One of the prevailing takes emanating from the 2025 NFL Draft is that Quinn Ewers should have entered the transfer portal instead of declaring for an eventual seventh round selection by the Miami Dolphins.

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“He could have gotten paid more!”

“He could have developed more!”

“He made a mistake!”

What a twist. The loudest voices in this sport used to celebrate when players gave their all for a school and showed a shred of loyalty to an institution, even when the relationship between school and student-athlete was skewed in the wrong direction. Now? The loudest voices in the sport wonder why an individual decision was made for non-monetary reasons.

Ewers has a Longhorn and a Texas flag tattooed on his body. An NIL driven dalliance with Ohio State aside, Ewers’ childhood dream was to be Texas’ starting quarterback and lead the UT football program to great heights. He did that plenty, with several significant wins, the 2023 Big 12 Championship, back-to-back College Football Playoff semifinal appearances, and 27 victories as a starter.

It’s not out of bounds to say that a lot of decisions made by Ewers and his close circle over the past five years had revenue in mind. He jumped to Ohio State well before Ryan Day or anyone else expected him to for a significant NIL deal he would not have been able to capitalize on had he played his senior year at Southlake Carroll. He returned home to Texas and chose the Longhorns after a 5-7 season even with other schools like Texas Tech and TCU in pursuit. It’d be foolish to think pride and love for UT were the only reasons he chose Austin, but he understood there’d be opportunities for financial reward at a place he cherished over others.

And even his decision to return for the 2024 season, one that Ewers mentioned caused him to slow down a tick after rushing his “entire life,” was made with the idea of a better draft grade in mind.

Injuries, inconsistent play, and other variables didn’t make that the end result of what was still a quality season for Ewers. Yes, he had a year of eligibility remaining. Yes, he could have gone elsewhere and earned millions of dollars playing for North Carolina or USC or Texas Tech or wherever in an effort to make more than a seventh-round salary. He could have found another school to play for in hopes he’d make his profile stronger than those belonging to Drew Allar, Carson Beck, Garrett Nussmeier, or others.

Some of those prominent voices even turned to Beck, identifying him as what Ewers could have been for the 2025 season. Beck is probably on some sort of multi-million deal at Miami even though he has one working arm at the moment. Ewers is likely making just over $1 million this year sitting behind Tua Tagovailoa and competing with Zach Wilson.

Quinn and the Ewers looked at that information, and went another direction. It’s most likely these were the reasons why:

• Nearly every decision Ewers and company made from 2019 on was done with an NFL career in mind.
• Ewers has a real affinity and love for UT that is priceless.

That’s hard to understand for a lot of people whose current view of the sport is almost exclusively filtered through maximizing dollars and cents in the new NIL era, though credit is due to On3’s Ari Wasserman for identifying loyalty as a factor when analyzing Ewers’ drop to the seventh round.

“Maybe he’s just the epitome of “Texas Forever,” a man who wanted to leave his legacy of turning Texas around as the final chapter in his collegiate book.

If Ewers, who is fourth in school history in wins behind all-time Texas greats like Colt McCoy, Vince Young, and Bobby Layne; who is third in school history in passing yards, touchdowns, and completions; and who helped Texas reach heights not seen in over a decade, elected to play in different colors after all those achievements, he knows it would’ve soured so many Longhorn fans’ view of his time at Texas.

And maybe even his own.

That’s not what he elected to do. The NFL was where he wanted to be.

Ewers had opportunities to play college football in 2025. Ewers had the chance to earn more in 2025 than he would have on his seventh round rookie deal.

But there was something he viewed as being more valuable than an extra million or two. When it was time for him to get selected, there were two words he wanted to hear when national television announced the Miami Dolphins’ seventh-round pick.

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“Quarterback. Texas.”