Two of this year’s fastest-rising NFL prospects face off in a battle of Big Ten unbeatens on Saturday and scouts are descending upon Eugene, Oregon, to get a firsthand look.
Talent evaluators from virtually every team in the league are expected to attend Saturday’s tilt between No. 7 Indiana and No. 3 Oregon. There is certainly plenty of draft-worthy talent on both rosters, but the buzz surrounding this game centers on playmaking quarterbacks Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore.
Mendoza, 22, is the elder statesman of the duo. He entered the season already well known in the scouting community and is already projected as a possible first-round pick.
Saturday will be the 25th start of Mendoza’s career, though just his sixth at Indiana. The Cal transfer leads the Big Ten with 16 touchdowns to just one interception. He’s improved his completion percentage each of his three seasons as a starter despite his average yards-per-attempt also rising each year. He’s currently passing at a 73% clip and gaining nearly 10 yards (9.9 to be precise) per dropback.
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Moore is just 20 years old and on Saturday will make only his 11th career start, but he’s been every bit as impressive as his counterpart, completing longer passes (10.4 yards per attempt) at an even higher rate (74.6), with a 14-1 touchdown to interception ratio. He started five games at UCLA as a true freshman in 2023 before transferring to Oregon and backing up Dillon Gabriel last season.
Just how good are these quarterbacks? We put them under the microscope in anticipation of Saturday’s showdown.
Fernando Mendoza, 6-foot-5, 225 Pounds, Redshirt Junior
Strengths: Mendoza offers an impressive blend of size, arm strength and a surprisingly quick release. Most quarterbacks with his lanky frame have a relatively elongated throwing motion, but Mendoza has a compact delivery and can zip the ball through small windows on the short and intermediate windows that make up the majority of modern offenses. He is particularly accurate on quick slants and has good touch on balls outside of the numbers, as well, leading his receivers to daylight.
For a bigger quarterback, Mendoza is also a quality athlete with long, strong strides to gobble up yardage when opportunities present themselves. He is a big quarterback who plays as such, showing toughness to complete throws or lower his shoulder with defenders closing in.
Weaknesses: Mendoza is not as pinpoint accurate as his flashy statistics suggest. His deep passes force receivers to adjust too often, even when he’s throwing from a clean pocket. Like a lot of taller quarterbacks, Mendoza struggles throwing on the move, as well. He’s functionally accurate on rollouts but is at his best in the pocket.
Best Team Fits: Mendoza has excelled in Curt Cignetti’s spread offense at Indiana, and he could also enjoy success in similar shotgun-heavy schemes like the ones currently used by the Carolina Panthers, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints. The Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Commanders also would be good schematic fits, but since they already have star quarterbacks, taking Mendoza with an early-round selection seems unlikely.
Ceiling/Floor: When Mendoza is playing his best, there are shades of Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence in his game. Each boasts the prototypical combination of traits to project as franchise quarterbacks. Mendoza is not currently as accurate as these two NFL stars, however, and his success has largely come from a relatively simple scheme that makes his NFL projection complicated.
Over the past decade, teams have gambled on quarterbacks with similar traits in Hendon Hooker, Mason Rudolph and Paxton Lynch. None of those three has enjoyed much NFL success.
Dante Moore, 6-foot-3, 206 Pounds, Redshirt Sophomore
Strengths: Moore offers an intoxicating combination of mobility, accuracy and instincts for the position. For a relatively inexperienced quarterback, he shows impressive field vision and understanding of Oregon’s offense, looking off defenders and throwing his receivers open on a variety of pro-style routes. He is accurate in the pocket and on the move and has plenty of arm strength to drive the ball to the opposite sideline or down the seam.
While the vast majority of his snaps are out of shotgun, he does have some experience taking the ball from under center and turning his back to the defense. He is a decisive runner with good quickness and mobility to escape the pocket and do damage as a scrambler.
Weaknesses: As mentioned previously, Moore doesn’t have much college experience yet. Oregon has surrounded him with exceptional talent, including future NFL starters along the offensive line and at pass-catcher. He is a bit slighter and shorter than scouts would prefer and makes himself functionally smaller with a three-quarter delivery, with the ball often thrown near his helmet rather than a true over-the-top delivery. Moore also has a troubling tendency to throw without setting his feet.
Best Team Fits: Moore is a better dual-threat at quarterback than his Indiana counterpart, a factor that would make him an intriguing fit for what Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith have often preferred — at least before Aaron Rodgers arrived in Pittsburgh. Pete Carroll won a Super Bowl with a similarly dynamic dual-threat in Russell Wilson back in Seattle. If Carroll drafted Moore for the Las Vegas Raiders, he could potentially sit and learn behind Geno Smith before being pushed onto the field. The New York Jets are another intriguing possibility, especially with a similarly talented Justin Fields already in the fold.
Ceiling/Floor: Like with Mendoza, there is a fairly wide range of outcomes for Moore if he were to enter the NFL Draft after this season. He’s still just scratching the surface of his potential and his growth could be stunted if asked to do too much too quickly. That said, Moore’s boasts an even higher upside, in my opinion, than Mendoza, boasting a dual-threat skill set that’s well suited to today’s wide-open NFL.
It remains to be seen if Moore can show the late-game poise that has helped Jayden Daniels and Brock Purdy emerge as two of the NFL’s most exciting young quarterbacks, but at his best, Moore shows a similar brand of savvy and natural playmaking ability. Of course, Fields and New Orleans’ Spencer Rattler have flashed these traits as well, but they have thus far struggled with consistency.
Rob Rang is an NFL Draft analyst for FOX Sports. He has been covering the NFL Draft for more than 25 years, with work at FOX, Sports Illustrated, CBSSports.com, USA Today, Yahoo, NFL.com and NFLDraftScout.com, among others. He also works as a scout with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. Follow him on X @RobRang.
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