These 4 QBs have increased their NFL Draft stock the most this week

The Week 5 college football slate has featured plenty of thrilling games, from Georgia Tech's overtime squeaker against Wake Forest to the Fighting Illini's narrow takedown of USC in a battle of ranked conference opponents. Ohio State walked into Washington and reminded us that their defense is a brick wall. Notre Dame sent Arkansas into a tailspin. Fun things are happening! (Unless you're an Arkansas fan, that is.)

A lot of these games have serious implications on the NFL Draft conversation, too. It's never too early to look ahead to the next generation of professional stars. When it comes to the quarterback position in particular, this is a unique and confounding group of prospects. We don't really have a clear runaway No. 1 prospect like Caleb Williams. It more resembles last season's class, where performance — not pedigree — will carry the day and the best will rise to the top over time.

The whole Arch Manning obsession lasted like two quarters. LaNorris Sellers has not made the Heisman-level statement a lot of college (and NFL) fans expected. It's sort of a mad dash to the middle, with the likes of Garrett Nussmeier, Fernando Mendoza and Drew Allar showcasing incredible highs and concerning lows in equal measure. There will be a lot of debates raging over the draft-eligible quarterbacks in the months to come.

As for Week 5, here are a handful of college quarterbacks who meaningfully improved their NFL stock with excellent performances, many of them coming in tough spots or against quality opponents.

Luke Altmyer, Illinois Fighting Illini

Illinois is back on the college football map after a gutsy 34-32 win over USC on Saturday afternoon. This comes a week after getting blown out of the water, 63-10, in an all-around embarrassing trip to Indiana. The Illini needed this bounce-back, and Luke Altmyer needed a productive outing to restore the faith of NFL scouts. He delivered.

Altmyer converted 20-of-26 passes for 328 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for a third touchdown. Oh, and he caught a touchdown pass on a double reverse trick play. Quite the well-rounded afternoon. Now up to 855 yards and nine touchdowns with zero interceptions through five weeks, Altmyer has completed 70 percent of his pass attempts to date. Those are excellent numbers.

Altmyer, a fifth-year senior who began his career at Ole Miss before transferring to Champaign in 2023, is widely viewed as a sixth- or seventh-round prospect at the moment. But more performances like Saturday, which featured Altmyer expertly navigating pressure, extending plays to the outside, and delivering strikes through the USC secondary, will quickly boost his reputation.

He's not a crazy athlete or some outlier passing talent, but Altmyer makes quick decisions and delivers the football with accuracy, even when the O-line collapses in front of him. NFL teams will be attracted to him if he can continue to limit turnovers. He only threw six interceptions last season after tossing 10 as a junior, so the trend line is positive.

Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt Commodores

Diego Pavia is one of the great stories in college football this season. The Vanderbilt quarterback, in his third season as a regular starter, was unrecruited at the D-I level. The Commodores took a chance on him, and Pavia on them. That decision will go down as one of the most consequential and beneficial in the history of the program.

Once the laughing stock of the SEC, Vandy is 5-0 with considerable momentum after a 55-35 dismantling of Utah State's defense on Saturday afternoon. Pavia put up one of his standard gaudy stat lines, completing 26-of-34 passes for 321 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. He ran for another 79 yards and a sixth touchdown, averaging 8.8 yards per carry.

Pavia will get knocked for his small stature in scouting circles, but the dude is a pure gamer. He makes big, confident throws into traffic and maneuvers around the pocket with the slyness of a fox. He's up to 890 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions on the season, completing 73.9 percent of his passes. If we want to start bookmarking potential Heisman underdogs, Pavia is top of mind.

He will get a little too bold on occasion, but that confidence should play well at the next level. You can't throw scared in the NFL, a fact that so often sinks the "undersized" and unheralded quarterbacks. Pavia has zero doubts about his own ability. He beat all the odds and exceeded every expectation in Nashville. Why can't he do it in the pros?

Haynes King, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Georgia Tech has surged in the college football rankings after knocking off Clemson in Week 2, but Wake Forest gave the Jackets a run for their money in Winston-Salem on Saturday. Tech went down 17-3 at halftime, but came rollicking back in the second half to force overtime and take a seven-point lead in the extra period. Wake Forest marched down the field to potentially tie the game, but rather than kicking a game-tying extra point to force double-OT, the Demon Deacons went for two. It didn't go their way.

A 30-29 win over Wake Forest isn't very impressive on the surface, and Tech's offense struggled throughout the first half, but Haynes King deserves immense credit for authoring the Yellow Jackets' comeback and making big plays all over the field. He completed 28-of-42 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown. He also tacked on 21 carries for 106 yards and two more scores.

King is a bad you-know-what. This is blasphemous as a UGA alum, but it's impossible not to root for that dude. He's kind of like the Cam Skattebo of quarterbacks — completely unafraid to put his body on the line and go the extra inch (through a sea of bodies) to make the winning play. King might need to play it safer at the next level, honestly, but if Tech keeps winning games, scouts will be won over.

He isn't your prototypical NFL quarterback on paper, as King really leans on physical runs up the middle, but he still attempted 42 passes on Saturday. He's not afraid to chuck it a bit. King isn't going to take the lid off a defense very often, but he has dramatically cut down on turnovers in three seasons with the Yellow Jackets and he offers a uniquely balanced means of production. The more gutsy victories from King and Georgia Tech, the more we'll start to hear his name in NFL circles.

Sam Leavitt, Arizona State Sun Devils

Arizona State made up for a disheartening Week 2 loss to Mississippi State with an impressive 27-24 win over ranked TCU on Friday night. While the Sun Devils aren't quite the upstart underdog we all came to love a season ago, this team is plenty talented, with quarterback Sam Leavitt putting up big numbers on a weekly basis.

He completed 27-of-39 passes for 291 yards and two touchdowns against TCU, with 62 yards and a touchdown as a runner. The former Michigan State transfer, now in his junior season, is a sensational athlete. Once he picks up momentum in open space, Leavitt is difficult to bring down, able to halt his momentum and change direction like a running back.

He's up to 1,039 passing yards and 281 rushing yards through five weeks, totaling 13 touchdowns. There are elements of his game Leavitt needs to clean up or improve upon — the 12 sacks, the off-target throws, the distressing lack of air yards — but the foundation is solid and he's easily the highest-ranked prospect of the quarterbacks in this article, at least in the consensus.

Arizona State really needed Friday's win. A loss would have put a fork in the Sun Devils' CFP aspirations before the midway point of the season. There is still a long way to go before Arizona State can "live up" to 2024's out-of-the-blue success, but Leavitt has put his name on NFL radars. If he can pull a few more rabbits out of hats and continue to showcase that singular dual-threat athleticism, expect to hear his name called in April — perhaps as early as the second or third round.