QB Malik Washington picked as Maryland's player to watch in 2025 by David Pollack

Maryland earned a commitment from their top-rated recruit in four cycles, and their highest-ranked one at the position in over a dozen years, with him being an in-state signing. That makes QB Malik Washington an obvious name to keep an eye on this fall as a true freshman in College Park, especially if he’s QB1 for the Terps.

David Pollack named players to watch this season in the Big Ten on a recent episode of ‘See Ball Get Ball’. For the Terrapins, Pollack went with Washington considering his pedigree as a recruit, with him choosing his home state school over other top programs he could’ve been at, and the likelihood that he’s going to start at some point for them.

“This one was easy for me – Malik Washington,” stated Pollack. “He’s going to be their starting quarterback. And, he was recruited by everybody – five-star, top-five quarterback in high school football coming out and they got him at Maryland. Like, there’s a lot of people that are going, hey, we don’t want to name our starter at quarterback because we don’t want people to leave. They’re like, we got this dude, we paid him money. He’s here. He’s going to go start. He’s got this ability, he’s going to be next level.”

“But, like, he’s the guy for me that could – he could be on a lot of rosters. He could be on just about anybody’s roster in the country but he’s on Maryland,” Pollack said.

That said, Washington isn’t a guarantee for the starting job just yet. He will enter the fall in a continued competition against Justyn Martin, a Top-25 QB transfer this past cycle according to On3 out of UCLA. Martin, who was a Top-20 QB recruit himself in 2022 before being 24-35 (68.6%) for 179 yards and a touchdown last season as a redshirt sophomore for the Bruins, was recently projected this week to be Maryland’s starter per On3’s Pete Nakos.

However, Washington does project to be the starter someday, if not as early as kickoff this year, for Maryland. A Glen Burnie native who played in high school at Archbishop Spalding in Severn, both being less than an hour from campus, Washington was the No. 105 overall recruit as a four-star in the 2025 cycle. He also rated as the No. 11 QB in the entire class and the No. 3 player out of the state, behind CB Brandon Finney (Oregon) and S Faheem Delane (Ohio State). That’s according to Rivals’ Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Washington would commit to Maryland just over a year ago today over programs like Penn State, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, and UCF. With that, he is one of their most highly-ranked quarterbacks in recent memory. He’s their highest-rated overall prospect since LB Terrence Lewis in 2021 and at quarterback since Ricardo Young in 2012.

If Washington is their starter, the Terps will have to deal with all that comes with starting a freshman, with him being their youngest to do so at the position in recent memory. Still, with his potential considering his ranking out of high school, Maryland may find it’s worth it for Washington to begin playing as soon as possible in 2025.

“When you watch Maryland this year, I’m not saying it’s going to always be good because you’re a freshman (quarterback), man. Like, you’re going to take lumps. But a guy that has a lot of talent and, if they can bottle it up, they can find a way to get some dubs,” said Pollack.