Just a Bit Outside: And with the first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft ...

With the NFL draft now in the books, many draft pundits are putting out their way too early 2026 mock drafts.

Naturally, despite repeated claims that he wants to start for two seasons at Texas, Arch Manning is a name that has popped up in multiple mock drafts.

In fact, Manning was picked to go number one overall to the New Orleans Saints by a couple of the draft pundits.

I get the temptation to put Manning on the Saints. Obviously, New Orleans is his hometown. The city already loves him and picking him first overall would energize that fan base like no other pick could. Add in the fact that the Saints haven’t picked a quarterback in the first round since 1971 when the young franchise picked a QB out of Ole Miss by the name of Archie Manning and it all makes for a fantastic story.

If Manning were able to be the number one overall pick and go home to play for the same team his grandfather played for, it would be hard to blame Arch for making that decision. But Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian wants to be in that discussion to keep his starting QB when the draft declaration deadline comes next year.

“Here’s what I hope,” Sarkisian told the crowd at the Houston Touchdown Club this week. “I hope he’s got a really hard decision to make on about Jan. 21. That means we played a long time, that means we probably had a really good season, and that means that he’s trying to figure out, ‘Do I want one more year in the burnt orange or is it time to go to the NFL?’

“I hope it’s a really, really hard decision. I hope that it’s not a no-brainer to come back to school, you know what I mean?”