Ever since he was in high school, Arch Manning has been considered an elite NFL quarterback prospect. But it sounds like the current situation in the NFL might have him reconsidering rushing to the new league.
The good news about Arch Manning is that he is widely considered one of the top young quarterbacks in college football and appears poised to have a great college career and become an eventual first-round pick in the NFL Draft. The bad news is, that the NFL has not exactly been friendly to young quarterbacks.
NFL teams are not looking for young quarterbacks that can develop into great players in the future, they are looking for young quarterbacks who can perform well immediately. NFL Draft expert Matt Miller reported that NFL scouts and agents are even suggesting that quarterbacks stay in college longer because they will not be developed in the NFL.
“Scouts and agents are telling college QBs to not leave school until they’ve started 2+ years. The NFL doesn’t truly develop QBs anymore outside of rare exceptions,” Miller said in a post on X, the social media website that was formerly known as Twitter.
Obviously, this is bad news for Manning, who will be eligible for the draft next season but has not even started one full season yet.
Given the struggles of some other top quarterbacks like Anthony Richardson and Bryce Young, Lior Lampert thinks that Arch Manning might decide to stay in school rather than enter the NFL early.
“Knowing the quarterback rookie-scale contract window is a time to maximize a franchise’s Super Bowl efforts in today’s league, the margin for error is slim. Because of this, organizations like the Colts (and Panthers) take drastic measures, ostensibly cutting their losses prematurely,” Lampert prefaced before saying, “With that in mind and time on his side, Manning can reconsider what path he wants to take.
“As many expected, the beginning of Richardson’s NFL career has been turbulent, with more valleys than peaks. Not only was he never considered a finished product throughout the draft evaluation process, but his status as a raw albeit tantalizing prospect was widely known. Thus far, it’s panned out that way to a tee. Yet, rather than letting him experience the growing pains, the Colts are pivoting to Flacco. Someone in Manning’s camp is surely keeping tabs on this and thinking about how it may impact his impending future.”
Obviously, every situation is different, but it’s still a decision Manning is going to have to make.
At his current trajectory, Manning is expected to be one of the top prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft, but he would only have one season as a starter under his belt.
It will certainly be interesting to see whether or not Manning opts to go to the NFL even despite this bad situation.
