Will LaNorris Sellers be #1 pick in 2026 NFL Draft
- Thread starter PrestonyteParrot
- Start date
No.
Look, - I've been watching SC football for a long time. This is only my opinion and the way I see it but Sellers strikes me as a "project" Athlete type that Beamer took a shot on. No harm in that whatsoever. Sellers has done it the right way, IMHO, by accepting a redshirt, going through the process, and biding his time, and learning. But c'mon, let's be real here. Through the first 6 games last year he kinda looked like a deer in the headlights at times, trying to rely on his scrambling ability that hadn't quite taken shape yet. He also FUMBLED quite a bit on those scrambles at seemingly the worst times. During the season he also continuously overthrew his receivers. By a lot.... I even made a joke early on last season that the reason he wore those goggles is because he needed those hubble telescope lenses to see. Goggles or no goggles, he still overthrew his receivers at times by a country mile.....
Say what you will, but I don't believe he's a very accurate QB with his arm. (Yet) Not only that, too many times in scrambles he'd just eat a sack when all he had to do was throw the ball out of bounds instead of losing yards by taking a sack, but he refused to do that.
Now I'll turn it around so it doesn't sound like I'm bashing him. I'm not. Did he grow by leaps and bounds as the season went on?? Absolutely. Yes. Did he stop fumbling as much? Yes. He did. (Still needs to work on that though) - Did he get more accurate? Yes. Did he start throwing the ball out of bounds instead of eating a sack? Yes. SOMETIMES - which is still progress. Did he look like he was in "beast mode" down the stretch of the season? Yes, he did. Ran all over Clemson and singlehandedly won us that game.
But alas, did he regress in the bowl game? Play tentative? Yes. He did.
Is the preseason semi-hype over done? Maybe. Jury is still out, imho. Does he have a lot left to prove? IMHO, yes. He does. Could he be the #1 pick? I suppose.....but he'll have to be a *LOT* more polished than he was last season, and I mean a lot!!! When you add to that he was not highly recruited out of high school (IE: he's no "Manning") - he just didn't have the hype and Beamer took a chance on him. It's paying off.... But if I'm an NFL owner am I going to pay him #1 pick money right now??? Not a chance. No way. If he leads us to an undefeated season and the national title??? Probably. Is that realistic?? Lol, no. He might go first round, but not the #1 pick unless the entirety of all the stars in the universe align. I just don't see that happening this year. - If he were to stay and play next season as well......??..... I'd say his chances would be much greater at being the #1 pick. But not this year. No one is going to pay #1 pick money for a possible flash in the pan type QB. He'll have to prove himself this season and next for that, IMHO. - Having said all this, I wouldn't take any other QB in the country to be our QB. No one.
Sellers, Prove me wrong. Please? (And I absolutely love the kid, btw. Class act)
Look, - I've been watching SC football for a long time. This is only my opinion and the way I see it but Sellers strikes me as a "project" Athlete type that Beamer took a shot on. No harm in that whatsoever. Sellers has done it the right way, IMHO, by accepting a redshirt, going through the process, and biding his time, and learning. But c'mon, let's be real here. Through the first 6 games last year he kinda looked like a deer in the headlights at times, trying to rely on his scrambling ability that hadn't quite taken shape yet. He also FUMBLED quite a bit on those scrambles at seemingly the worst times. During the season he also continuously overthrew his receivers. By a lot.... I even made a joke early on last season that the reason he wore those goggles is because he needed those hubble telescope lenses to see. Goggles or no goggles, he still overthrew his receivers at times by a country mile.....
Say what you will, but I don't believe he's a very accurate QB with his arm. (Yet) Not only that, too many times in scrambles he'd just eat a sack when all he had to do was throw the ball out of bounds instead of losing yards by taking a sack, but he refused to do that.
Now I'll turn it around so it doesn't sound like I'm bashing him. I'm not. Did he grow by leaps and bounds as the season went on?? Absolutely. Yes. Did he stop fumbling as much? Yes. He did. (Still needs to work on that though) - Did he get more accurate? Yes. Did he start throwing the ball out of bounds instead of eating a sack? Yes. SOMETIMES - which is still progress. Did he look like he was in "beast mode" down the stretch of the season? Yes, he did. Ran all over Clemson and singlehandedly won us that game.
