The draft's top QBs have immense potential. How will they develop?

Before striking it rich as a franchise passer became an achievable goal, Will Levis delivered Uber Eats and DoorDash orders around his college city.

The Kentucky quarterback's pre-NIL side hustle caused him some stress. Levis retrieved balloons from a party retailer one day two summers ago. Crammed into his SUV, the goods didn't reach the customer's home intact.

"They started popping everywhere," Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen recalled, laughing at the snafu and emphasizing that Levis' commitment to the grind impressed him.

"That's the type of kid he is. He wants to put that work in. If he wants it, he's going to go get it."

Levis wants to be great in the NFL. He's one of the consensus four best quarterbacks on the board in the upcoming draft, teaming with a few gifted peers to excite the fans of losing, listless teams.

Alabama's Bryce Young and Ohio State's C.J. Stroud won or vied for the Heisman Trophy as NCAA big dogs. Levis and Florida's Anthony Richardson emerged as challengers for top billing in the class. Front offices itching to add a difference-maker at the sport's premium position could snap them up within the first 10 picks next Thursday. Those teams will need patience and a thoughtful development plan to turn them into cornerstones of future Super Bowl contenders.

Young's and Stroud's productivity in college wowed scouts. Their chief competitors have qualities that pop. Video footage proves Levis, possessor of a rocket arm, can kneel at midfield and loft a pass that nails the crossbar. Richardson threw with immaculate touch and dominated the physical testing at the NFL combine, clearing 40 inches in the vertical jump and racing 40 yards in a torrid 4.43 seconds.

"He's got to get in a system that's innovative and they use him on the run, kind of like how they use Jalen (Hurts) in Philly and how Patrick Mahomes is being used," said Cedderick Daniels, Richardson's coach at Eastside High School in Gainesville, Florida, where he stuck around to suit up for the Gators at the next level.

"The game is evolving and it's so fast. You're a sitting duck if you just drop back to pass and have your quarterback just stand there in the pocket."

These quarterback prospects are promising and polarizing. Views vary as to what heights they'll attain in the pros. Some draftniks prefer Tennessee's Hendon Hooker - the potential first-round pick who's rehabbing an ACL injury - to Levis or Richardson, citing drawbacks to their respective games that might stall their development.

The cohort lacks a can't-miss headliner, but it's much better than last year's humdrum class. In 2022, No. 20 selection Kenny Pickett was the only passer taken before the third round.

"Unlike last year, we've got some name-brand quarterbacks that people are familiar with, that people have seen, that people have very strong opinions on. I think the league is very split on those guys," NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah told reporters on a recent conference call.

"They all have warts and flaws," Jeremiah added, "but I think there's five potential solid starters in this group."

The most accomplished quarterback available is Young, the Heisman winner in 2021, who'd probably inhabit his own tier atop draft boards if he was taller and thicker.

Young measured 5-foot-10 and 204 pounds at the combine, bulking up for the occasion to try to blunt that concern. Little else about his game is worrisome. Slippery and comfortable throwing on the move, Young passed for five scores in his collegiate finale to spark Alabama's Sugar Bowl blowout of Kansas State. Jeremiah praised Young's processing speed and ball placement when he likened him to Drew Brees, the NFL's No. 2 career passer.

Young will have to prove he's durable, but Brees himself says Young has the wits and agility to sidestep NFL tacklers, lessening the abuse he'll absorb over 17-game seasons.

"Man, the guy has got talent," Brees said on "The Dan Patrick Show" in March. Brees added, "He knows where to go with the football. He can avoid (hits). A lot of playing the quarterback position now is: Can you avoid, slide move, buy yourself a little extra time to be able to make that play, or get outside the pocket in order to make that play?"

Phenomenally accurate, Stroud delivers dimes on every type of throw, NFL Network analyst Bucky Brooks told theScore: "He can do it with layers, meaning timing, touch, anticipation." Stroud minimizes turnovers and slung six touchdown passes in the 2022 Rose Bowl, the historic game’s all-time record, by standing in the pocket and hitting a procession of receivers downfield in stride.

