Renner's 2027 NFL Draft scouting series: Arch Manning tops QB rankings, another passer draws Drake Maye comp

The 2027 draft class certainly has talent on paper, but will it come to fruition when spring rolls around? Oregon's Dante Moore returning to school this year when all signs pointed to him being a likely first-round pick may be the start of a trend. All but two quarterbacks in the top 10 below have eligibility remaining beyond this fall. With NIL "salaries" for college quarterbacks sometimes outweighing those of quarterbacks taken outside the top 10 of the NFL Draft, it's no longer an obvious choice to make the jump as soon as possible. So while there look to be numerous first-rounders on paper right now, a strong class at other positions may convince some quarterback prospects to exhaust their eligibility.Positional rankings: IOL • S • LB • DT • TE • OT • RB • CB • EDGE • WR • QB Note: ⭐️ represents each player's 247Sports star rating as a high school recruitClass strength rating: 8/10 Player type: Athletic pocket passerEarly grade: Top 10Even if you take away the name and focus on the game, Arch Manning is still the No. 1 prospect in this class. What gets underrated when discussing the Texas quarterback is just how physically gifted he is. Take away the mental side of the game that having the last name Manning might give him a leg up on and focus purely on what Manning can do physically -- and he is still the best in the class. He has a truly freakish combination of speed and arm talent. Then there's the pocket presence, eye manipulation and touch throws that only come from being in a quarterback factory from the time he was born. It's truly all there for him to join the ranks of his uncles someday. Now it's just about poise and consistency. It's easy to kill him for some of the ugly tape he put out early last year, but at the same time, he was in a pressure cooker unlike anything a college quarterback had ever experienced. Renner's 2027 NFL mock draft: Dolphins tank for Arch Manning in loaded blue-chip class Mike Renner Player type: Athletic pocket passerEarly grade: Late Round 1/early Round 2I want to preface this by saying I know this is incredibly lofty, and I'm not putting this career arc on him at all: When I watched Drew Mestemaker for the first time last year at North Texas, it was the same feeling I had watching Drake Maye in his first year starting at North Carolina. From the big frame to the effortless arm talent to the legit wheels they keep under wraps until needed, there are a lot of physical similarities. It's the way they play the position, though, that really jumped out to me. Both are feel quarterbacks while still being technically sound. They are not robots playing the position but athletes who find answers that suit each unique situation. Now, there's a lot less polish on Mestemaker's tape than there was on Maye's, and with good reason. Mestemaker was in his first year as a starter in either college or high school. That inexperience is what makes him so intriguing as a prospect. If he could lead college football in yards per attempt the first time he was given the reins, it's scary to imagine how high his ceiling could be in the coming years. Player type: Athletic pocket passerEarly grade: Late Round 1/Early Round 2Dante Moore was stellar in his first action at Oregon, showing a much more polished game in 2025 than he did in his first stint as a starter at UCLA as a freshman in 2023. From an evaluation perspective, I always give an extra bump to prospects who improve even while on the bench. That speaks to work ethic and football character.Moore isn't all heart, though. The man has one of the cleanest throwing motions you'll ever see from a prospect. The biggest thing I want to see Moore improve this fall is his play under pressure. He had a tendency to feel the rush too much last year and let it take him out of his progression. That's a worrisome trend that has to turn around for him to be in play for the No. 1 overall pick. Player type: Dual threatEarly grade: Day 2Trinidad Chambliss was spectacular filling in after starter Austin Simmons went down with an injury. He took Ole Miss and its offense to heights it never reached even with NFL draftees like Jaxson Dart and Matt Corral at the helm. You saw him light up some of the best defenses in college football last year. While he may be short, he's not small and doesn't lack arm talent. Physically, he's very similar to Baker Mayfield coming out of Oklahoma. What he'll have to shake is the stigma around short quarterbacks that's getting worse with the complex fronts in the NFL. The inconsistency from former No. 1 overall picks like Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Bryce Young may scare teams away from tabbing Chambliss as a potential franchise quarterback. Player type: Athletic projectEarly grade: Late Day 2With a tight end frame, MLB closer arm strength and MLS midfielder athleticism, LaNorris Sellers is a unique specimen at quarterback. He's going to get every chance to succeed in the NFL because the ceiling is so high if he hits. To date, however, he's been a far more intriguing athlete than true quarterback. His accuracy and sack avoidance have not been at an NFL level. Some of that has come from a rough offensive line in front of him, but a good deal of it is his play style. His 71 sacks taken the past two seasons were the most in the FBS. A sack rate under 5% is solid by NFL standards (nine starters achieved that last year). Well, Sellers has been almost double that for his career at 9.3%, and it's not as if it gets easier to avoid sacks in the NFL. He has to show improvement in that regard this fall with an upgraded offensive line. Player type: Pocket passerEarly grade: Early Day 3CJ Carr kicks off a trio of quarterbacks in this ranking who I'd call "performance prospects." That means they don't separate themselves physically from the pack in college football, but rather through how they play the position. At a performance position like quarterback, that's not a huge knock. Joe Burrow, after all, was a performance prospect, and no Bengals fan is complaining about that.What makes Carr a legit prospect is his