But alas, did he regress in the bowl game? Play tentative? Yes. He did.
Is the preseason semi-hype over done? Maybe. Jury is still out, imho. Does he have a lot left to prove? IMHO, yes. He does. Could he be the #1 pick? I suppose.....but he'll have to be a *LOT* more polished than he was last season, and I mean a lot!!! When you add to that he was not highly recruited out of high school (IE: he's no "Manning") - he just didn't have the hype and Beamer took a chance on him. It's paying off.... But if I'm an NFL owner am I going to pay him #1 pick money right now??? Not a chance. No way. If he leads us to an undefeated season and the national title??? Probably. Is that realistic?? Lol, no. He might go first round, but not the #1 pick unless the entirety of all the stars in the universe align. I just don't see that happening this year. - If he were to stay and play next season as well......??..... I'd say his chances would be much greater at being the #1 pick. But not this year. No one is going to pay #1 pick money for a possible flash in the pan type QB. He'll have to prove himself this season and next for that, IMHO. - Having said all this, I wouldn't take any other QB in the country to be our QB. No one.
Sellers, Prove me wrong. Please? (And I absolutely love the kid, btw. Class act)
Im glad you typed all that, because it was a good summation.
At current status, this is preseason clickbait. If Sellers wants to make it reality, he needs to take a massive step forward.
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Good summation. Can't really say anything without regurgitating what you said. It says something about how he played down the stretch that he has people talking about him as a top 5 or top 10 pick, but the reality is that it was 6 games. Based on his first 6 games, nobody would have had him as a UDFA. I chalk it up to typical media overreaction.
Now, if he can come out and play the whole season like he did those final 6 games, then the conversation is open.
Botman - when you put this many words on a page, it's like shooting fish a barrel.
The endorsements from Lurker BOT and 18IsTheBot only serves as further evidence.
I think we're up to 7 now. Only 20 or so more to go.
Sellers had almost zero gameday experience coming into last season.
He also had very limited talent around him outside of Rocket.
By the 2nd half of last year, he had our offense in the Top 3 in the country against some of the best teams in the country.
Looking forward to seeing what he can do this season from a passing perspective -- especially throwing on the run.
Hopefully OC Shula will expedite that development.
He also had very limited talent around him outside of Rocket.
By the 2nd half of last year, he had our offense in the Top 3 in the country against some of the best teams in the country.
Looking forward to seeing what he can do this season from a passing perspective -- especially throwing on the run.
Hopefully OC Shula will expedite that development.
The good thing about all this speculation is that we are about to find out in the next couple of months. Right now, we are all speculating, the so-called experts included. However, in comparison to other QBs with his skill-set that got drafted highly, I like Sellers growth over the course of his 1st season. Nobody was thinking of Lamar Jackson as a Heisman Trophy winner until that FSU game his sophomore year. Nobody was thinking of Vince Young as a future #1 pick until the Rose Bowl (1st Rose Bowl Game against Michigan) game of his his redshirt sophomore year. I think this speculation is coming from where people anticipate Sellers' growth to be over the course of the season. Finally, every QB has a weakness. Heck, Cam Newton was the #1 pick, won an MVP, and took a team to the Super Bowl while over-throwing receivers his entire NFL career.
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I think you're a little too negative. Sellers is definitely better than a project athlete. This is a guy who can really throw the football. His completion percentage last year was actually really good. 65.6% was virtually the same as Quinn Ewers and better than Garrett Nussmeier and Carson Beck.
Obviously Sellers likely needs to take big steps forward to be the #1 pick in the draft, but it also just depends on what NFL GM has the #1 pick and what he values. Anthony Richardson had a career 54.7% completion percentage and went #4 to the Colts. Obviously a terrible pick now, but Indy thought they had something to work with.
It was more than the last 6 games. Sellers was very poor against ODU in his first career start and not great against Ole Miss, but other than that he figured things out and improved significantly every game. He struggled with turnovers, especially fumbles, but that also improved each game. He also lost the 2nd half of the LSU game and the stat padding Akron game due to injury.
