cj carr named 3rd best qb in college football
There is a moment in every great quarterback's college career where the trajectory becomes undeniable — where the statistics, the growth, the surrounding talent and the coaching infrastructure align in a way that makes the conversation shift from potential to inevitability. For CJ Carr, that moment is now. And the destination that trajectory is pointing toward — a Heisman Trophy, a national championship and a top-five selection in the 2027 NFL Draft — is not a dream being projected onto a talented player by an overly optimistic fan base.
It is the logical conclusion of an honest evaluation of where CJ Carr has been, where he is right now and everything that is being built around him for the 2026 season.
Sporting News made their position clear when Bill Bender released his definitive Top 25 quarterback rankings for 2026. Carr came in at No. 3 — near the very top of a list that reflects the national consensus about where Notre Dame's redshirt sophomore stands among his peers. Outside of a genuinely puzzling On3 ranking that placed him outside their top five — from the same service that ranked him outside the top 200 coming out of high school — every major evaluator agrees on the same fundamental truth.
CJ Carr is one of the five best returning quarterbacks in college football. The story of how he got there — from a first start against Miami that introduced him to the country to the polished, confident signal caller lighting up spring practice in 2026 — is one of the best individual development stories in college football. And the story of where he is going may be even better.
The First Start — A Nation Takes Notice
To fully appreciate how far CJ Carr has come, you have to go back to where it started. The season opener against Miami in 2025 was the moment the country got its first real look at Notre Dame's new starting quarterback — and what they saw was a young signal caller stepping into one of the most pressure-filled starting debuts in recent Notre Dame history with a composure and command that immediately suggested this was not an ordinary first-year starter.
Miami came in as one of the most talented and hyped programs in the country — a team loaded with NFL-caliber talent at nearly every position and playing with the confidence of a program that believed it was on the verge of something special. The spotlight on Carr in that game was enormous. The margin for error was minimal. The entire college football world was watching to see how Notre Dame's new quarterback would handle the moment.
Carr handled it. Not perfectly — no first start is ever perfect — but with the kind of poise, processing ability and competitive presence that told everyone watching that Notre Dame had found something real at the quarterback position. He completed passes efficiently, avoided the turnovers that derail first-year starters in big games and delivered performances that gave Notre Dame's offense enough production to win. The foundation was set. The journey had begun.
What followed across the 2025 season was a masterclass in development — a first-year starting quarterback getting better with every single game, processing the position more efficiently with every passing week and building toward the kind of late-season elevation that Sporting News specifically cited as one of the most compelling indicators of what 2026 could produce.
The growth
The complete statistical picture of CJ Carr's redshirt freshman season is one of the most impressive first-year starting quarterback performances in Notre Dame history — and understanding those numbers in their full context is essential to understanding why No. 3 in the country is not a reach but a reflection of documented excellence.
2,741 passing yards — the foundation of a passing production season that would have been even more impressive if not for the statistical distortion created by a single game.
24 touchdowns, six interceptions — a touchdown-to-interception ratio that reflects decision-making discipline most starting quarterbacks spend two or three years developing. Carr produced it in year one.
66.6 percent completion rate — the fourth best single-season completion percentage in Notre Dame program history. A list that includes every quarterback who has ever played in South Bend across decades of elite football tradition. Fourth all-time in your first year as a starter is not a coincidence. It is evidence of genuine accuracy built on sound mechanical foundations.
168.06 passer rating — a Notre Dame program record. The previous record of 161.4 was most recently held by Jimmy Clausen in 2009, a season in which Clausen was considered one of the most polished and technically advanced quarterbacks in the country. Carr broke it in his first year as a starter.
9.4 yards per attempt — second among all returning quarterbacks in the entire country. This number reflects not just volume passing but efficient, high-value throws that consistently move the chains, put points on the board and push defenses into the kinds of structural compromises that make the entire offensive system more dangerous.
Four interceptions in his final ten starts — after throwing two picks in his first two starts, Carr threw four interceptions across the final ten games of the season. The adjustment from early-season turnover to late-season precision was total, rapid and permanent — the hallmark of a quarterback who processes his mistakes analytically and refuses to repeat them.
