Every fall in college football, new names emerge at the quarterback position while familiar ones try to cement their case for the next level. Some quarterbacks are polished and pro-ready while others are raw but electric, still carving out what they could become. Three weeks into the 2026 college football season provides enough of a sample size for new quarterback names to emerge and to gather more data on the names we already know.
The exercise below is a ranking of the top NFL quarterback prospects, regardless of class. Who in college football right now will be the best NFL quarterback prospect when it comes time for NFL brass to make decisions? These are the seven quarterbacks most worth knowing if you care about the NFL pipeline, ranked on traits and projection rather than resumes or box scores.
Before examining the list, there is one obvious omission: Texas quarterback Arch Manning. Through three weeks of the season, Manning has helped catapult Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns to not only a No. 1 overall ranking but to a 3-0 record, including a signature come-from-behind victory over then top-ranked Ohio State in Austin.
There’s not much to question when projecting Arch’s talent-rich skill set to Sundays. He possesses the size, arm talent and mobility most NFL evaluators seek.
It’s Manning’s intangibles at the quarterback position that continue to leave a lot to be desired. Now in year four at Texas and his second season as a full-time starter, legitimate questions remain about the former five-star’s mechanics, his processing power and overall decision-making when it comes to operating consistently within the structure of the offense.
Complemented by one of the best surrounding casts in all of football, Manning’s been a mixed bag in his first three starts this season. It’s been a microcosm of his career to this point. He completed an uneven 50 percent of his passing attempts in his last game against UT San Antonio.
While there might not have been a quarterback more closely critiqued and scrutinized coming out of high school, few have been afforded more grace when projecting to the NFL.
Manning is set to make his 18th career start this weekend in Knoxville against No. 14-ranked Tennessee. While the Longhorns face seven ranked top-25 opponents in their next nine games, time will tell if Manning can prove he can be the type of quarterback that can carry a team to a national championship and become the face of an NFL franchise.
With the Arch Manning discussion out of the way, here’s how we would rank the pool of college quarterbacking talent, regardless of draft eligibility.
Draft eligible: 2028
It wasn’t long after leading his team to a convincing victory on the road in Minneapolis two weeks ago that most of us began to realize Kamario Taylor is not the type of tantalizing talent you get to witness every day. An athletic enigma whose God-given ability warrants lofty comparisons to Cam Newton, Taylor’s impressive start to his 2026 season has many of us believing he could be one of the most gifted athletes to grace college football since Super Cam roamed the sidelines of the Plains more than fifteen years ago.
After leading Mississippi State to its first 3-0 start since 2022, Taylor and the Bulldogs now face four top-25-ranked opponents in their next five matchups, giving the young phenom his toughest tests yet. Despite the lack of starts, Taylor’s ceiling remains a complete mystery as he’s only just beginning to scratch the surface of his abilities.
