Texas Football: Quinn Ewers should be Heisman Trophy favorite in 2024

With guys like Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix Jr., and Caleb Williams all heading to the NFL this offseason, there's going to be plenty of speculation about who the top Heisman Trophy contenders will be to begin the 2024 campaign.

The popular choices early on are guys like Carson Beck, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders, but Quinn Ewers is a name that isn't mentioned as much as it should be.

After breaking out in 2022 in his first season with Texas with 2,177 yards and 15 touchdowns, he only improved on those numbers in his first fully healthy season as the starter in 2023. In fact, he finished with 3,479 yards and 22 touchdowns with only six picks. He also improved his completion percentage from 58 in 2022 to 69 in 2023. That 11 percent improvement was massive for his development and he just oozed confidence. He also added five rushing touchdowns.

With those numbers, he absolutely needs to be considered one of the top Heisman contenders to begin the 2024 season, if not the No. 1 threat to win the award.

And if he can improve on those numbers from his second season with Texas in his first year in the SEC, I'd be shocked if he wasn't at least a finalist for the Heisman Trophy with an invite to New York in December. That would mean he'd have to have a monster season against elite competition. And he has the talent to do that -- just look at what he did in a road win against Alabama in 2023.

We need to start pushing the narrative that Ewers is the top returning quarterback in college football because, well, he deserves some respect. And he's as talented -- or more -- as any quarterback in the country.