Eight touchdowns, zero interceptions on passes of 20 yards or more — perhaps the most impressive single statistical category of Carr's entire 2025 season. Zero interceptions on deep passes means that every time Carr pulled the trigger on a vertical route, a go ball or a shot play, the result was either a completion or an incompletion. Never a turnover. Never a momentum-killing mistake on the play that carries the highest risk. That discipline in the deep passing game is what separates elite quarterbacks from very good ones — and Carr demonstrated it at a level that only a handful of quarterbacks in the entire country matched in 2025.
Passer rating of 170.2 in November — his regular season passer rating went up as the season got harder. A quarterback who is more efficient in November than he was in September is a quarterback who is getting better with experience and competition rather than wearing down under the pressure of a demanding schedule.
The Syracuse Distortion — Setting the Record Straight
Any honest statistical evaluation of Carr's 2025 season requires addressing the one game that pulled his averages below where they actually reflected his true output.
The Syracuse performance — a 49-yard passing day that looks alarming in isolation — was the product of circumstance rather than capability. Notre Dame led 21-0 before Carr took a single snap. The Irish were ahead 35-0 before he attempted his third pass. The game was effectively decided before Carr had a meaningful competitive opportunity to operate the offense.
Remove that game and evaluate Carr across the other eleven contests of the season — the games where the offense needed to function, where competition was genuine and where Carr faced real defensive preparation and real pressure — and his average jumps to 244.7 yards per game. That number would have ranked sixth all-time in Notre Dame single-season history if it had held for the full year.
Sixth all-time at Notre Dame. In his first year as a starter. The real number is 244.7. Remember it.
The Growth Arc — From Miami to Spring 2026
The distance between the CJ Carr who took his first snap against Miami in the 2025 season opener and the CJ Carr who walked off Notre Dame's practice field this spring is one of the most significant individual development stories in the program under Marcus Freeman.
The growth has happened on every level simultaneously — and that comprehensive development across multiple dimensions of the quarterback position is what makes his 2026 ceiling so genuinely difficult to cap.
Processing speed has been the most visible and most important development. The Carr who opened the 2025 season was a talented quarterback learning to manage the speed and complexity of Power Four football in real time. The Carr who closed that season — posting a 170.2 passer rating in November against the most competitive portion of the schedule — was a quarterback whose pre-snap read quality, post-snap recognition and decision-making efficiency had elevated to a level that matched the most experienced signal callers in the country.
Pocket management has evolved dramatically from week one to spring 2026. Early in the season, Carr occasionally held the ball longer than ideal while his progressions developed — a natural function of a quarterback still building the confidence to trust his reads and commit to throws in tight windows. By the end of the season and through spring practice, that hesitation has been replaced by the quick, decisive delivery that turns a good completion percentage into a great one and eliminates the negative plays that derail drives.
Deep ball accuracy has become one of the most exciting elements of Carr's spring development. The eight touchdowns and zero interceptions on 20-plus yard passes in 2025 established the foundation. Spring reports suggest that connection with his receivers on vertical routes has deepened significantly — a product of the chemistry built with Faison, Greathouse and the new additions through an offseason of concentrated work between Carr and his receivers without the competitive pressure of game preparation dominating every practice session.
Leadership and command — perhaps the least quantifiable but most visible development in Carr's growth. The quarterback who walks into spring practice as a returning starter for the first time carries an entirely different presence than the one who walked in as a first-year starter navigating uncertainty about his own role. Carr owns this offense now. He owns the huddle, the sideline and the standard — and that ownership is visible in how he communicates, how he processes and how he elevates the players around him.
The Weapons That Unlock the Next Level
Every statistical argument for CJ Carr's Heisman Trophy candidacy in 2026 is amplified by the single most important supporting factor a quarterback can have — a better group of skill position players surrounding him than the one he had in 2025.
Jordan Faison returns as the established No. 1 receiver after leading the team with 40 receptions, 640 yards and four touchdowns in 2025. The Carr-Faison connection is Notre Dame's most reliable and proven quarterback-receiver partnership — built on trust, chemistry and a shared understanding of how to attack coverages that only develops through sustained repetition over a full season of starting together. Faison's decision to give up lacrosse and commit entirely to football this offseason means the connection that produced 40 catches in 2025 has been developed, refined and deepened through an entire offseason of undivided football focus. Opposing coordinators know Faison is the first read. They will scheme to take him away. And Carr will find a way to get him the ball anyway — or punish the coverage adjustment by going somewhere else.
