Poll: Ducks' Moore runaway QB1 in deep crop for 2027 NFL draft

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AUSTIN, Texas -- NFL scouts and executives are bullish on the depth and breadth of the high end of this current crop of draft eligible NFL quarterbacks.

For the third consecutive year, ESPN conducted a poll of 25 NFL scouts and executives with a simple query -- who will be the top quarterback taken in the upcoming draft.

Oregon's Dante Moore proved the runaway winner, as he received 14 votes to be the 2027 NFL Draft's QB1. Texas' Arch Manning finished comfortably in second with seven votes. From there, South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers (2) was the only other quarterback with multiple votes, while LSU's Sam Leavitt (1) and Notre Dame's CJ Carr each received a vote.

While five players received first-place votes, the consensus among scouts is that this is an unusually deep year for the amount of quarterbacks that could end up playing their way into the first round.

Multiple scouts laid out the depth of the class by identifying players outside those five that could end up working into the first-round conversation. That group includes former Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby, Miami's Darian Mensah, USC's Jayden Maiava, Oklahoma's John Mateer, Ole Miss' Trinidad Chambliss, Ohio State's Julian Sayin, Indiana's Josh Hoover, Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker, Washington's Demond Williams Jr. and UCLA's Nico Iamaleava.

"That's crazy," one veteran NFL executive said of the depth of the class. "I just don't know the last time that's happened. But again, how many of those (dozen or so guys) will actually come out and have good years? Also, there's always the Cam Wards -- a guy people aren't talking about that's all of sudden in Top 30."

Another executive pointed out the confluence of factors that's led to the depth -- Moore's unconventional decision to come back after being projected in the Top 5, Chambliss getting an extra year by a court order and Sorsby deciding to transfer to Texas Tech when he had strong NFL interest. "There's guys more guys this year," the executive said. "It's a perfect storm."

This weekend offers two showcase games for scouts and NFL executives - No. 1 Ohio State (Sayin) vs. No. 4 Texas (Manning) and Oklahoma State (Mestemaker) hosting No. 6 Oregon.

In Austin, there will be 22 scouts from 17 different teams and one general manager (Miami Dolphins) slated to be there for the talented teams, headlined by Manning and Sayin. In Stillwater, there's slated to be 20 scouts and executives from 13 different teams, including the general managers from the Arizona Cardinals and Atlanta Falcons. Much of that attention can be Stillwater can be attributed to wanting to see Moore live.

While Mestemaker's immediate draft stock took a hit after Oklahoma State's opening loss to Tulsa, there's still plenty of intrigue around him in NFL circles. He fits in the crop of prospects that have draft eligibility and could return to be projected at the top of the 2028 draft, an inevitable by-product of this crowded class.

This is the third year that ESPN has conducted this poll, and the earliest it's been done. The exercise has been proven to be fluid, as in early October of 2024 Colorado's Shedeur Sanders was the top vote getter. In late September of last year, Sellers was the top vote getter, topping Garrett Nussmeier.