The McShay Show - Building the Board: Arch Manning vs. Dante Moore for 2027 QB1

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Welcome back to The McShay Show! Todd and Steve are kicking off their summer scouting series by sharing their early impressions of Arch Manning and Dante Moore, the top two quarterbacks in the 2027 draft class. The guys talk strengths and weaknesses, whose game translates better to the NFL, which guy is in the driver’s seat for QB1, and more. (00:00) Welcome to The McShay Show! (05:00) Building the Board: Arch Manning vs. Dante Moore (07:08) Takeaways from the tape (12:33) Dante Moore's biggest strengths (19:20) Arch Manning's biggest strengths (25:20) Offseason development needs (38:00) Which QB will have the "Mendoza Moments?" (43:32) Head-to-head grades The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Host: Todd McShay Guest: Steve Muench Producers: Tucker Tashjian, Conor Nevins, and Daniel Comer Social: Abou Kamara Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We came back with the Sorsby News last week, but today we're actually back. And we're starting a seven-part series. It's called Building the Board. The 2027 quarterback class, which we all know is going to be spectacular. And we're fired up to do it. And today's all about Arch Manning and Dante Moore. And guess what? There's 311 days until the NFL draft.

Mench. You good? I'm great, man. Roll that beat, tuck. We're refining things around here, Mention, I like it. Last year we went on and on and on about every single quarterback. We did like an hour and 40 minutes on each guy. We're going to get more tempo this year.

I like it. We're going to go head to head. We've got so many quarterbacks to get to. There's like 14 or 15 guys that we want to get to in this seven-part series. So we're going to break it down. We're going to go head-to-head with guys. We're going to go Arch versus Dante. Wednesday we're going to be back, right?

With Soresby versus Sellers. I think it will tape it Wednesday night, comes out Thursday morning. And the beat goes on. the way down. We got CJ Carr, Julian Seyan, Meteer, Mayava, all of them. So we're fired up to present that in today's day one of it. And we'll wrap it up at the end. Part seven will be all these grades that we're compiling. Now let's create our board. Hence building the board for the 2027 quarterback class. It is important to note, as I mentioned, sellers and Soresby, even though Sorsby's in the supplemental draft as of our understanding at this moment.

Today, the 22nd of June, Monday is the day that he had to have his paperwork in. We'll find out more details on the supplemental draft, assuming the NFL is going to allow for it. And then they're going to give us a date. I'm guessing it's going to be July 20 something, right? Right. It's when the supplemental draft is going to happen. We've given you all the details on how that works, the three tiers, lottery within each tier. six games or fewer wins last year, seven or more without the playoffs and then playoff teams.

We've talked to you about all the different teams that could be interested. We'll get in more detail on Wednesday, Thursday, when we break down Sellers v. Sorsby because they have similar styles of games. It is important to note. The only news update we have on that today is that July 10th is his pro-day workout, right? And so that's when every team that's interested will converge. It sounds like, was it South Lake, Texas, the high school is going to be the site of it. And we'll see how that works.

And then there's, according to Albert Breer, when he was on our show, there's a one-week window where all these teams with all this baggage and all of this, what's call it, unique, all these unique circumstances surrounding Sorsby. They've got this one-week window of flying private jets, him to the facility, them to work him out, to try to sort through some of that stuff. And as coaches like to say, get their hands on them. One-on-one. Yeah, installs. How does he prepare? How does he adjust on the fly? Those sorts of things.

So it's going to be a fascinating process. And one, quite honestly, that really hasn't come to fruition in terms of a player being drafted in the supplemental draft since what was a Jalen Thompson, the fifth round safety. Yes. He was still in the league. You just got another contract back in 2019. So pardon all of us if there's a little bit of gray area. I've got a call into the NFL offices.

McCarthy, I think, trying to figure out the D. I heard, all right, so we, I'll just give you a little behind the seats, 20 seconds. Here we go. We had Breer on our show, and he said, I just confirmed that the Jets who have three picks in the first round or the Browns have two picks in the first round are able to not, not only use their pick, but also can use one of those other first round picks that they already have. Is that not the case? And then I happened to catch, I think it was GetUp or one of the, maybe McAfee where,

I think it was McAfee actually, where Schaefter came on and said it's only their original pick they can use. So I text Schaefter right away. I'm like, just checking in on this. And he's like, it was my understanding that that's the case. He's like, why don't you reach out to the league office? So I'll give you an update on Wednesday and what I hear. But that changes things significantly, right? I mean, it could.

I don't. I'm of the mindset. I don't think anyone in the league is going to use a first round pick on them, but I can't rule it out. I think it's probably going to be a day two pick. But we'll get into all of that on Thursday when the episode drops. Arch versus Dante. And we're going to try to rapid fire this.

