Devin
Leary.
Devin
Leary.
Kentucky· 6'1"· 215 lb
"The arm was never the question with Leary; the question was whether a quarterback with no second-reaction game could survive in a league that keeps asking for one."Pre-draft read
Full-time pocket quarterback out of shotgun spread systems who plays on rhythm and wins with velocity. Leary drops, sets and rips: compact release, high-end arm strength to drive hash-to-sideline digs and comebacks, and the torque to squeeze the ball into a closing window when he is late.
The secondary trait is nerve. He hunts explosives off play-action and pulls the trigger into contested space rather than taking the safe checkdown. As a runner he is functional at best, a negative-yardage rusher who does not extend plays or threaten a defense off structure. The signature is that arm plus that appetite, the pairing that produced a 35-touchdown, five-interception season in 2021 and a 12-interception year in 2023.
Timing-based dropback passing game from shotgun with play-action shot concepts and a defined progression
Year 1: developmental QB3 who learns a full-field progression system from the pocket. Ceiling: veteran QB2 who can run the offense on schedule for a short stretch without shrinking the playbook.
A movement-based offense built on designed keepers, boot and off-schedule creation — he has negative career rushing yardage and no second-reaction game, so the entire menu below the drop-back concepts disappears.
Needs a clean pocket and a coordinator willing to let him throw the deep dig; his value evaporates the moment the offense asks him to move the launch point.
Devin Leary 2021 Regular Season Highlights | NC State QB
The peak season: 35 touchdowns, five interceptions and the velocity throws that carried his grade.
All-22: Devin Leary vs Clemson 2021 | Selected plays
Coaches-tape look at the signature upset, including the overtime touchdowns.
Devin Leary || Kentucky Wildcats Quarterback || 2023 Senior Highlights
The final college season in the SEC, the tape most of the league graded him on.
A five-year college starter with a legitimate NFL arm and an equally legitimate volatility file. Leary redshirted at NC State in 2018, won the job as a redshirt freshman and never lost it until his body took it: a fractured fibula ended his 2020 season after four games, a torn pectoral ended his 2022 season after six. He transferred to Kentucky in 2023, started all 13 games, and left college with 43 games and 9,553 passing yards.
The evaluation hinged on which season you weighted. The 2021 tape was the best of him: 3,433 yards, a school-record 35 touchdowns against five interceptions, the Clemson upset, an arm that changed the geometry of the field. The 2023 tape in Lexington was a different quarterback in a different offense, 25 touchdowns but 12 interceptions at 56.3 percent, too many throws made on hope rather than progression. Scouts loved the release and worried about the accuracy floor and the absence of any rushing threat.
By spring the board had him as a developmental backup rather than a starting bet, a Day 3 arm you draft to sit and teach. Baltimore, hunting a long-term successor to a 37-year-old Josh Johnson behind Lamar Jackson, took him at 218 on the recommendation of quarterbacks coach Tee Martin.
- 01
Arm strength
Genuine NFL velocity from the pocket that lets him complete hash-to-sideline comebacks and out-breakers most Day 3 quarterbacks simply cannot make.
- 02
Release and set-up
Compact, repeatable throwing motion with quiet feet on schedule, so the ball comes out on time and on rhythm inside structure.
- 03
Middle-of-the-field aggression
Willing and effective attacking the seams and deep digs off play-action rather than defaulting to the underneath answer.
- 04
Production peak
The 2021 season is real evidence: 35 touchdowns to five interceptions and a school record that broke Philip Rivers' mark at NC State.
- 05
Toughness
Came back from a fractured fibula and a torn right pectoral to start all 13 games in the SEC without visibly flinching inside a collapsing pocket.
- 01
Accuracy floor
Career 59.1 percent passer who scatters throws when his base gets loose, and the misses often come on the routine, in-rhythm throws.
- 02
Turnover volatility
Twelve interceptions in his final college season, most of them decisions rather than deflections, forcing throws into shrinking windows.
- 03
No rushing threat
Minus-79 career rushing yards; he offers nothing on designed keepers and rarely buys time when the first read is covered.
- 04
Injury file
A fractured fibula in 2020 and a torn right pectoral in 2022 cost him two seasons of development at the most important position.
| Yr | Team | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | NC State | 8 | 101 | 210 | 1219 | 8 | 5 |
| 2020 | NC State | 4 | 66 | 110 | 890 | 8 | 2 |
| 2021 | NC State | 12 | 283 | 431 | 3433 | 35 | 5 |
| 2022 | NC State | 6 | 118 | 193 | 1265 | 11 | 4 |
| 2023 | Kentucky | 13 | 209 | 371 | 2746 | 25 | 12 |
| Career | — | 43 | 777 | 1315 | 9553 | 87 | 28 |
Season lines per ESPN/Sports-Reference (NC State 2019-2022, Kentucky 2023); season totals sum exactly to the career line. Redshirted 2018 (no stats). Career games/starts per Kentucky athletics bio: 43 games, 38 starts. Sack yardage is charged to rushing in NCAA accounting, which is why rushing yards are negative. Fumbles not verified by season and therefore omitted rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Journeyman backup who survives on preparation and rhythm throws rather than any athletic trait.
Late-round pocket arm who earned a real QB2 job by being on time and accurate inside structure.
Day 3 college producer whose accuracy floor caps him at emergency depth and practice-squad work.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Baltimore never gave him a regular-season snap. He was waived at the 2024 cutdown, re-signed to the practice squad the next day, and spent the entire rookie year there behind Lamar Jackson and Josh Johnson without a game-day elevation. The 2025 summer was his real chance: John Harbaugh went with Leary over veteran Josh Johnson in the backup competition, then watched the preseason go badly, with Leary and Cooper Rush combining for just over 300 exhibition passing yards. Baltimore waived him again on August 26, 2025 and replaced him on the practice squad with Tyler Huntley. He has yet to appear in an NFL regular-season game.
In hindsight the pick was defensible and the outcome was predictable. The Ravens said out loud what they were buying: a developmental backup, drafted at a price where a miss costs nothing. What the 2023 tape flagged is exactly what showed up in preseason reps, an arm that plays and a completion rate that does not, in an offense whose entire identity is second-reaction football that he cannot run. The 2021 season remains the tell of what that arm can do inside a clean, well-designed pocket, and he never found one in the pros. A sixth-round quarterback who never dressed for a Sunday is not a scandal; it is the base rate.
Data note: Season lines per ESPN/Sports-Reference (NC State 2019-2022, Kentucky 2023); season totals sum exactly to the career line. Redshirted 2018 (no stats). Career games/starts per Kentucky athletics bio: 43 games, 38 starts. Sack yardage is charged to rushing in NCAA accounting, which is why rushing yards are negative. Fumbles not verified by season and therefore omitted rather than zero-filled.