Mel Kiper 2027 NFL Mock Draft Searches Surge: His Board Has Jeremiah Smith First, a Texas Edge in the Top Five - and Arch Manning 24th

Draft season does not wait for the playoffs. 'Mel Kiper 2027 NFL mock draft' was the No. 2 trending Google search in the United States on Tuesday morning, and the board searchers are landing on is ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.'s latest 2027 big board - the ranking he updated through the first half of the college season, with Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, the Heisman frontrunner, as the No. 1 player in the class.

The top of the board is a quarterback story, just not the one August expected. Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker is No. 2 overall and the first quarterback, ahead of Miami's Darian Mensah at No. 4 and Ole Miss's Trinidad Chambliss at No. 6 - the two passers who displaced Oregon's Dante Moore and Texas's Arch Manning at the top of Kiper's position rankings. In Bleacher Report's newest mock draft, Mestemaker was the first quarterback taken, third overall to the Miami Dolphins.

For Texas readers, the board cuts both ways. Longhorns edge rusher Colin Simmons sits No. 5 overall - the kind of first-step pass rusher who goes in the top five most years - while Manning, the preseason favourite to go first overall, stands 24th on Kiper's board and sixth among quarterbacks. Kiper cited inconsistency, accuracy and decision-making after a costly late fumble sealed Texas's 27-24 loss to Florida, and in Bleacher Report's mock the Longhorns quarterback fell out of the first round altogether.

One caution belongs on every November board, including this one: it is a ranking of players, not a mock draft order, and nine months of games, workouts and team needs will move it. What Tuesday's searches actually measure is simpler - with the college season past halfway and the NFL trade deadline landing today, football fans are already arguing about April. Kiper's board is where that argument starts.