Some thoughts on the passing college QB situation … Star of the week in college football this weekend appears to be Oklahoma QB John Mateer who led the Sooners to 24-13 upset win over Michigan Saturday evening as he completed 21 0f 34 passes for 270 yards and a score, while running for another 74 yards and 2 TDs. And there’s no question that Mateer, who transferred to OU from Washington State this past off-season is an exciting college QB. He’s a true gamer who can make plays with both his legs and his arm; plus he has that rare ability to make those uncanny off-script throws often from weird angles. In fact, we were really keen to watch Mateer this weekend and while we came away impressed, we’re also wondering just how well his game will ultimately translate to the NFL. He takes a lot of hits for a 205-pounder and made a number of odd-angled throws that while they did find a passing lane weren’t all that precise. Indeed, he had one pass picked off on a bad overthrow and should have had a second intercepted on an under-throw which one of his receivers was able to knock down. Bottom line: the physical talent looks like its there; the question is are the fundamentals?
And while we are still only a couple of weeks into the season, we are starting to get the feeling that there are some real questions about this year’s QB draft class. Certainly, it does not appear, at least at this point, that there are any QBs this year with the same kind of potential elite status like Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence or Caleb Williams had in recent years. In fact, its not clear that any of this year’s top QB prospects are even in the same class as Cam Ward this past year. At the same time, guys like Drew Allar of Penn State, and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier are better prospects than Kenny Pickett was in that down year for the position, but again at least at this time, it doesn’t appear as if the 2026 draft will necessarily be a bonanza for QB needy teams, although its also important to note that there is still a long season to go and that QBs like Burrow, Ward and Jayden Daniels were still barely blips on the NFL’s first-round radar at this point in their final seasons in college. Stay tuned!
