{"id":357992,"date":"2025-09-10T23:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/357992\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T23:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:01:10","slug":"mel-kiper-predicts-lanorris-sellers-or-drew-allar-as-the-top-pick-in-2026-nfl-draft-without-arch-manning-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/357992\/","title":{"rendered":"Mel Kiper predicts LaNorris Sellers or Drew Allar as the top pick in 2026 NFL Draft without Arch Manning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arch Manning<\/a> is eligible to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft, but many doubt the Texas quarterback will move on from college after one season as a starter. That opens room for a new favorite to be selected No. 1 overall in April. <\/p>\n

NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. is someone who isn\u2019t sold on Manning making the move to the pros just yet. Instead, he had a quick answer for the new top prospect(s): LaNorris Sellers<\/a> or Drew Allar<\/a>. However, Kiper believes one already has the edge over the other during the early season. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a host of quarterbacks, a lengthy list of quarterbacks that could be in that mix,\u201d Kiper said on First Draft<\/a>. \u201c\u2026 But I think when you look at Arch, I don\u2019t know about (him) leaving. I don\u2019t know how you can lean what you\u2019ve seen so far. It indicates it\u2019s almost an automatic so for me, I would go to Sellers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiper noted that Sellers will be 20 years of age when the 2026 NFL Draft rolls around in April. He compared that to someone like LSU<\/a>\u2018s Garrett Nussmeier<\/a>, who is a highly-touted quarterback in next year\u2019s cycle. He\u2019ll be 24 years old by the time his name\u2019s called.<\/p>\n

Sellers has his Gamecocks 2-0 on the young season. He\u2019ll open SEC play against Vanderbilt<\/a> at home during Week 3. <\/p>\n

\u201cSellers looks the part. I think he\u2019s going to play some outstanding football this year for South Carolina<\/a>,\u201d Kiper said. \u201cAnd Drew Allar goes back to Penn State for this year. Wisely, didn\u2019t come out after last year. He\u2019s got some better targets. We\u2019ll see how that emerges and develops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through two games, Allar has looked the part. He\u2019s completed 69.5% (41-59) of his passing attempts for three touchdowns and has helped the Nittany Lions\u2019 offense outscore its opposition 80-11 over the first eight quarters of the new season.<\/p>\n

Both programs could find themselves in the College Football Playoff conversation at the end of the season. After all, Allar led Penn State<\/a> to a national semifinal one season ago, while Sellers helped South Carolina to its best season (9-4) in the Shane Beamer era. Many believe the Gamecocks can take that next step in 2025, while Allar returned with his sights set on a national title. <\/p>\n

The 2026 NFL Draft set for April 23 through 25, 2026. Regardless of who\u2019s name is called first \u2014 neither should expect to wait long before their name\u2019s called. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arch Manning is eligible to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft, but many doubt the Texas quarterback will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5792,7,5801,6,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-357992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-drew-allar-22-medina","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-lanorris-sellers-23-south-florence","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nfl-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115182494460717026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}