Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix could change the NFL but this legendary Hall of Fame QB knows how hard it is to really make it in the pros

Caleb Williams is the next Patrick Mahomes, and a football savior for long-suffering Chicago Bears fans.

Bo Nix is the new Drew Brees for Sean Payton.

Jayden Daniels will be the best Washington Commanders quarterback since Joe Theismann.

If only it were that easy for NFL rookie quarterbacks.

Professional football is a relentless machine, and college potential rarely translates into instant pro dominance.

“I’m intrigued by a lot of these guys,” NFL Network analyst and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Kurt Warner exclusively told talkSPORT.

“I’ve seen some really good things in preseason from all of these guys. But how does that translate when somebody gets a book on you?

“How does that translate when you see real game plan defenses or you’ve got to push the envelope offensively, to do some different things on a week-to-week basis and get comfortable with those things in six days?

“Those are all questions to answer, but I’m excited for all of them.”

It’s set to be a fascinating season for first-year NFL arms trying to live up to huge draft hype and franchise QB expectations.

Williams (Bears), Daniels (Commanders) and Nix (Broncos) are set to be Week 1 starters, while Drake Maye (New England Patriots) and Michael Penix Jr. (Atlanta Falcons) could see on-field time in 2024.

Warner spent years working toward being an NFL starter, eventually winning a Super Bowl with the St. Louis Rams and appearing in the big game three times.

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While Warner is excited about the potential of this rookie class, he also remembers when Ryan Leaf was heavily hyped.

The No. 2 overall pick of the NFL Draft once battled with Peyton Manning to be the top selection in 1998, but soon washed out of the NFL, before turning his life around.

“I remember watching Ryan Leaf in his first preseason game, up close and personal,” Warner said. “We played against him and he threw for 150 yards and ran for another 50 in the first half.

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh man, all right. This guy’s the real deal.’ And then obviously it didn’t work out for Ryan in the league.

“And so a lot of things can happen in preseason that don’t correlate to the regular season.”

Williams was viewed as a surefire No. 1 pick at USC for years.

Daniels won the Heisman Trophy at LSU last season, while Nix threw for 15,351 yards and 113 touchdowns during five college seasons at Auburn and Oregon, before earning Payton’s trust in Denver.

All three have caught Warner’s eye and he’ll be watching throughout the 2024 season as they progress — or slide backward — in an unforgiving league that didn’t treat Zach Wilson (No. 2 pick in 2021) kindly.

“I hate to put pressure on these guys,” Warner said. “I think there’s things to like about all of them.

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“Jayden Daniels looks very comfortable and, to me, he had the best season in college football last year.

“Caleb Williams, you had some questions about him standing in the pocket and going through progressions. I think he’s done a decent job in preseason at showing he’s got the capabilities of doing that, along with some of that special that we knew he had.

“He intrigues me, that he can have some success. It may not be as quickly as he learns some of those nuances. But I see the different pieces that are there.”

As for Maye, Warner believes that the former North Carolina QB “struggled a little bit last year in college.”

Still, Maye went No. 3 overall to New England and he’s expected to soon take over the Patriots, who are still searching for a long-term replacement for Tom Brady.

“I wanted to see the consistency in the preseason,” Warner said. “You’ve seen some really good moments. You’ve seen some other moments where you’re like, ‘OK, maybe not quite ready.’ “

J.J. McCarthy looked “really good” before suffering a season-ending knee injury that will prevent the No. 10 pick from becoming the Minnesota Vikings’ new franchise QB in 2024.

Penix could soon push Kirk Cousins and his $180 million contract out of Atlanta.

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“Penix did some really good things, even though he didn’t have a lot of playing time,” Warner said.

For the leader of the Greatest Show on Turf, consistency is everything.

Warner knows better than anyone how hard it is to make it in the NFL.

He wasn’t drafted out of Northern Iowa, and it took Warner seven years of bouncing around the football world just to find a place in the pros — then he still kept adjusting to constant change until he was a 38-year-old QB staring at a Hall of Fame bust.

“Now, it’s expand. Now, it’s getting better,” Warner said. “Now, it’s getting more consistent.

“Work through the lumps when you throw an interception … it’s working through those things.”

“Those are going to be the telltale signs. But all of them showed me some impressive things through the preseason.”

Which rookie QB ends up on top in 2024 is the first question.

Then Williams, Daniels, Maye, Penix, McCarthy and Nix must turn a first pro season into a franchise QB career.

New class of NFL quarterbacks

Heisman Trophy winners lead Week 1 starters

• Caleb Williams: College – USC, NFL – Chicago Bears
• Jayden Daniels – LSU, Washington Commanders
• Drake Maye – North Carolina, New England Patriots
• Michael Penix Jr. – Washington, Atlanta Falcons
• J.J. McCarthy – Michigan, Minnesota Vikings
• Bo Nix – Auburn and Oregon, Denver Broncos