Ridiculous NFL draft hypothetical shows Arch Manning-mania has gone way too far

Arch Manning mania may have finally jumped the shark with eye-rolling graphic from On3

As the end of the college football season has finally come, there is already a lot of talk about what we'll see in the upcoming year— and that means that the name Arch Manning is being bandied about all over the place.

The son of "the funniest Manning" is entering his third collegiate year after two sitting behind Quinn Ewers at Texas. For all the complaints Texas fans have had about Quinn, Manning was apparently unable to beat him out for snaps.

Even so, many in the college football world await his true debut with bated breath— hyping him up endlessly. This hype may have just reached a fever pitch with this projection by On3:

I'll try to steelman the argument as best I can before we really get into things: often, the top pick in the draft is a high-upside quarterback, even if that quarterback hasn't necessarily been prolific statistically. This graphic presupposes that Manning is the highest-upside quarterback in all of college football, and thus the team with the top pick would be pining after his services, even if he takes a few years to develop.

The problem with this is that there is simply nothing to show that this presupposition is grounded in any reality. Manning's tape at the college level has come against ULM and Mississippi State— neither defensive stalwarts, to say the least— and he's seen slight spot duty against Georgia and in the playoff, where he basically came in to run the ball.

He boasts a Manning name and a high rating from high school, but that's it. I'm not sure that's enough for any GM to use their top selection on him, especially when you have a guy like Jeremiah Smith— whose gifts are proven against the highest level of defense— available.

There's a lot of buzz that Manning is planning to stay in college for four years. Take it with a grain of salt, since it comes from Texas fans, but if this does indeed come to pass, I'll be interested to see which of he or Smith is selected first, as they would be in the same draft in this instance.

I get that this is essentially yelling into the void— there's really no point to try and slow down a hype train like this. But I think this is clear evidence that this obsession with an unproven redshirt sophomore has gone way too far.