‘Punt’ on this year’s quarterback draft class, take Jeremiah Smith, says college football expert Brooks Austin
College football analyst Brooks Austin says an NFL team with the top pick in the 2027 draft should consider passing on the quarterback class and selecting Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith instead. He sees Smith as a rare, dependable prospect, while judging the leading quarterbacks to have enough uncertainties that they do not warrant a top-five selection.
Austin describes Oregon’s Dante Moore as talented but inconsistent in his reads and mechanics, and raises physical concerns about Ole Miss’s Trinidad Chambliss. He also cites decision-making and turnover questions around Texas’s Arch Manning and LSU’s Sam Leavitt. Austin suggests a team could draft Smith first and pursue a quarterback the following year; the article gives no draft projections or statistics beyond noting that Austin’s YouTube channel has more than 135,000 subscribers.
In short
- Brooks Austin would use the 2027 top pick on Jeremiah Smith.
- He sees question marks across the leading quarterback prospects.
- Austin suggests finding a quarterback in the following draft.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
A team holding the top pick should prioritise the player it judges most likely to become an elite, reliable contributor, rather than selecting a quarterback simply because the position is valuable. If Smith is a rare prospect and this quarterback class carries meaningful questions, taking Smith could strengthen the roster while leaving the team free to pursue a quarterback later.
The case against
Passing on a quarterback could mean missing the chance to secure a franchise passer, the position most likely to shape a team’s fortunes over many seasons. The concerns cited about these prospects may be manageable or overstated, and waiting for a later draft brings no guarantee of finding a better option; a team with a pressing need at quarterback may reasonably prefer to take its best candidate now.
Explained simply
The NFL draft is the league’s annual process for assigning young players to teams, with teams that had poorer results generally picking earlier. The first pick can be especially valuable, but choosing a quarterback carries uncertainty because a promising college player may not become a successful NFL starter.
Jeremiah Smith is a wide receiver at Ohio State, a major US college football programme. The quarterbacks mentioned are at other universities: Dante Moore at Oregon, Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss, Arch Manning at Texas and Sam Leavitt at LSU.
Teams build their squads through the draft and other routes, including trades and later drafts. The debate is whether a team should use an early pick on a highly regarded player at another position, then address its need for a quarterback later.
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