When Kyle McCord entered the transfer portal following the 2023 campaign and came out the other side wearing Syracuse Orange, no one could have predicted the massacre he would unleash on their record books. His 34 TD passes set a new school record (which also ranked fifth in the nation), and he became the first Syracuse QB to throw for 4,000 yards, with his 4,760 passing yards leading the nation. His eleven 300-yard games also set a school record.
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McCord helped push the Orange to their first 10-win season and ranked finish since 2018, capping it off with a win in the Holiday Bowl. He also outplayed presumptive No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward during a 21-point comeback win in the regular season finale. That performance, in which he threw for 380 yards and three scores, has clearly stuck in the mind of NFL scouts, as McCord has been climbing up big boards throughout the pre-draft process.
According to insider Jordan Schultz, many teams view McCord as one of the “more undervalued players in the entire draft.” Teams especially like his size (6’3″, 220 pounds), his history of winning, and his processing speed. As a result, the 22-year-old has secured pre-draft visits with both the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants this week, with ESPN ranking him as the ninth-best QB. However, not everyone is sold on McCord’s abilities.
While Schultz says that teams love McCord’s ability to “read coverage,” Redditors pointed out one glaring example of a game where he was unable to do just that. In a 41-13 humbling at the hands of Pitt, McCord threw a whopping five interceptions with no TDs — three of which were taken back for scores.
One user summed up the concern, saying, “He threw 5 interceptions in one game in his senior year. I refuse to believe a good NFL QB could do that in college. But maybe I’m wrong.”
Another noted that even the numbers don’t do justice to how bad McCord looked during that game: “His stats that game genuinely did not reflect how bad he was. Pitt was putting out third-stringers while Syracuse was still trying to run their first team in the fourth quarter.”
Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi got some credit for his gameplan too. One user said, “That game was against Pat Narduzzi, who runs a ton of disguised coverages. McCord seemingly doesn’t know to beat them yet.”
After another sarcastically quipped that it’s a good thing NFL teams don’t disguise coverage (they do), the Redditor acknowledged McCord has some work to do in that department if he’s going to survive in the big league: “But seriously he’s definitely gonna have to improve in that department or he’s gonna get destroyed.”
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Both the Giants and Steelers are desperate for some direction under center. For that reason, bringing in Kyle McCord isn’t a huge surprise for either team. However, the Steelers, in particular, will be hyper-aware of McCord’s darkest moment during the 2024 campaign. That five-interception outing took place at Acrisure Stadium — home of both the Pitt Panthers and the Steelers. Talk about a bad omen.
