Texas A&M fans are almost unanimous in their desire for the Aggies to make a big swing in the transfer quarterback market this offseason, but one of the biggest potential names that fans had been buzzing about is now officially off the market. Kamario Taylor of Mississippi State, one of the most exciting and electric players in the sport, has reportedly finalized a deal to return to Starkville for another season— at a huge price tag.
BREAKING: Kamario Taylor is finalizing a $7.5M deal to return to Mississippi State in 2027, making him college football's highest-paid QB, @PeteNakos and @Clowfb report.
— On3 (@On3) November 11, 2026
With incentives, the deal could potentially climb above $9 million.https://t.co/AzJYj4nCVS pic.twitter.com/dlp14HZhTe
That's more than double what Marcel Reed is reportedly making this year, and with the effect each player has had on their respective team, I don't think you'd find a lot of people arguing that it's a relative overpay. Still, though, this is sobering on a couple of fronts for Texas A&M football fans.
Texas A&M's portal QB strategy is about to be faced with a lot more challenges
The first is simply not being able to get a guy like Taylor. It was always something of a pipe dream to land a guy like that, and he had remained firmly committed to coming back to Mississippi State in his statements to the media, but there was a section of fans that was daring to dream big, even though there was not a lot of real chatter about it actually happening.
The second is that this is symbolic of something happening several places around the country: high-production quarterbacks coming back to school rather than entering the portal (Braden Atkinson of Oregon State is another example). That means that there will be a dearth of high-quality supply, and the Aggies are far from the only program that is in need of an upgrade at the QB spot.
The third and most relevant is related: Taylor is probably a better quarterback than a lot of the players that will enter the portal, in fairness, but if this is reflective of the high end of the market rate, there are going to be some tough decisions to be made by this Aggie staff. $7.5M is no small number, especially for a program that is reportedly only paying $3M for their current QB.
Up until now, A&M has done a good job of not overspending in one particular position in order to build depth on this team. You can see that there's a lot of young talent flashing across the board, which is a big positive for the Aggies' strategy, even if the some of the evaluations on the starters ended up flaming out.
But as they go forward, if they are forced to double what they have been paying for a quarterback, that's going to come from somewhere. A big chunk of previously-designated funds probably just opened up with Mark Matthews leaving the upcoming class, but it's unlikely that that's just going to be an easy transfer to this other category.
This just adds another wrinkle to the upcoming personnel decisions Mike Elko has to make this offseason. The Aggies have a lot they have to do on both the coaching and roster fronts, so it will be extremely interesting to watch all that play out come early January.
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