One of the stories of the college football season so far has been Mississippi State star quarterback Kamario Taylor. Taylor has taken the college football world by storm over the first three weeks, turning a positive finish to his freshman season and looking like one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC so far in 2026.
Unfortunately for NFL teams, Taylor is only in his second college season and is therefore ineligible for the NFL Draft next spring. Instead, his name will be right near the top of big boards and mock drafts for the next year and change before the 2028 NFL Draft rolls around.
On the field, Taylor has the Bulldogs at 3-0 on the season and has absolutely torn it up. After shredding Minnesota in Week 2, the sophomore led Mississippi State back from a 16-0 deficit on the road at South Carolina on Saturday. All of his skills, both with his arm and his legs, have been on display.
Even though Taylor won't be on the NFL radar until next season, he is playing at a level that might make some teams look past a quarterback this offseason. But if he were eligible for the 2027 NFL Draft, where would he stack up with the likes of Arch Manning, Dante Moore and the rest of the class?
Kamario Taylor's strengths, weaknesses as a prospect
The first thing to get out of the way when talking about Taylor is how raw and inexperienced he is as a college quarterback. He has just 159 career attempts at Mississippi State and has made just five starts. All of his traits need to be shown over the course of this season against the best of the best in the SEC for his status as a top prospect in 2028 to hold up.
With that being said, it's hard not to be enamored with what Taylor has shown on film so far. As a thrower, he has incredible arm talent. He can make any throw on the field with his arm strength and has not been afraid to push the ball all over the field and hunt explosive plays for this Mississippi State offense.
But what makes Taylor so intriguing as a passer is the ability to manage the touch and velocity he has on his ball. Whether he is in the pocket on two feet or out on the run, Taylor can rip a fastball in past a defender, or he can take something off of the ball to layer it over one.
Kamario Taylor has the BEST arm talent in the nation
The velocity he effortlessly generates is incredibly rare pic.twitter.com/9dGlrZ5mmi
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) September 17, 2026
The less natural parts of playing quarterback are already coming along for Taylor as well. His footwork and processing have already come a long way from where he was last season. While he still has a long way to go in that department, he is already improving and has the rest of the season to continue to do so. So far this year, Taylor has just a 2.7% turnover worthy play rate, per PFF.
As a runner, Taylor is already excellent. He is an incredible athlete at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, with both speed and power to be effective on the ground. He ran for 458 yards and eight touchdowns as a freshman and is already at 178 yards on the ground through three games this season. Mississippi State uses him as a designed runner, but he is also very good as a scrambler.
Taylor also is already adept at using his legs to get himself out of sticky situations under pressure. He has been pressured 21 times this season and has taken just three sacks, which is a very strong 14.3% pressure-to-sack ratio. Of course, that is a small sample, but they are positive signs heading into the heart of conference play.
Article Continues BelowThe glaring area that Taylor needs to improve is certainly his accuracy. Of course, that is no guarantee, as sometimes quarterbacks struggle with that aspect of their games throughout their careers. He is routinely off target, more than most other quarterbacks around the country, and can leave layups on the field at times as a result. That will be the biggest thing to keep an eye on over his next few years in college as he continues to develop and get more experience.
Where would Taylor stack up in the 2027 class?
Coming into the season, the 2027 quarterback class was viewed to be very strong. Even beyond Arch Manning and Dante Moore, the consensus top two quarterbacks available in the draft, the class has a ton of depth and talent. Trinidad Chambliss, Drew Mestemaker, Darian Mensah, CJ Carr and many others fill out the draft class.
But so far in 2026, the flaws have been exposed with this class much more than the strengths. Manning is very talented and physically gifted, but his accuracy is still inconsistent and this Texas offense just feels so disorganized at times. Moore has looked like a shell of himself so far in 2026, and he still gets flustered when under pressure.
Chambliss and Mensah have seen their stock rise so far in 2026, but neither possess the physical traits and the talent that Taylor has.
Of course, it's impossible to grade a prospect purely on traits, but having them does help. As far as production and on-field product is concerned, he is still extremely raw and hasn't had the chance to show that off yet.
Traditionally, drafting raw, inexperienced quarterbacks hasn't gone well for most NFL teams. Mitchell Trubisky and Anthony Richardson are two of the most prominent examples of this. But Taylor has already shown much more substance to his game than they had, especially in the case of Richardson.
At the moment, with only five starts to his name, it's hard to justify putting Taylor above the likes of Manning, who has showed continued improvement during his time at Texas, and Moore, who has a year of very strong tape in 2025 despite his slow start this season. That would make him the current QB3 in this class.
However, a lot of that comes down to inexperience and lack of sample size. If Taylor were to keep this level of play up all season while continuing to improve his polish as a pocket passer, he would certainly be the best quarterback prospect in college football, regardless of class.