Peyton Manning. Andrew Luck. Trevor Lawrence. Caleb Williams. Arch Manning. This is the company that the pro-Arch Manning crowd would have you believe the young Texas QB belongs in. But through his first season as the clear starter in Austin, the 19-year-old QB has not lived up to the hype. Not even close.
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Arch’s Longhorns are 3-1 through four games, and they have won in blowout fashion in each of the last three weeks. But those wins came against the likes of San Jose State, UTEP, and Sam Houston. Not exactly the old SEC.
Manning has thrown nine TDs against three picks and added five scores on the ground. He has thrown an interception in three of his four games and looked clearly out of his depth at times in that Week 1 loss to defending champion Ohio State. His 11-for-25 passing line against UTEP a couple of weeks ago was somewhat worrisome as well.
Despite these underwhelming performances, the Arch hype train hasn’t stopped, with only a few jumping off early. One of them is Stephen A. Smith, who believes Manning is not worth his NCAA-high $5.5 million NIL valuation.
But top analyst Joel Klatt isn’t on the same boat. He hasn’t given up on Manning just yet.
“He was a lot better. And I still maintain that he will become a very good quarterback. And I think at some point this year, he’s going to be an elite quarterback,” the analyst said via First Thing First.
While Klatt is in the minority right now, Stephen A. is not alone in his devaluation of Manning … not just on the football field, but in the business realm as well.
Back in August, Manning’s NIL valuation was at a whopping $6.8 million. It dropped down to $6.3 million by the start of the campaign, but it has recently plummeted even further. According to On3, who clearly agree with Smith’s take on Manning, the Texas QB’s value dropped by over $800k through the first month of this season.
Coming from the family he did and with the high school career he had, Arch was always going to be under heavy pressure once he got his chance in the NCAA. But there’s no debating that he has disappointed so far. And with these performances, it seems more and more likely that Manning might need another year in Austin to polish his game before declaring for the NFL draft.
And as both Smith and ESPN’s Ryan Clark have said recently, the blame shouldn’t fall on Manning. It’s on the so-called experts and pundits who treated him like an all-time prospect before he was even named the starter at Texas.
His grandfather, New Orleans Saints legend Archie Manning, the patriarch of the Manning family, confidently said Arch “isn’t going to” declare for next year’s draft back in August. While Arch said he didn’t know where his grandpa got that from, he said he’s taking it day by day. However, if the days continue like they have been, Archie will likely turn out to be right in the end.
