Quinn Ewers’ disaster debut sparks fresh doubts about Arch Manning’s rise at Texas

You probably saw this coming, but former Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers struggled mightily in his NFL preseason debut with the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. 

Ewers, who was a No. 1 overall recruit, might be a part of the Longhorns’ past now, but he should still stir some worry about the future at quarterback despite all the hype surrounding the position with Arch Manning in Austin. 

Arch Manning hype looks shakier after Quinn Ewers’ NFL debut

As the third Dolphins quarterback to enter the 24-24 tie against the Chicago Bears, Ewers completed just 27% of his 18 passes for 91 yards with a 48.1 passer rating. He also fumbled twice in less than one game of action against backups and third-stringers. 

With every NFL team now having at least one preseason game under its belt, Ewers certainly had the worst debut of the QBs who were part of the 2025 NFL Draft class. There weren’t high expectations for him, though, as a seventh-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. 

But for some reason, despite the extremely low expectations for Ewers as a QB, many still think the guy who backed him up the past two years could emerge as the greatest quarterback in college football this season and eventually a No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. 

ESPN analyst and former Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray was the first dominant voice to actually question this hoopla in May during the peak of the Manning propaganda. 

“If you are so good and everyone has you projected No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft come 2026, why in the hell are you not playing above a seventh-round quarterback," Murray said then about Manning. "If Steve Sarkisian knows what he's doing, and he knows how good their roster is, which I've talked to a lot of coaches on a lot of different teams, and I ask them, 'What are the top rosters?' Ohio State, Texas, probably Georgia. What was holding them back? Quinn Ewers.

“Why was Arch not playing? That rubs me the wrong way a little bit.”

Players are poorly scouted all the time and fall in the draft for whatever reason. But Ewers proved in just one outing that his draft evaluation seemed to be spot on. 

Sometimes, coaches even start the wrong guy at positions. But if Manning is as good as they say, then it should have been impossible for Sarkisian to keep him on the sideline last season. The Longhorns were national contenders, and those opportunities don’t come around often, so why squander your chances with poor quarterback play? Unless there really wasn’t a better option, even with Ewers hurt. And for Manning to even sniff expectations, he can’t just be a little bit better than Ewers. It’d have to be one of the worst coaching blunders ever by Sark for who he started as QB1. 

A glimpse of the past could be a foreshadow of the future for the Longhorns. 

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