The greatest NFL QBs to hail from smaller college programs

While first-round picks or players from well-established college programs represent the bulk of the quarterback position’s all-time greats, several have taken the long way to NFL prominence. Here are the top QBs to come out of small schools — be it low-level Division I programs or non-Division I schools — in the common draft era (1967-present).

Sam Robinson is a sportswriter from Kansas City, Missouri. He primarily covers the NFL for Yardbarker. Moving from wildly injury-prone sprinter in the aughts to reporter in the 2010s, Sam set up camp in three time zones covering everything from high school water polo to Division II national championship games. He has since settled in as the husband of a track and field coach, concentrating on the NFL. Boasting an unhealthy interest in the league’s history and fashion trends, Sam is the lead writer for Pro Football Rumors and has written about the sport for Yardbarker since 2018. In addition to working as a writer/editor for a few newspapers – the Cleveland Plain Dealer and St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, to name two – in a former life that included some awkward awards-show hosting gigs thankfully inaccessible online, Sam has written about the Olympics for The Athletic.