Texas A&M’s search for a transfer quarterback just got a lot more complicated, and a lot more expensive.
Kamario Taylor, one of the most electric players in college football and a name Aggies fans had circled as a dream target, is reportedly finalizing a deal to return to Mississippi State for another season. The reported price: $7.5 million in 2027, which would make him the highest-paid quarterback in college football. With incentives, that number could rise above $9 million.
That figure alone tells you why Taylor was always more fantasy than reality for Texas A&M. He had already sounded committed to staying in Starkville in his comments to the media, but there was still a pocket of fans willing to imagine a massive swing. Now that door is shut.
And for the Aggies, the bigger issue is what this says about the market they’re about to enter.
Taylor’s return is part of a larger trend around the country: productive quarterbacks choosing to stay put instead of testing the portal. Braden Atkinson of Oregon State is another example. That shrinks the pool fast, and Texas A&M is hardly alone in needing help at quarterback.
It also sets a brutal benchmark. Taylor may well be better than plenty of quarterbacks who will enter the portal, but if $7.5 million is the going rate at the top end, staffs are going to have to make hard calls. That kind of money is no small thing, especially for a program that is reportedly paying $3 million for its current quarterback.
So far, Texas A&M has avoided pouring too much into one position at the expense of the rest of the roster. There’s young talent popping up across the team, and that approach has given the Aggies depth even when some of the starter evaluations didn’t work out.
But if the price of landing a quarterback now means doubling what they’ve been spending, that money has to come from somewhere. Mark Matthews leaving the upcoming class may have opened up a sizable chunk of funds, but it’s not as simple as sliding that money into a new bucket.
It leaves Mike Elko with another major offseason wrinkle to sort through. Texas A&M has plenty to handle on both the coaching side and the roster side, and early January is shaping up to be a very interesting checkpoint.
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