The Brendan Sorsby saga is nearing its completion. After seeking legal means to keep his NCAA eligibility at Texas Tech, Sorsby has decided to forego that eligibility and enter the NFL Supplemental Draft this summer.

For the uninitiated, teams can bid a specific round draft pick for any player who has entered the Supplemental Draft. The team that offers the highest pick is awarded the player and loses the corresponding-round pick in the following draft. If multiple teams bid the same round pick the player goes to the team with the higher priority pick based on the previous year’s standings.

The Supplemental Draft doesn’t happen every year. It is reserved for players whose draft eligibility changed after the NFL Draft in April and who teams deem are NFL-caliber talent. That’s a small cross-section of the Venn Diagram.

Brendan Sorsby falls right dead center in it. Sorsby’s talent is real. But the gambling issues that surround him make him likely the first supplemental pick in years, and the highest-profile name since former NFL receiver Josh Gordon

Would the Bucs be interested in Sorsby? Enough to put a bid in on him? They are in the midst of contract negotiations with 31-year old starting quarterback Baker Mayfield. Their investments in his backups currently include a one-year deal for veteran Jake Browning and two undrafted free agents in Connor Bazelak and Jalon Daniels. A young and talented backup who can provide long-term stability for the team may be something the team sees as a rare opportunity.

Brendan Sorsby Scouting Report

I took a look at Brendan Sorsby’s 2025 season to see what his strengths and weaknesses are and what might make the Bucs, or other teams, see in the young passer that might cause them to make a blind bid in the upcoming Supplemental Draft. And at the end I will try to make my best determination on what that bid might be even considering the ancillary conditions surrounding Sorsby.

Games Watched: 2025 Oklahoma State, 2025 Baylor, 2025 Utah

Height: 6-foot-3
Weight: 235 pounds

These physical measurements are from the Cincinnati Bearcats website.

Brendan Sorsby 2025 Statistical Profile

By Pro Football Focus’ accounting Sorsby threw for 2,800 yards, 27 touchdowns and five interceptions. He completed 61.4% of his passes while logging a 107.0 QB rating. On the ground he ran for 580 yards and another nine scores.

As a passer, Sorsby’s profile is one of a high-impact player who avoids negative plays but struggles to complete passes at a league average rate. As a runner, Sorsby is one of the more dangerous quarterbacks in the NCAA last year.

Strengths

Sorsby’s arm talent is a plus. He can attack almost any area of the field and has the strength to hit throws downfield. Beyond the arm strength, what makes his arm talent stand out is his ability to add and subtract velocity, modulate arc and tempo and hit specific locations within a receiver’s catch radius (i.e. lead them beyond/away from coverage, hit the back shoulder, etc.), and his ability to add touch to his passes.

On shorter developing plays Sorsby shows trust in the scheme, route and receiver and is willing to throw into NFL windows where he has to release the ball before his receiver has made his break or turned to look for the ball. The former Cincinnati quarterback trusts his arm and is willing to attack tight windows but rarely puts the ball into harm’s way. His 96th percentile turnover-worthy play rate and 85th percentile interception rate both back that up.

But while he avoids turnovers, Sorsby is still able to push the ball downfield and make big plays. That’s why his big-time throw, touchdown, yards per attempt, and average depth of target percentiles are in the 91st, 95th, 79th and 89th percentiles, respectively.

While he attacks the deep portion of the field his sack rate is low. Sorsby has a quick processor within the system he runs. He is able to move through his first and second read seamlessly and make the decision to win with his feet before he gets into trouble. That has led to an elite pressure to sack rate that I think will translate to the NFL rather well.

Sorsby’s sack avoidance plays up because he is a plus athlete with some genuine wheels and wiggle to help him create plays out of structure and through designed runs. He blends his out-of-structure running with a loose arm that can throw from multiple arm slots letting him attack from inside and outside of the pocket.

His time to throw is a tad higher than the median, but when Sorsby is working within structure, he has a quick trigger that matches his processor. But when he does break the pocket and decides to attack defenses with his feet, he can pick up yards, first downs and touchdowns with his plus athleticism, speed and shiftiness.

The most encouraging part of his game from my watches was the least voluminous part. When he was given the opportunity to attack the intermediate middle of the field, he showed great decision making, process, arm talent and accuracy. This is generally the area of the field that separates the best NFL quarterbacks from the rest of NFL quarterbacks.

Concerns

His adjusted completion rate, which strips out throwaways, drops and passes batted at the line of scrimmage, is below average. That holds true even when you stabilize for the fact that he was attacking areas of the field where a completion is less likely.

This general accuracy issue balloons at the sidelines, especially to Sorsby’s right. I personally struggle with it as an evaluator because there are so many instances of him showing high-level ball placement within the catch window. But because Sorsby was running an RPO-heavy system where he did look to create, I believe most of these accuracy issues are a result of inconsistent mechanics that would need to be cleaned up at the NFL level.

That creator mindset also led to a couple of reps where he attempted to avoid pressure by bailing out of the back of the pocket, and at times fully turning his back to the field. In the NFL those choices will lead to negatives far more often than positives.

As I said in the strengths section, Sorsby’s play when he attacked the intermediate middle of the field was a plus. But it was also a rarity. So what I saw may have been a small-sample issue. I can’t confidently say based off of the sample I saw whether it is a repeatable and transferable skill. I would qualify it right now as more of an unknown with a hopeful asterisk attached.

The RPO-heavy scheme he operated in last year also leads to natural questions I just don’t have answers to right now. It asked for a quick-trigger operator, and Sorsby fit the mold well. But it also leaves questions as to how well he can operate a more developed and sophisticated system that asks him to go under center, turn his back to the defense (on play action, not as a response to pressure) and read out full-field progressions. I’m confident he can get to his second read. Not so much about the third, fourth and fifth. And that system purposefully ignored specific areas of the field which Sorsby will have to be able to attack in the NFL.

Final Thoughts

The physical profile is tantalizing. Brendan Sorby’s size, arm and mobility are all that one would want from a quarterback. The processor is a work-in-progress, but he has shown upper-bound decision making within the system he has been asked to run. On the field Sorsby is a promising prospect capable of being a top 10 quarterback in the NFL. But the questions surrounding his ability to move through progressions and attack parts of the field required to win at the NFL level prevent him from being a lock as a first round pick.

Bucs VP of personnel Mike Biehl and GM Jason Licht – Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

And that’s before the gambling issues that point to his decision-making as a person. That’s a real question that requires investigation by teams. I understand people make mistakes. But the NFL has strict policies regarding sports gambling and teams have to decide what his risk profile is beyond Sorsby as an on-field product.

If I were a decision maker within the Bucs’ organization, or any other for that matter, I would be willing to put a third-round pick on the line for the opportunity to develop him. It represents his potential and developmental curve, that I would classify as a tier-2 prospect – someone who would typically go late in the first or early in the second round of a traditional spring draft, with the additional risk that surrounds him based on the gambling issues.