For some NFL teams, an upcoming regular season is merely an end to a means. While the prospects of winning more games than you lose may not be in the cards, the consolation prize comes in the form of a top draft pick the following spring. That highly coveted slot brings with it the promise of that player changing the fortunes of the franchise, especially if it’s a quarterback. But what if the player that clubs are hoping for isn’t sitting at the end of their unenviable journey?
That’s what seems to be playing out currently in the NFL for the teams aiming to land Texas signal caller Arch Manning at the 2026 NFL Draft. He might not be on the board at all. Archie Manning — the patriarch of the Manning family, grandfather to the Texas QB, and member of the New Orleans Saints’ Ring of Honor — sent out a warning to prospective NFL teams that could be looking to tank in 2025 with the opportunity to select his grandson in mind. He told Texas Monthly that “Arch isn’t going to” declare for the NFL Draft early, meaning that it’s far more likely Manning — a former No. 1 overall recruit who indeed has the goods to be a first overall pick someday — will enter the 2027 NFL Draft rather than next year’s draft.
With that in mind, let’s jump into the DeLorean, gun it to 88mph, leap into the future, and identify five NFL teams that could be in the “running” for Manning’s services come the spring of 2027.
Of course, this will take quite a bit of projection, and we’ll leave out some obvious candidates like the New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Browns for this exercise. After all, both of those clubs are expected to have poor records in 2025, which, in theory, puts them in play to select a quarterback in 2026, which would effectively take them out of the Manning sweepstakes. With that caveat out of the way, let’s dive in.
And why not kick it off with a doozy! Arch Manning being paired up with Sean McVay feels like someone sold their soul to the devil to make happen, but it’s not totally out of the question. Los Angeles enters the 2025 season with a 37-year-old Matthew Stafford under center. The veteran quarterback has already flirted with the idea of retirement in the past, and, for the sake of this scenario, let’s assume he decides to hang it up after this upcoming campaign. That would leave a massive hole under center for the Rams, and the club could look at the 2026 season as an opportunity to reset, identify the core they want to rebuild with, not be the most competitive team in the league, and suddenly be in a position to draft Manning. With Manning now in-house, it could fast-track their rebuild.
Also, having McVay spearhead your NFL development while already coming from the Manning bloodline feels like the closest thing we can get to creating a quarterback in a lab, and it would be fascinating to see how Arch evolves with that type of tutelage.
To further hammer this potential pairing home, it does seem like the Rams are already doing their due diligence on Manning, who they reportedly covet.
The Miami Dolphins feel like an organization that’s teetering with its current regime. Mike McDaniel has one of the hottest seats in the NFL entering the 2025 season, and questions surrounding Tua Tagovailoa’s availability every week continue to fester (Not to mention his play later in the season in colder weather). All of this could come to a head as soon as this season, but what if the Dolphins brass decides to give this group one more season, especially if they tread water this year?
If the dam instead breaks in 2026, Miami could get out of Tagovailoa’s contract rather easily after that season. Per Over the Cap, the veteran quarterback has no guaranteed money due to him in the final two years of his deal (2027 and 2028) and would create cap savings of $36.6 million (2027) and $57.4 million (2028) over that stretch. Essentially, they’d have a window to clear the deck on the QB depth chart, which would allow them to usher in Manning pretty seamlessly.
If they decided to move off of McDaniel at that juncture as well, the lure of getting Manning as your quarterback to develop would make the Dolphins arguably the most desirable job that cycle.
Pittsburgh is currently entertaining what is likely Aaron Rodgers’ “Last Dance” in the NFL. After inking a one-year deal with the franchise earlier this summer, Rodgers indicated that he may retire after 2025. So, while the Steelers hope to contend as long as they have Rodgers under center, this is not a relationship that is built for the long haul.
Next offseason, Pittsburgh will be back at square one at quarterback and could enter 2026 with no clear future at the position. That could set up something that Mike Tomlin has never endured as head coach — an under .500 season.
With an aging roster (particularly on defense), 2026 could prove to be a transition year for Pittsburgh, where they shed some of their older talent and set up building blocks for the future. That would likely result in a poor record, thus creating the avenue for the Steelers to land Manning. In this scenario, they can truly begin building around a young quarterback instead of the one-year veteran experiments they’ve conducted over the last few years.
The Raiders made one of the biggest moves of the offseason at the quarterback position when they traded for former Seattle Seahawks signal-caller Geno Smith. While this is certainly an upgrade over the combination of Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew from 2024, it’s not a move that has a long runway. Smith will turn 35 during the 2025 season and, despite inking a two-year extension after being acquired by Las Vegas, the Raiders can get out of this deal with minimal damage as soon as 2026.
Most likely, the Raiders will ride with Smith for 2025 and 2026, but will have a decision to make after that. In that final year of his deal in 2027, he has zero guaranteed dollars left, and the team could free up $39.5 million in cap space if they were to cut him during that offseason. And that just so happens to be the exact time they could pivot to the likes of Manning.
While Smith gives the Raiders a higher floor than their previous quarterbacks, there’s a world where things go off the rails. Already, Smith isn’t looked at as the caliber of quarterback that can lead a team to a Super Bowl, and did just come off a 2024 season where he threw 15 interceptions (the most since his rookie season). In 2026, the Raiders will also face the NFC West and AFC East on top of playing in the highly competitive AFC West, so they do have a tough road in store for them on paper. If Smith bottoms out that season, that positions the Raiders to opt for a younger quarterback like Manning to play alongside their young core of Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers.
There’s also something juicy about the idea of Manning being selected by the team where Tom Brady — his uncle Peyton Manning’s prime rival — is a minority owner.
Speaking of Peyton Manning, wouldn’t it be poetic if his nephew landed with the Colts? At the moment, Indy is watching a rather uninspiring quarterback battle between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones. While Richardson was once the No. 4 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, he’s yet to live up to that billing and it’s hard to imagine a world where he rallies to become that franchise cornerstone for the Colts. No matter how this battle turns out, it doesn’t feel like Indianapolis’ quarterback of the future is currently on its roster.
If the 2025 season continues to provide mediocre production, it could lead the Indy brass to blow the entire operation up. Not only could that result in Richardson and Jones being shown the door, but head coach Shane Steichen and GM Chris Ballard as well. That would almost certainly lead to the Colts becoming one of the worst teams in the league in 2027 and set up the new regime to begin its rebuild with the same vibe as in 1998 when the club selected Peyton first overall.
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