Brendan Sorsby’s path to the NFL is already unusual. He applied for the supplemental draft after battling with the NCAA, who despite a temporary injunction were going to make it difficult for him to play in college due to his high-profile betting problems. The wait for him to continue his football career is going to be a little longer as the league needs to determine if the supplemental draft happens at all this year. If it does, teams could be buying into a quarterback who carries real starter upside.

That was the setup on ESPN’s latest edition of Get Up, where Mike Greenberg, Adam Schefter, Mike Tannenbaum, and Jordan Rodgers spent time on what Sorsby brings to the league. Rodgers, the college football analyst, called Sorsby a “first-round talent” and, even better than the 2026 NFL Draft’s first-overall pick, Fernando Mendoza.

“I think he’s got a higher ceiling than Mendoza and [Ty] Simpson,” Rodgers said. “I don’t mean that he’s a better player now. Both of those guys were drafted because their floor is extremely high. They are pro-ready. But from a pure talent standpoint, arm ability and athletic ability, [Sorsby’s] got the higher ceiling now.”

Rodgers even added potential landing spots for Sorsby, along with a bold prediction for his future.

“But if you’re Arizona and you drafted Carson Beck, the Steelers who drafted Drew Allar, and the Jets who drafted Cade Klubnik – he’s better than all those guys,” Rodgers added. “Get a second or third-round pick. Take him, develop him. He can be a franchise guy. Those three teams haven’t found their quarterback yet. They got a chance to do so in the supplemental draft.”

This is where the Sorsby argument starts to open up. His agent, Ron Slavin, has revealed that 23 teams have already called. Beyond those calls, Sorsby has a Pro Day on July 10th at a Dallas-area high school, with all 32 teams taking notes. And that interest makes sense because the physical tools are obvious.

Brendan Sorsby averaged 9.27 adjusted air yards per attempt last season, throwing for 27 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Add nine rushing touchdowns to that, and Sorsby becomes a quarterback who can attack downfield and still hurt defenses with his legs. But the other side of the ledger is heavy, too.

Former New York Jets scout Daniel Kelly called Sorsby’s gambling history an “epic public relations mess,” and that’s the kind of label teams hate. The gambling story will follow Sorsby into every building he visits, and all the teams know it. But how does he edge out Fernando Mendoza?

Mendoza arrived in Las Vegas as the complete package on paper – a perfect 16-0 season, Heisman winner, and a national championship under his belt in 2025. The Indiana quarterback threw for 3,535 yards and 41 touchdowns to win it all, and came first overall to a Las Vegas Raiders squad that had been cycling through failed quarterbacks since Derek Carr. Even Tom Brady has connected with Mendoza to mentor him for the future. That’s the safe floor Mendoza brings.

The way Mendoza carries himself is also a contrast to how Sorsby’s situation has turned out. Mendoza chose to stay home for the NFL draft because the travel to Pittsburgh and then to Las Vegas would have been tough on his mother. Las Vegas is all-in with its new QB, too, with billboards chanting “Mendoza” across the city. But he also shows signs of the NFL grind.

Per NFL insider Tom Pelissero, multiple NFL executives have anonymously pointed out the flaws in Mendoza’s brand of football. An AFC exec called Mendoza “robotic” and pointed to how Indiana’s system helped him win with a shotgun-heavy, RPO-driven scheme playing to his strengths. In Klint Kubiak’s offense with the Raiders, Mendoza has had to make a switch to plays under center, something he has described as a “firehose” of a scheme, and he will have to master before he can start for the Raiders.

As for Brendan Sorsby, he could be an immediate playmaker. Fox Sports’ draft analyst Rob Rang noted that Sorsby “certainly looks the part of an NFL quarterback.”

“He has plenty of arm strength to make every throw in the playbook and is a gifted, creative passer who can throw from various arm slots,” Rang writes. “He has excellent touch on intermediate throws, consistently ‘dropping it in the bucket’ on fades and verticals. Sorsby can ramp up the RPMs and fire deep crossers and deep outs with precision, as well. Frankly, the arm talent is undeniable.”

Now, the Raiders aren’t backing away from Fernando Mendoza after going all-in on him in the draft and building around him across the offseason. But for teams still searching for answers at quarterback, or looking for a future bet, could use a draft-and-develop strategy to turn Sorsby into a franchise quarterback.

If the league goes through with the supplemental draft, Sorsby might face action from the NFL in the form of suspensions as well. But as Adam Schefter puts it, teams drafting him won’t worry about it. They can simply focus on the upside:

“He is somebody that this organization, whoever decides to draft him, would look to develop long-term,” Schefter said on Get Up. “And so any sort of discipline that would come along this year would be incidental to the long-range potential that he could bring to a franchise.”

The past few months have been extremely difficult for Sorsby, but he has the chance to turn it all around if the NFL Supplemental Draft decision goes in his favor. Early predictions are that there are a lot of interested parties, and if the Supplemental Draft does happen, it seems likely that Sorsby will be on a roster next season.