When Quinn Ewers elected to enter the 2025 NFL Draft, he likely left some money on the table.
The former Texas quarterback, who led the team to the College Football Playoff in 2024, wasn't considered an elite prospect, but still a solid passer that would hear his name called at some point. That wound up being in the seventh and final round, when the Dolphins added him to their quarterback room behind Tua Tagovailoa.
Due to his draft slot, Ewers' NFL deal won't be as substantial as other rookies'. And in the era of NIL, he likely could have gotten a massive deal by transferring away from the Longhorns to use up his remaining collegiate eligibility.
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Here's a comparison of Ewers' projected NFL contract to his reported NIL offers.
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Quinn Ewers NFL contract
As of Thursday, Ewers has signed his four-year rookie deal with the Dolphins, NFL Network's Mike Garafolo reported. The 231st overall pick is now officially entering rookie camp behind Tagovailoa and Zach Wilson in Miami.
While Garafolo did not report on the official value of Ewers' rookie deal, a rough estimation of his contract can be given, as NFL rookie deals range in value based on what slot a player is selected in. First-round picks have larger contracts than second-round picks, and so on.
Based on Spotrac's estimations of contract value for each 2025 NFL Draft slot, Ewers will make around $1,082,894 annually over his four seasons, or an overall contract value estimation of $4,331,576.
That number is in comparison to the first overall pick, the Titans' Cam Ward, who is set to have a four-year contract value around $48 million.
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Quinn Ewers NIL offers
Ewers still had a year of eligibility remaining in the NCAA when he elected to enter the NFL Draft. While it's unlikely Texas would have brought him back with phenom Arch Manning waiting in the wings, he could have taken his talents to another big-time program — similar to what Carson Beck did when he transferred from Georgia to Miami.
Coming off a 2024 season in which he totaled 3,472 passing yards and 31 touchdowns, it's almost a sure thing that Ewers would have gotten a significant NIL package. Beck, for example, reportedly received an NIL package from the Hurricanes that was worth over $4 million.
In January, 247Sports reported that Ewers turned down an $8 million NIL offer to transfer to another unknown school for his final year of college. The story also indicated that over his three years at Texas, Ewers earned around $6 million total in NIL money, plus another $1.4 million for signing with GT Sports Marketing in 2021.
There is also the realistic possibility that if Ewers had remained in college for one more season, he could have improved his draft stock from where he wound up being selected, the seventh round. Although the 2026 NFL Draft is considered a stronger class for quarterbacks, another year of experience could have perhaps moved Ewers' draft stock up another round or two, allowing him to make more money on his NFL rookie contract when he signed it.
Being a seventh-round pick significantly limited Ewers' financial ceiling for his first NFL deal, especially in comparison to what he could have made in college for one more year.
Using Ewers' projected NFL contract figure from Spotrac, and the report that he could have made $8 million in NIL for one season in college football, the quarterback is set to make roughly $7 million less for the 2025 NFL season than he would have if he stayed in college.
Ewers' NFL contract value over four years is around half of what he would have reportedly made over just one year in college if he transferred to the anonymous program that offered him the $8 million NIL package.
Why didn't Quinn Ewers stay in college?
Despite the financial benefits, Ewers stuck with his decision to head to the NFL. He'll now face a tough road to a starting job, at least for the time being, with the Dolphins. After the NFL Combine, Ewers said "it was never a thought" to return to college, as he didn't want to leave a legacy anywhere but with the Longhorns.
“I wanted to leave my legacy at Texas. I didn’t want to disrupt anything that I did at Texas, and it be flipped and turned any other way," Ewers said, per CFB-HQ on SI. "I just wanted to be remembered, in college, at Texas.”
With his decision to enter the NFL in 2025 despite having one more year of NCAA eligibility, Ewers may have left behind money, but it was clearly more important to him that his three years at Texas were remembered well.
"Texas was the only place he wanted to play college football," Riley Dodge, Ewers' high school coach at Southlake Carroll, told 247Sports in January. "He wanted to leave Texas in good standing."