Jaden Greathouse brings an explosive playmaking dimension that becomes more dangerous when paired with Faison's reliability as a consistent target. Greathouse's combination of separation quickness, yards-after-catch ability and big-play capability — demonstrated emphatically in Notre Dame's postseason run — gives Carr a genuine second receiving threat that forces defenses into impossible coverage compromises. Double Faison and Greathouse is open. Double Greathouse and Faison is open. Play single coverage on both and Carr will make you pay in the deep passing game where his eight touchdowns and zero interceptions prove he thrives.
Mylan Graham arrives from Ohio State via the transfer portal with Big Ten experience, proven production at an elite program and the physical tools that made him a highly coveted recruit. Graham's addition to the receiving corps gives Carr a third legitimate option — a player with experience against elite competition who can contribute immediately in a complementary role that takes full advantage of the coverage attention Faison and Greathouse command. Three legitimate receiving threats, each with different physical profiles and route-running styles, create the kind of pre-snap conflict that offensive coordinators dream about and defensive coordinators lose sleep over.
Aneyas Williams in the backfield gives Carr a dual-threat dimension that forces defenses to honor the run on every snap — pulling linebackers and safeties into run-fit responsibilities that open intermediate passing windows that Carr's accuracy and anticipation are perfectly suited to exploit. Williams's combination of quickness, vision and pass-catching ability out of the backfield makes him a genuine receiving option on check-downs and designed screen plays that extend drives and keep defenses off balance.
The weapons surrounding CJ Carr in 2026 are not just better than 2025. They are more diverse, more experienced and more collectively dangerous than any supporting cast he has had in his Notre Dame career. That diversity is exactly what an elite quarterback's Heisman Trophy season is built around.
Mike Denbrock's Blueprint — The Coordinator Who Already Did This
The most underappreciated element of CJ Carr's 2026 Heisman candidacy is the offensive coordinator building the system around him — because Mike Denbrock has already done exactly what Notre Dame is trying to do with Carr, and he did it on one of the biggest stages college football provides.
At LSU in 2023, Denbrock served as offensive coordinator for Jayden Daniels's Heisman Trophy season. Daniels, in his second year within a system built specifically around his strengths, produced 3,812 passing yards, 40 touchdowns, 1,134 rushing yards and numbers that earned him the sport's most prestigious individual award and made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The parallels between Daniels's 2023 trajectory and Carr's 2026 setup are not superficial or coincidental. They are structural — the product of the same offensive coordinator applying the same developmental philosophy to a quarterback in his second year as a starter in a system that has been refined and expanded around his specific strengths.
Denbrock spent the entire offseason studying Carr's 2025 performance with one specific goal — identifying every play, concept and formation that maximized Carr's strengths and building the 2026 offensive system around those answers while eliminating the situations that created the handful of negative plays scattered across the season. The result is a game plan philosophy calibrated specifically to unlock the next level of Carr's performance — and Denbrock's track record with second-year starting quarterbacks says that the unlock is real, it is significant and it produces Heisman-caliber results.
Jayden Daniels went from a first-year starting quarterback finding his footing to a Heisman Trophy winner and top-two NFL Draft pick in the span of one offseason with Denbrock calling the plays. The blueprint exists. Denbrock knows how to execute it. And CJ Carr's statistical foundation entering his second year is arguably stronger than Daniels's was heading into the season that changed his career.
The Quarterbacks He Will Face — A Stage Built for Statements
Notre Dame's 2026 schedule presents Carr with something that Heisman Trophy campaigns are made of — direct, high-profile opportunities to make statement performances against other elite quarterbacks on the national stage. Three of the quarterbacks on Sporting News's Top 25 list appear on Notre Dame's 2026 schedule, creating matchups that will define the national narrative around Carr's Heisman candidacy in real time.
