The standout performance of the week came from Alabama’s quarterback

It’s been an interesting last few days. The media, desperate for anyone to cling to given the disappointing performances from the big names in college football this season, have decided that Oregon quarterback Dante Moore is going to be their new poster boy.

Various pundits have talked him up with several even suggesting he could be the #1 pick next year. I watched the Oregon win at Penn State and feel this is a significant reach.

Moore is clearly physically gifted. There are throws on tape that are worthy of first round chatter. He’s well sized, has a good arm that generates easy velocity and he’s mobile. He played decently well on Saturday — but nowhere near well enough to warrant the reaction we’ve seen.

There were some inaccurate throws, at least one turnover worthy play and he looked exactly how you’d expect a naturally gifted five-star recruit with only 10 college starts to look. The desperation to find someone to talk about is going to do Moore no favours. This talented player, who is only 20-years-old, shouldn’t be talked about as a first round pick in 2026. He should be talked about as a potential high pick the year after. Let him play two seasons for Oregon. Let him learn his craft. This rush to crown him because the other players you expected to be pushing for top-10 contention are failing is irresponsible.

We’re doing this all wrong. Hyping players up too soon. Needing to create clicks for articles, views for videos and retweets for twitter. Content, content, content. The draft is big business and accurately saying the 2026 crop isn’t delivering isn’t a sexy enough storyline. The media needs a face of the draft. They’re trying to make it a player who would be best served ignoring the noise — but that’s so hard to do.

I’d also say I think Penn State are one of the most overrated teams in college football. They’ve been awful so far this season and I thought they were poor again here — so I don’t think this is anything significant that Moore, while admittedly in a hostile environment, led a vastly more talented roster with a superior Head Coach to a road win.

Some have said this week Moore will go on to become the best quarterback in college football in the second half of the season. I think it could just as easily be the returning John Mateer — who is seemingly recovering very quickly from his hand injury — or Alabama’s Ty Simpson, who was the real top performer of the weekend.

As with Moore, I don’t think we should necessarily be talking about Simpson for the 2026 draft. He has four career starts. Nobody should be coming into the league with such a low level of experience. However, he’s an older player who turns 23 in December. He sat for three years at Alabama biding his time. We’ll see what that means for his pro-prospects and it’ll likely depend on the feedback he gets from the league. It’d be good to see him do what Michael Penix Jr did and spend two years playing for Kalen DeBoer.

To me Simpson looks like a talent. On the road against Georgia he attacked the middle of the field with accuracy and aggression. He was tremendous in the red zone. He’s a very decisive quarterback with a fantastic release and no delayed motion. He gets the ball out quickly, on time and to the right place. He really had one bad throw five minutes into the game, forcing things on the run when he should’ve thrown the ball away, but other than that he played very well.

It sounds like such an obvious thing but so many college quarterbacks don’t drop and set properly with the right footwork or base. Simpson has it down — and it enables him to throw with a strong foundation in the lower body and deliver with accuracy.

Here’s a good example of everything mechanically just working:

He’s not veering all over the place as he drops or drifting in the pocket. Simpson is very efficient with his footwork, steps into the throw with base and just rockets it over the middle. This is a NFL play.

His arm is good and he can drive the ball into tight windows, yet has also shown he can deliver with touch to all levels. There’s a level of poise on tape and he doesn’t get flustered under pressure and he passes with good anticipation. There are not many players who can do this under intense pressure:

That’s just about as good a throw as you’ll see. He gets lit up as the ball is delivered and he knows it’s coming. Yet he stands tall, throws with fantastic accuracy, velocity and timing and makes an incredibly difficult completion to the left sideline.