And I want to remind everyone, the ringer.com slash McShay is where our big board, our mock drafts, all of our scouting reports are. We are building up towards. This whole series is building the board. Behind the scenes, Mention and I are not only on these quarterbacks, but all the other prospects.

We've got like a top 120 list that we just kind of solidified based off of our findings, talking to people in the league, what we use for my early, way too early mock draft. Then the National and Blesto list came out. So we've kind of compiled all of these things just to give us a list on the players to evaluate. We're starting that process already.

we're going to be fueling that website that we are so proud of and so excited that all the traffic that it got and the responses that it got the first time around. We're going to continue to build that out. And this will be the first time where we get you preseason evaluations and continue to build that board throughout the season. It's going to be a year-round draft site, as we've always envisioned, right? Also the newsletter, the McShay report. You can Google it and subscribe or just go to the website. Again, the ringer.com slash McShay, and you can find all your information there. we are going to be providing much more detail.

But for these shows, Munch, we've kind of etched out an outline. We want to get through some of the different categories that we want to share with the audience here and not bore them with all the details and play number 63 on the cut up and all that stuff. But let's give a really good feel for these quarterbacks and what we're seeing in comparison with one or the other. And then in the seventh part of the series,

we'll combine all those grades and thoughts. and kind of create our preseason heading into the season board of the 27 quarterback class. So I want to start with this, knowing that you and I probably spent a similar amount of time watching tape on both Arch Manning and Dante Moore. Presumably the top two quarterbacks heading into the year, but not necessarily going to be the top two drafted when it comes to next April's selection process. what's your biggest takeaway when you were done watching Dante and Arch? I will tip my hand right away and I won't get into too much specifics about grade-wise and all of that. But my biggest takeaway is I don't know how you don't have Dante Moore as the top quarterback prospect in this class after watching the two of them. I see the path for Arch Manning to be the number one overall pick and surpass or move past Dante Moore.

But right now it is clear. to me that Dante Moore is the best quarterback prospect in this class. I can't stand when we have the same takeaway, and mine was going to be surprising. We specifically did not talk. We spoke over the weekend. I said, I feel really strongly. I'm not going to say anything right now, and I specifically didn't give you anything because I thought you might feel differently.

While we live in a culture of debate, I think there's unbelievable value to when two people who poor in the time necessary and also have kind of a decent idea of what they're looking for come to a strong opinion and it's a consensus opinion. Now, all evaluators might not see it the same. You and I frequently in situations like this see it a little different. I'll expand upon it. Like even the national list, like, had arch ahead of. Yes. Now, the evaluator who's typically not like it's not like a college director or someone who's been doing typically it's a not i don't want to say lower level but you know someone young in their career is is got their teeth a little bit yeah yeah and so we we don't put a lot of stock into the grades as much as we do the list to make sure that

we have all the same names and we're all we're evaluating the same guys um but it was interesting and it's also important to know the the person who's evaluating that texas and the southeast or southwest West region is not the same guy who's evaluating the, you know, out West. And so there's no cross-tracks to the nationalist, right? I mean, they're not all sitting in a room, yeah. So my point is this. Not, maybe not everyone sees it the same. But I watched Dante first and then watched Arch.

And- I was the opposite. And I think the same takeaway would be there. It doesn't matter who you watch first. it was a glaring difference in scheduling, anticipation, catchable passes, receivers not working for it, so few for Dante, so few missed throws. Yes.

And such a high, I don't think I appreciated it. It's why it's so valuable. We're watching it in bits and pieces as the season goes on and trying to keep perspective on the Oregon team and the progression of where they are and then you go back and you just watch the cutups of all the throws and all the decisions and the running and we'll get to strengths and weaknesses in a minute.

My biggest takeaway is this. Arch has the tools and enough traits and the support to actually wind up with a higher grade when it's all said and done. And much more importantly, wind up being the more effective dynamic quarterback in the NFL. He does. But right now, if you're telling me who do you want to go win games with, who's more equipped from an NFL standpoint? It's Dante Moore.

It's not even close. It's not even close. It's actually not. even close, man. And I'm shocked by it. And I think that there are some people who are listening or watching this and saying, I mean, I just watched Dante Moore against Indiana, the national championship game. And ugh. I mean, it was, you know, it's got to leave a bad taste in people's mouth. And I understand that. And Dante Moore is not in the, you know, he's not a perfect quarterback

prospect. And we will get into it. There's weaknesses and there are concerns. But when you're looking at the body of work, watching his brain work in real time, The way his neurons fire is like, I just kept thinking about this is easy for him. And I do think that that led to some problems late in the season that we'll get into. I'm just going to foreshadow a little bit there. But he understands. He understands leverage.

