DJ Uiagalelei: From Riches to Rags

DJ Uiagalelei may go down in history as the greatest NFL bust that has yet to even make it to the draft. No quarterback has let down as many schools as he has. Clemson, Oregon State, and now, Florida State. Each school that has placed such high expectations on DJ have had their seasons end in oh so disappointing fashion.

 Although he just began his tenure at Florida State, an 0-2 start from a team that was ranked as #10 in the preseason standings isn't exactly ideal. Now, is the hate he is currently receiving justified? Absolutely. 

Coming out of Highschool, D.J was the second highest rated QB of his 2020 class. He was ranked higher than C.J Stroud, Anthony Richardson & current Georgia Bulldogs QB, Carson Beck. Bryce Young had the #1 spot. After committing to Clemson, he sat behind Trevor Lwarence his first six games until Lawrence got injured resulting in D.J getting to play.

 He rolled through Boston College displaying great arm talent and field vision but then had to face their toughest opponent that season, Notre Dame. I wasn’t a fan of College Football back then and I even remember that thrilling game which needed a second overtime to decide its victor.

 Although Clemson ended up losing, D.J put the world on notice throwing for 439 yards and 2 TD’s. It’s not a crazy stat line, but he was dropping dimes fifty yards downfield with ease. From then on, Clemson was thought to continue domination the next few seasons even after their star Q.B in Trevor Lawrence was drafted to the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Then, the 2021 season came and Covid happened. Although D.J led his team to a 10-3 record that year, it wasn’t entirely clear if such record was attributed to his QB play. He wasn’t exactly lighting up the field as he was in that Notre Dame game.  Throwing for barely over 2,000 yards with 9 TD’s & 9 Ints. In 2022,  D.J finally seemed to be playing at his perceived high level. Drawing massive attention from other schools and with the emergence of N.I.L deals, a bidding war erupted. 

Clemson's head coach, Dabo Swinney,  refused to take part in the use of massive N.I.L deals to land talent so D.J’s career with Clemson was coming to an end. Looking back on it, he definitely should have stayed at Clemson but the common man can understand how difficult it would be to refuse upwards of a million dollars to just do what you normally would be doing. 

For his 2023 season he transferred to Oregon State which was an easier conference in the Pac-12 and theoretically was poised to have an amazing season. He played average at best resulting in a massive decline to his once first round draft stock.

 Now, he’s back in the ACC at FSU, a team that was coming off an undefeated season with a bitter taste in their mouth from not being selected into the CFP. An 0-2 start with losses to Georgia Tech & Boston College while being heavy favorites has caused DJ Uiagalelei’s draft stock to hit rock bottom. In 3 short years D.J Uiagalelei managed to completely erase any relevance he once had. Bust.