AUSTIN, Texas -- NFL scouts and executives are bullish on the depth and breadth of the high end of this crop of draft-eligible NFL quarterbacks.
For the third consecutive year, ESPN conducted a poll of 25 NFL scouts and executives with a simple query: Who will be the top quarterback taken in the upcoming draft?
Oregon's Dante Moore proved the runaway winner, as he received 14 votes to be the 2027 NFL draft's QB1. Texas' Arch Manning finished comfortably in second with seven votes. From there, South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers (2) was the only other quarterback with multiple votes, while LSU's Sam Leavitt and Notre Dame's CJ Carr each received a vote.
While five players received first-place votes, the consensus among scouts is that this is an unusually deep year for the number of quarterbacks who could end up playing their way into the first round.
Multiple scouts laid out the depth of the class by identifying players outside those five who could end up working into the first-round conversation. That group includes former Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby, Miami's Darian Mensah, USC's Jayden Maiava, Oklahoma's John Mateer, Ole Miss' Trinidad Chambliss, Ohio State's Julian Sayin, Indiana's Josh Hoover, Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker, Washington's Demond Williams Jr. and UCLA's Nico Iamaleava.
"That's crazy," one veteran NFL executive said of the depth of the class. "I just don't know the last time that's happened. But again, how many of those [dozen or so] will actually come out and have good years? Also, there's always the Cam Wards -- a guy people aren't talking about that's all of sudden in top 30."
Another executive pointed out the confluence of factors that has led to the depth: Moore's unconventional decision to come back to Oregon after being projected in the top five of the draft, Chambliss getting an extra year by a court order, and Sorsby deciding to transfer to Texas Tech when he had strong NFL interest.
"There's more guys this year," the executive said. "It's a perfect storm."
This weekend offers two showcase games for scouts and NFL executives: No. 1 Ohio State (Sayin) vs. No. 4 Texas (Manning) and Oklahoma State (Mestemaker) hosting No. 6 Oregon (Moore).
In Austin, 22 scouts from 17 teams and one general manager (Dolphins) are slated to be in attendance. In Stillwater, there's slated to be 20 scouts and executives from 13 teams, including the general managers from the Arizona Cardinals and Atlanta Falcons. Much of that attention can be attributed to wanting to see Moore live.
While Mestemaker's immediate draft stock took a hit after Oklahoma State's opening loss to Tulsa, there is still plenty of intrigue around him in NFL circles. He fits in the crop of prospects who have draft eligibility and could return to be projected at the top of the 2028 draft, an inevitable byproduct of this crowded class.
This is the third year that ESPN has conducted this poll, and the earliest it's been done. The exercise has proved to be fluid, as in early October 2024 Colorado's Shedeur Sanders was the top vote-getter. In late September of last year, Sellers was the top vote-getter, topping Garrett Nussmeier.
