- So far, so good: Oregon’s Dante Moore handled the Ducks' early schedule with ease.
- Growth in the pocket: Moore’s has yet to take a sack in 2025, which shows his improvement in managing the pocket.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
The college football season is still young, but with a few games under our belt, we can identify some early risers for the 2026 NFL Draft.
All eyes, of course, are on the quarterback position. LaNorris Sellers, Cade Klubnik and Drew Allar have had their good moments but haven’t exactly stepped into the spotlight the way we hoped – again, it’s very early, and we’re not writing anyone off. LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier seems to be the status quo top quarterback at the moment, and Oklahoma‘s John Mateer’s play has been quite inspiring thus far. However, it's natural to broaden our search around the country to see if there are new names who could be on their way up the big board. Out west, one is really standing out so far: Oregon’s Dante Moore, who boasts an 83.5 overall and 82.0 passing grade through three games.
Moore was a five-star quarterback and the No. 3 quarterback prospect in the 2023 recruiting class (per 24/7 Sports) behind Arch Manning and Nico Iamaleava. He committed to UCLA when Chip Kelly was still the head coach. He played in nine games with five starts as a true freshman in 2023. Nonetheless, he struggled. He went 3-2 as a starter while throwing 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions with 14 big-time throws, 12 turnover-worthy plays and just a 58.1 passing grade. Due to Kelly going back and forth with Moore as a starter, Moore decided to enter the transfer portal at the end of the 2023 season. He transferred to Oregon, where he sat behind Dillon Gabriel in 2024. This season, he’s getting his shot to be “the guy.”
His competition through three games hasn’t been stout with easy wins against Montana State, Oklahoma State and Northwestern. Nevertheless, he has four big-time throws and just one turnover-worthy play with almost 700 yards passing and an adjusted completion rate above 80.0% in all three games. He also has yet to take a sack this season despite 14 total pressures, certainly an improvement from his 26% pressure-to-sack ratio as a true freshman at UCLA. His 2.73-second time to throw average is totally fine and on par with his typical time to throw throughout his career. It is good to see that he doesn’t have a ton of bad processing habits that cause him to hold onto the ball for extended periods of time (something that is very tough to fix in the NFL).
Oregon has him listed at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, which rank in the 55th and 14th percentile for an NFL quarterback. It's easy to tell he is conscious of his fundamentals, as he has been quick and clean in that department for most of this season – again, he hasn’t experienced a ton of pressure, so we’ll see what it looks like as the season progresses.
In a world where it feels like every young quarterback wants to be Patrick Mahomes and Matthew Stafford with too much sidearm in their throwing motion, Moore's throwing mechanics are fairly traditional and repeatable. His arm talent appears to be average for the NFL level, as his passes can tail off in speed and distance, something that could be improved with more lower-body strength to drive the ball. He’s not a Jalen Milroe or Justin Fields type with his legs, but he is very light on his feet and has good quickness to get out of the pocket when needed. His passes can wobble, which makes me wonder if he has small hands that cause him to have less control of the ball – but that could also just be some of the games I watched.
It’s hard to watch Moore’s first three games and not like what you see. He’s controlled, confident, displays adequate arm strength, has some extra mobility, is taking care of the ball and avoiding negatives. However, he hasn’t really faced good enough competition to truly be tested. The Ducks will play Penn State on the road on September 27 and Indiana on October 11, which should be nice tests for him.
After watching his first three games, I wouldn’t categorize his tools as top-tier. If he keeps this up, I wouldn't say he is the top pick in this draft, but consistency is a strength in this quarterback class, and Moore is doing it at an enjoyable level.
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