Less mobile and creative than Young, Stroud refuted the knock that he lacks dynamism in December's national semifinal. Stroud modified routes midplay, wriggled free from tackles, and lobbed bombs from the midfield Peach Bowl logo to choreograph four TD strikes against Georgia's mighty defense in a one-point loss.

"The big question with him - it's been talked about - was, OK, not a lot of off-schedule (passes), not a lot of playmaking, but then all of a sudden you see the semifinal game and you're like: 'Dude, where has this been?'" Jeremiah said on his conference call. "He showed you he has that ability. The old scouting adage is if you can do it once, you can do it."

Levis' smarts, strength, and sturdiness at 6-foot-4 underpin his case to be drafted early. His best passes zip into narrow windows or flutter into friendly hands 60 yards downfield. Close to unstoppable on sneaks in college (he converted 22 on 23 attempts, according to PFF), Levis also flashed the capability to juke and embarrass defenders.

Superior statistically and on tape in 2021, Levis dealt with foot, finger, and shoulder injuries last season, sometimes frustrating evaluators with his inconsistent footwork and proneness to take sacks when the pocket collapsed. Coen maintains that Levis' arm and his mind are NFL-ready.

"He knows a lot of pro-style concepts. He understands protections in the pass game. He's lethal off of play-action," Coen told theScore. "The daggers, the deep digs and deep outs, the throws that are necessary to make in the NFL - that they ask these guys to make on a day-to-day basis - he's going to be able to walk in and make those throws Day 1."

Richardson is aiming to live up to the nickname - "Cam Jackson" - that he coined for himself as a junior at Eastside. Built like Cam Newton and channeling Lamar Jackson's explosiveness in the run game, the highlight reel he compiled at Florida rivals any player's for pure entertainment value.

Richardson's resume is flawed. He made a mere 13 starts and was a 54.7% passer in college, throwing uncatchable balls on 29.5% of his attempts over the past two seasons, per PFF. On the other hand, his athleticism is peerless.

"He has elite, elite arm strength. He is a rare athlete. You don't see quarterbacks running away from LSU with 80-yard touchdown runs," Jeremiah said.

"I know it's a little bit of a roller coaster. I know he hasn't played a ton. But teams are starting to look at some of these quarterbacks as lottery tickets. This one has the biggest payout."

Hooker, meanwhile, is a wild card in the draft. Cerebral and accurate in Tennessee's up-tempo offense, he tied Stroud for the national lead in yards per pass attempt (9.5) in 2022, though he only completed 17 big-time throws downfield to Stroud's 29, as tracked by PFF. Since tearing his ACL in November, Hooker's studied the footwork of NFL QBs on film, picturing how to emulate their dropback technique once he's medically cleared to backpedal.

A college starter since 2019, Hooker turned 25 in January and is almost four full years older than Stroud and Young. That might limit his growth potential, but the maturity his age confers is a virtue, said Steve Calhoun, Hooker's private QB trainer, anticipating that he'll be able to relate to any NFL teammate.

"You walk into the locker room and you have a 10-year veteran offensive lineman who has a wife and three kids," Calhoun said in an interview. "With his ability to connect with the older, more veteran players, I think he's going to make a seamless transition."

Once drafted, these players will strive to evolve into playoff performers. Teams that pass the ball well reach that stage and compete for championships.

Except for the Ravens, every 2022 playoff squad ranked in the top half of the NFL in expected points added per dropback, according to Ben Baldwin's database. Six of the 10 best rushing teams by EPA/play and five of the 10 best defenses missed the postseason. The Chiefs' 15th-ranked defense was sufficiently adequate to win a title alongside Mahomes.

The clock starts ticking when a quarterback is drafted high; the NFL wage scale incentivizes teams to build a winning roster during that player's four-year rookie contract. The QBs with the league's four largest cap hits didn't make the playoffs last season, but 11 teams qualified while allocating under 10% of the cap to their primary passer.

That includes the Eagles and Bengals, recent Super Bowl finalists who surrounded a breakout star, be it Hurts or Joe Burrow, with talent on both sides of the ball before his salary spiked. The Jaguars adopted this approach last offseason, spending big in free agency, particularly on receivers, to support Trevor Lawrence.

"The younger the quarterback, the more experienced the players on the perimeter need to be. Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase are the exception," said Brooks, the NFL Network analyst and retired NFL return specialist.

