Finally, Someone Sees High Value In Demond Williams Jr.

One of the great quandaries of the college football offseason is this: If LSU, as alleged, was willing to pay Demond Williams Jr. $6 million to play in Baton Rouge -- which would seem to indicate his quarterback talent -- how come he doesn't show up in the national conversation more regarding the best players at his position?

Too often he's way down the list, or not on them at all, when the experts are making a case for the most proficient signal-callers across the land.

Sports Illustrated, however, sees high value in Williams, ranking him seventh overall while breaking down all 68 QBs from every major conference.

That's SI, as in the mother ship compared to this satellite website Washington Huskies on SI that busies itself only with the Huskies.

The top quarterbacks in college football, according to this comprehensive look, are, in order, Mississippi's Trinidad Chambliss, Ohio State's Julian Sayin, Notre Dame's CJ Carr, Oregon's Dante Moore, Miami's Darian Mensah, Texas' Arch Manning and Williams, followed by 61 others.

Full rankings ⬇️ https://t.co/GAyQR47Cjg
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 27, 2026

As a sophomore last season, Williams had a chance to move up in everyone's estimation but led the Huskies to just two field goals against Ohio State and Sayin at home, threw three second-half interceptions at Michigan that enabled a close game to slip away and was outdueled by Moore in a two-touchdown loss to Oregon at home.

In dissecting the talents of the 5-foot-11, 204-pound Williams, SI saw a guy who completed 69.5 percent of of his passes, piled up 3,065 yards and 25 touchdowns, threw eight interceptions overall and finished with a 161.0 efficiency rating.

Demond Williams Jr. and Dante Moore embrace after their 2025 game. | Dave Sizer photo

The SI assessment of his 2025 play, while mentioning his transfer portal dalliance that was successfully discouraged by the Huskies, goes like this:

How Jedd Fisch is able to keep the locker room after Williams tried to escape his contract at Washington could determine if the third-year quarterback is actually capable of landing this high on the list. He’s a special dual-threat player, and his production rivaled that of Dante Moore, who outdueled him during rivalry week in 2025. Like many of the young quarterbacks in this range, there were some duds against top competition. Washington averaged just 9.3 points per game against Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Oregon (all losses) compared to a whopping 41.5 points against its other nine opponents. Williams took a few too many sacks (31) last season, so would be wise to cozy back up to his offensive linemen above all else before Week 1.

While lightning fast, some say Williams is too short to be an elite quarterback. Others insist his speed makes him nothing but one of the best.

Yet in debating his talent, it all comes down to this to move up: He needs to beat teams that are perceived to be better than his and he has to do it now.

He gets a pass on his sophomore season, his first as a full-fledged starter, and the mistakes he made. But if he doesn't use that as a springboard to greater success this fall, than Williams will be considered nothing more than a novelty quarterback.

If he wants to walk with the big-boy quarterbacks, he's going to have to start beating some of them.

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