Skylar
Thompson.
Skylar
Thompson.
Kansas St.· 6'2"· 217 lb· 4.91s 40
"A five-year Kansas State starter projected to go undrafted who instead started an NFL playoff game as a rookie and has spent five seasons as the kind of backup quarterback teams keep on purpose."Pre-draft read
A 6-1 7/8, 217-pound pocket quarterback with a compact release and the athletic base of a former four-sport high school athlete. Thompson ran the ball with real purpose earlier in his career, with 405 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior, before Kansas State shifted him into a heavier dropback role in his final season.
He is an accuracy-and-timing passer rather than an arm-talent passer. His 69.5 percent completion rate and 9.1 yards per attempt in 2021 came from clean footwork, layered intermediate throws off play action and a willingness to work the middle. The concerns were velocity on deep out-breakers and durability.
A play-action and quick-game offense built on timing and defined reads rather than off-schedule improvisation or boundary velocity.
Year 1: developmental third quarterback. Ceiling: a trusted long-term backup who can start three or four games without sinking a season.
A vertical offense that lives on deep comebacks and go balls outside the numbers, where his arm has to win the throw on its own.
His best NFL stretch came in exactly the play-action structure Mike McDaniel built around him.
Kansas State QB Skylar Thompson highlight reel, 2019 season
His most productive college season as a dual threat.
Skylar Thompson highlights: No. 5 Oklahoma at Kansas State, 2019
The signature upset win of his college career.
Skylar Thompson seven-yard touchdown pass to Mike Gesicki, wild card round
A seventh-round rookie starting an NFL playoff game at Buffalo.
Thompson grew up in Palmyra, Missouri and starred at Fort Osage High School in Independence, where he was a four-year letterman at quarterback, punter and kicker. As a senior he threw for 2,129 yards and 26 touchdowns against three interceptions and led Fort Osage to a 13-1 record and a state championship, throwing and running for a combined 455 yards and seven touchdowns in the title game. ESPN rated him a three-star recruit; 247Sports gave him four stars. He chose Kansas State over Illinois, Iowa State, Kansas, Louisville and others.
He redshirted in 2016 and was named Scout Team Player of the Year, then spent five seasons on the field in Manhattan. He finished with 7,134 passing yards and 42 passing touchdowns against 16 interceptions across 45 games, plus 1,087 rushing yards and 26 rushing touchdowns, and he left holding the school record for career passer rating among quarterbacks with more than 2,000 yards.
NFL.com projected him as an undrafted free agent, citing his injury history, his age entering the league at nearly 25, and a lack of consistent production as a passer. Miami took him with the 247th pick as a developmental third quarterback.
- 01
Accuracy and ball placement
a 69.5 percent completion rate at 9.1 yards per attempt in his final season is an unusual combination of efficiency and depth.
- 02
Decision making and ball security
42 career touchdown passes against only 16 interceptions across five seasons of Big 12 football.
- 03
Play action and timing throws
he sets his feet quickly off the fake and delivers on rhythm into intermediate windows.
- 04
Designed running earlier in his career
405 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior show real functional mobility.
- 05
Leadership and preparation
a five-year program cornerstone who came back from a serious injury to start his final season.
- 01
Durability
he played only three games in 2020 and missed time in multiple seasons, the single biggest item on his pre-draft file.
- 02
Arm strength
velocity fades on deep out-breaking throws and on rope throws to the boundary from the far hash.
- 03
Pressure response
his internal clock is slow, and he absorbed 80 career sacks behind Kansas State's offensive lines.
- 04
Age and runway
he turned 25 in his rookie summer, which narrows the development window teams build in for a late-round quarterback.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.91sp50
- Vertical
- 31inp50
- Broad jump
- 112inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.00sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.28sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Kansas State | 8 | 51 | 83 | 689 | 5 | 3 |
| 2018 | Kansas State | 11 | 122 | 208 | 1391 | 9 | 4 |
| 2019 | Kansas State | 13 | 177 | 297 | 2315 | 12 | 5 |
| 2020 | Kansas State | 3 | 40 | 64 | 626 | 4 | 0 |
| 2021 | Kansas State | 10 | 162 | 233 | 2113 | 12 | 4 |
| Career | — | 45 | 552 | 885 | 7134 | 42 | 16 |
Season lines from cfbstats for 2020 and 2021 and from Sports-Reference for 2017 through 2019; the five season totals sum exactly to the career line published by StatMuse (7,134 yards, 42 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, 45 games, 1,087 rushing yards, 26 rushing touchdowns). He redshirted in 2016 with no recorded statistics, so that year is not listed.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
The exact profile of a QB2 who starts a handful of games a year and survives on timing.
An accuracy-first backup who built a long career and one memorable playoff run.
A late-round quarterback whose arm ceiling kept him at the roster margin.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Thompson has had a longer and more consequential career than a 247th pick is supposed to have. He forced his way onto the Miami roster with a strong 2022 preseason, debuted in Week 5 after Teddy Bridgewater's concussion, and then started in Week 6 against Minnesota because both Tua Tagovailoa and Bridgewater were unavailable. He finished his rookie year 60 of 105 for 534 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions across seven games. With Tagovailoa in concussion protocol and Bridgewater hurt, Thompson started the Week 18 game against the Jets and then the wild card round at Buffalo, going 18 of 45 for 220 yards with a touchdown to Mike Gesicki and two interceptions in a 34-31 loss. A seventh-round rookie quarterback started an NFL playoff game.
He did not play in 2023 behind Mike White, appeared in three games in 2024 including one start, and signed a reserve/future contract with Pittsburgh in January 2025 without appearing in a game. Baltimore signed him to a one-year deal in May 2026 and he is on injured reserve. His career line reads 10 games, three starts, 81 of 138 for 721 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions, plus that playoff start.