Miami's Darian Mensah — No. 4 on the Sporting News list. The season opener against Miami is the most anticipated early-season matchup on Notre Dame's schedule — a rematch of the game that launched Carr's starting career in 2025, now featuring two of the five best quarterbacks in the country going head-to-head in a game with ACC implications and national championship relevance. Carr handled Miami as a first-year starter finding his footing. He faces them in 2026 as a returning starter with a program record passer rating, a fully developed supporting cast and a year of starting experience that changes everything about how he approaches the moment. The contrast between the two quarterbacks on opposite sides of this matchup — and the way Carr performs against a top-five national quarterback in the season opener — will set the tone for the entire Heisman conversation from week one.
SMU's Kevin Jennings — No. 18 on the Sporting News list. The Irish face the Mustangs in a game that carries conference weight and national visibility, giving Carr another direct comparison point against a highly ranked signal caller that the national media will use to calibrate exactly where he stands in the quarterback hierarchy. Carr's statistical performance against Jennings and SMU will be one of the most closely watched quarterback evaluation opportunities of the entire 2026 regular season.
BYU's Bear Bachmeier — No. 20 on the Sporting News list. The BYU matchup adds a third direct quarterback comparison to Notre Dame's schedule — another opportunity for Carr to make his case against a nationally ranked signal caller in a game that counts in the standings and on the résumé. Three games against quarterbacks in the national top 20 gives the Heisman voters exactly the kind of high-profile performance data they need to make an informed evaluation — and Carr's track record against elite competition says those evaluations will favor him.
Three ranked quarterbacks on the schedule. Three opportunities to make national statements. Three chances to demonstrate — in direct competition against his closest rivals for the award — that No. 3 in the country is the floor, not the ceiling.
The NFL Draft Projection — A Top-Five Pick in 2027
Every element of CJ Carr's trajectory — the statistical foundation, the development arc, the upgraded surrounding cast, the Denbrock blueprint and the national stage that Notre Dame's 2026 schedule provides — points toward a 2026 season that positions him as a top-five pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.
The NFL evaluation of quarterbacks begins with the same foundation that college evaluators use — arm talent, accuracy, decision-making, processing speed and the ability to perform under pressure against elite competition. Carr has demonstrated every one of those qualities in his first year as a starter, and the projection of what those qualities become after a second year of development in Denbrock's system — with better weapons, more experience and the confidence of a returning starter who owns his program — is the kind of evaluation that puts quarterbacks at the top of draft boards.
The program record passer rating. The fourth-best completion percentage in Notre Dame history. The zero interceptions on deep passes. The November elevation. The poise against elite competition. The dual-threat dimension that adds a rushing element to an already elite passing profile.
NFL teams building for the future — and most of the teams picking in the top five are always building for the future — will spend the 2026 season watching CJ Carr dismantle defenses with an efficiency and command that his 2025 foundation says is entirely within reach. What they will see is a quarterback whose physical tools, mental processing and competitive character match the profile of a franchise signal caller.
The 2027 NFL Draft is still more than a year away. But if CJ Carr's 2026 season follows the trajectory that every indicator suggests is coming, the conversation about where he gets selected will not be about whether he goes in the top five.
It will be about whether anyone can make a compelling argument to pass on him entirely.
The Bottom Line
CJ Carr walked into his first start against Miami in 2025 as an unknown quantity — a talented quarterback making his debut on a national stage with enormous pressure and minimal margin for error. He walked off the field that day having handled the moment with a poise and command that told everyone watching something was real in South Bend at the quarterback position.
What followed was a historically elite first-year starting performance — a Notre Dame record passer rating, fourth-best completion percentage in program history, 24 touchdowns against six interceptions, zero picks on deep passes and a November elevation that Sporting News identified as the most compelling indicator of what 2026 could produce.
Now he returns with better weapons, a refined system, a coordinator who has already produced a Heisman Trophy winner in a directly comparable situation and three direct on-field opportunities to make his case against other nationally ranked quarterbacks on Notre Dame's own schedule.
No. 3 in the country according to Sporting News. A Notre Dame record-holder. A Heisman front-runner. A national championship contender. A projected top-five NFL Draft pick.
From that first start against Miami to where he stands today, CJ Carr's journey has been building toward exactly this moment — and in 2026, the destination becomes clear.
The best is still ahead. And in South Bend, everyone is finally ready to watch it arrive.
