Todd McShay already has South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers in the position’s top tier when it comes to next year’s class for the 2026 NFL Draft. However, he thinks he could be even better than that if he were to possibly stay an additional year in college. On ‘The McShay Show’ this week, McShay released […]
Todd McShay already has South CarolinaQB LaNorris Sellers in the position’s top tier when it comes to next year’s class for the 2026 NFL Draft. However, he thinks he could be even better than that if he were to possibly stay an additional year in college.
On ‘The McShay Show’ this week, McShay released his quarterback tiers for this year’s class, listing Sellers in tier one alongside Clemson’sCade Klubnik and LSU’sGarrett Nussmeier. That said, he thinks another year of college football wouldn’t hurt him before going pro despite knowing he’s a likely name to enter after two seasons as a starter at that point for the Gamecocks.
“Sellers? I’m going to caveat every single time we talk about him. I really hope he plays another season after this at South Carolina,” said McShay. “It’s our job as evaluators, and it’s different than Arch (Manning). Because, yes, Arch is eligible for the 2026 Draft – and maybe he winds up coming out, maybe he has a monster year…My point in saying all this is, I’m including Sellers in this list because he does have a full year as a starter and that’s the difference.”
“I did (consider not putting him on my board). I did,” McShay noted. “But, I think because there is a full year of starting experience, this will make two full years in the SEC, that – I don’t want to say it’s far more likely. It just feels more fair, more fair. Like, it’s a different situation.”
Sellers is one of the top quarterbacks in the country coming into this season coming off last year where he posted a total of 3,208 total yards, at 267.4 per game, and 25 touchdowns overall, along with 13 turnovers in total as well, as the nation’s best dual-threat player at the position. That’s what he did in year one as a starter, with him expected to be even better in his second this fall at South Carolina.
That also makes Sellers as one of the leading prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft. He fits a mold, as a mobile quarterback with room to grow as a passer, that has produced some of the best in the sport, especially as of late, with that skill set being what separates him from the rest of this class to McShay.
“With Sellers, because of the type of quarterback he is where it’s mobility first? And we’ve seen a lot of these guys – Lamar Jackson was not a great passer coming out, Josh Allen was wildly erratic coming out, Jalen Hurts was not a great passer (or) Nick Saban wouldn’t have said Tua (Tagovailoa) is coming in, okay. But, they all developed, they all got better in the NFL,” said McShay. “This is the difference in today’s NFL at the quarterback position than what we were used to growing up and, really, up until like, I don’t know, 10 years ago. Quarterbacks who have the mobility? They don’t need all the answers to the test in terms of understanding defenses, understanding protections, understanding where to go with the football. They don’t have to think like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees. They don’t have to because they have the mobility to offset that. So, the answers you don’t have as a rookie, you can get by by running around and creating and extending, and doing all those things.”
“Sellers has that, so what Sellers is today as a passer, in terms of our film evaluation last season, is not going to be what we see in October or the end of the season, and it’s not going to be what we see in 2026 whether that’s in the NFL or in college football, okay. So, that’s why we’re throwing him in here,” McShay continued. “I can confidently say he’s got this special trait of mobility – it’s speed, it’s twitchiness, it’s extending, it’s instincts on the move – that nobody else in this class has.”
Need proof of that? McShay noted Jalen Milroe, who was not valued well as a passer from last spring coming out of Alabama, being selected, largely due to his mobility, as a third-rounder in the 2025 NFL Draft. So, for McShay, it’s just a matter of how far the passing develops for Sellers between now and April.
“Jalen Milroe had the same thing. It got him drafted in the third round,” McShay pointed out. “He not only didn’t get better as a passer this past year. He regressed in terms of understanding what that new regime wanted from him…(But) still got drafted in the third round.”
“This is why I put Sellers in here…I see it with Sellers,” said McShay. “I see a guy who’s going to continue to improve the mental part, and I’m certain with his mechanics and the consistency as a passer…I’ve heard (he’s making big-time strides as a pocket passer). I’ve heard the same thing. And so, while scouts right now, when I talk to them, are like, ‘I don’t know. Like, is he the next Milroe?’. Or, is it falling more in line with what you saw in terms of the progression from the beginning of the year to the end of the year as a first-year starter, and the reports you’re hearing out of South Carolina, right?”
Again, as of now, McShay evaluates Sellers, at least as a passer, in a way that suggests he should instead enter the 2027 NFL Draft. If he’s in 2026, though, he doesn’t doubt he’ll be one of the first quarterbacks off the board regardless.
“I believe in him, but what’s best for him might be another year of college football,” said McShay. “But, if he chooses to leave for the NFL? You can’t tell me he’s not going to be in this first tier of quarterbacks.”
Category: Football
