2026 NFL Draft QB stock watch: Garrett Nussmeier flaunts the little things to headline risers & fallers of the first full Saturday of college football in 2025
2026 NFL Draft has plenty of intriguing quarterbacks eligible to take part. Who answered the call best in Week 1?
The 2026 NFL Draft is widely regarded to be a good one if you need a quarterback — there’s a deep pool of eligible passers that boast a blend of tools, polish, precision, and potential. Our NFL Draft team at A to Z Sports attempted to rank them this summer ahead of the start of the 2025 college football season with the intention of establishing an early hierarchy of prospects at the game’s most important position.
We now have our first weekend of the season in the books. With it comes the opportunity to assess our first real new bullet point of information on the resumes of these quarterbacks across the country. Who stood out for the better? Who failed to live up to lofty expectations? Here are some names on both ends of that spectrum amid the first full Saturday of the fall being in the books.
2026 NFL Draft quarterback stock watch after Week 1 of the 2025 college season
Stock up: LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier (A to Z Sports’ Preseason 2026 QB ranking: No. 2)
If you hopped off the “Nuss Bus” last November amid a brutal finish to Nussmeier’s 2024 campaign while taking the reins from Jayden Daniels, I understand. But Nussmeier showcased a full toolbox of quarterbacking in LSU’s 17-10 victory against the Clemson Tigers to open the season. Tools usually aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Nussmeier in a physical sense — he’s not the fastest or the strongest, and others can sling the ball with more RPMs.
But watching Nussmeier orchestrate traffic at the line of scrimmage was a delight. It should be no surprise that the son of an NFL offensive coordinator took time this offseason to further his mastery of the offense. He looked like a traffic controller moving his chess pieces all over the formation before the snap. He made checks, calls, alerts, and audibles. He was persistent in getting his offense the answers before the ball was snapped and into the right play. That’s the kind of pre-snap quarterback toolbox that will prompt many coaches to fall in love throughout the pre-draft process. All the little things shined brightly in his 2025 debut.
Then, there’s the decision-making.
The biggest ding on Nussmeier this offseason was poor decision-making under duress and poor ball security when pressured. Nussmeier was confident and mitigated negative plays on the road in a hostile environment while facing a defense that many believe has at least three first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
He wasn’t fazed when the best ball he threw all night, a go ball dropped out of a helicopter to Barion Brown’s outside shoulder for what should have been a touchdown, was mysteriously overturned and called an incompletion. The ensuing drive was the game-winning touchdown drive, led by Nussmeier’s orchestration of the offense.
Stock up: PSU quarterback Drew Allar (A to Z Sports’ Preseason 2026 QB ranking: No. 6)
This is exactly what makes the NFL Draft evaluation process fun. Allar’s profile of strengths looks very different than Nussmeier’s. But there’s no shortage of ways to build an impactful quarterback — so long as you have baseline traits where it counts. Allar’s physical traits are what you write home about. They were also on full display in Penn State’s romp of Nevada in Happy Valley.
The mobility at his size, his ability to drive throws, and make the physically difficult elements of the position are all obvious. Allar’s biggest tests will come on Sept. 27 and then on Nov. 1, when Penn State hosts Oregon and visits Columbus. The ability to execute against top competition is the scarlet letter on his resume, so an impressive home win against Nevada doesn’t move the needle as much as, say, a road win at Clemson.
Still, Allar did show impressive pre-snap control in his second year of this offense, and his orchestration of a shift and motion-heavy offense at Penn State will help him in the pros. He was comfortable with this on Saturday. The decision-making was sound, and Allar made several plus plays outside of structure with his legs, running to throw and running to run alike. It was how Allar made the first arriving rusher miss and subsequently got outside the pocket that stood out the most. That and the effortless ability to access all layers of the field when he was forced off his spot.
This might be unpopular, but I liked the way Allar leaned into his size and bulled his way to added yardage on his handful of runs. It can’t become a crutch he uses all the time, but it can be a tone-setting element of his game that he shouldn’t shy away from, provided he isn’t leading with his throwing shoulder.
Stock up: Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer (A to Z Sports’ Preseason 2026 QB ranking: No. 7)
Mateer’s debut for Oklahoma came against Illinois State, so you take the raw production at face value. Mateer did break Baker Mayfield’s school record for most passing yards in a debut with the program, and any time you’re pushing 400 yards passing is a good day at the office, no matter who you’re throwing against. What I liked most about Mateer’s day was the sharpness of the feet, the whip-like release, and the comfort he showed throwing to new receivers.
Now, was he as active pre-snap as Nussmeier? No. Was he as polished or as accurate as the best quarterbacks of the weekend? No. But there’s a lot of “quick twitch” in his game that I’m eager to see him build upon this season at Oklahoma after transferring from Washington State. His record-setting debut is a nice building block for what could be a rise this season.
Stock down: Texas quarterback Arch Manning (A to Z Sports’ Preseason 2026 QB ranking: No. 4)
“Will Arch declare?”
We wrestled with it all offseason, weighing the words of his grandfather versus his own comments. The name versus the actual resume painted two totally different pictures, too. And with Manning’s 2025 debut, his play promptly said to the discourse: “Here, damn!”
Let’s not allow one showing to define anyone; that’s as unfair as it is to call someone a “generational talent” off of less than 100 career pass attempts and a famous last name. But you’ve probably heard that stat — Manning posted nearly 40% of his attempts in Columbus as “off-target,” which is the worst single-game mark by a Texas quarterback in a decade. Manning has lots of things to tackle head-on in the aftermath. And the 2026 NFL Draft should be the furthest thing from his (and everyone else’s) mind.
Stock down: Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik (A to Z Sports’ Preseason 2026 QB ranking: No. 1)
I would like to be fair to Klubnik. He didn’t get a lot of help on Saturday night. Clemson didn’t have a rush longer than seven yards — non-Klubnik rushes averaged less than three yards per carry — the scheme appeared to have little in the way of answers to LSU’s blitzes from depth, and when it did, Klubnik appeared to see it late.
That was the No. 1 thing I felt stood out on film for Klubnik. When he felt pressure developing (and LSU brought a lot of it), he appeared late to react or simply defaulted to throwing the ball to what appeared to be the designed target of the play against a preferred look, even if there was an easier throw available by replacing the blitz with the ball. Klubnik appeared to try to lean on matchups to deliver throws, rather than taking available space, and things seemed to be happening quickly.
I would love to see Klubnik get another shot at LSU in the playoff for the chance to have him studied up for what LSU’s defensive pressure packages attacked him with. It could be enlightening for Klubnik’s draft profile to see what a second chance looks like.
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