Scouting Notebook: Intel on QB draft stock, a Mountain West TE sleeper, and more
Wonder where the NFL stands on Drew Allar and Garrett Nussmeier?
Welcome to the first edition of Daft on Draft Scouting Notebook, where I drop every scouting tidbit that stood out to me over the last week of scouting the 2025 NFL Draft.
From here on out I will be dropping a Scouting Notebook every Friday as I look to uptick the content being pumped out on Daft on Draft. In this edition, we talk about the draft stock of a couple of quarterbacks that seem to be rising among draftniks, a Mountain West tight end sleeper, an injured cornerback who was seen as a top-15 player, and a look at a lackluster offensive tackle class.
We have reached the conference play portion of the college football season, so we are going to not only be seeing more meaningful games, but meaningful matchups for 2025 NFL Draft prospects. So what has stood out throughout the week?
Let’s dive in.
Draft stock intel on various well-known quarterbacks
Two names that are generating buzz in a lackluster quarterback class are LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier and Penn State’s Drew Allar. However, based on what I am hearing from two different NFL buildings, neither has higher than a Day 3 grade.
I am low on Nussmeier. I’ve charted every throw of his thus far and have figured out he cannot hit the broad side of the barn from 25 yards or deeper down the field. I have him charted at 4-of-15 on those throws this season. Even against Nicholls State, Nussmeier finished 1-of-11 on passes of 20 yards or more in-depth (on-target, not completed).
While he has some fun arm angles he can throw from and layer the football over the middle of the field well, his arm dies out when he doesn’t have a base beneath him. Marry that with subpar lower-half tools, and there is not much that makes Nussmeier a threat to go in the first round.
The appeal with Allar on the other hand is quite evident and easy to see. The speed of his arm and the velocity of the football when it explodes out of his hand is rare. After a bad 2023 season, has Allar taken the leap?
I tend to think he has. But not enough of one. He’s struggled against teams like Bowling Green and is still asked to do the bare minimum in that Penn State offense despite a new offensive coordinator and a blazing arm. His feet have yet to be married with his eyes when he looks backside, and when he looks to extend plays out of structure he looks uncomfortable trying to run.
His seam ball is one of the prettiest in the class, but Allar is still missing gimme throws way too frequently. Talking to one scout about Allar, his fandom around the NFL is hard to find. I even had a UDFA grade thrown at me.
We did this in 2022. When there isn’t a clear top tier of quarterbacks, we try to create one. But alas, the Desmond Ridder and Malik Willis quality of quarterbacks still fall to the third round and end up on their second team within three years.
The same looks to be the case with Allar and Nussmeier this year. Don’t be shocked if both go back to school.
Get to know Wyoming TE John Michael Gyllenborg
If you want a Mike Gesicki clone and a sleeper in this class, look no further than Wyoming tight end John Michael Gyllenborg.
Despite missing games to start the season, Gyllenborg is turning it on for the Cowboys. I stumbled upon him over the Spring and bookmarked him, and now as he enters his redshirt junior season, he is generating real NFL buzz.
Over his last two games, he has nine catches on 12 targets for 126 yards for the Cowboys. Listed at 6-foot-5 and 247 pounds, Gyllenborg can flat-out stride it out in the open field. When he gets the ball in his hands it is off to the races.
He will test out of his mind in Indianapolis if he declares for the 2025 NFL Draft, and ran faster and jumped higher at a combine in high school than any tight end did in last year’s class.
The feedback I’ve gotten from both agents and scouts? He’s a top-100 player.
Who cares if he can’t block? Mike Gesicki can’t either. Neither can Sam LaPorta, who is a bit of a different player overall, but he still went top-40 to the Detroit Lions. Tight end is a position where you just need to fit a role that a team wants you to fit.
And he fits as an F tight end and a big slot and fits it at a high level. If you draft Gyllenborg, you are not drafting him to play in-line and to block consistently. You need him to create mismatches. If you stick a nickel on him, good luck. If you stick a linebacker on him, good luck.
John Michael Gyllenborg is the real deal.
So about this offensive tackle class…
It stinks.
We’ve been saying it for a while on the Daft on Draft Podcast, but now offensive line guru Brandon Thorn of Trench Warfare and The Athletic’s Dane Brugler are reiterating it as well.
LSU’s Will Campbell has verified 32-inch arms and is viewed widely around the NFL as a guard-only. Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. and Minnesota’s Aireontae Ersery are seen similarly. While LSU’s Emery Jones Jr. possesses high-end athletic traits and Herculean core strength, he has not taken the leap many had hoped that he would.
The Oregon duo of Josh Conerly Jr. and Ajani Cornelius have struggled early on and face a massive test against Ohio State this weekend.
Earlier this week, Thorn stated that it was actually Ohio State’s Josh Simmons who sits atop his offensive line ranking right now. So I turned on Simmons’ tape against Iowa for myself, and I was blown away.
His fluidity and flexibility are undeniable. Simmons did not lose the leverage battle once the whole game as his tremendous knee bend allows for him to get his pad level lower than the man across from him with ease. His feet are less jittery and even-keeled, an improvement from a year ago, and his strike accuracy and timing have followed suit.
Simmons and Texas right tackle Cameron Williams are the hot names right now as both are playing well and possess legitimate NFL offensive tackle length and tools. This is not to say that a team could not draft Campbell or Banks high, but perhaps that it would be to play along the interior.
Offensively in general it is a rough class, but it’s not a great year to need an offensive tackle unless you get a shot at the high-ceiling of Williams or are okay with the high floor but low-ceiling of Campbell or Banks.
ECU CB Shavon Revel Jr. tore his ACL… now what?
They don’t make them like East Carolina’s Shavon Revel Jr. very often. Listed at 6-foot-3 and 193 pounds, Revel is twitched up, possesses unbelievable transitional burst, and has perhaps the best long speed of any cornerback in this class.
However, he tore his ACL last month. In a deep cornerback class, it’s hard to tell what kind of impact he could have and where he will end up being drafted. Talking to a scout, however, it doesn’t seem like NFL teams are worried about it at all. I was told, “It’s just an ACL, it doesn’t concern me.”
It sounds like, despite the torn ACL that will sideline him the rest of the season and perhaps through the NFL Scouting Combine and Pro Day cycle, that the NFL is still willing to draft him higher than names like Notre Dame’s Benjamin Morrison and Arizona’s Tacario Davis.
Go ahead and keep penciling him into your first rounds.
Other miscellaneous notes…
There are some names I’ve been told to watch this week, and so I’m going to. Those names include Indiana defensive tackle CJ West (a Kent State transfer) and Missouri center Connor Tollison.
However, the quarterback charter that I am, I have already identified a long list of 2026 quarterbacks I’m excited about. This goes beyond Texas’ Arch Manning and Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava to include about another handful.
Tulane’s Darian Mensah is going to make a ton of money in the transfer portal. He’s got the goods. Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby, Michigan State’s Aidan Chiles, and Pitt’s Eli Holstein have my antenna up already as well.
But alas, I’ll wait.
That’s it for this week! Tune in next Friday for what stands out over the next week of scouting and intel!
What kind of antenna is picking up Aidan Chiles…