I didn't say he was garbage prior to the final 6 games, but there was nothing in his first 6 games that garnered him any national attention or top 10 pick discussion.
Well, I know that, lol.
The only point is that his top 10 NFL draft pick chatter is based on his final 6 games. That's indisputable. Any analysis you read about him as a top pick, no discussion is made from those first 6 games. I don't know why anyone takes umbrage with this. It's a basic observation that is not in any way a criticism of Sellers, but a lot of folks seem to take it that way for some reason.
I think you could see that you may have something by the LSU game if you were looking at it with an open mind and not thinking every QB has to play like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. Didn't throw a lot, but made some good throws in the Kentucky game. He followed that up with a good 1st half in an LSU game which most Gamecock fans were expecting to get blown out in if you were being honest. Had the fumble late in that half, but otherwise played very well.
If I was going to GMs on behalf of Sellers, I would avoid that comparison like the plague. I wouldnt want to be compared to the guy that was a questionable reach that is failing.
I definitely agree you saw him start to turn a corner in that game and flash what he would show in the ensuing 6 games. What stands out, though, is that it was a loss and he had a backbreaking fumble after we'd just picked Bama off in the end zone and it felt like the game was there for the taking. I do think that game is the kind of game that was necessary to help him take a huge step forward in his development, even if the outcome was not what he would want.
His stats against OU were fairly pedestrian. He really blew up starting with A&M.
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One SEC coach sees Richardson similarities: https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/n...ers-hype-he-reminds-me-of-anthony-richardson/
Why in the world would a first-year QB with little to no HS recruit hype be getting Top 10 NFL pick discussion in his first 6 games as a college starter?
For whatever reason it appears that nitpicking Sellers is the sexy thing for the armchairs to do, and then get defensive at any backlash.
There are guys that come along periodically that just do things that other guys can’t; Freddie Solomon, Alexander English, and Jim Rice in my playing days. They stick out like sore thumbs. Demetris Summers when I saw him much later. Sellers is this guy; we focus on a fumble here and an overthrow there but basically ignore the sparkle. Again, he does things other guys don’t.
There is ample performance to warrant enthusiasm and optimism. And no more evidence to declare he won’t be a no 1 than there is to declare he will be.
There are guys that come along periodically that just do things that other guys can’t; Freddie Solomon, Alexander English, and Jim Rice in my playing days. They stick out like sore thumbs. Demetris Summers when I saw him much later. Sellers is this guy; we focus on a fumble here and an overthrow there but basically ignore the sparkle. Again, he does things other guys don’t.
There is ample performance to warrant enthusiasm and optimism. And no more evidence to declare he won’t be a no 1 than there is to declare he will be.
Funny thing is, nobody has really nitpicked him. At least not me. It just goes without saying that he's going to have demonstrate this season that he can play as he did down the stretch last year. And that is what all these predictions are based on: him being as good for a whole season as he was down the stretch last year.
Surely we are allowed to discuss his play.
No one is nitpicking. Some people just get flustered if you dont proclaim our players to be a lock for the Heisman every year. (See, it can go the other way too)
We hashed this out for pages in another thread. And after all the complaining and whining, everybody pretty much agreed that Sellers needed to take a large step forward to be a first round pick. We all agreed he hadn't shown that yet. Some thought it was a given that he would, and some wanted to see it done first before praising it.
But some people just need drama in their lives.
Right. He's PROJECTED to be a top 10 pick. Projected. If he were draft eligible after last season, he would not have been top 10 based on his body of work from the season. Probably more of a 3rd round after last season.
lol, I don't really see why this is a controversial take. Frankly, if pundits didn't have to have things to write about and speculate in the offseason, nobody here would have thought of him being a top 10 pick at this point. But now it's a foregone conclusion.
I get what you are saying. For example, there was a Dig Route that he threw in the Kentucky game that I just knew was going to be a pick. However, his throw cut right through two Kentucky defenders to an open Carolina receiver for a first down. I always knew he could throw the deep ball, but that was an NFL-like throw that made me say wait a minute. Might have something here. Another throw was the first big play to Dalevon Campbell in the Missouri game. Campbell was open but how many QBs have we seen throw that pass behind the receiver and slow him up. That Campbell pass was perfectly led and Campbell didn't have to break stride. Just a couple of examples that have me in the optimistic category with Sellers.
