Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer is a living legend already...in Champaign, IL. He just led the Fighting Illini to their winningest stretch over a two year period, in program history. It's a new golden era for Illini revenue-producing sports, and Altmyer is an icon of that, on the football side.
His decision to opt-in for the 2025 Music City Bowl was massive, as he won the game's MVP award, and with it, kick-started the surge of his draft stock. During the season, one wondered if he would even get drafted at all.
Now the Ole Miss transfer could go as high as round five, maybe even late in the fourth. The Starkville native had a great postseason, offseason and predraft process, the pinnacle of which was his Senior Bowl week. Altmyer put in an impressive body of work in Mobile, wowing scouts and personnel during the practice week.
Let's take a look at five potential landing spots for him.
Altmyer confirmed that Baltimore are one of a few teams with which he has had in-depth conversations. Not just talking, but going deep (like a fade route!). Are the Ravens going to be moving on from backup QB Tyler "Snoop" Huntley soon? The Ravens are unlikely to carry three quarterbacks, but it wouldn't hurt to spend a day three (because they have so many to choose from) selection on one.
Devin Leary, who Baltimore took in the sixth round of 2024, never made it to the active roster, so maybe it's time to roll the dice again?
Altmyer has had meetings (virtual or IRL) with the likes of the Cincinnati Bengals, Las Vegas Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts. He has confirmed all these meetings first hand, and when one ponders this specific list, Seattle jumps out at you.
The reigning Super Bowl champs are set with Sam Darnold as the starter, and Drew Lock as the backup. However, Altmyer could be viewed as a potential replacement upgrade over Jalen Milroe at QB3.
In analyzing the depth charts of the other seven teams listed here, we don't immediately see a straight line to a direct fit.
The student paper at the University of Illinois, the Daily Illini, looked at three potential landing locations for Altmyer: Arizona, Denver and Tampa. As they pointed out, Jacoby Brissett may not be the answer in Arizona, so they will likely take a QB at some point in this draft. The Cards may deal in an earlier round for their new QB1 however.
As for Denver and Tampa, these are two teams potentially looking for a new backup signal caller in this draft, as they are obviously set with Bo Nix and Baker Mayfield respectively. Denver is especially intriguing, as it would mean a reunion with one of his top targets over the course of his collegiate career, Pat Bryant.
We have seen, on more than a few occasions, college teammate QB-WR combinations replicate that chemistry again in the league.
This article originally appeared on Draft Wire: Luke Altmyer really improved his draft stock this winter and spring