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Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke gets big injury update ahead of NFL Draft

Originally posted on NCAA Football on ClutchPoints
By Jaren Kawada | Last updated Apr 15, 2025 3:06 PM ET

The 2025 NFL Draft quarterback class is not particularly deep but full of interesting prospects. Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke is among that group, intriguing scouts with his talent but causing concerns with his age and injury status.

After guiding Indiana to its best season in program history, Rourke’s team revealed that he played most of the year on a torn ACL. While impressive, his January surgery provided a significant roadblock in his path ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft. However, one week ahead of the draft, Rourke’s agent Casey Muir reported that his client “should be a full-go by training camp,” according to NFL insider Tom Pelissero.

Rourke is currently projected to be taken anywhere from the fifth to the seventh round of the draft. While seen by most as a top-10 prospect in the draft, the quarterback class does not extend far beyond Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders and Jaxson Dart.

In his sixth season of college football, Rourke threw for 3,042 yards, 29 touchdowns and five interceptions while leading Indiana to the College Football Playoffs. Although the Hoosiers suffered a brutal first-round loss to Notre Dame, the 2024 season still went down as the best in school history.

Before transferring to Indiana, Rourke spent his first five seasons at Ohio. He broke out as a redshirt sophomore in 2021 before taking his game to the next level in 2022. As a redshirt junior, Rourke led Ohio to its first 10-win season since 2011 and was named the postseason MAC Offensive Player of the Year.

Kurtis Rourke looks to be first Indiana QB drafted since 2016

Indiana's Kurtis Rourke (9) after the Indiana versus Michigan footbal game. Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Should Rourke hear his name called in Green Bay, he will be the first Indiana quarterback taken in the NFL Draft in nearly a decade. The Hoosiers have not had a quarterback selected since the Washington Redskins took Nate Sudfeld in the sixth round of the 2016 draft.

Likewise, Rourke would also set an Ohio football record by becoming the first former Bobcat signal-caller taken in the draft. Ohio has yet to produce a quarterback in the NFL. The lone caveat to that would be Armani Rogers, who played sparingly with Ohio in 2020 and 2021 before converting to tight end in pursuit of a professional career. Rogers appeared in 11 games for the Washington Commanders in 2022 after signing with the team as an undrafted free agent.

Rourke’s older brother, Nathan Rourke, nearly preceded him as the first former Bobcats quarterback in the NFL. While Nathan Rourke technically signed with multiple teams, he never played an official NFL snap and is currently with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.

This article first appeared on NCAA Football on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.

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