Breaking down the role DJ Lagway must play as a freshman for Florida

Florida QB DJ Lagway is one of the most prized players on the entire team down in The Swamp. The question, though, is what his impact is this season as a true freshman for the Gators.

On3’s Kaiden Smith spoke with Nick de la Torre of Gators Online in an interview on the ‘On3 Roundtable’ on Monday. In his opinion, de la Torre sees no reason for the program to redshirt or not play him when you only have a player with his pedigree for so long, especially at a position like quarterback.

“Well, I’ve written this. I don’t know that it makes any sense to redshirt DJ Lagway if he is what you think he’s going to be – that Five-Star+ athlete as we had him ranked,” said de la Torre. “He’s not going to be at Florida in 2028. He’s a three-year player and then goes on to the NFL. If he isn’t what he’s going to be, we see quarterbacks every year hit the transfer portal. You can only have one starting quarterback. There’s only one ball to throw. Quarterbacks leave if they’re not getting the playing time.”

“To me, it doesn’t make any sense to redshirt DJ Lagway because he’s not going to be at your school for four years in my opinion,” de la Torre said.

However, the return of QB Graham Mertz makes that admittedly somewhat complicated. He started last year for Florida and is their best option to win during an incredibly important season.

“That being said, it is Graham Mertz’s team. Florida needs to win games. They feel that Graham Mertz, his experience gives them the best opportunity to win games this year,” said de la Torre. “If you want to be able to coach DJ Lagway next year, you have to win games this year. That means Graham Mertz.”

With that being the case, de la Torre thinks the Florida should allow Lagway chances to show some flashes. That’ll work in more than one aspect as it’ll prepare him for the following fall while also giving fans a peek at what he could be for them in his future.

“I think you have to get DJ some packages and get him involved,” de la Torre opined. “I think, when I talked earlier about hope, you need to sell hope? DJ Lagway is the future. Florida should, in my opinion, find ways to manufacture positivity around DJ.”

“Get him reps against Miami. He should probably play more snaps than Graham Mertz against Samford in Week Two. Let him experience games on the road at Tennessee and at Texas so that, when he’s the starter in 2025, it’s not his first time playing meaningful snaps on the road,” said de la Torre.

Lagway was the top-rated recruit in this cycle for Florida. He arrives as the top quarterback and a top-five prospect in the entire class. That’s why, to de la Torre, he thinks the Gators should approach his season with a ‘use him before you potentially lose him’ mindset in some way or another.

“It’ll be interesting to see how they get DJ involved,” de la Torre said. “A lot of Florida fans are comparing it to Tim Tebow–Chris Leak during Tim’s freshman year. That would mean maybe around 10 snaps a game, maybe start or a drive a game.”

“It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how Florida implements DJ while we all know that Graham Mertz is the starting quarterback.”