Welcome to June – also known as Talking Season – when we again look over rosters, and again predict the schedule, and again talk the year out before a single snap is taken.
Power Rankings and Way-too-Early Lists aside, QB Talk always seems to rise above the noise and drive a good deal of narratives. And, I wanted to join to discussion.
Fresh off the annual QB Impact Study, where I chart the nation’s top returning passers against their hardest opponents, I wanted to shine some light on the ones who I expect to be among the most impactful in 2026. Metrics that matter, traits that translate versus worthwhile adversaries, or “good on good”– that kinda thing.
This piece will focus on Oregon’s Dante Moore, many folks’ pick to be the top QB taken next April.
Dante Moore — Oregon, Impact QB No. 1
RS JR · 6’3 206 · 78.5 ESPN QBR
Trait Tags
Robotic processor
Offensive executive
Outside affinity
High floor
Pressure cooked
Limited playmaking
Impact Study Grades
StyleOverallCeilingFloorAccuracyMobiltyArmProcessingPressure HandleRhythm PasserB+B+A–B+BBB+C
Skinny:
A robotic processor that delivers on-target throws with silky ease. Likes to beat up opponents underneath and on the perimeter. Not the most trusting passer over the middle but snatched a good amount of tight window wins. Timing-driven with nice potency against a prudent operation.
Dante Moore’s Impact Study Pass Chart
Opponents (6): Penn St. (6-6), Indiana (13-0), Iowa (8-4), Washington (8-4), Texas Tech (12-1), and Indiana (13-0)
Mechanics & Processing
Moore’s smooth operation is one of his biggest selling points. His delivery is buttery, keeping his limbs tight to his body. His release is well-oiled up top and there aren’t any kinks. When he likes what he sees, little time is needed for him to hit his target. And without much variance in his windup, he predominantly throws accuracy passes. All of his overall placement metrics comfortably finished in the Impact Study. His 54.6 percent Depth Adjusted Accuracy% and 82.6 percent Adjusted Completion% were top 5-worthy.
His lower body is a mixed bag. Starting with the good, he can quickly reset and reload working in and around the pocket thanks to a solid choppy feet technique. Paired with his hasty release, this can make him a potentially irreplaceable passer within structure.
But there’s also plenty of drawbacks in his footwork. His transfer of weight, particularly to underneath throws in the quick game, is a bit inconsistent. And despite his skillset, Moore can occasionally disallow using his legs in his operation, which increases sour offerings when going all upper-body. Is this nitpicking? A little; but these things could continue to undercut his down-to-down dependability.
Moore overly operates as a point guard passer. Riding excellent pre-snap processing skills, he compiles completions short behind terrific decision-making. And again, his throws come out hot. He’s well-programmed to hunt for available space and leverage, especially outside the numbers.
But, this “robotic” processing can allow opponents to game completions and disallow more dangerous outlets. And after resetting, his vision clocking his options is far from elite. At the moment, Moore isn’t a comfortable passer breaking protocol; nor has he shown to master full-field reads. There are still too many clips of him locking onto his primary and missing a possible explosive target elsewhere. His post-snap operation needs an obvious boost this offseason.
Statistically, these bruises manifest in the Duck’s subpar result stats. His Success and First Down+TD Rates all came in below the Impact average in every breakout despite his top-level precision. Visually, Moore’s “horseshoe” pass spray illustrates areas he liked to attack – as well as avoid. Like many developing passers, he’s still a bit timid testing the teeth of the defense downfield. Most of his dingers were shot plays or well-leveraged verticals out on the perimeter.
Arm & Accuracy
Even if Moore’s lower body wasn’t holding him back, he’s a timing-driven passer that does his best work in rhythm. His arm is more-than-fine, but it’s definitely not premium quality. He definitely has an affinity for outside throws. Some of his sample’s best snaps were him drilling a backshoulder dart. Still, he wasn’t a demonstratively aggressive vertical passer. Moore’s 9.7 percent Deep Pass Rate sits in the back half of the group average. And to reiterate, his processing style constantly resulted in Oregon taking what the defense gave, which usually didn’t include pressing the rock downfield.