He understands coverage. He just knows where the ball needs to go against certain looks. And he gets the ball out on time. He's accurate. It's impressive the way he operates from within the pocket. And one thing I do want to clear up here, I'm stoked to get either one of these guys. This is not a, okay, well, I'm a Dante Moore guy,

so now I'm going to start bashing Arch Manning. 100%. Right. And I think Dante Moore is really smart. It does not mean that I think that Arch Manning is dumb and is not going to process at the same level at some point. That is not what we're doing here. It's a more nuanced argument than that.

If you're coming here as a Moore fan or a Manning fan, you're probably not going to get everything you want out of this podcast. That being said, he processes different than any quarterback. Yeah, let's get into it. So take me through the strengths that you see in Dante, and I'll follow up, and then let's get in the strengths of Arch

so that we can provide some real, some depth there. Dante understands route concepts and what he's seeing from safeties and linebackers and their leverage and coverage, where they're dropping to certain areas of the field, and he gets the ball out. You could say this. I think that Arch has a slightly stronger arm,

but it almost doesn't matter because the ball gets from A to B quicker for more in certain situations because that he's so quick to trigger. I'll also say this about him. I think that he's got to be a little more aggressive, but he has the arm strength to be effective, throwing downfield.

I don't want to get into the weaknesses too much. And he is more mobile. He's not in the same category as Manning, but I think he's more mobile than people maybe give him credit for. He can extend plays. He can make some, off-platform throws. I think the Penn State

overtime touchdown throw was a good example of that. But to me, again, I'm just going to keep harping on the same thing. It's the way he sees it. It's how fast he processes it. He comes up to the line of scrimmage and he's, he understands what not only his offense is

trying to do, but what the defense is trying to do. And I will say, again, this is kind of a little foreshadowing. It got him into a little bit of trouble late in the season, and I'll get into that later on. I think Dante say while his arm is, we do one through five, right?

Right. One being exceptional, five being marginal, three being average. I wouldn't put it as average, but it might be a 2.5 if we were doing points, you know what I mean? I was having a hard time. You told me no more point fives. I had a couple, there was a couple of these

where I was like, that's a 0.5. And I agree with you. I think his arms is between average and slightly above average, and I think what makes it slightly above average, what you're talking about. It's like the old Dillfer stuff. We used to talk about load to arrival. Like from the millisecond your brain processes, this is where I'm going with the throw to when it gets there. And part of his brilliance as a passer is that his, that millisecond happens sooner than

arch and just about every other quarterback out there. At the same time, you don't see his ball tail at the end. When you start getting concerned about it doesn't tail at the end, it's got good velocity. That's why we're talking about a two versus like two and a two and a three versus a three and a four. Like it's not where this is not like like, like, Kellynne Moore or like, you know, like guys where it's like we're going to overcome this. It's not. It's perfectly fine. I would say this as a passer, accuracy.

I don't want to start with it. Let's start with timing, anticipation, touch, trajectory, ease of receivers being able to catch the football. We talked about Blackledge and I had a conversation offline early last season before he was getting ready to do the Penn State game. We were just comparing notes on Aller versus Dante and how wide of a gap there was. And he made the point, and I totally agreed with him. He throws one of the most catchable balls you could ever imagine. Like as a former quarterbacks, like watching how easy he makes it on receivers to go catch the ball, there's something to that, right?

At the end of the day, it's about executing the completion. As a passer with all those elements involved, I don't know that you can find one in the last, in the last two drafts that throw the ball. And this is like high-level passing. skills as Dante Moore provide for the team that drafts him in 2027.

He's the best pure passer. It's the layered throws. It's the laird throws where you're getting it over linebackers and into these pockets against zone looks where I think he's better than, like I love Mendoza and I really do, but I think he's a little bit

so I would agree with you. I think he's a little bit better in that area about like just the touch, the timing and the touch are what he He's in a role, man. It is, it looks easy for him. It's just easy for him. And also, tell me, you're, I always like to get your take on this.

But his throwing motion is repetitive. It is, it's rinse, wash, repeat. It's the same thing every single time. And it's just quick and fluid and his feet are there. I just love the throwing motion and basically what that leads to. I mean, did you see the same thing there? I did. I kept writing out, like, the easy stuff's easy.

You know, and I think sometimes we get so carried away with, and for good reason, like, what are the special traits? What does he do? The easy stuff's easy. The intermediate stuff, he leads them. He just, he makes the game look easy. And that's, and that comes with repeatable throwing motion, getting the ball out on time, knowing where to hit, like, cover two beaters,

corner safety, putting it in there. The back shoulder fade stuff is beautiful. His anticipation, I know we, I don't want to get into a lot of like, you know, deep stuff, but like, like, just the anticipation, there was one throw where he, where he threw, I think it was Sadiq out of bounds. Sadiq dove early to go get it. But where I kind of rewound it, you know, there's some throws, right? I get excited.

