Dante Moore’s season at Oregon is over, but former Tennessee Titans general manager Ran Carthon still expects him to be a first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, and one of the top two quarterbacks on teams’ boards.
“I will say yes,” Carthon said when asked whether Moore would go in the first round next April. “Because I think once the dust settles and everyone’s done making their hot takes and you actually sit back, you watch the tape and you actually know who’s coming out in this next draft class … he’ll be one of the top two quarterbacks rated.”
Carthon made the case on Wednesday’s episode of the With the First Pick podcast, which he co-hosts with draft analyst Ryan Wilson. Wilson laid out the conversation in a column published Friday, October 30.
The concussion is not the main worry
Moore suffered a concussion on a late hit against USC in September, and Oregon coach Dan Lanning confirmed this week that he will not return this season. In four games, Moore completed nearly 70 percent of his passes for 926 yards, nine touchdowns and no interceptions.
Carthon does not think the injury is what teams will focus on. “I think they’re going to have more questions about the variance in play as opposed to the concussion,” he said. “The bigger question for NFL teams is going to be what happened this year at Oregon.”
Those questions go back to why Moore returned to school. In 2025 he threw for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns and helped Oregon reach the College Football Playoff semifinals, and Wilson believes he would have been the second quarterback drafted in April 2026, behind Fernando Mendoza, had he declared. But Wilson also noted that Moore was less effective under pressure and still working on getting past his first read. In September, Moore struggled to move beyond his first option in a 39-31 loss to Drew Mestemaker and Oklahoma State. Oregon has since fired offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer.
Bradford, Tagovailoa and the precedent
Wilson pointed to two quarterbacks who missed large parts of their final college seasons and still went early. Sam Bradford played three games at Oklahoma in 2009 before a shoulder injury and was the first overall pick in 2010. Tua Tagovailoa’s hip injury ended his 2019 season at Alabama, and Miami took him fifth in 2020.
Carthon, who later worked around Bradford in the NFL, believes Bradford’s accuracy helped convince the Rams to take him first despite the injury. “That guy was freakishly accurate with the football,” he said. “You talking about being able to put the ball wherever he wanted to.” He called Moore’s situation “slightly different,” because Moore has not had the same pattern of significant injuries.
Where Moore stands on the boards
Scouts and personnel executives who spoke with Matt Zenitz earlier this month named only Moore and Miami’s Darian Mensah as near-certain first-round quarterbacks, and Moore was still generally viewed as QB1. Published rankings have cooled on him more than that. Carthon took him 14th in his October 14 mock with Wilson, while Nick Baumgardner’s October 30 top 10 no longer includes him.
| List | Dante Moore |
|---|---|
| Mel Kiper Jr. big board (latest) | 25th |
| Jordan Reid top 50 (latest) | 37th |
| Charlie Campbell big board (Oct. 28) | 27th |
| Ryan Wilson and Ran Carthon mock (Oct. 14) | No. 14, Atlanta (Carthon’s pick) |
| Josh Edwards mock (Oct. 28) | No. 26 |
| Five-analyst three-round mock (Oct. 29) | Not among 96 picks |
| Nick Baumgardner mock (Oct. 7) | No. 6, Arizona |
| Nick Baumgardner top-10 mock (Oct. 30) | Not in top 10 |
Will he declare?
Moore has not announced a decision. Carthon said he does not expect him to return to Oregon, but underclassmen do not have to choose until after their seasons. If Moore does enter the draft, he will be part of a class that keeps getting thinner at the top: UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava plans to return to school, Arch Manning has struggled at Texas, and Mestemaker, Mensah and Notre Dame’s CJ Carr are still playing.
With no more games to play, Moore’s evaluation will come down to what teams already have on tape, his medical checks and his interviews before the draft, which runs April 29 to May 1 in Washington.
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