Steelers Now
The 2026 NFL Draft quarterback class continues to get thinner, as Oregon quarterback Dante Moore has decided to return to school and forgo the draft for another season, according to a report by ESPN.
Moore was widely considered to be the No. 2 quarterback and likely the No. 2 overall player in the draft class, but will instead go back to Oregon and wait another year.
That leave quarterback-needy teams like the Steelers in a lurch, as after likely No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, there is only one player — Alabama’s Ty Simpson — likely to be taken in the first round.
Simpson has largely been projected to be taken around where the Steelers draft at No. 21 overall. He is currently the No. 20 player on the NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board.
But now with Moore off the table, quarterback-needy teams from up the board such as the New York Jets, New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints could choose to poach Simpson long before he gets to the Steelers.
Another player, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, could see his stock rise with Moore’s depurate from the class, but Chambliss is in the middle of fighting a lawsuit to return to school.
Moore has been one of the big risers of the 2026 NFL Draft class over the course of this college football season, with his stock at NFL Mock Draft Database rising from No. 491 overall on the consensus big board late in September to his current standing of the No. 2 overall prospect.
Oregon lost offensive coordinator Will Stein, who was hired away by Kentucky, but that was apparently also not enough to tip the scales toward Moore leaving college.
Moore joins South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, Texas’ Arch Manning and Cincinnati’s Brendan Sorsby have also returned to school.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: 2026 NFL Draft Class QB Collapses; Dante Moore Announces Return to Oregon