I start bouncing my mic around. Tucker gets pissed behind the scenes. There's some throws where you get so excited about where the ball come out versus where it wound up going. And this was a throw, this was a throw to his left, back, back, not corner,

but back middle of the end zone, the left side. And Sadiq, when he was breaking, the ball goes out, and he's breaking about 20 yards away from where this ball goes. It's hard to have that kind of anticipation.

And had Sadiq gotten there and, like, gotten his feet down, like I think an NFL receiver one, and I think Sadiq will wind up getting that point where it was put like right, if this is the end of, ends like the out of bounds line, it's like right on the edge, you know?

Right. And to have that in your toolbox of being able to place the ball with anticipation like that is you can drill it, but some guys have it, some guys don't, right? I agree. Let me, I'll start with this with Arch. First, we're staying with, we're going to stay with the strengths in the end of the weaknesses. Strengths, yep, yep. Okay.

He is two inches taller. He is 15 to 20 pounds thicker. And my goodness, man, I don't know why. I don't know why it took me going back with a fresh mind, feeling good about life, coming off of Italy. Bonjourno, mensch. You weren't skinny jeans now or what? No, but I might wear like a one-button polo, you know,

pulled it up, going down. on the beach for some short shorts. A mental image nobody wants. No one. My gosh, he's fast. Yeah, he is. Deceptively. I mean, the Michigan run against Michigan in the bowl game.

Which one? Which one? The one that sealed the game. But how about the three before it? I know. I know. But I think people probably remember the one that sealed the game and him just taking. I totally understand.

But I jot it down like four of them. I think that was the four. one where I was like, and I did the A&M game. He was not very good. But he, but the thing that Arch has, and I don't want to, I don't want to throw people off and say, well, he's a terrible pastor, but he can run, you know, it's not that. We'll get to his weakness and weaknesses and areas that I want to see improvement. It's something in his tool bag that very few quarterbacks have. And it's, I think it's fascinating because everyone looks at Art, looks at Peyton and Eli and forgets about grandpappy, you know, and, and forgets that dad, dad is actually,

you know, a wide receiver, was a wide receiver. The best athlete of the brothers. I mean, athlete-wise, he was the best athlete. Not even close. Right. And mom's a good athlete, from my understanding, really good athlete. And you can see it. His, I want to know, I don't know that he'll ever run at 40, nor do it like, does it matter?

Right. But I'd love to see his 10-yard split, man. when he takes off with those long legs at six foot four and change he was listed on national six four two thirty i i'm told he's like closer to two thirty five than two thirty and i'm told it's like six four and a little change i've stood next to him he looks every bit of it on tape man he looks every bit of six four and a half two thirty five you know yeah um it's it's it's it's a and that's when we talk about the upside versus where they are it's some Dante's okay.

Dante's got really good pocket presence. He doesn't always feel it, but when he feels it, which is more often than not, I just think we remember like a corner, like a cat blitz, Dante didn't feel it. Like there's a handful of those, but he's still a young quarterback, right? Yeah. But for the most part, Dante feels it, senses it, knows one to climb versus outside pressure, knows one to slide versus interior pressure, knows one to climb and then slide out. And throws the ball well on the run, especially to his right side.

Dante, that's Dante. And occasionally they'll use him on some zone read option on a third and two or a not his thing, though. But not his thing. He was listed in high school as like a 4-9 guy. I don't, he's not that. I think he's a 4-7 guy. Yeah.

He's not Tom Brady, but he's not, yeah, he can get you something. But he does have some suddenness in the pocket. So like he's got enough where it's like, he's somewhere for me between more leaning more C.J. Stroud is the NFL comp, I think, for, for Dante. Right. But I see some Deshawn Watson. Think about Deshawn before all this craziness that's happened in his career. Yeah.

What made him great at Clemson, what made him great in Houston. There's some more escapability. Again, like if this is, if my left hand is. is Deshaun and my right hand is Stroud. He's like way closer to Stroud. But you see some elements of Deshaun of like that inside the pocket stuff. But with Arch, man, it's legitimate like Josh Allen taking off running. I think that's fair.

