Halfway through the college football season, it’s easy to tell which players have made names for themselves in the 2027 NFL Draft. We even released our Early Big Board a few weeks ago, marking the names that should be among the first to go next April.
However, we also know some of the names that may have entered the season at the top of the draft board, but have pushed themselves much further down with their disappointing play.
Fortunately, lots of players have the option to return to school or transfer to another before entering the NFL. In today’s college football landscape, players have access to multiple years of eligibility and can be adequately compensated for it.
Staying at the collegiate level isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when there are bona fide stars at your position that will almost certainly be drafted ahead of you.
Today, we’re focusing on the quarterbacks who are eligible for the 2027 NFL Draft who might benefit from a return to school or from transferring to another team, deferring their draft stocks to 2028.
Arch Manning
You knew this one was coming. Arch Manning’s start to 2026 has been less than stellar, and a good bit worse statistically compared to 2025.
Through six games, Manning has:
Fewer passing yards per game (-27.5)
Fewer rushing yards per game (-12.7)
Fewer passing touchdowns (on pace for 22 compared to 26 from last season)
A higher interception rate (3.0% compared to 1.7% last season)
Zero rushing scores (compared to 10 last season)
These are not the numbers you’d want to see from a former perfect 1.0 recruit according to 247sports. Manning isn’t the only perfectly rated quarterback recruit Steve Sarkisian has had at Texas; his predecessor Quinn Ewers also shared that rating.
Recruiting status aside, Manning’s pedigree and expectations had billed him to be the runaway QB1 option entering the season. Multiple respected draft evaluators claimed Manning would’ve been in the discussion for the No. 1 overall pick in this past draft.
Now, evaluators have all but dismissed Manning as a potential QB1 candidate, moving on to Drew Mestemaker as the guy for this class.
So what happened? Did Arch Manning plummet from can’t-miss to "probably should miss?” Were the expectations unfair to begin with?