The best thing about the 2025 season for the Texas Longhorns was watching, in real time, the improvement of quarterback Arch Manning. Sure, it would have been cool if he was instantly epic against defending national champion Ohio State. But that was a very tall ask.
For the first half of the season, one of the national college football story lines was, “What’s wrong with Arch Manning?” The answer was he was young. He hadn’t started many football games in two years and his high school competition was weak.
But after the loss to Florida, Manning turned a corner. He was solid in UT’s win over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Shootout. He didn’t play great in a wide OT win at Kentucky. Then he threw for 346 yards in another OT win, this time at Mississippi State.
Manning was on a roll the rest of the season, passing for over 300 yards in three of UT’s four regular season opponents. The one game he didn’t reach the passing mark was against rival Texas A&M, when he rushed for 53 yards and a long game-breaking touchdown.
In the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl against Michigan, he really showed the dual threat he could be, passing for 221 yards and two TDs and rushing for an incredible 155 yards and two TDs. It feels like we’re getting close to peak Manning.
But that’s not to say the Texas QB is perfect. He still has much to learn. Clark Dalton at Yardbarker has found one major area he believes Manning needs to improve on in order to be the No. 1 pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. Several “way-to-early” mocks list Manning as the No. 1 pick.
But Dalton is worried that Manning’s accuracy isn’t good enough (yet) to be the top pick in the draft. “Manning has completed 311-of-499 passes (62.3 percent) in three seasons at Texas,” Dalton writes. “That’s not terrible, but NFL teams want that number to be much higher if they’re considering using a No. 1 pick on a QB.”
He points out the last three No. 1 picks have been quarterbacks with a higher completion percentage than 65-percent. Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza (68.6-percent), Miami’s Cam Ward (66-percent) and USC’s Caleb Williams (66.9-percent) all were north of that magic 65-percent number.
“You can’t be at 60 percent if you’re gonna be the No. 1 pick,” ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. said on “The First Draft” podcast with On3’s Steve Samra. “You’ve got to be up around 70 percent.”
While Manning isn’t far behind, it’s definitely something he and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian will want to work on in the 2026 season.
Steve Palazzolo of The 33rd Team points out points out a mechanical improvement Arch can make to his left side “I still don’t think he’s throw-for-throw accurate,” Palazzolo said. “I think his ball placement is all over the place … and I don’t love his front arm. I think it affects his accuracy.”
Sark has already helped Manning out considerably. Bringing back Will Muschamp at defensive coordinator will help sure up that side of the ball, which let Manning and the offense down at times last season.
Sarkisian has also used the transfer portal to help Manning on offense. Sark has enlisted the crown jewel of the 2026 transfer portal, wide receiver Cam Coleman. He also signed Wake Forest WR Sterling Berkhalter, who Sark raved about this spring.
Manning was routinely let down by his receivers last season. Texas WRs had 22 drops in 2025, many in huge chain-moving situations. James Foster at Pro Football Focus credited highlighted how many drops UT had on X (formerly Twitter).
It is hard to watch. Better wide outs should mean less drops and a better completion percentage.
Sark has also beefed up the Texas running attack for the coming season. Last year, Texas’ running game was historically bad. Texas hired former Florida RB coach Jabbar Juluke to improve the coaching. He also signed two of the best running backs in the NCAA transfer portal, Hollywood Smothers from NC State and Raleek Brown from Arizona State.
Both Smothers and Brown are an upgrade from last year’s group, will see a lot of playing time. Other than relieving pressure on Manning by gaining yards, the lack of a valid rushing attack made play-action almost useless for the UT offense last year. That shouldn’t be an issue with the Longhorns new backfield.
If Manning can improve his accuracy by just a few percentage points, he can be the all-world quarterback he was projected to be, lead Texas to a title and be the No. 1 pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.
This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: What Longhorns QB Arch Manning needs to improve on to be No. 1 pick
Reporting by Trey Luerssen, Longhorns Wire / Longhorns Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
