Adam Schefter offers update on Arch Manning, likelihood he enters the 2026 NFL Draft

Will he stay or will he go? Before he has even played a snap as a full-time collegiate starter, that’s the question surrounding Texas QB Arch Manning – with more and more insiders in the pros expecting him to stay in college.

On ‘Get Up’ on Monday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Mike Tannenbaum were on a panel this morning discussing Manning, including their thoughts of when he’d enter his name into the NFL Draft. They each said the sense they’re getting from around the NFL is that Manning won’t be in the 2026 NFL Draft but instead in the 2027 NFL Draft.

“When Arch questioned his grandfather’s comment, that was the first time that the question even was raised in my mind that he could actually turn pro after this year,” said Schefter. “I think the feeling around the league has been that he’s going to be at Texas for a couple years and he’d be in the draft in ’27, most likely.”

“You know, talking to a number of teams? Look, they’re going to monitor the situation and the whole ‘March for Arch’. But, barring something unforeseen, most teams believe he’ll come back for at least one more year at Texas,” Tannenbaum said too.

This has been the latest non-stop talking point when it comes to Manning as he goes into his first season as the set starter for the Longhorns. It started three weeks ago when Archie Manning, his grandfather, said he’d back for another season at Texas. That led to plenty of national reactions, with Manning addressing it last week in saying that he is focusing on the present rather than that decision, either way, in the future.

“Yeah, I don’t know where he got that from. He texted me and apologized about that,” Manning said. “I’m really just taking it day by day right now.”

A lot can change between now and when the time comes for draft entries in five months. Still, several, at both the college level and around the National Football League, are thinking more and more that Manning won’t be available to draft until 2027.

Josh Pate sets realistic expectations for Arch Manning in 2025

Less than a week out now from his debut as a full-time starter, the hype is reaching an all-time high around Arch Manning. Josh Pate, though, is trying to be more realistic about his own expectations for the long-awaited quarterback for the Longhorns.

Appearing last week on ‘Bussin’ With The Boys’, Pate discussed his thoughts on Manning and, in turn, began by asking what Taylor Lewan and Will Compton thought of him, as they said things like “great”, a “Heisman candidate”, and a “possible national champion” this season. He agreed with some of those, but is also holding off to an extent as he knows how much is already being put on Manning to have to live up to, and through none of his own doing.

“I think he’s going to be a fringe Heisman candidate. He’s going to be pretty good to really good quarterback,” Pate determined.

“I stop short of the whole, hyping him up to be elite, hyping him up to be the Heisman favorite. Only because, people do that all the time to college players. And then it gets to December and, let’s say I think Arch is the best quarterback in the country, I pick him to win the Heisman. He’s the fourth-best quarterback in the country this year? What happens in sports media land is no one looks at that kid in December and says, ‘Well, he played the way he was going to play. I’m the dude who screwed up. I’m the dude who overhyped him’. No one does that. No one ever looks in the mirror. They look at the kid and they say, ‘You were a bust.’ But Arch Manning hasn’t set an expectation for himself, Arch Manning hasn’t made a prediction on himself. People who write for a living or talk for a living have.”

Pate wants to wait and see what Manning’s ceiling is considering he already feels good about where his floor is set on The 40 Acres. That’s with there being a lot for him to deal with this fall, from all the attention and pressure on top of what he’ll be facing over the course of Texas’ season.

“The way I do it for all these new starters is, I assume that dude? There’s a very high floor for him. But, my expectation for him is I think you’re going to be pretty to really good. Anything above and beyond that is just gravy for me,” said Pate. “You’re playing for Texas. You shouldn’t have to be an elite quarterback to win at Texas. If you are? They’ll remember you for a long time and you could have an iconic season loading, all that.

“I think he’s going to be pretty good to really good.”