Throwing on the run isn’t a problem for him and he’s a useful playmaker with his legs. You can imagine him being a big threat on bootlegs and he’ll extend drives with critical runs. He’s also not a slave to the play-call. He can improvise — and that doesn’t always mean crazy scrambling or being Brett Favre. It’s feel, instinct — sensing a developing situation and adjusting — as he did on this redzone touchdown:

In the Georgia game in particular he just didn’t make risky decisions yet equally didn’t appear conservative. His incomplete throws were typically aggressive ‘my receiver or nobody’s getting this’ type of plays. The defenders weren’t being given much of an opportunity to make a play on the ball. He excelled on third down, with Alabama going 13/19 on the night. That’s a big indicator for quarterbacks.

For the season so far he has 13 total touchdowns and zero interceptions. Now he has a big win at Georgia on his CV. Can Alabama go on from here? He will be well tested — the next few games are Tennessee (H), South Carolina (A), LSU (H) and Oklahoma (H). Keep winning and people will end up talking about him.

Personality wise he comes across a little bit like Kirk Cousins. His best friend is Tyler Booker, who we know was highly respected at Alabama for his character.

DeBoer, for all the criticism he’s received, has shown he can develop quarterbacks. I really like what I’m seeing from Simpson. This is a player with a pro future. Now it’s about showing this year and probably next year what his ceiling can be.

Simpson was the standout QB at the weekend and looks like a possible top player in the making. With him, Alabama can still have a better season than many expected after that week one pounding by Florida State.

The top receiver in the 2026 class?

Tennessee’s Chris Brazzell is easily the best receiver I’ve watched this season. His body control, gliding running style, ability to get open and propensity to make difficult catches is unmatched so far among draft eligible receivers.

He has a long, lean frame (listed at 6-5, 200lbs). If you don’t jam him at the line he can be virtually unstoppable. Against Mississippi State last weekend he could line up in the slot, run with suddenness to the space over the middle and it was a simple pitch-and-catch. Defenders aren’t quick enough to stick with him unless they rough him up.

His touchdown came from the slot, running the seam and with no contact to disrupt his route, he simply ran by the defender in coverage and then contorted his body to adjust to the ball and make a catch in the end zone.

On the next drive, he had a 32-yard reception in double coverage where he somehow twisted his body in mid-air while falling backwards to make a tremendously difficult catch.

He did have another downfield bomb for a touchdown called back for OPI. However, with Tennessee trailing 34-27 with under five minutes to go, he hung in the air on an in-cutting route to convert a 4th and 4. The pass was thrown behind Brazell, so he had to adjust to the ball. They scored a few plays later, before winning in overtime. He made it possible.

I also watched his game against Georgia recently, where he made multiple stunning plays and scored three touchdowns. He has 531 receiving yards in five games with seven touchdowns and only one dropped pass (in week one).

Testing always matters at this position but he looks plenty quick enough. You might be able to argue you want to see a little more explosion on his release and there will be concern that he will get roughed up in the NFL a lot more than we’re seeing here. Can he handle that?

At the moment though, he is listed as WR1 on my early horizontal board ahead of USC’s Makai Lemon and Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson.

Other quarterback notes

— Garrett Nussmeier fell back into bad habits at the weekend, as LSU slumped to a disappointing defeat to Ole Miss. The Rebels were far better on the day and Nussmeier was given very little in the way of help.

His touchdown pass was very lucky — a red zone throw straight to a defender. The receiver somehow flicked the ball out of his grasp allowing a different receiver to get the rebound. It was a good play by the two receivers, not so much by the quarterback.

He did throw an interception at the start of the second quarter. It was an awful decision and a forced throw into a lot of traffic. It’s the kind of play he needed to kick out of his game this year:

On 2nd and 20 with 7:31 left in the first half he threw another extremely dangerous pick into double coverage that could’ve been picked off. The camera panned to his offensive coordinator in the booth pulling a pained expression.

In fairness to Nussmeier, it’s hard to know what LSU are even trying to do on offense. They had -24 rushing yards in the first half. The O-line stinks. They don’t have the usual plethora of great weapons. The quarterback was better in the second half but then the defense collapsed to enable the Tigers to be outplayed and out-coached.