"(Having experienced receivers) can encourage him to make fearless throws, because his guys are going to be on the other end. Sometimes when you play too many young players, everyone is guessing on where they're going to be. You want to eliminate that uncertainty."

Drafting the right QB is paramount ... and easier said than done. The wide range of possible outcomes for this year's class means no franchise - not even the Panthers, who traded up to pick first - can be sure it's landing the best pro.

The QB who headlines a draft class isn't guaranteed to rule it. Some future All-Pros slip past the first round, then outperform higher-profile prospects in career approximate value, the Pro Football Reference stat that sums up a player's on-field impact in one number.

No 2023 prospect is a finished product. How they're developed will shape their career trajectories. The teams that nail this process set a young quarterback up to succeed, scheming ways to maximize his strengths in the offense and patiently helping him adapt to that system's complexities.

An incoming quarterback controls the sweat that he spills on the job.

"He has to be the CEO. He has to be the first one in, the last to leave," said ESPN analyst Mike Tannenbaum, the longtime NFL front-office executive. "He has to earn the confidence of the equipment manager, the assistant trainer, the team president, his teammates. You're the most important person who's in the building. You have to earn that every day."

Brooks noted that touted rookie passers don't get days off - "They have to live in the film room. They have to live in the weight room" - and pinpointed two developmental pitfalls teams need to avoid.

One, don't play a QB before he's ready: "He makes a series of errors or has a bad outing and never gains his confidence back," Brooks said, detailing the worst-case scenario. "You have to work with those guys and give them more time in the developmental plan. Make sure they understand the playbook, understand exactly what's expected of them, and then they make strides based on their knowledge increasing."

Two, don't confuse the kid: "Find a way to make everything look the same for the quarterback while changing the picture for the defense. Sometimes, that's motion. Sometimes, that's using different formations to run the same concepts," Brooks said. "The main thing you want to do is make the quarterback comfortable by asking him to make the same throws on a weekly basis."

Poise and mastery of the offense signify to Tannenbaum that a quarterback is ready to start. Late bloomers need time to mess up in practice and learn from those errors before the game slows down for them.

Standout quarterbacks have been handed the keys at different junctures.

Circumstances dictate when that happens. Injuries to veteran starters elevated Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert on the depth chart. Nathan Peterman's 0.0 passer rating in the 2018 season opener hastened Josh Allen's promotion. While Burrow started from the jump, Hurts, Mahomes, and Jackson all apprenticed for much of a season before their teams deployed them.

Older quarterbacks benefited from being insulated. Brees and Tom Brady made one appearance apiece as rookies. Aaron Rodgers famously didn't succeed Brett Favre in Green Bay until his fourth year, authoring the blueprint for Jordan Love's development. More recently, like Sam Darnold before him, starting instantly for the New York Jets exposed Zach Wilson and stunted his progression.

Brooks expects Young and Stroud to start sooner than later, but he said Levis and Richardson ought to sit for a year or two as they refine their accuracy: "When you watch the tape, there are some egregious misses from those guys."

Two clubs will bet they can fix that shortcoming.

"A thing to grow on is to take what defenses give you. You don't have to take the big shot every time," Daniels, Richardson's head coach in high school, said about him. "Check down and take the 2- or 3-yard route. Even though it doesn't look pretty statistically, it's a completion. Other than that, I think he's fine."

Levis and his college coordinator are headed in opposite directions. Coen joined the Rams as Sean McVay's lieutenant for the 2022 season, then returned to Kentucky this winter to help plot the offense's post-Levis future.

He thinks an NFL staff could weaponize Levis in various ways. While "just messing around," Coen has seen Levis fire the ball almost 70 yards downfield. Helming the Kentucky offense forced the passer to operate under center and audible at the line of scrimmage. If he fine-tunes his footwork and hones his pocket presence through live reps, Coen figures he'll progress to breaking games open.

"He made so many plays with his legs in 2021," Coen said, "whether they were designed runs for the quarterback or whether, hey, the play breaks down, it's off schedule, I called a man-beater and they play zone, and he takes off for a first down and runs somebody over or jumps over them."

Coen added, "That's not a great play call. That's a great player making a play. He made me right as a play-caller very often."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.