The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen: What the Game Tape Says about Brendan Sorsby

Brendan Sorsby has scrambled the usual offseason film study. The Texas Tech quarterback could be part of the NFL supplemental draft, and The Athletic's Ted Nguyen, who covered Sorsby a couple of times last season, says the tape shows a player with real upside and real rough edges.

Start with the tools. "He has a lot of arm talent," Nguyen told the show, with Kirk Morrison filling in for Rich. "He could change his arm angles, make throws from multiple platforms." What intrigues Nguyen most is that Sorsby does not need a clean setup to deliver. "He doesn't need to set his feet to make a great throw. He could do it off balance, which is some of the traits that you see from the high-end type of quarterbacks."

He is also a weapon with his legs. "He's a legitimate runner," Nguyen said. "When he gets to the NFL, you're going to have to install some option plays for him because he's that dangerous as a runner."

The concerns are just as specific. Nguyen flagged accuracy, especially down the field. "He has over a 33% off-target rate on throws of over 20 air yards," he said, adding that "his footwork can get a little messy at times." His read on the player is that another college season would have helped. "I thought he could really have used another year in college football to really clean up some of those rough edges. And obviously that's not going to happen."

There are off-field questions in the mix, too. "Can you trust this guy to be the face of your franchise?" Nguyen said. But he expects the physical traits to win out for at least a few teams. "I'm sure there's going to be a few teams that just look at the physical traits and want to develop them."

Morrison framed the supplemental route as a potential advantage for Sorsby. The math is about which future pick a team is willing to surrender, and Morrison argued the expectations shift along with it. A team might put a third-round pick out there, lowering the pressure compared to a first-round selection that would have anointed Sorsby an immediate franchise quarterback. "He's almost a developmental guy that you can almost stash for a year, and all of a sudden he could be your starter for 2027," Morrison said.

Nguyen agreed, while noting one wrinkle. "There is a risk that the NFL might punish him even when he makes it to the league and suspend him for some games." Curiously, that is not a dealbreaker for everyone. Nguyen pointed to a quote he saw, attributed to what may have been an anonymous NFL team, suggesting the suspension could be a feature rather than a bug. "They don't mind that because he needs some time to sit on the bench and really clean up that footwork."

That circles back to the central read on Sorsby. A redshirt-style year would serve him. "Some teams that are considering him would think that he needs some time to sit down and really just kind of rework his mechanics and his footwork," Nguyen said. The talent is loud. The polish is the project.