Ranking the Top Elite 11 Alums of All Time
Since 1999, when the likes of Brock Berlin, Casey Clausen and Matt Cassel dominated the recruiting circuit, the Elite 11 quarterback competition has showcased the nation's top high school passing talent every single summer.
Next week, a dozen of the best passers in the class of 2017 will descend on Nike's headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, for this year's Elite 11 competition at The Opening recruiting combine. Hunter Johnson, Dylan McCaffrey and Tate Martell will be among those joining a truly legendary group of modern quarterbacks who are Elite 11 alumni.
But which former Elite 11 quarterbacks are the best of the best in the competition's history? Several have gone on to win Heisman Trophies, become No. 1 overall picks in the NFL draft and rack up countless records in both the college and pro levels.
Here are the picks for the 11 best Elite 11 alumni of all time. These selections are based on a player's overall football career to date, combining accolades in both college football and the NFL into a total reflection of his success since being selected to the Elite 11.
11. Tajh Boyd, Class of 2008
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Clemson plucked Tajh Boyd out of the fertile Virginia recruiting area in the class of 2009, as he was an Elite 11 finalist in a class that included Geno Smith, Aaron Murray and AJ McCarron. After redshirting in 2009 and playing a backup role in 2010, Boyd went on a ridiculous three-year stretch of massive numbers for the Tigers.
In each of his three seasons as the starting quarterback at Clemson, Boyd threw for at least 3,800 yards and 30-plus touchdowns and never threw more than 13 picks in a single campaign. He added 10 rushing touchdowns in each of his last two campaigns and was 32-8 as a starter.
Boyd won the ACC title with Clemson in 2011 and followed it up with an ACC Player of the Year run in 2012. He still holds the conference's records for most passing (107) and total (133) touchdowns in a career, and he's second only to Philip Rivers for most career passing yards in ACC history.
Unfortunately for Boyd, that incredible college career didn't lead to a professional one. He bounced around several leagues after being drafted in the sixth round by the New York Jets in 2014 but never stuck for longer than a season in any of them. Still, his numbers at Clemson warrant a spot in this countdown.
10. Tyrod Taylor, Class of 2006
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Before breaking out as the starting quarterback for the Buffalo Bills this past NFL season, Tyrod Taylor was a bona fide star for Virginia Tech in the late 2000s. The Virginia native signed with his home-state Hokies as the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback of 2007 over offers from Georgia, NC State, Penn State and South Carolina.
Taylor split time at quarterback with Sean Glennon in 2007 and 2008 on back-to-back ACC championship squads and was the title-game MVP in the latter campaign. In 2009, as a full-time starter, he led the Hokies to a 10-3 record. The next year, Taylor won the ACC's Player of the Year award after recovering from back-to-back season-opening losses and eventually winning another ACC title—his third as a Hokie.
He led the ACC in several passing categories during both seasons as Virginia Tech's clear-cut No. 1 quarterback, and he went 21-6 during that span. Taylor was drafted in the sixth round of the 2011 NFL draft by the Baltimore Ravens and was a backup for Joe Flacco for four seasons, including a Super Bowl-winning one.
Taylor then signed with the Buffalo Bills prior to the 2015 season and won the starting quarterback job. He threw for more than 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns last year while also adding 568 yards on the ground. Taylor was named to the Pro Bowl and will enter the 2016 campaign as the No. 1 guy for head coach Rex Ryan.
9. AJ McCarron, Class of 2008
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AJ McCarron might not have gotten all the attention he deserved as the starting quarterback at Alabama from 2011 to 2013. After taking a redshirt in 2009 and playing sparingly in 2010, the former 4-star quarterback got right to work as one of the game's most consistent arms in recent years.
In 2011, McCarron had his quietest season—2,634 yards, 16 touchdowns and five interceptions as Alabama went to the national title game and got revenge on LSU. The next season, he led the Tide to a repeat as he threw for 2,933 yards, 30 touchdowns and just three interceptions. His passer rating of 175.28 in 2012 was tops in the country over the likes of Elite 11 alumni Aaron Murray, Tajh Boyd, Geno Smith and Teddy Bridgewater.
McCarron then challenged for the Heisman Trophy in 2013 with a runner-up finish behind fellow Alabama native Jameis Winston. He finished his Alabama career with 77 touchdown passes and just 15 interceptions, completing more than two-thirds of his passes for 9,019 yards. McCarron rewrote the Alabama record book and was the only quarterback in the BCS era to start for back-to-back national champions.
After not appearing in a game as a rookie following his fifth-round selection by the Cincinnati Bengals, McCarron won the No. 2 job behind Andy Dalton and came in as the former TCU star's replacement late in the 2015 season. He went 2-2 as an emergency starter for Cincinnati with five touchdowns and one interception.
