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On Thursday, we learned that highly touted Alabama wide receiver Jerry Jeudy achieved the 12th worst Wonderlic score in the history of NFL draft prospects taking the test.
On Friday, the Wonderlic scores the the 2020 NFL Draft quarterback prospects were revealed and, oh no, another Alabama player, Tua Tagovailoa, also came in dead last.
As we saw with Jeudy on Thursday, just because a player scores poorly on the Wonderlic it doesn’t mean that they won’t go on to have a fine NFL career.
After all, players like Terrelle Pryor, Tavon Austin, Kelvin Benjamin, Vince Young, and surefire Hall of Famers Bobby Wagner and Frank Gore all scored worse than Jeudy.
Then again, does anyone remember Ed Prather, Darren Davis, Chris Leak or Oscar Davenport?
According to WonderlicTestPrep.com, “A person who scores 10 is considered illiterate. A Wonderlic score between 10-20 is a poor score but it doesn’t mean that the person is not suited for any job. It only means that the person is not qualified for the advertised job, but he can get a less intellectually demanding job like a guard and so on.”
Jeudy scored a 9. Tua, on the other hand, bumped Bama’s average at WR and QB all the way up to 11 with a score of 13, according to The Athletic’s Bob McGinn.
Taking top honors with an eye-popping score of 40 out of 50 was Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback Nate Stanley.
Former Bengals punter Pat McInally has the record with a perfect 50. At the quarterback position, Harvard alum FitzMagic and Bama’s Greg McElroy hold the highest score with a 48.
Following Stanley on this year’s list are Georgia’s Jake Fromm at 35 and Heisman Winner Joe Burrow from LSU at 34. Of note, Jalen Hurts came in second to last with a score of 18.
QB's Wonderlic Scores:
Nate Stanley 40
Jake Fromm 35
Joe Burrow 34
Jake Luton 29
Jordan Love 27
Justin Herbert 25
Anthony Gordon 25
Brian Lewerke 25
Jacob Eason 23
James Morgan 23
Jalen Hurts 18
Tua Tagovailoa 13
As per @TheAthleticNFL @BobMcGinn #NFLDraft #NFLDraft2020— First N Goal (@First_N_Goal1) April 17, 2020
For comparison purposes, following Fitzpatrick and McElroy on the all time QB Wonderlic top scores list are reportedly Jason Maas, Blaine Gabbert, Drew Henson, Ryan Nassib, Bruce Eugene, Hugh Millen, Carson Wentz, Alex Smith, Darrell Hackney, Jeff Matthews, and Sean Mannion, who all scored 40 or better.
Not exactly the most illustrious list, is it?
Other quarterbacks of note and their reported Wonderlic scores…
Jeff George – 10
Lamar Jackson – 13
Donovan McNabb – 14
Jim Kelly – 15
Dan Marino – 16
Vinny Testaverde – 17
Daunte Culpepper – 18
Deshaun Watson – 20
Michael Vick – 20
Cam Newton – 21
Brett Favre – 22
Tim Tebow – 22
Patrick Mahomes – 24
Ben Roethlisberger – 25
Baker Mayfield – 25
Ryan Leaf – 27
Jameis Winston – 27
Peyton Manning – 28
Drew Brees – 28
Sam Darnold – 28
Jimmy Garoppolo – 29
Brady Quinn – 29
Andy Dalton – 29
Troy Aikman – 29
Phillip Rivers – 30
Matt Ryan – 32
Johnny Manziel – 32
Kirk Cousins – 33
Tom Brady – 33
Nathan Peterman – 33
Steve Young – 33
Aaron Rodgers – 35
Matt Leinart – 35
Jared Goff – 36
Jason Garrett – 36
Andrew Luck – 37
Tony Romo – 37
Eli Manning – 39
Considering how all over the board these quarterback Wonderlic scores have been historically, it’s a wonder that NFL teams even bother giving the test anymore.