The Athletic’s latest quarterback rankings put Rutgers in an awkward spot before the 2026 season, and the name attached to the job is already turning heads.
In its FBS quarterback tiers, The Athletic slotted Dylan Lonergan as Rutgers’ projected starter, even though the Scarlet Knights still have an ongoing battle at the position with AJ Surace. That projection dropped Lonergan into Tier 7, near the very bottom of the Big Ten group, where he landed at No. 107 overall in the FBS. He was listed just behind Jeremy Hecklinski of Iowa and just ahead of Purdue’s Ryan Browne.
The Athletic explained how it handled teams that have not officially settled on a quarterback yet.
“For teams that haven’t officially named a starter because they’re still engaged in a quarterback battle, we ranked who we project to start based on information gathered to this point,“ said writers Antonio Morales and Sam Kahn Jr.
Rutgers, though, was not given any further explanation for why Lonergan got the nod in the projection. Greg Schiano is known for keeping quarterback decisions tightly under wraps, so the choice invites questions about what information The Athletic used to make that call.
One possible reason is Lonergan’s experience, since he has the longer track record of the two contenders. Even so, the ranking itself is not exactly flattering for Rutgers, with Lonergan placed as the second-lowest quarterback in the conference.
At the top of the Big Ten list, The Athletic put only two quarterbacks in Tier 1: Oregon’s Dante Moore and Ohio State’s Julian Sayin.
Here is the full Big Ten breakdown from The Athletic:
Tier 1
No.
2 Dante Moore, Oregon
No.
5 Julian Sayin, Ohio State
Tier 2
No.
9 Jayden Maiava, USC
No.
12 Josh Hoover, Indiana
Tier 3
No.
20 Demond Williams Jr., Washington
No.
21 Malik Washington, Maryland
No.
24 Rocco Becht, Penn State
No.
25 Nico Iamaleava, UCLA
No.
29 Drake Lindsey, Minnesota
Tier 4
No.
31 Bryce Underwood, Michigan
No.
36 Colton Joseph, Wisconsin
No.
39 Anthony Colandrea, Nebraska
No.
41 Katin Houser, Illinois
Tier 6
No.
69 Alessio Milivojevic, Michigan State
No.
70 Aidan Chiles, Northwestern
Tier 7
No.
106 Jeremy Hecklinski, Iowa
No.
107 Dylan Lonergan, Rutgers
No.
111 Ryan Browne, Purdue
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