Todd McShay hopes Dante Moore returns to Oregon over NFL Draft

Dante Moore could now project to be one of the first quarterbacks off the board in the 2026 NFL Draft. However, Todd McShay thinks it’d be great to see him instead have another year of development up at Oregon.

McShay made that take earlier in the week when talking quarterbacks on ‘The Triple Option’. He made that case for four of them, specifically including Moore, who have eligibility to come to college rather than making the move into the NFL. That’s not to say that none of them can’t go to the draft, but that another year of growth and experience in college wouldn’t hurt any of them.

“I’m looking at it this way. Honestly, and I like to make sure that I’m giving the right advice…There’s a responsibility to watch the tape, get information, and get the right info out there in case anyone’s listening and wants to make a decision off of it. I desperately want to see all of these guys go back to school for another year,” said McShay. “Four of the top-five guys that I’ve got on this list, the top-four all can play another year.”

“That’s Dante Moore – who had five starts at UCLA, did not go well. He’s not ready. But, my goodness, he is talented,” McShay said. “With Will Stein developing him, like we saw with Bo Nix, like we saw with Dillon Gabriel? With Will Stein, give him another year and you can kind of do that rinse, refine, repeat in the offense? You know how it goes – look at all the mistakes, let’s figure out what we did well, what are the areas we have to improve and come back for another year.”

McShay made that case for Moore, South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, and Alabama’s Ty Simpson. While all being prospects now, he thinks they could each “Need another year in terms of just game experience and growth”.

Still, like McShay said, Moore is already talented enough to be considering come this next year’s draft. That’s as he’s posting 72.3% completion for 240.9 passing yards per game with 19 touchdowns and four interceptions as a redshirt sophomore for the Ducks, which has him in contention for the Heisman Trophy and in some consideration for the NFL Draft. It’s just that Moore has made 21 collegiate appearances with only a dozen starts in total to this point across three seasons at UCLA and Oregon, which is why McShay is suggesting a fourth year just to be sure.

Any of those guys could elect to declare, and likely would be picked highly, in the draft next spring. But, if any of them waited another year, the all-time kind of quarterback class which McShay thought would be in 2026 might actually be coming a year later in the 2027 NFL Draft.

“The top-four guys not only could, I think should, be back in college football next year, which would be a great thing,” said McShay. “College football? Maybe I was a year early on the whole gilded age-type conversation with the quarterbacks