Former top NFL prospect and current LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier saw his 2026 NFL Draft stock tumble further when he was benched against rivals Alabama on Saturday nightGarrett Nussmeier QB Garrett Nussmeier didn’t make it through LSU’s Saturday contest against Alabama(Image: Getty Images)

If LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier declared for the 2025 NFL Draft in a generally weak field at the QB position, he could have been a first-round pick.

He was coming off a 9-4 college football season as a starter, having completed 64.2% of his passes for 4,042 yards with a 29-12 touchdown-interception ratio. Interim head coach Frank Wilson, replacing the recently fired Brian Kelly, pulled Nussmeier trailing 17-6 in the third quarter of LSU’s rivalry clash against Alabama on Saturday.

Nussmeier — who almost missed the season with an injury — wasn’t playing too poorly: he connected on his first nine passes for the game and finished his day having completed 18 of his 21 total targets for 121 yards (no touchdowns, no interceptions).

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He was replaced by Mississippi State transfer Michael Van Buren, who didn’t play much better. The unranked Tigers lost 20-9 and dropped to 5-4.

“He’s taken a lot of hits this year, so you feel for him,” ABC analyst Greg McIlroy said on the broadcast. “And he has battled, but man, that one right there. That one is on the quarterback.”

In the studio, Booger McFarland was even more cruel. “You’re seeing a stark difference when one team has a quarterback in Ty Simpson and LSU has Garrett Nussmeier,” he said.

Simpson is projected as one of four college quarterbacks likely to be selected in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft alongside Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Oregon’s Dante Moore, and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers.

Frank WilsonLSU interim coach Frank Wilson made the decision to pull Nussmeier(Image: Getty Imagess)

A mid-first-round pick will make around $5 million a season over the length of their rookie contract (pre-fifth-year option).

A mid-third-round pick, where Nussmeier may find himself in the 2025 NFL Draft, can expect to make just north of $1 million. That number drops even further in the fourth round and under $1 million in the fifth.

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On Netflix’s “SEC Football: Any Given Saturday,” released before the 2025 season, Nussmeier revealed how hard the decision was to return for another campaign. “I’ve been dreaming about playing in the NFL since I was a kid,” he said.

“When you have that opportunity right in front of you, it’s hard to have the trust to say, ‘nah, I’m not ready yet’ or ‘nah, I’m going to come back one more year.'”

Heading into Saturday’s game, Nussmeier owned a 5-3 record as a starter, having completed 65.9% of his passes for 1,806 yards with a 12-5 touchdown-interception ratio.