Nobody's Lamar, but like it's legitimate. Oh, we got to account for this. It's a problem. Right. And he leans on that a lot. feet for a guy who's that tall and that big he's got pretty good feet he's not stiff so it's not just a straight line thing where he takes off he's got some feels in the open field about how to change speeds up a little bit he can make you miss if you don't if your technique's not sound and then he's got the

size and power to break tackles i mean i gave him the top our top grade for mobility i didn't i thought that was a slam dunk easy for me especially also adding into the pocket when you're using the pocket those feet show up too where he can side-step pressure. He can elude and he shakes guys off. That's what I'm just going to say, man. Guys who you think have him dead to rights, don't. He's one of those cats. He's one of those guys that you can think that you're going to, you've got him.

It's done and dusted. You're going to wrap him up and he will get out of it and he will make a play. That's where I think he's at his best. I think, again, I don't want to say he's to downplay some of the passing, especially some of the progress that he made over the course of year, because we can get into that in a second. But that's when he's at his best, man, when the bullets are flying and he's got to make a play.

And he's got to, even within the pocket, if he has to climb the pocket, he has a sidestep one, sign step someone, the instincts take over now, right? He's not thinking anymore. He's reacting and just playing. And that's when he's at his best. And then when you get him outside of the pocket, when he scrambles, obviously he shines in those areas as well.

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please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMGEMG operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. I think we've kind of given it away, so we might as well just transition here through the weakness. Like, art, here's my thing with arch and the ball placement.

It's consistency. Now, some guys are more naturally accurate than others. I don't see unless something drastically changes. I don't see a guy who's ever going to be as naturally accurate or have the ball placement or that touch and feel as a passer

as Dante. I I I I now Josh is a totally different animal throwing the football than he was coming out of Wyoming Lamar same thing coming out of Louisville Jaylen Hertz same deal after Alabama and Oklahoma okay not saying he can't get to a level that's that's really good and really reliable and in fact I'm counting on him making big strides this year here's the point I want to make with arch

I don't know that he's ever going to be that, like, precise, you know, I just, he's a long-levered guy. He's a better athlete than he is just pure, natural, you know? Mm-hmm. But here's what I see. Arch's eyes got so much better as the season progressed. And why is that important? When a quarterback's eyes aren't in the right place, it's scrambling. It's like your brain becomes scrambled eggs.

It's like, right? And what happens, like, well, how does that affect you're throwing? It's a very, very clear and proven correlation, especially as a tall guy with long, I say long levers. Like, if your feet aren't married to your eyes and your eyes aren't going in the right place at the right time, what happens is your eyes go, and if you're listening to audio, I'm going right to left. And your feet are back at the first spot. or maybe you're kind of catching up to when you throw. I see a lot of throws where his footwork is it's not all married up.

And then you have the other part where he may never be just this like precision Drew, Breeze, Tom Brady guy. So it's a bad marriage right now. But as the season progressed from that Ohio State game and some of the other lumps he took and we got to the second half of the season and we're like, And I feel like we were first to market. Like, here comes Arch, starting to see the guy we thought we were going to see. We saw more glimpses of those positive times where eyes are right, feet are married, balls out.

But still we're at Texas A&M second to last game of the season. Yeah. And I'm not going to bore people with the notes, but I got like off target multiple throws, badly off target rolling right. wide receivers open in the end zone 1218 I got a bunch of those throws early in games he seemed it seems like he's unsettled one of the three games he completed less than 50% of his passes and he earned it now yeah there are excuses to make

Wingo drop more passes than that I can remember he and can't say this really quickly Wingo I can't wait till you get I get that report from you I mean he was maddening at times watching tape. I thought as we think about the Texas supporting cast is so good. You know, and I don't want to feel, I don't want to make it seem like I'm giving Arch and out. But there were times where I just was getting the feeling like, do these guys just think that Arch is just going to do it on his own?

There were times from receivers to protection to running backs. It was he's got to get a little more help from a Texas team that's supposed to be, they have one of the most talented rosters in the country. I mean, I felt that, supporting cast just wasn't there. I thought Wingo at times was the pace of his routes was just off. He was giving up on certain routes. It was it was tough to watch.

Yeah. And you hope Cam Coleman coming in lights a fire. Yes. Competition creates motivation. But yeah, like even the Michigan game, Arch just flat out took over that Michigan game. Like we're not losing. We're not losing my first bowl game starter.

But early. But early in that game. early in the game. Shaky first few throws I wrote, then takes over. Took complete control of the game. Legs and arm. He missed an open target to his left, like right away, looking right to left, came back in, like stuff that honestly like Tate's 11.

It's like, what are we doing, you know? But then as the game went on, and he started running a little bit, kind of like got into the flow of the game. Then you see him start to like this confidence. in him. And now he's going, he's like, I like the progression stuff late in the year. He actually knew where he wanted to go with his eyes and he was kind of decisive and there was a rhythm to it. But then it's like a quick slant to Wingo, drop, comes right back to Wingo, drills a strike. You know, it's like, you're not going to lose me here. Let's go. Come on.