I’m not sure we’re seeing enough to justify Nussmeier as a first round pick. These are the big games he has to win, be a difference maker and lead — even when the rest of the team is subpar. The bad picks are still there. He’s such a good technical player, makes a lot of NFL-level throws and he’s a better athlete than some realise — but is he a first round quarterback? I’m not convinced.

— Notre Dame’s hammering of Arkansas led to a coaching change but surprisingly, quarterback Taylen Green still played fairly well.

He had a great throw down the seam 30 seconds into the game. Green had a three step drop, no hesitation, showed great velocity in his arm and placed the pass right between three defenders:

Green also had a big run down the right sideline. Aside from that, he had little chance with Notre Dame just embarrassing the Arkansas defense. They led 42-13 at half-time with Jeremiyah Love scoring four times before the break. The tackling was an abomination, as was the effort. Most of Notre Dame’s touchdowns were farcically easy.

Green’s interception was just a hopeful loft into the end zone with five minutes left, trailing 56-13. It was a bad throw but really, it’s almost surprising he was still on the field at that stage. There’s definitely talent here and you can see why the NFL is interested.

— There’s talk that John Mateer could make it back for the game against Texas on October 11th. If that happens, he finishes the season and Oklahoma keep winning, he has an opportunity to be a very high pick. Perhaps even the top pick. His dynamism, playmaking quality, personality, explosive traits and timely similarities to Baker Mayfield could propel him into a range most currently aren’t projecting.

QBR stats

Taylen Green — 87.6
Ty Simpson — 84.2
Dante Moore — 83.0
Fernando Mendoza — 82.1
Carson Beck — 81.9
Sawyer Robertson — 77.9
Garrett Nussmeier — 76.4
Haynes King — 75.5
John Mateer — 75.5
LaNorris Sellers — 66.1
Sam Leavitt — 64.1
Drew Allar — 48.4
Cade Klubnik — 45.0

An example of why the media doesn’t know what to do with this draft class

The Athletic today published a mock draft. You can see it here. I appreciate in some instances writers are obligated to produce these things. Yet if you don’t have enough information and you’re just putting names out there to fill in the gaps, there is no benefit to this. In fact with players likely reading this as it’s an Athletic piece, they’re likely to be deceived by bad info that can influence how they view their future.

There’s so much about the mock that is objectionable. Kadyn Proctor is not a top-10 pick. How he is still being projected in this range given the way he’s played so far this season is incredible. Isaiah World is not a top-10 pick. I haven’t got either graded in the top two rounds currently.

Kenyon Sadiq is listed as a top-15 pick. He’s a talented tight end but he is not a top-15 pick. He’s only topped 50 yards in a game once this season and that was against Oregon State. I really like Domonique Orange but he is in no way, shape or form a top-25 pick. Xavier Chaplin isn’t a first rounder at all and neither is LT Overton. Connor Lew isn’t a first rounder or even the best draft eligible center.

You’re really putting Fernando Mendoza as the #2 pick with the offense he’s playing in after a handful of games? Or keeping LaNorris Sellers at #6 when it’s clear for all to see he needs more time?

And there’s even a continued first round placing for Arch Manning, 28th overall (because I guess you need to still mention him for clicks).

No Dani Dennis-Sutton. No Chris Brazell II.

Let’s just not do this. Draft media would be better served just being honest about this class. It’s very difficult currently to find first rounders. We don’t need to force out bad mock drafts, with names getting by on familiarity and certainly not performance. I don’t want to pile on too much but that’s one of the worst mocks I’ve ever read and it’s OK some years to just hold off for a while. We don’t ‘need’ them on October 2nd.

A final thought

It continues to be such a challenging draft class to analyse, with a bunch of players with potential who simply aren’t delivering at a top level in college. This has been, so far, the most underwhelming year of scouting I’ve done. This doesn’t mean I want the Seahawks to do anything reckless but I am inclined to think a little bit of aggression before the trade deadline would be totally understandable.