Where would you rank Michigan State’s Payton Thorne amongst the top quarterbacks in the country? It’s probably higher than the so-called experts at Pro Football Focus (PFF).
PFF released a rankings list on Thursday that broke down the top 130 starting quarterbacks in the country, and somehow Thorne wasn’t even listed in the top 50 nationally. Thorne came in at No. 53 on the list — which to me seems like a brutally low spot for the Spartans’ signal caller.
Ahead of Thorne from the Big Ten was Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa (No. 11), Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud (No. 17), Michigan’s Cade McNamara/JJ McCarthy (No. 34), Indiana’s Michael Penix Jr. (No. 35), Iowa’s Spencer Petras (No. 38), and Purdue’s Jack Plummer/Aidan O’Connell (No. 39).
You can click on the tweet below to see the complete list from PFF:
Payton Thorne is No. 53, one spot below Kaleb Eleby of Western Michigan, where Thorne was first committed in HS. https://t.co/m1PfPAlXxk
— Stephen Brooks (@StephenM_Brooks) October 7, 2021
Thorne has thrown for 1,236 passing yards and 11 touchdowns this season, and has only one interception. Additionally, he’s ran for 77 yards and two touchdowns this year.
So I find it hard to believe there’s 52 other quarterbacks that rank higher than Thorne, and would even argue he’s above most of the signal-callers from the Big Ten on this list. These type of rankings don’t mean much at the end of the day, but you’d think they would at least be somewhat more accurate…