Obviously lol. I wasn't comparing Sellers to Richardson, I was saying NFL GMs will draft guys who most fans would think isn't ready for the NFL. Sellers is far more ready for the NFL than Richardson.
I see Sellers as a slightly shorter version of Cam Newton. Strong Arm, Powerful Runner with a little "Make You Miss" in the Open Field. However, I see Sellers as being a more accurate passer than Newton as he moves forward in his career.
Right now Sellers is like Neo in the Matrix; he’s got the gift, but it looks like he’s waiting on something. A dependable o-line maybe; receivers that will make plays on their own. But like Neo, when he gets to where he sees the Matrix…
Ha, seriously though, adcoop is right. Good times ahead.
Ha, seriously though, adcoop is right. Good times ahead.
Oh yeah, the NFL will reach at times, no doubt. I would just compare him to other "reaches" that aren't fresh in peoples minds as a failure.
Which is what I said when it was first brought up. It's the usual summer optimism surge we all suffer from. We talk about it enough and we convince ourselves of lots of things, every August. And when/if the threads are brought up again later, they are dismissed as typical preseason banter or ignored.
I am genuinely fascinated that we all agree he's "raw" (some poster called him that), needs to improve his passing game (or continue to improve), and needs to take a big step this year to be even a first round pick.
And yet there's still so much drama.
I'm optimistic/hopeful that he won't be a reach when April 2026 rolls around.
I wouldn't agree that he's raw. His passing obviously needs to continue to improve. There's not a QB in the nation who you would say doesn't need to improve. His completion percentage was on par or better than several "top" QBs last year.
But if Sellers throws for 2500+ yards and rushes for 600+ yards again this year, I think there will be plenty of GMs licking their chops to draft him.
Yep. If Sellers had UGA talent around him, he'd likely be at the top of every Heisman list this year.
That's what the frog and his offspring don't seem to comprehend.
Tomato/tomato. If he needs improvement, he can be called "raw". Ill let you argue with @adcoop about that, he was the one to use that term.
But then we're arguing semantics over what I STILL think we're all really agreeing on anyway. He needs to continue to improve.
If you add the 285 yds passing that Robby Ashford got in the second half of the LSU and Akron games, I think you safely say that Sellers would have been good for around 2900 if he had gotten through the season unscathed. Also, I think we pass more than 4 times in the second half of the LSU if Sellers is playing. We didn't trust Ashford at all and only gave him 4 pass attempts in that game. Finally, that Illinois game wasn't as bad as you think. He was 24-34 for 260 yards with a TD Pass and no turnovers. That's 70%. He just didn't get the exciting runs that we witnessed a few weeks prior in the Clemson game. Let's say we take the FG instead of trying a questionable fake FG pass to Boogie Huntley, Let's say Torricelli Simpkins doesn't false start when we are like 2nd and goal at around the 2 in the 4th Quarter resulting in settling for a FG, Let's say Jawarn Howell doesn't fumble in the 2nd Half when we are driving to go up 2 scores in the half. With those 3 blunders, we lose out on at least 10 points. You take those same stats with a 27-21 win instead of 21-17 loss and you say Sellers had a good game.
Just wanted to add - I absolutely love Sellers. He has all the intangibles. My comments were strictly football related and I believe fair observations about his play based on what I saw. I do hope he gets picked #1 as that would be good for the whole program, recruiting, Beamer, etc....
I just don't see it being realistic unless he improves quite a bit from last season. I'm pulling for him. We all are.
I just don't see it being realistic unless he improves quite a bit from last season. I'm pulling for him. We all are.
Agreed.
I like that hes a real high character guy. Heard (3rd hand rumors) about how he gives to his mom and I think it was the school he attended.
It seems there was a good deal of merit to the "wait and see" approach on Seller's top draft pick projections.
Save for a couple of big plays against VaTech, he's been fairly mediocre.
Agreed, but can you do that every game? I worry about injury then. We have to have players around him step up.
Holding back has worked so far because of weaker competition. I suppose the real question is when you cut him lose, as the games get harder.