Garrett Nussmeier seemingly helped his draft stock with a strong performance at the Senior Bowl last month.
Now, the former LSU quarterback will look to carry that momentum into next week’s NFL scouting combine.
After being named the Senior Bowl MVP, Nussmeier has a chance to further impress teams at the combine with another round of interviews and testing. But where will the 24-year-old eventually land? Nussmeier is arguably one of the trickier evaluations in this year’s class after a disappointing, injury-marred campaign damaged the perception that he could become a top 10 pick.
Where does that leave him?
“I like him as a third-round pick,” NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said on a conference call Thursday. “I feel like that’s the sweet spot for him. But we’ve seen in years past that guys can get elevated, so maybe there’s a chance he goes in the second round. But I like him more as a third-round player who's got a real interesting skill set in terms of contact delivery.”
Jeremiah, a former scout, praised Nussmeier’s ability to operate from the pocket, despite the LSU product’s undersized 6-foot-1 frame. The analyst said Nussmeier “doesn’t need a lot of foot space to operate,” while praising his arm and toughness.
“He’s really, really tough,” Jeremiah said. “It was butt cold at the Senior Bowl, man. It was windy and it was cold and it didn’t seem to have much of an effect on him, which is a great sign for him going forward.”
Nussmeier’s toughness included playing through a mysterious abdominal injury that plagued him throughout the 2025 season until he was shut down in November. At the Senior Bowl last month, Nussmeier told reporters that he still wasn’t 100% healthy, but had focused on his rehab and retraining his throwing motion “from the ground up.”
Jeremiah said Nussmeier’s game reminds him of NFL veteran Andy Dalton — the former Saints quarterback who was a long-time starter for the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bengals picked Dalton in the second round, 35th overall, in 2011.
“(The Senior Bowl) was a nice rebound for him,” Jeremiah said of Nussmeier.