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It's not often that you hear of a quarterback who has led his team to back-to-back national title victories, yet is considered a polarizing prospect that has people split on his NFL potential.
Bennett is one of college football's best stories as a former walk-on who reached the highest stage on more than one occasion, but decision-making issues hindered him during the 2021 season and in that initial postseason run.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart referred to what Bennett needed to correct ahead of the 2022 season as "boneheaded mistakes" that seemingly came at worst of times, but those seemed to disappear for the most part en route to the team's second national championship appearance as Bennett earned a place as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate.
He finished out his final season at Georgia with a 68.1% completion rate, 3,425 passing yards, 20 passing touchdowns and 6 interceptions, projecting as a quarterback with a high floor and a potentially much higher ceiling than he was ever given credit for.
Bennett also had 7 rushing touchdowns, showing both his underrated athleticism and improvisation ability.
He defied the odds in more than one way throughout his career in which he was originally a walk-on, including being selected in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft with the No. 128 overall pick.
Things got a bit weird when Bennett missed the entirety of his rookie season with an undisclosed, non-football related issue.
Despite some of the off-the-field concerns, Bennett has been impressive in multiple facets and seems to have turned things around as he's reappeared in offseason workouts and appears to be working back toward a return.
While he doesn't impress frame-wise at 5-foot-11 and 192 pounds, Bennett holds an abundance of redeeming qualities and is everything a quarterback who manages the game well should be.
He goes through his progressions well without getting stuck on his first read, made some of the best anticipatory throws in college football last season, has a good feel for pressure in the pocket and has an underrated amount of speed when the structure falls apart or he is called upon to use his legs.
Bennett, through his time on the field, seems to have a kept a solid and self-aware base of his strengths and weaknesses, on top of what he should focus on working through.
“My footwork in the pocket is my big focus,” Bennett told me ahead of that. “My consistency in my drops. And then just the timing with the wideouts on timing routes is another thing I’ve really put a lot of work into.”
Increased responsibilities at the line of scrimmage year-over-year were a huge part of Bennett's development.
“I’ve got a lot more freedom this year than I did last year with changing calls,” Bennett said. “I’ve always done mic points and run to run and stuff it opens up more, pass checks and a bunch of different things. We’ll know specifically, come game week.”
Bennett has a chance to only grow off of these things in the NFL in what could be called his true rookie year if he is to return.
If Bennett stays on track with a steady trajectory -- whether that's with the Rams or another team -- he should be expected to exist as a viable backup at the least within the league.
More must-reads:
- Winners and losers from Day 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft
- Eagles move up in draft to select another DB
- The '100 catches in an NFL season' quiz
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