This year's Senior Bowl is set to kick off next week in Mobile, AL, and several top prospects will take the field for what will be their final game week before the 2026 NFL Draft in April.
Below is an overview of the QBs -- including 2025 Heisman Trophy runner-up Diego Pavia of Vanderbilt -- expected to play in this year's game.
Luke Altmyer (6-2, 195)
Altmyer played two seasons at Ole Miss before transferring to Illinois for the final three seasons of his collegiate career. The 23-year-old recorded career highs in passing yards (3,007), completion percentage (67.4) and rushing TDs (5) in 2025, and he tied his career-high in passing TDs (22). With Altmyer at the helm, Illinois recorded a 9-4 overall record and earned a Music City Bowl victory, 30-28, over Tennessee in December.
Altmyer finished his career at Illinois with 7,607 passing yards, 57 TDs, 21 INTs and a 64.4 completion percentage.
Taylen Green (6-6, 224)
Green started his college career at Boise State, playing for the Broncos for three seasons before playing his final two seasons at Arkansas. With the Razorbacks, Green recorded 5,868 passing yards, 34 passing TDs and 17 rushing TDs. He recorded a career-high 777 rushing yards in 2025, adding 8 rushing TDs.
Garrett Nussmeier (6-2, 172)
Nussmeier spent five seasons at LSU, leading the team to a 5-4 record in 2025. When he stepped into a starting role in 2024, Nussmeier led the Tigers to a 9-4 overall record and a Texas Bowl victory over Baylor, during which he earned MVP of the game.
"If you go back a year before, you can't unsee what you saw," said Drew Fabianich, Senior Bowl executive director. "And that was over 4,000 yards and 24 TDs."
Fabianich, who stressed that Nussmeier battled injury throughout the 2025 season and navigated playing behind an underperforming O-line, commended the QB's unique traits.
"I saw him at the Manning [Passing] Academy, I've known him since he is 15 years old," Fabianich said. "I know he can spin it. I know he can run the line of scrimmage. There's not a lot of college guys now that can run the line of scrimmage."
Across 40 game appearances at LSU, Nussmeier threw for 7,699 yards, 52 TDs and 24 INTs, adding 5 rushing TDs.
Diego Pavia (6-0, 207)
The Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2025, Pavia joined Vanderbilt as a graduate student in 2024 and led the team for two seasons. Pavia recorded an SEC-leading 70.6 completion percentage and 29 passing TDs in 2025, leading the team to a 10-3 overall record and ReliaQuest Bowl game appearance.
"The tape's pretty damn good," Drew Fabianich said. "The thing that's going to limit him -- which limits all short quarterbacks -- it's hard to see. It just is. If you don't have a lane, it's hard to let it loose sometimes. … The greatest thing about him is he's got the escapability, and he's good when he does escape that he actually does make plays down the field not just running, but he actually makes plays throwing. [The Senior Bowl] can show people that he can compete in the NFL."
Cole Payton (6-3, 233)
Payton -- who spent five years at FCS powerhouse North Dakota State and was a member of two national championship teams in 2021 and 2024 -- stepped into the starting role in 2025 and thrived. Payton threw for 2,719 yards, 16 TDS and 4 INTs last season, boasting a 72.0 completion percentage.
One of three finalists for the 2025 Walter Payton Award given to the best offensive player in the FCS, Payton led NDSU to a perfect 12-0 regular-season record and the school's 12th Missouri Valley Football Conference championship. The No. 1 ranked team fell to Illinois State in the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Sawyer Robertson (6-4, 220)
Robertson, who began his college career at Mississippi State in 2022, led the Big 12 in pass completions (504), passing yards (3,681) and passing TDs (31) in his final collegiate season at Baylor.
"For being a big man, he's got escapability and runnability," Drew Fabianich said. "He had to use that a lot because they weren't very good at protecting him. To me, he's probably the best pure passer of the whole group. There's a difference between being a thrower and a passer, and he's a passer. When he's got time and he's on rhythm, he is wicked accurate."
Robertson, however, threw a career-high 12 INTs last season including 5 over the final 3 games of the season. Baylor finished with a 5-7 overall record in 2025.
"He's got to show people he can throw under pressure," Fabianich said. "I think this [the Senior Bowl] is going to help him throughout the process. … I'm a Sawyer Robertson fan."