Perhaps a byproduct of some selection bias passing up throws he knew he couldn’t complete, but Moore was accurate on over half of his deep balls. These splashes certainly juiced up some of his metrics. But for such a short-oriented slinger, the Good Ole Fashioned Eye Test is proud to see such proficiency with his dingers. When the mechanics stack and the presnap read is right, the results are genuinely impressive for a timing-driven operator of his caliber.
His midrange offerings were more muted. But, like many aspects of his game, he often served up a catchable pass for his receiver and kept it out of danger. Both his Intermediate Uncatchable% and Interceptable% were top 8-worthy.
Moore’s arm talent shined more through craftiness. Including those backshoulders, he frequently navigated tight coverage with on-target tries. There were a couple of invited contests and lollipops, sure. About 22% of his spray were contested. And, they did include the plurality of his turnover-worthy throws. But, most of his sample attempts tended to be placed away from nearby defenders. Coupled with most of his placement stats being in the green, he was the only passer to have a top3 Adjusted Completion% both overall and in this context.
Mobility & Pressure
Moore has pretty good boogie. The Duck is pretty keen on seizing space with his legs if clear daylight presents itself. He’s a viable option in the read game to keep opponents on their toes and has enough burst to win the edge. Averaging 3 designed runs/game in his sample, he boasted a 66.7 percent Success Rate and 5.8 Y/A.
But while Moore can move, the scheme typically wants to use him as a rooted passer within structure unexposed to the elements. And seeing his lack of playmaking past the bookends, that’s a pretty easy call. As a designed rusher, he failed to break a single tackle against his hardest opponents. Extending, he only logged 5 erased sacks. Only Brendan Sorsby and CJ Carr had less in our Impact Study. None of his 9 scrambles resulted in success. And, only two of his peers had a worse such Y/A than his 4.4 clip.
Not particularly creative as an eraser or play extender, interior pressure up the middle is strikingly a problem entering this season. In addition to making Moore more prone to shy his body away from the heat, big boys bum-rushing through the belly of the O-line is a quick signal for him to drop his eyes and bail.
His stats at least paint an optimistic picture of his passing outside the pocket. Commonly riding his robotic M.O., throwaways are a big chunk of these throws. After buffering or not trusting what he saw, living to fight another down was a familiar play. But when he kept the ball in play, his process and results were fairly impressive. Along with plus placement stats, he was nearly three times as likely to toss an explosive completion as an interceptable.
Yet, Moore’s cumulative performance against pressure will trip up even his most staunch Stan. Dating back to his freshman season, duress has consistently gotten under his skin and made him feel, look, and play uncomfortably. Statwise, this sounds like hater talk. Most of his metrics topped the group average. Still, we all saw when up against the nation’s best Moore failed to overcome that degree of difficulty. And, considering his propensity to buffer and spin out, the Sack Rate he posted can’t be easily dismissed.
Passing Floor / In Structure
Moore cracked the nation’s top 15 in yards, TDs, and ESPN QBR. You don’t do that unless you’re at least a half-way decent dropback passer. Judging him by his green accuracy figures in addition to those benchmarks, he’s unequivocally a scary passer in structure. Even with a double-digit Drop Rate skewing some of his sample’s stats, he captured potent gains and was more likely to show some downfield zeal.
Play action arguably made Moore his best self. While that can be a knock since those designs are deception-based and play caller-driven, he didn’t log a single interceptable pass off a play fake in his sample. Over a quarter of these tries netted at least 20 yards. His down-to-down Accuracy% even experienced a bit of a bump.
Due to his pre-snap processing, Moore has a sturdy “pass floor”. While offering potency, he can limit negatives and make sensible decisions in structure. And while his play action returns are laudable, Oregon’s scheme didn’t have to lean on that tactic too much to find wins.
Inside clean pockets without screens, RPOs, or play actions, Moore hit on a number of money balls. Both his Depth Adjusted Accuracy% and Explosive Pass Rate made the group’s top quartile. But some of his lower body quirks prevent his precision from being where you’d want it for a first round pick. The fact both his raw Accuracy% and Uncatchable% in his floor breakout fell into the back half of the crop is disconcerting.
That said, I am focusing on the positives ahead of 2026. Even with a clear need to evolve as an off-schedule playmaker, Moore’s overall accuracy, decision-making and bang-for-buck functionality present a great foundation from which to build off of. And if all breaks correctly, he could be the first QB taken next April.
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Bad Take Brooks sees a: Alex Smith type