The Opening Drive 4/30: The Arms Race of 2027

The ink is barely dry on this year's draft, but we're already watching the next wave of quarterbacks. Here's who to follow in 2026 — and why the 2027 class might be one of the richest in years.

Look, I know, all of this is very early with the next quarterback class, but it’s never too early to know the names and stakes coming in the college football season. The Browns will be watching closely. The national conversation has turned to next April in Washington, D.C. That’s how loaded the 2027 quarterback class looks — and the class in general. This doesn’t appear to be anywhere near this year when it was a one-man show.

There could be as many as five quarterbacks selected in the first round, with a handful of others pressing for second-round and third-round consideration. The 2026 season will be as much a quarterback showcase as any in recent memory but with prospects who hold might higher reputations at the top of the group. Here are the signal callers who will define it.

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(Courtesy of the Oregon Athletics)

Dante Moore, Oregon

Junior · 6’2½” · 210 lbs

When ESPN asked ten NFL scouts to rank their preferred 2027 quarterback prospects, Dante Moore ran away with it. Moore is a natural passer with an effortless delivery, excellent accuracy to all levels of the field, and strong command — the type that quarterbacks finding success in the NFL posses.

Moore could have entered the 2026 draft as a projected top-five pick. He chose to return to Eugene instead, turning down a fortune to chase unfinished business. In 2025, his first full season as the Ducks’ starter, he threw for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns at a 70 percent completion rate, earned a 91.8 overall PFF grade, and led Oregon to a College Football Playoff semifinal. Oregon coach Dan Lanning has been unambiguous about where his quarterback stands heading into fall. “He’s there. He’s there. I’m very confident,” Lanning said this spring, describing Moore checking plays at the line that weren’t even scripted as audibles — operating, as Lanning put it, like “a coach on the field.”

The Heisman Trophy is Moore’s to lose. Oregon is a national title contender, the offense averages north of 40 points a game, and Moore is its unquestioned leader entering Year 3. The question is no longer whether he can play at this level — scouts already know he can. The question is whether one more defining season in Eugene turns “top-five pick” into “No. 1 overall.”

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(Courtesy of Texas Athletics)

Arch Manning, Texas

Redshirt Junior · 6’4” · 219 lbs

No quarterback in the country carries more weight — or more scrutiny — than Arch Manning. He enters 2026 with a career that has produced over 3,000 passing yards, 26 touchdowns, and a 62.3 percent completion rate in his first year as a starter, plus nearly 500 rushing yards that remind scouts his 6’4”, 219-pound frame comes with legitimate speed. Following a rough start to his first full season starting for the Longhorns, Manning turned in on in the second half of the year and was among the country’s best signal-callers.

Manning underwent minor foot surgery in January but has told reporters he feels “100 percent,” and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has described a quarterback who quietly grew into his leadership role after struggling to claim it early in 2025. The schedule Manning faces this fall is unforgiving — Ohio State on September 12, followed by Tennessee, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, LSU, and Texas A&M through the back half of the year. Texas added wide receiver Cam Coleman from the transfer portal, giving Manning a genuine weapon to work with after his receivers had a whopping 8.1% drop rate in 2025.

If Manning meets the moment — if 2026 looks like the second half of 2025 stretched across an entire season — he is the easy favorite to go No. 1 overall next April. The frame is ideal. The family pedigree is appealing. Now he simply has to produce from Week 1 through the College Football Playoff. “No one’s going to stop me,” he told reporters this spring.

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