And then, and then a few plays later, like, um, he'll drill the cover two beater between the corner and the safety down the left rail. I can literally see it in my mind. I don't see it. the note to remind me. And it wasn't Wingo there. It was maybe McClellan or one of the other receivers. Drop, like just flat drop. Then there was a beautiful play that he had rolling to his right, throws a touchdown.

I think it was at one point. Called back because of penalty, I think it was. I'm encouraged by the Michigan game overall. I mean, the Michigan tape is encouraging. Massively. You're hoping, how much does that carry over? I mean, that's tough to say. But if you're looking to end the season on a high note,

I thought it might have been his best game of the entire season. I mean, I just thought it was that good. There was a confidence about him late in the season, and especially in that game, where he kind of, he was overwhelmed early on, talking to people in his camp. It was number one overall pick,

National Championship, Heisman Trophy, all of this attention. And he hadn't, he had started a couple games, but like he was never the guy. And so, and then he comes out in his first, his first treat is a trip to Columbus to play Matt Patricia.

And you think, well, they lost eight starters to the NFL last year. Maybe Arch can get them early on. That defense was even better, man. It's crazy. Arvill Reese and like, and Downs. Sunny styles. Like, come on. So it took him a while to get into a rhythm.

But, and honestly, when we talk about what the homework is, I'm actually excited to get down to Tibado, Louisiana. I'm flying down Thursday morning. I'm excited to sit in a room and just talk to him. What have you worked on? Not what I see. Like, what have you worked on? And I'm hoping the answers are going to be,

I got to get right with my eyes. When I started to get right with my eyes, my feet were married up. I'm working on, like, the same thing that we saw from Mendoza, from the Cal year to his one year at Indiana. It was this repetitive motion. Everything is like,

that's what I want to see. for March. We get that for March. We got a fascinating debate. Here come April. Here's why I'm optimistic about it. I watched that tape and I think a lot of these throws, he just seems like you've spoken about this before. He's over-caffeinated.

Some guys are just so it seemed like he was so jacked up. Now, if the game is starting to slow down for him, I think that's the next part of the evolution for him. And I saw it too. Same concept, same look. He wasn't making certain plays against Ohio State that he was

making at the end of the year. And granted different defenses. I understand all that. But it was the same concept, same look. He's now a little more patient with the throw. He's delivering it a little more accurately. I think that's the next step is evolution. And I'm optimistic about it.

Yes, he may not ever be the surgeon that Moore is. But I think he can get more accurate. I think he's going to be better in that area. So the thing, I've hinted at this a little bit. I want to transition to Moore here. I've hinted at this. More is a graduate level. passer right now. But he's not yet at the doctorate level. And I think you saw this,

especially late in the season against Texas Tech, which he played well in that game for the most part, and especially Indiana. And I wrote it down for him, sometimes the right read isn't the right decision, Dante. And what's happening now is teams really start to pick up on Oregon's tendencies. The pick six is a great example. He sees the corner off. He thinks his receiver has leverage on the comeback route. But, he fails to recognize that the corner never opens up, and you cannot make that throw. So the priest that breed is, is this is there for me?

It's been there. They made that, he made that throw dozens of times over the course of the season, and all was well because those corners always dropped or opened up. They didn't do it on that play. He's got to recognize that as a play continues that he's got to be ready for that. Texas Tech did some wild things with their safeties, man. They were jumping routes and letting free. runners go behind them.

And that is a testament to Dante more of, we cannot be traditional here. We can't be, you know, whatever the word is. I'm not coming up the right word. But do what we always do in this look, because if we do, he's just going to take that seam route to the tight end every single time because he has the accuracy

and the smarts to do it. So now we're going to start jumping that. Dante's got to see that, and that ties into a little bit of his other part of his game. He's got to be a little bit more accurate, throwing downfield. If he can start burning teams that are going to try and do that to him, that's how he'll take his game to the next level. Yeah, and I think sometimes we forget because he's so advanced as a passer, right?

Yeah. Those games you're referring to are his 19th and 20th college start. Right. And the first five came two years earlier at UCLA as a true freshman when he was swimming in it. And then he took a season off essentially as a red shirt. at Oregon, kind of learned, sat back. I've always told you some of the best learning I did and some of the best improvements I ever did

was when I was forced to sit and watch, right? Right. And you see the mistakes, you see what works. You get this burning hunger of like, I need this job, you know? But I want to remind people, look at the difference in Jaden Daniels, who was in his second and a half, third years, starter that first year at LSU compared to his last year when he became the second overall

pick look at Joe Burrow first year at LSU's second year look at Bo Nix late Auburn early Oregon versus final product that got him his 12th overall pick look at Fernando Mendoza and around his 19th 20th start versus what we saw in the college football playoff it you know yeah and in the the big 10 championship right like different animals So I always I always refer to this. It's rinse, refined, repeat. Like, he's not going to be at the Manning Passing Academy. Apparently he and his coaches or some are going to be out in China or somewhere like that.

