Week 1 of the 2026 college football season is here, and I can't wait to spend every Saturday watching top prospects for the 2027 NFL draft class. It's an exciting group of players, starting with the quarterbacks.
I don't have a Big Board quite yet -- I like to see a few weeks' worth of games before I roll that out -- and I won't put together an official mock draft for a while. But I do like to make some way-too-early predictions before the season really ramps up (though Week 0 brought some fun, too). Things will certainly change; I had Clemson with four first-round picks in this space last August, and that didn't quite play out. But it's still good to map out how the draft landscape looks roughly eight months out.
How many QBs will go on Day 1? Which schools could take over the draft? Which position could be sneaky deep? And who could emerge from the FCS ranks? Here are 10 predictions for the 2027 draft -- plus my picks for the College Football Playoff and Super Bowl champions as an added bonus.
1. There will be at least five first-round quarterbacks.
Every summer, we hype the QB class. We talk about how multiple NFL teams will be able to find legit franchise passers in Round 1 the following April. It was the same case heading into the 2025 season. Sometimes the quarterback group lives up to all that hype, but oftentimes a few of the signal-callers don't take the projected step forward, opt to return to school or just fall flat.
The 2026 group fizzled, but the excitement around the 2027 class seems real. That's at least in part because a handful of the quarterbacks we thought might come out in 2026 decided to stay in college for another go-around after it was clear they needed more experience and to refine some parts of their games. That means more prepared passers and less projection in 2027. And I'll go out on a limb and say we get five -- maybe even six -- quarterbacks in Round 1 next April.
We've seen sudden breakouts rise to the No. 1 pick in recent years -- like Fernando Mendoza and Joe Burrow -- but it looks like a two-QB race to go first overall right now. First, we have Oregon's Dante Moore, who is only 21 years old, has a ton of support around him and has 20 career starts under his belt. He has phenomenal mechanics and makes every throw look effortless with his arm strength. Moore can place the ball anywhere with his touch and accuracy, too; his 71.8% completion percentage ranked fifth in the FBS last season. If he can play better in the big games, he could be QB1.