Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning isn’t leaving Austin anytime soon. Texas Monthly’s S. C. Gwynne penned an impressively lengthy profile detailing a Heisman candidate who’s perhaps been prematurely crowned ahead of the 2025 college football season.
Gwynne shut down the idea that the NFL would come calling in 2026 and Manning would answer.
“As the season approaches, many of the same people who have already awarded Arch the Heisman and the national championship are predicting that he will also be the number one NFL draft choice in 2026. Stories abound about how NFL teams could position themselves to get him, though there is no reason to believe he would leave Texas next year, with or without a championship ring,” Gwynne wrote.
While Texas has become a perennially relevant program under Steve Sarkisian after two straight CFP semifinal appearances, Manning isn’t heading into the 2025 season with the same weapons Quinn Ewers played with the last two seasons.
Matthew Golden, Jaydon Blue, and several big bodies up front are gone via the 2025 NFL draft. To make matters more challenging, third-year offensive tackle Andre Cojoe suffered a torn ACL and will miss the entire season.
The defense has also lost elite talent along its front and in the secondary. Tenured talent is missing all over the depth chart.
The Longhorns undoubtedly reloaded, but you can’t substitute anything for experience. Arch himself only has three games of starting experience, as his grandfather, Archie Manning, noted.
“People are saying he’s a Heisman candidate. You’re not a Heisman Trophy candidate when you haven’t played but three games. It’s crazy,” Archie said.
Manning will build his case for the NFL this fall, but it sounds like he’ll have another campaign to refine his game before likely declaring for the 2027 draft.