Syracuse Football: Analyst talks top suitors for 4-star, top-20 QB with ‘Cuse in top 6

In early January, Syracuse football scored the top six of 2025 four-star quarterback Malik Washington from Maryland, who is a top-20 signal-caller and a top-200 national prospect in the junior class.

The 6-foot-5, 200-pound Washington put forth a terrific 2023 season for Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Md., winning a flood of accolades and honors while helping lead his team to a state title in Maryland.

Currently, Washington is one of the standouts for the Archbishop Spalding basketball squad. Recruiting experts have noted that his football recruiting is expected to pick up more steam once the 2023-24 hoops season wraps up.

Washington’s top six, announced via his X page last month, consists of the Orange, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Penn State, Oregon and a home-state team, the Maryland Terrapins.

His bio on the 247Sports Web site says that Washington currently holds 20 scholarship offers, although offers continue to roll in, with two of the more recent ones arriving from UCLA and fellow Atlantic Coast Conference school Pittsburgh.

An expert dishes on teams standing out for Syracuse football QB recruit Malik Washington.

In a recent article, Rivals.com national recruiting director Adam Gorney wrote that the three early standouts for Washington are Penn State, Maryland and Virginia Tech, although Gorney adds that the 2025 quarterback’s recruiting process is “still in the opening stages since the Severn (Md.) Archbishop Spalding four-star hasn’t taken many visits or thrown for coaches.”

Naturally, the ‘Cuse coaching staff landing an official visit from Washington down the line would prove huge. Last month, he was one of numerous highly rated targets on the SU campus for one of the Orange’s junior days.

Washington and other high school prospects were at the JMA Wireless Dome on January 20 to watch Syracuse basketball defeat Miami at the buzzer.

Syracuse football coaches initially offered a scholarship to Washington in late September of last year, when Dino Babers was still at the helm of the ‘Cuse program.

In mid-December of 2023, the new Orange staff, led by head coach Fran Brown, re-offered a scholarship to Washington.

At the time of this writing, both industry-generated rating systems, the 247Sports Composite and the On3 Industry Ranking, placed him in the top 300 overall, the top 25 at quarterback and the top six in Maryland within the 2025 class.

Rivals.com rates Washington at No. 179 nationwide, No. 13 at QB and No. 4 in Maryland, while over at On3, he checks in at No. 187 nationally, No. 17 at quarterback and No. 4 in Maryland.