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.
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