level of polish after only his true sophomore season and first year as a starter. He plays with a consistent base and has exceptional throwing mechanics. It's no surprise he was the talk of the Manning Passing Academy this summer with his attention to detail. To be considered in the first round when you aren't bringing high-end tools to the table, though, you have to be a better decision-maker than Carr was last season, especially when you're playing consistently ahead of the chains with Notre Dame's elite rushing attack. His 2025 was a very encouraging first go-around, but there's obvious room for development. Player type: Pocket passerEarly grade: Early Day 3In a class that has a lot of accurate quarterbacks, Julian Sayin is at the top of that list. He completed 77% of his passes last year even with a healthy 8.9-yard average depth of target. Obviously, it helps to have two top-five receivers catching passes, but Sayin spins a very catchable ball. The worry with Sayin is his athletic limitations. He's not a threat as a runner and doesn't have the arm strength to drive the ball downfield consistently. Then there's his frame, as he's much shorter and thinner than you'd want from a top prospect. Those limitations were on full display in back-to-back losses to end the season, as he took 10 sacks total against Indiana and Miami. With three more years of eligibility left, Sayin would be wise to use as much time as he needs to develop physically before making the leap to the league. 2027 NFL Draft: Which QBs should we believe in? Breaking down 12 of the biggest names heading into the season Ryan Wilson Player type: CreatorEarly grade: Day 3If I did purely college quarterback rankings, Josh Hoover would be in the top five. There's so much to like about the way he plays the position. He's a loose athlete with off-platform arm talent who can create inside or outside of structure. No returning quarterback in college football hit a second-read backside dig route more often than he did last fall for TCU. With Hoover, the biggest worry is easily his size. And unlike Trinidad Chambliss, he doesn't have a thick build to withstand the same hits. At his size, Hoover will really have to light it up for the Hoosiers this season to get discussed as a legit prospect next spring. With the duo he has at wideout, though, he very easily could. Player type: Pocket passerEarly grade: Day 3Drake Lindsey is a true throwback, hulking pocket passer. There's no rushing threat or sneaky mobility to his game. No, Lindsey wants to win with his arm precisely seven yards behind his center. I would, too, if I could spin it with the kind of velocity Lindsey possesses. He can get deep outs from A to B on a line with little more than a flick. What makes Lindsey so intriguing with that kind of arm talent is the number of clubs he has in his bag. Lindsey varies his speed so well to match what's required of each throw. He rarely puts all the mustard on the brat unless it's completely necessary.At the moment, Lindsey has too many panicky throws and gets out of whack with his lower half too often to be seen as a real prospect. Those things are fixable, though, whereas teaching someone with his arm to throw with touch is a lot more difficult. Player type: Pocket passerEarly grade: Day 3Jayden Maiava is the only quarterback on this list we've already seen in 2026, as he picked apart San Jose State in Week 0. He's different from most Lincoln Riley quarterbacks in years past in that he's a true pocket passer with ideal size. Maiava has a solid arm by NFL standards and makes a lot of tight-window throws by playing on time and in rhythm. He also has a knack for throwing receivers open in zone coverage. For the type of quarterback he is, there were too many missed throws on his tape last year for me to go to bat for him as a potential franchise quarterback. At minimum, he's got a future as a backup in the league.Three names to watchNote: These aren't necessarily the next three players in my rankings, but rather three prospects who caught my eye for one reason or another.DJ Lagway (Baylor)DJ Lagway is absurdly talented. That's been known since he stepped on campus at Florida and took the starting job as a true freshman in 2024. That will give him a lot of leeway with NFL evaluators, but there's no sugarcoating that his on-field performance has to change drastically from what we saw last fall.His decision-making (14 interceptions) and ability to get deep into a progression were nowhere near NFL caliber last season. Then there are the airmailed layups that littered his tape. He's still so young that any evaluation of what we saw last season is a moot point. He's the kind of prospect who could play his way into a top-10 pick with little more than one season where he puts it all together, or he could very easily get benched if he doesn't.Brendan Sorsby (Texas Tech)No one's draft stock took a bigger hit this offseason without taking a single snap than Brendan Sorsby's. He was barred from competing his final year after it came to light that he placed more than $90,000 in wagers over the past four seasons on college and NFL football games. The NFL then declined to offer a supplemental draft to include him in the 2026 rookie class in a likely face-saving move.His tape from last season at Cincinnati belongs in the top 10 on this list, but it's going to be hard to go to bat for a quarterback who's taking an entire year off and comes with a pretty glaring red flag. John Mateer (Oklahoma)There's so much to like about John Mateer as a prospect. He's got effortless arm talent, an incredibly impressive physical makeup and is the ultimate gamer. That last part may have gotten him in trouble last season, as he tried to gut through a throwing-hand injury in the second half of the year with disastrous results. Class superlativesStrongest arm: LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina)Most accurate: Julian Sayin (Ohio State)Most NFL ready: Arch Manning (Texas)Best runner: Byrum Brown (Auburn)Best under pressure: Trinidad Chambliss (Ole Miss)Pocket presence: Arch Manning (Texas)Best deep ball: Dante Moore (Oregon)Most experienced: Noah Fifita (Arizona) (1,453 dropbacks)