ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers told ESPN that he expects to enter the NFL Draft at the end of the 2024 Texas season.

In an interview with ESPN’s “College GameDay” before the Longhorns’ appearance in the College Football Playoff semifinals, Ewers answered “yes” when asked directly if he expected to play in the NFL next season.

Ewers did not provide a definitive statement as he phrased his comments this way: “We’ll see.” He added that he doesn’t expect to play college football next season.

Sources close to Ewers reiterated to ESPN that there is an “overwhelming likelihood” that Ewers will declare for the NFL draft. That was Ewers’ plan for 2023.

But injuries slowed him down this season and he and his team concluded that not starting 25 times could be detrimental to his long-term development. (NFL data shows this is a frontier for quarterback development.)

Ewers is a fourth-grader who began his career at Ohio State after skipping his senior year of high school at Southlake Carroll in the Dallas area. He played sparingly for the Buckeyes, Texas’ opponent in Friday night’s Cotton Bowl, and is 27-8 overall in his Longhorns career.

The game against Ohio State will be his 36th career start, and he has posted a 21-4 record over the last two years, leading Texas to the College Football Playoff semifinals in both seasons. Over his career, Ewers has thrown for 8,845 yards and 66 touchdowns and completed 65.1% of his passes.

Ewers said he hasn’t seen any rumors that he might transfer from Texas to receive a lucrative offer at another school.

“I didn’t even pay attention to it,” he said. “I’m not really sure what’s going on.”

Ewers expects to cause some controversy in this upcoming draft, as one general manager told ESPN that he sees Ewers as a top-100 pick but admitted there was a “big divergence” in his scouting department Ewers’ NFL prediction there.

Another NFL executive predicted that Ewers is now considered outside the top 100 but has a chance to help himself during the process by working out for coaching staffs and giving chalk talks. Playing three seasons for Texas coach Steve Sarkisian will help Ewers in the eyes of coaches, thanks in part to Sarkisian’s NFL experience and the fact that he runs a more complex system than most college coaches.

NFL coaches don’t begin the scouting process until this time of year, when their season is over.

“Coaches will probably like him a lot more than scouts,” one NFL executive said.

Ewers has outstanding wins at both Alabama in 2023 and Michigan this season. He has had injury issues and some inconsistency in both 2023 and 2024, as Ewers has thrown five interceptions in the last four games.

In 2024, he threw 29 touchdown passes and was named second-team All-SEC.