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8. Teddy Bridgewater, Class of 2010
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A talented athlete from Miami, Teddy Bridgewater had questions about the polish on his passing heading into the 2010 Elite 11 camp. But he had zero problems with his arm for most of his career at Louisville, as he lit up the competition as one of the best offensive weapons to ever hit the Cardinals roster.
Bridgewater became starting quarterback at Louisville midway through his true-freshman campaign in 2011. In his first full season as the top signal-caller, he led Louisville to an 11-2 campaign with 3,718 passing yards and 27 touchdowns, winning the final Big East Offensive Player of the Year award.
The next season, Louisville only lost one game—a three-point heartbreaker to UCF—as Bridgewater completed 71 percent of his passes for nearly 4,000 yards, 31 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He finished his Louisville career with almost 10,000 passing yards and three times as many touchdowns as picks.
Bridgewater was taken with the final pick of the first round of the 2014 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings, who named him their starting quarterback after a season-ending injury to Matt Cassel. Bridgewater won Rookie of the Year with 2,919 yards and 14 touchdowns, and he led Minnesota to an NFC North title in 2015.
7. Troy Smith, Class of 2001
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Troy Smith was a late bloomer on the recruiting trail as a dual-threat quarterback, picking up more attention after his impressive performance at the 2001 Elite 11 camp. Smith was a 4-star passer rated outside the top 100 in overall recruits nationally.
"An excellent quarterback who had his good days and days when he needed to be more consistent, but his good days were as good as anyone here," former Elite 11 coach Bob Johnson said of Smith, per Scout.
"[Smith is] a natural leader, is very smart and was great in the chalk talks."
While Smith didn't start his career at Ohio State as a quarterback, he emerged as the top signal-caller during the middle of the 2004 season and scored 27 total touchdowns in 2005. Smith then threw for 2,542 yards, 30 touchdowns and just six interceptions in a 2006 Heisman Trophy-winning campaign in which he captured the highest percentage of first-place votes in the award's history.
The consensus All-American wasn't the prototypical NFL quarterback, and he fell to the fifth round of the 2007 NFL draft. He started two games for the Baltimore Ravens that year and later became a late-season starter in 2010 for the San Francisco 49ers. He spent time in the UFL and the CFL, along with a short preseason stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers, before hanging up his cleats in late 2014.
6. Matt Leinart, Class of 2000
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Matt Leinart wasn't an instant-impact recruit for Pete Carroll's USC team, but he was well worth the wait when he finally got his chance to start for the Trojans. Leinart was a 4-star quarterback out of high school, picking the in-state Trojans over the likes of Michigan and Oklahoma.
Leinart redshirted in 2001 and didn't attempt a pass in 2002. After winning the starting job in 2003, Leinart threw for 3,556 yards, 38 touchdowns—which would be a career high—and just nine interceptions as the Trojans went 12-1. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2004 and eventually finished third in 2005, giving him three top-six finishes for the famous award in his three seasons as USC's starting quarterback.
The golden-armed Leinart led USC to a national title in 2004 and a repeat undefeated regular season in 2005, setting up an epic national title game against Texas and another member of this countdown. USC fell short in one of the best college football games of all time, giving Leinart a remarkable career record of 37-2.
Leinart didn't live up to his collegiate excellence in the NFL. The 10th overall pick of the 2006 NFL draft never broke through as the full-time starter in four seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, and he was a backup on a trio of teams before ending his career in 2013.
5. Matthew Stafford, Class of 2005
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One of several Elite 11 alumni who later became No. 1 overall picks in the NFL draft, Matthew Stafford enjoyed a solid career at Georgia before becoming one of the most productive arms at the professional level. The Dallas native and 5-star passer lit up the Elite 11 in 2005 by winning the event's MVP award.
Stafford enrolled early at Georgia and became a starter in just the second game of his career. After a roller coaster of a debut campaign, Stafford led Georgia to an 11-2 season with 2,523 yards, 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. As a junior, he threw for nearly 3,500 yards and found the end zone 25 times as the Bulldogs had double-digit wins yet again.
He unsurprisingly declared early for the NFL draft in 2009, and the Detroit Lions took him with the top pick. In his third season with the Lions, he threw for a career-high 5,038 yards and 41 touchdowns. Stafford hasn't missed a start since the beginning of that stunning campaign, and he broke the 25,000-yard career mark faster than anyone else in NFL history when he did it in 2015.
Stafford is coming off his strongest season since that 2011 breakout year, and he's still eyeing that first playoff victory as Detroit's franchise quarterback. He's had the longest and most successful pro career of any Elite 11 alumnus and has numbers that few in the league can match.
