Every spring across the NFL, teams must ask a simple question before they do anything else: Do we have a quarterback?
If the answer is yes, it’s like drawing a card in Monopoly that allows you to advance to go and continue building out the roster for next season. If the answer is a firm no or, even, No, not one we’re really convinced by, things get far more complicated.
That’s especially true this year after the NFL scouting combine. If there was any front office hoping the solution to its quandary at the most important position on the field is going to lie within the upcoming draft class, they may not be convinced that’s the case unless they’re the Las Vegas Raiders eyeing Fernando Mendoza with the top pick.
But next year? Well, that might be a different story.
Call it an NFL conundrum twinned as a college football blessing. There are tons of 2026 quarterbacks to drool over for evaluators, but the problem at the next level is almost all of the names involved won’t be in the upcoming draft.
To be fair, the discussion about what might be on the horizon among players under center has been a regular refrain. The 2025 crop of draft-eligible quarterbacks was viewed as mediocre enough that the ’26 group was viewed as a much safer proposition if you wanted a high-end starter. That was lent plenty of credence when just two players were drafted in the first round and three total went within the first 90 picks.
The problem, in retrospect, was the once-promising slate of prospects like Garrett Nussmeier, Cade Klubnik and Drew Allar all significantly regressed or were injured last fall. Alabama’s Ty Simpson had an up-and-down season, while Miami QB Carson Beck’s arm strength still isn’t what it used to be before having elbow surgery. Mendoza rose to the top of nearly every draft board, but there are few names in this class that get the blood flowing among scouts unless they truly believe in Day 3 projects like Arkansas QB Taylen Green.
What makes the draft process over the next few weeks even tougher for that group of NFL hopefuls is that everything they do is also being overshadowed, recent history lessons be damned, by the group we’ll see in action in college football six months from now.
Yes, the Arch Manning hype has returned and has much more weight behind it after the way he ended the season in 2025. Plus, he will have additional weapons to work with after the work the Longhorns did in the portal.
Dante Moore was widely viewed as QB2 in the draft before he opted to return to Oregon for another go-around. He’ll benefit from, hopefully, having enough healthy wide receivers and running backs available in the Ducks’ highest-pressure games this season. Trinidad Chambliss was another intriguing name around in NFL circles before he won an injunction from a local court to get another season at Mississippi.
Throw in Sam Leavitt playing for Chambliss’s former head coach Lane Kiffin at LSU, Darian Mensah making the move to Miami after a solid campaign leading Duke to an ACC title plus potential top-100 pick Brendan Sorsby spurning the draft to flip from Cincinnati to Texas Tech and there will be no shortage of QBs in the 2027 first-round discussion. Mendoza’s heir apparent, Josh Hoover, can’t be skipped over either and is the leading active passer in college football joining a head coach who has proven he knows a thing or two about developing guys at the position.
That’s a pretty strong list and doesn’t even get to the toolsy LaNorris Sellers at South Carolina, Oklahoma gunslinger John Mateer, Lincoln Riley’s latest protégé Jayden Maiava, multiyear starter Gunner Stockton at Georgia and Penn State’s new QB Rocco Becht. Houston’s Conner Weigman has the size and skills to enter the mix with another strong season if he can stay healthy. Drew Mestemaker (Oklahoma State) and CJ Carr (Notre Dame) could be draft eligible with another good season under their belts.
If even a fifth of that group winds up panning out in the eyes of NFL evaluators, it could be a marked improvement in terms of potential first-rounders. If just a quarter does, all the chatter about teams trading picks for more 2027 draft ammunition would be warranted. If fully half can make it to Indianapolis with the kind of reputation they’re enjoying at this point on the calendar, it could challenge the 2024 draft in terms of productivity when half of the first 12 picks became highly touted quarterbacks.
Perhaps that’s enough intrigue to force some NFL teams to push off that initial question about their own quarterback for another trip around the sun.
It may be tough for some to wait that long. Thankfully for those dialed into college football in 2026, next year is already this season when it comes to answering in the affirmative on the subject of quarterbacks.
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