Mel Kiper Jr. has taken a hard look at the 2027 NFL draft picture, and Arch Manning is the notable name left standing outside the room.
Kiper’s updated top 10 prospect list dropped with Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith at No. 1 after a massive start that has him at 48 receptions for 916 yards and 11 touchdowns. The list also includes four quarterbacks, but Manning is not one of them.
That absence lands especially hard given where Manning stood entering the 2026 college football season. He came in widely viewed as one of the premier prospects in his class, then chose to return to Texas for another year in hopes of pushing the Longhorns on a deep playoff run. Instead, the early returns have been uneven.
Texas took a loss to Oklahoma on Saturday, and Manning’s late interception helped seal it for the Sooners. The performance was the kind that turns a spotlight into a spotlight with heat: he finished 19 of 31 for 260 yards and three touchdowns, but also threw two interceptions. That inconsistency has not gone unnoticed.
Kiper’s rankings make the message plain enough. Even with plenty of time left for Manning to change the conversation, he is not viewed as a top-10 2027 draft prospect right now.
He had the chance to head to the NFL after his first season as a starter, but stayed at Texas instead. Now the pressure shifts to the next stretch of games, where Manning still has room to reset the narrative and, as the source suggests, do what he did last season.
Whether Steve Sarkisian can help him and the Longhorns bounce back will tell the next part of the story.
In Other News...
Baylor Could Benefit From A CFP Shift Fans May Not Love
The College Football Playoff is again on the verge of a major shift, and the ripple effect could matter for Baylor as much as anyone in the Big 12. A bigger field would give more programs a clearer path into December, which is the kind of postseason opening teams outside the sports top tier have long wanted, even if it comes with the usual tradeoff of a longer, messier debate about what the regular season means.
For Baylor, the upside is obvious enough: more access, more margin for error, and a better chance to stay in the national picture during seasons when the Bears are good but not necessarily spotless. Historical playoff projections suggest the Bears would have been in the conversation more often under a larger bracket, which is good news for a league trying to stack more teams into the field, even if fans who value every September result may not love the direction the sport is heading. [Read more 🡒]
TCU Offense Faces A Brutal Test Against Surging Baylor
The next test for Baylor arrives Oct. 17 at McLane Stadium, where the Bears will try to keep rolling against a TCU team still searching for answers in conference play. Baylor is 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big 12, and the early-season numbers have pointed to a team that has found a steady rhythm on both sides of the ball, with its offense and defense each doing enough to keep games under control.
TCU comes in at 2-3 and 0-2, with the Horned Frogs needing a cleaner showing after struggling to turn yards into points against Power Four opponents. For Baylor, the stakes are more straightforward: protect an unbeaten Big 12 start and keep building on the kind of balance that has made this stretch feel sustainable. For TCU, the trip to Waco is less about style points and more about whether the offense can finally match production with possession. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Has A Real Chance To Pull Away From TCU Again
Baylor comes out of a bye week with some momentum and the comfort of returning home for a Big 12 matchup with TCU, a meeting that carries a little extra weight because of where these two programs have been in relation to each other lately. The Bears have been sharp enough on offense to make people take notice, with Lagway giving them a more reliable edge as they try to build on their last win and make another push in a rivalry game that often turns on small details.
TCU brings enough defensive ability to make this interesting, especially against the run, so Baylor cannot expect easy yards just because it is at home. The bigger questions are whether the Bears can turn those good possessions into points when they cross midfield and whether the game swings on one of those hidden moments that so often decide conference games, from turnovers to who handles pressure better late. [Read more 🡒]