The 2026 college football season kicked off this weekend, and it was glorious. From Hail Mary bailouts to dominant performances, Saturday's slate delivered plenty of excitement. This is the inaugural edition of my new column, where I’ll share all things NFL Draft. From quick mock drafts to general takeaways from the previous weekend of games, this article will look different every week. Here are my initial takeaways after diving into the Week 1 film.
We’ll Need All Data Points to Accurately Assess This QB Class
The quarterback class shined in Week 1, but there’s a caveat. Players who were on the radar, but maybe not discussed with the top tier, dominated. Darian Mensah’s performance on Friday night against a terrible Stanford team was impressive. Poise, accuracy, and understanding of the offense were on full display. Mensah’s arm isn’t the strongest, but it won’t matter if he plays as cerebral as he did on Friday. Mensah finished 27/30 for 400 yards and five touchdowns. PFF credited him with three big-time throws.
Josh Hoover, a personal favorite of mine throughout summer scouting, debuted a new, turnover-less version of himself on Saturday. After moving from TCU to Indiana this offseason, Hoover’s focus was strictly on taking care of the football. Curt Cignetti won’t tolerate stupid mistakes, and Hoover did a great job in the Hoosiers’ opener this weekend. He finished 13/16 for 231 yards and four touchdowns. He was precise, flashed all the arm talent that makes me excited about him, and looked for wideouts Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh regularly.
Ohio State’s Julian Sayin also dominated this weekend, with precision and accuracy that matched Mensah’s. Sayin finished 21/25 for 320 yards and three touchdowns. We didn’t get any new information on the Buckeye, as Ball State only pressured Sayin four times in the game. Sayin was 2/2 for 28 yards against pressure.
Jayden Maiava continued to dominate after an impressive performance in Week 0, finishing 23/25 for 349 yards and three touchdowns. Maiava remains a challenging evaluation, as Lincoln Riley is still doing fake stuff that makes it hard to determine what Maiava can do as a processor. The best evidence that Maiava knows what he’s looking at came in Week 0, when he quickly went through a full field read and fired the ball off before his eyes even made it to the running back down the right sideline. It was an impressive throw, but much of Maiava’s success has come on college-level concepts, and I still question his ability to throw NFL concepts.
LaNorris Sellers looked comfortable in South Carolina’s new offense, finishing 19/23 for 270 yards and three touchdowns. Most notably, he was getting the ball out quickly and with confidence. His time to throw has been over three seconds throughout his career. In Week 1, his time to throw was down to 2.32, and despite facing six pressures, he only took one sack. He was 4/5 for 119 yards and two touchdowns under pressure, something that he’ll have to continue doing with the South Carolina offensive line.
It Wasn’t All Sunshine and Rainbows, Though…
Arch Manning is the “prize” of the class, according to most NFL Draft analysts.
