All it took was one start last season -- a 415-yard outburst against Arkansas -- for an opposing coach to throw out a strong statement to CBS Sports regarding the talent of Trinidad Chambliss, who at the time hadn't yet become Ole Miss' official starting quarterback and was only in because then-Rebels starter Austin Simmons was injured.
"If they play Simmons (against us), they're doing us a favor," that coach told CBS Sports at the time.
Now, a year after ultimately supplanting Simmons as Ole Miss' starting QB and emerging as one of the breakout stars of the 2025 college football season, Chambliss has gone from being a surprise success story as a transfer from Ferris State to being a Heisman Trophy candidate and also a legitimate possibility to be an early-round pick in next year's NFL draft.
His tape from last year was impressive enough that many NFL scouts and personnel staffers already saw him as a Day 2 prospect entering the season. However, his play through the Rebels' 3-0 start to this year now has NFL scouts viewing him as an even higher-level prospect.
Multiple NFL scouting sources, including a college scouting director, told CBS Sports this week that they currently have NFL starter/first-round grades on Chambliss. To go along with that, one area scout said Chambliss is starting to remind him more and more of former 10-time Pro Bowl selection Russell Wilson, although the scout did note that he still views Chambliss as being more in the category of a first-round possibility than any sort of clear first-round lock at this point.
"Everything with the makeup is really cool," the scout said. "He's so even-keeled. He's so calm and collected. The kid never gets rattled in big moments. And I've been saying it since I saw him in fall camp, but he's also made a jump (since last year)."
It doesn't hurt Chambliss, from a draft standpoint, that this crop of 2027 quarterback prospects who received so much hype entering the season has largely been underwhelming through the early part of the season in the eyes of NFL scouts.
The general feeling in the NFL space is that many quarterbacks once viewed as early-round prospects would be better off returning to college for another season rather than entering the NFL. The combination of mixed feelings on others and his own standout play could bode well for Chambliss, who's thrown for a combined 699 yards and accounted for seven total touchdowns in Ole Miss' first two games against Power Four opponents -- a 41-38 season-opening win over Louisville and a 32-24 victory over Lane Kiffin and LSU last weekend.
"In a class like this where there's a lot of people that aren't really standing out and he is, it's like how can you bet it against this guy?" a scout said. "He's got a cool humility about him, but I think deep down he's got some like inner confidence to him, some shit to him, and you're starting to see that."
The NFL early-round feedback on Chambliss isn't universal yet, though.
There are some in the NFL personnel and scouting world who still regard Chambliss as more of a Day 2 prospect, and some who even still see him as a fringe Day 2/early Day 3 player at the moment.
The justification for the latter from one player personnel director was a lack of prototypical size with Chambliss, who officially measured for scouts at 5-foot-11 7/8 and 208 pounds, along with concerns about "operating on time in a normal NFL offense."
"Feels untraditional," the player personnel director said.
However, most of the recent NFL feedback on Chambliss gathered by CBS Sports was in the top-two-round range, including some of the aforementioned figures who already see him emerging as a clear first-round possibility.
"Love what I see," one college scouting director said.
"Really good football player," said another college scouting director. "In a business of overthinking, stop overthinking."
