Arch Manning and Dante Moore headline the 2027 NFL Draft quarterback class, and both guys are probably going to wind up being good NFL players. Taking them early won't be viewed as a risk. But there's a lot of talent in this class, even if some of it is risky.
So, who are those boom-or-bust kind of guys in the 2027 quarterback class? These players have a chance to turn a franchise around, or to crash and burn hard. Only time will tell which way it goes.
LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina
Go back in time, just a year from right now, and you could find people who thought LaNorris Sellers had a chance to go No. 1 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft. The dual-threat quarterback was coming off a strong year at South Carolina and there was a lot of chatter about the Gamecocks as a playoff team.
Instead, things didn't work out. Sellers saw his numbers take a fairly sizable drop:
Completion Percentage | Touchdown Rate | Yards Per Carry | |
|---|---|---|---|
2024 | 65.6 | 6.0 | 4.1 |
2025 | 60.8 | 4.4 | 1.8 |
Sellers was not the No. 1 pick in this year's draft. Instead, he returned to South Carolina for another season to see if he could improve his draft stock and get back on the path toward being a first-round pick.
There's so much to like about Sellers. He has the build of a Josh Allen-type quarterback, as well as the athleticism and arm strength of...well, a Josh Allen-type quarterback. That might make it sound like he's a slam dunk for an NFL team, but there are also serious issues. While he can sling the football around, accuracy is a concern, as are turnovers and decision-making. Kind of...well, like pre-draft Josh Allen, right? And while Allen managed to succeed in spite of those flaws, it feels like he was a major outlier there. If you remember the pre-draft process with Allen, most people felt it was a huge reach with major bust potential; he just happened to defy those odds.
Sellers is in the same spot. He has the physical talent to be a star, but so much has to go right, both in his hypothetical NFL future and also in his final college season. He could be a top-10 NFL quarterback one day, or he could wash out of the league in three years. I struggle to see anything in-between happening.
Drew Mestemaker, Oklahoma State
The Drew Mestemaker story is one of the coolest we've seen in years. This is a guy who didn't even start at quarterback in high school as he was unable to beat out other players on the Vandegrift roster. As a high-school senior, Mestemaker threw 17 passes and spent most of his time as a defensive back and punter. He then walked on at UNT, where he backed up Chandler Morris before getting a chance in the First Responder Bowl.
He impressed, then won the starting job for the 2025 season, then had one of the best seasons of any quarterback in the nation. Now, he heads to Oklahoma State, where he'll try to replicate that against stronger competition.
And that's the big question here: Can Mestemaker show he wasn't a one-year wonder? He seems to have a really good feel for the game, reading the defense with ease and hitting his receivers right on schedule. He has a fairly big arm and the athleticism to make things happen when the play breaks down.
But like I said: he has to prove 2025 wasn't a fluke. A player coming out of nowhere like this doesn't happen super often (though when it happens, they seem to always be tied to Eric Morris, and just like how Cam Ward showed at Miami that his Washington State play wasn't a fluke, Mestemaker has to prove in Stillwater that his play in Denton wasn't either.)
Julian Sayin, Ohio State
Look, I hate "narratives." Specifically, I hate school-based ones. In this case, I'm talking about the whole "Ohio State quarterbacks never work out in the NFL" narrative. But it appears set to rear its ugly head again in 2027 with Julian Sayin.
C.J. Stroud is really the only Ohio State quarterback success story in recent years, and even his story has a chance to end poorly considering last year's playoff performance. Before Stroud, there was...no one with a distinguished NFL career. We shouldn't hold that against Sayin, but I know some people will.
As far as what Sayin himself brings as a player, we're looking at a guy who has an incredibly accurate arm and who processes football at an incredibly high level, but he's also a pure pocket passer in an age where teams look for dual-threat guys and I'm not sure he's going to win too many "who has the stronger arm" battles. Is his accuracy a big enough plus to look past other issues?
Brendan Sorsby, Nowhere
I mean, we can't talk about 2027 quarterback risks without talking about Brendan Sorsby, right? The talent is obviously there, but the off-field concerns with Sorsby's gambling issues as well as the potential outcome where he doesn't play competitive football again until next fall have to weigh heavily here.
Sorsby left Texas Tech without playing a game with the intent of declaring for the NFL's supplemental draft, but the league basically said "nah, dude, that ain't happening." It's understandable why, and it's understandable why the CFL basically said the same thing. The issue, from a pure football perspective, is that teams now have to figure out what to do with Sorsby next spring after he doesn't play football this fall.
Because he is a good prospect. He has a strong arm and the ability to scramble when needed, and the fact that he usually has the patience to stay in the pocket until he absolutely needs to scramble seems like a good sign. His deep-ball accuracy could use some work as could his mechanics, but I mean...the biggest downsides here are obviously the gambling stuff.
Can you really trust Sorsby to lead a locker room? He just has so many off-field issues that have to factor in here, and there are bound to be NFL teams that have him completely off their 2027 board because of that. Add in the rust of not playing a game this year, and his draft stock is a huge mystery.
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