Like I think there's a rinsing process. I think it's a refinement process going on. And now he's going to come back probably a little stronger, a little bigger, a little bit more refined. I think I'm expecting to see. another, I'm expecting to see more of a leap probably because we need to see more of a leap for March. I'm expecting to see a doctorate level, Dante Moore. And now, granted, it's not a new offense, but it's a, it's a new coordinator making the, making the calls for Dante. And that'll be interesting to watch, if anything's different in that regard. You know, obviously

that, um, Stein, uh, Will Stein goes to Kentucky takes the head coaching job. Drew Marringer comes in now. He was with the staff. He's going to take over that. Right. The play calling duties. You're hoping that's a smooth transition.

Yeah. Yeah. Because Will Stein is one of the best in all of college football at what he does. Who's going to have the Mendoza moments? Who's going to have the comeback wins, the big throw against Iowa against Penn State? Who's going to have the beat Ohio State? Who is going to have the Mendoza moments? And I'm not sure we don't have that answer yet.

It's kind of a hypothetical. not looking for you to answer that now. That'll be interesting, too. I mean, Arch will get the first bite of the apple to really show up because he's got, I mean, Oregon's schedule, I think, is pretty slow in the beginning. Arch has Ohio State in Austin, I think the second game, September 12th. Can't wait for that. Can't wait for that.

So he'll have the first bite of the apple to kind of have that big game moment. I'm interested to see, I think both guys are capable. I do not worry about the mental toughness of these two. And I do think that they need that in their resume because you could say Dante Moore was great against Penn State and he'd got the win against Texas Tech in the playoff, but the Indiana games, I mean, we need to steal a little bit more in that kind of a caliber game.

And the national championship game, Dante Moore did not play well. And arched the same thing. You could say the Mississippi State game, he was great, but that was one of the worst defenses in the country. Michigan's encouraging, but Vanderbilt almost came back late. That looks like it's a tight game. It wasn't. I think the Kentucky game,

they won in overtime. He did not play well in that game. Who's going to have the Mendoza moments? Who's going to step up with the spotlight on? I think both are capable. But who takes advantage will be interesting? It's a really good point because we kind of know all the traits, right? And we just outline what's the homework, right?

What are the areas that we need to see improvement so you can get to a point as a general manager running an organization, making the most important decision of your fucking career? literally. It will define them. It could define them. It could be a setback, but it could define them.

So why is it important to see those moments? It's like he's still the same player. The answer is so simple. And I think sometimes we get caught up in all the other noise and like, was he the alpha dog,

the Combine, his group, and what, we hear about him off the field and it is he put in the work and the commitment and he's got this big arm and he's mobile and he's but like at the end of the day

one of it's it's the most important position you could argue in North American sports and it's also one of the hardest positions in the world to evaluate in any sport because the stuff that's most important

is the stuff you can't there's no stat for it there's no analytic there's no no analytical numbers that support it necessarily there's no like the height the weight the speed all that stuff it's important for all these other positions and certain skill sets right but like as long as you have a baseline of arm strength a baseline of pocket pocket mobility it's about how you react in those moments third down critical fourth down big games fourth quarters and so as evaluators all we got is the tape and yeah we want to know every detail what what do they eat for lunch what are they like all of it because it helps us get an understanding of you who the human being is but nothing is more important than those moments

and so it's a great point you make it's a great point because both of those guys what's missing And there's homework to do in both those areas. For Dante, I think there's something too. I consistently see when there's mistakes made pressure bearing down, doesn't have an escape hatch, kind of forces something. Or like he gets a little rattle, not like Mendoza, but if you go back, and there's not many of them, but you go back and look if you just isolate those.

So we know that for him. We know it's the consistency of the ball placement and relaxing his feet and marrying it all up in his eyes for arch, right? But at the end of the day, what's missing and why they're both back in school and especially for Dante is, what did Fernando do? Fernando was not great against Iowa, regular season. Fernando was not great against Penn State regular season. Fernando was not great in many moments and we chronicled all of them until game on the line, fourth quarter, fourth downs, red zone. What was he like 28 touchdowns, no interceptions in the red zone? The moments that matter, Fernando was fucking unbelievable.

