AUSTIN (KXAN) — Quinn Ewers met with reporters after practice during the Dolphins’ rookie minicamp and candidly said, “I didn’t expect to fall as low as I did.”
He was referring to his pick in the NFL draft. But in the same breath, he turned the conversation to the opportunity to achieve a childhood dream.
“It is what it is, at the end of the day, and I have the same opportunity that everyone else does,” he said. “I’m beyond thankful for that and want to go in there and play my game. I want to learn and develop as a quarterback.”
As a seventh-round pick and Miami’s second-to-last pick in the draft, Ewers still signed a 4-year rookie contract worth $4.3 million, with a signing bonus of $131,576, according to data from Spotrac. His base salary in the first year is $840,000, and then it increases to just over $1 million in his second season, with modest bumps at years three and four. The signing bonus is the only guaranteed money in the contract.
There were reports that Ewers turned down upward of $8 million in potential NIL deals to transfer and play another year in college, prompting questions about why Ewers wouldn’t stick around to make more money, and maybe improve his draft stock. In previous interviews, he said he wanted to leave a legacy at Texas. He did that, and it was time for him to take his next step.
On the Pate State Speaker Series, part of Josh Pate’s College Football Show, Sarkisian had a message for people who suggested Ewers is making a bad decision.
“Everybody has a comment about a kid who leaves a school to go to another school for more money. How could he do that? What’s going on with college football? All of a sudden, here’s Quinn Ewers, who decides not to go to another school, saying he wants to leave a legacy at Texas and go chase my dreams of playing in the NFL,” he said. “And now those same critics, those same people, are saying, ‘How could he not go take that money?'”
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Pate replied sarcastically, “Are you suggesting hypocrisy?” And then Sarkisian went a step further with his remarks.
“Sometimes I wonder: Who are we to judge and criticize a young man who’s making a decision about his future? Who has only done things the right way, to the best of his ability. Who gave everything he could to our program, and decided that ‘Now’s my time. It’s time for me to go on the next journey of my life,’ and that’s trying to play quarterback in the NFL. We’re here to support him, but to criticize him for not taking the money, what are we even talking about?”
Ewers graduated from high school early to attend Ohio State and take advantage of NIL deals, and received criticism for that, and now he’s getting flak for not taking more money. It’s a cycle that doesn’t stop.
He’s where he wants to be now. Miami’s offense is similar to the one Sarkisian runs at Texas, and Ewers said while that makes him somewhat comfortable, he knows there’s a lot of work ahead of him.
It appears he’ll be the No. 3 quarterback on the Dolphins’ roster behind starter Tua Tagovailoa and Zach Wilson, who signed with the Dolphins in the offseason and was the second overall pick in the 2021 draft by the New York Jets.
“I’ve never really been in the position that I’m in, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” he said. “I’m excited to learn and develop as a player, and it’s only going to benefit me in the long run.”
