ESPN releases NFL scouts poll on 2027 QB class featuring Arch Manning, Dante Moore
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
While the 2026 NFL Draft begins on Thursday, it’s not too early to take a peek at what the draft picture could look like in 2027. At least that’s what ESPN thinks.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel revealed the results of a poll of 10 NFL scouts that asked about their top three quarterbacks for next year’s draft. The final results ended up having Oregon’s Dante Moore first, Texas‘s Arch Manning in second, and third ending up being a tie between Ohio State’s Julian Sayin and Texas Tech‘s Brendan Sorsby.
First-place votes garnered three points; second- and third-place votes were worth two and one points, respectively. Moore had 24 points, eight more than Manning. Sayin and Sorsby were a distant third with five points apiece.
There’s a few caveats to the voting, Thamel noted.
“The scouts stress that this is an imperfect exercise, as they haven’t come close to closely watching all the quarterbacks for the 2027 draft. Many have inherent regional biases because they haven’t yet needed to watch the prospects who become draft eligible after the 2026 season,” Thamel wrote.
In other words, don’t be surprised if this list ends up being much different from what we’ll actually see next April on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Few people knew the name Fernando Mendoza last April. On Thursday, he’ll be taken first overall by the Las Vegas Raiders.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