And that's why the Raiders are like, that's our guy. Right. We need that from both of these guys this year. And I'm glad you made that point because I hadn't even necessarily thought about that because I was so caught up in the traits. That's what's missing in the resume. And my goodness, do they have an opportunity multiple times, many times this year? And every single game, the fourth downs, the third downs, the red zones, all that stuff.

But those big games, we're going to be sitting here, Saturday nights, getting ready to go on live prime time, both looking for the same thing. How, like charting, fourth downs, third downs, fourth quarters, red zones, game on the line, what did they do, you know? All right, let's do this. We're going to finish each one of these segments with an initial grade. And obviously, grades can change. The grade for Mendoza was a lot different than the coming in July last year, June, July. It was a lot different than the one we wound up giving him. This is a baseline.

Fernando was a 93. Great. For me, but I think you were right about there for Fernando. You can speak now if you saw it differently. Had a 90 on Simpson, I believe. I can double check that. Either 90 or 91. on Ty Simpson.

Little high. Rams didn't think so. Ask Sean McVeigh. Of course. Of course. It's still bothering you. It keeps me up at night because it's just going to make you look good and I hate that. I know you do.

Not yet, 90 grade in Ty Simpson. I want to say going back, Caleb was like in 96 or 95. Yeah, rare air, man. Drake. It was Andrew Luck the highest you ever did, 97? 99. You even 99? Wow.

I was young. I was generous back then. You'd have to be just short of Jesus of Nazareth to get a 99 these days from me. If you played Ohio State, yep. But anyway, so, so yeah. I just wanted to give that as backdrop. Right now, if you had to give a grade on Dante

and had to give a grade on Arch. Why don't we start with Dante? You go first. I'll follow up. I've got a written down, so I'm not adjusting to anything you say. Dante's great. What would it be?

94. I got a 93. Okay. And then for R-Teg. With obviously growth potential. I want to see those moments. I want to see that. I want to see a little bit of the refinement,

but mostly I want to see the moments. I want to see him care. the way that men i think it's fair to come in with a similar grade to an identical grade to mendoza now but what's missing because i think his skill set is better than mendoza's even though he's not quite as big and all that's not quite the runner in terms of size and power but yeah but i think i think dante is a more skilled passer and i think that's why the raiders even midway through the year before dante made a decision we're like we got a we got a hard choice on our hands um if we see from Dante that elevation, I absolutely envision his grade being higher. But right now,

so we're 93, 94. What about Arch? 91. That's what I gave him. Really? With even higher upside for him, but don't know that in one season we're going to see it. Listen, I'm optimistic that Arch, it's just where we are now. And this, you know, we're tailing off here at the end. But I will say this is one of the hardest things I have is an evaluator in the offseason is projection. Where is this kid going to be? And you get caught up in it. And that's how preseason grades get elevated and get inflated.

And you got to be careful about it. All right. We're back Thursday morning. I love this series. This feels right. We go head to head, knock out these grades. The seventh part of the series, building the board, 2027 quarterback class is going to be, now we got all these grades.

Let's go through them. let's make sure we get everyone slotted going into the season. And it gives us our baseline for the season and what's to come. And we can always update it and work off of it. But we'll always have that as our baseline to make sure that we go back and keep ourselves honest. But we're taping Wednesday night, I believe, Thursday morning, first thing in the morning, it'll drop. Appreciate everyone who's watching on Netflix, man. We keep growing this thing and pumped about everything that's going to happen with Netflix moving forward.

Spotify, obviously, and Apple, wherever else you get your podcast, it'll be out Thursday morning. And again, I want to remind people, the McShay report and our website, which is our database, which we're going to continue to grow until it becomes the next NFL front office college draft database is the ringer.com slash McShay, where all of our reports, all of our grades. We're doing this now to show you behind the scenes. of what is going to wind up fueling this thing. And for the first time ever, we're going to have this site up and running

before the season starts. You're going to be able to follow along throughout the season. Watch the grade adjustments. Watch the evaluation changes. It's going to be fun to do together where everyone has full transparency on what we do.

But yeah, we'll be back on Thursday with Sellers, Sorsby, Lenore, Sellers, South Carolina. You know, I'm excited about this one. We're in the Sorsby, who's going to be in next month's supplemental draft. We'll have any news updates on Sorsby and what's going on there.

But we do know, as I mentioned earlier, July 10th is now going to be his pro day workout. So the summer of Sorsby will continue. And I think it's going to be fun to break down those two because similar traits, similar level of raw to their games. But my goodness, they might be the two most physically gifted quarterbacks

that we're evaluating in this seven-part series. So appreciate it. We'll see you Thursday morning. Mensch, five stars as always. Thanks, man. Must be 21 plus and present in Select. States for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or 1-800-mine-800-7-7-7-77 or visit ccgaggobing.org

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