4. Vince Young, Class of 2001
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While his NFL career was far from a sustained success, Vince Young had one of the best tenures for a quarterback in recent college football history and captured a lot of hardware as the star of the Texas Longhorns. The Houston native was an athletic phenom in high school and was rated the nation's No. 1 player for the class of 2002.
Young redshirted his first season at Texas but managed to score major playing time in 2003 and averaged a ridiculous 7.4 yards per carry. After becoming a full-time starter and leading Texas to a 11-1 Rose Bowl-winning campaign in 2004, Young went off for 4,086 yards of total offense and 38 touchdowns in 2005.
He finished second in Heisman voting to USC's Reggie Bush in that undefeated season for the Longhorns but got the last laugh with a legendary performance in the national title game. Young then declared for the NFL draft with dozens of bowl, title-game, Texas and Big 12 records to his name.
Young went third overall to the Tennessee Titans in 2006 and won Rookie of the Year honors. He went through a rough couple of seasons following that impressive debut, had a brief turnaround in 2009 and then bounced around to several different teams before calling it quits in 2014.
3. Jameis Winston, Class of 2011
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Jameis Winston is the youngest Elite 11 alumnus to crack this countdown, and there's no denying he's set up for even more success as an elite quarterback. Winston was a 5-star and the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in the country for the class of 2012, and he shared co-MVP honors with current BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum and former SMU passer Neal Burcham.
Winston redshirted at Florida State in 2012 and then became an instant star for the Seminoles. He led the nation in yards per attempt and efficiency as a Heisman-winning redshirt freshman as an undefeated Florida State rampaged its way to the 2013 national title game, which it won over Auburn in an instant classic thanks to a late Winston touchdown pass.
His production dipped in 2014, but the Seminoles went undefeated again in the regular season and won another ACC title. A loss at the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal to Oregon would be the only one of his college career. Winston then became the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft by the in-state Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Winston became the third quarterback in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards in a rookie season and was a Pro Bowl replacement pick last season. At just 22 years old, Winston has a long NFL future ahead of him as a franchise quarterback.
2. Tim Tebow, Class of 2005
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Judging by college careers alone, Tim Tebow would be the clear-cut No. 1 for these rankings. The 5-star dual-threat quarterback from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, was a superstar recruit for Florida head coach Urban Meyer, and he surpassed the highest expectations that were placed on him in Gainesville.
After successfully backing up Chris Leak on Florida's 2006 national championship team, Tebow smashed SEC and national records with a 4,181-yard, 55-touchdown season of total offense for the Gators. He ran away with the 2007 Heisman Trophy race—which was impressive, considering Florida's 9-4 record—and then took home the most first-place votes in a third-place finish in 2008, which ended with another national title.
Tebow led Florida to a 13-1 season as a senior and then headed to the NFL, where he was the 25th overall pick of the 2010 draft by the Denver Broncos. His rough throwing mechanics made him an erratic passer in the pros, but he started 11 games for Denver in 2011 and won a memorable playoff game.
The former Gator served as a backup for the New York Jets in 2012 and was cut in the preseason by the New England Patriots in 2013 and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015. Tebow is arguably the greatest player in college football history, but his lack of success in the NFL bumps him down a notch here.
1. Andrew Luck, Class of 2007
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Andrew Luck is the blueprint of success for a modern quarterback. In high school, the Texas native was rated as the No. 3 overall pro-style passer for the class of 2008. Stanford plucked Luck out of the Lone Star State, and the Elite 11 finalist became a starter for the Cardinal after a redshirt campaign.
At Stanford, Luck was a two-time Pac-10/12 Offensive Player of the Year, two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up and a two-time first-team All-American. Luck led the conference in completion percentage, yards per attempt and efficiency multiple times, and he threw for 82 touchdowns and just 22 interceptions in three seasons as the Cardinal's starting quarterback.
Luck then became the No. 1 overall pick of the 2012 draft by the Indianapolis Colts. He broke the record for most passing yards in a rookie season (4,374) and made his first of three straight Pro Bowls. Luck led the NFL in passing touchdowns and got the Colts to the NFC Championship Game in the 2014 season.
Perhaps the best showing of Luck's value as an elite quarterback came on Wednesday, when the Colts signed him to a six-year contract extension worth $140 million—making him the highest-paid player in NFL history, per Mike Wells of ESPN.com. That kind of money for a famous Elite 11 alum speaks for itself.
Stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com and Sports-Reference.com. Recruiting rankings are courtesy of 247Sports.
Justin Ferguson is a National College Football Analyst at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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