fast or just as free?

“A bonus for us.”

This news was originally published on this post .

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