Former Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart is beginning to ascend regarding his status as a prospect ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft, and ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky believes it’s time to mention him among the rest of the Round 1 talents.

Playing on a team that included center Jackson Powers-Johnson — who went to Oregon and played in last year’s Senior Bowl before being drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders — Dart threw for 4,691 yards with 67 touchdowns and only four interceptions.

Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward have long been thought of as the top two quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft class. After that, it’s a toss-up. However, that gap may have closed a bit after scouts took a closer look at Jaxson Dart this week in Mobile,

The Giants, with the No. 3 pick in the NFL Draft, would almost definitely take Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders if one of them is available, but that is too high to go for Dart, unless their evaluation of him varies greatly from the groupthink at this stage of the process.

Mel Kiper of ESPN recently released an update to his positional rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft, and Dart is ranked as the third-best quarterback available for a franchise to select in April. He comes behind Shedeur Sanders of Colorado and Cam Ward of Miami, but Dart's No. 3 ranking is good enough to be the best among SEC signal callers.

Jaxson Dart has the chance to be a hidden gem in this year's draft and he could be a steal for these three teams.

Where will Ole Miss football quarterback Jaxson Dart be taken in the 2025 NFL draft? Where experts, including Mel Kiper, rank him in mock drafts