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Out of high school, few would've doubted Kyle McCord was destined to be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft. 

After all, he was the No. 8 quarterback recruit in the class of 2021 per 247 Sports -- behind names like Quinn Ewers, Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and J.J. McCarthy -- and committed to Ohio State, a school that, at the time, had seen its last two starting passers go in Round 1. 

Plus, that Top 10 quarterback recruit label carried significant weight. In a five-year span of recruiting classes, from 2014 to 2018, seven former Top 10 quarterback recruits landed in the first round of the draft by the time McCord was enrolling at Ohio State.

But before McCord began his fourth year in college football, and first at Syracuse University, believing McCord had first-round upside was widely considered crazy. It probably shouldn't have been. 

It's not as if McCord flamed out of the Buckeyes program. He sat behind the elder C.J. Stroud for two seasons then tossed 24 touchdowns to six interceptions at a hefty 9.0 yards-per-attempt average as the starter in 2023. And, while McCord did throw two crucial interceptions in the road loss to Michigan, the 24 points the Buckeyes scored in that game tied for the most the Wolverines' national-title winning defense allowed all season, and he was the only quarterback to eclipse 250 yards passing against Michigan. 

Why McCord transferred to Syracuse is for another article, another time. But, on this completely revamped Syracuse team that features 19 transfer-portal signees and had the 24th-best transfer portal class after compiling the 62nd-best class in 2023, McCord has played like a former highly touted Top 10 recruit with first-round talent. 

He's thrown for over 330 yards in all six contests to date, and the only outing with a yards-per-attempt average below 7.7 was the wild 44-41 overtime win in Sin City over UNLV. 

McCord won't ever be confused for the mobile, dual-threat quarterback arriving on the scene in the NFL more frequently than ever before. Yet that doesn't mean he's bound to be ineffective in the NFL. In fact, in this genuine breakout season for the Orange, McCord is routinely making pro-caliber throws, with above-average arm strength, and surgical accuracy ... from inside the pocket. 

Check these in-the-pocket strikes from McCord to begin the season.

Those are all serious, NFL-caliber launches with exquisite accuracy and requisite velocity. Speaking of the latter, from the looks of it through his 2023 season at Ohio State and six games into his Syracuse tenure, McCord looks to have above-average arm strength by today's continually heightening NFL standards, a very good sign for his draft stock and, more importantly, NFL future. 

Even with an early bye week, McCord has completed the third-most passes (169) and easily the most passing first downs (101) from within the confines of the pocket in all of college football entering the game against Pittsburgh. 

After an extremely low 11.8% pressure-to-sack rate last year at Ohio State, McCord has managed a still very respectable 16.4% pressure-to-sack rate to date at Syracuse. For reference, in 2023, Williams' was 23.5%, Jayden Daniels' was 20.2%, and Maye's was 19.5%. Quarterbacks who can't provide much with their legs as an improviser -- and McCord isn't too sudden or fast with the football in his hands -- must drastically limit the frequency at which a pressure amounts to a sack for the defense. 

Now, McCord hasn't played totally clean. His turnover-worthy play rate is 3.5%, far from disastrously high yet a good distance higher than the likes of Shedeur Sanders (1.2%), Cade Klubnik (2.0%), Garrett Nussmeier (2.2%), and Jalen Milroe and Drew Allar (2.3%). 

Fascinatingly though, it's not noticeably higher than Ward (3.0%), who's the only quarterback of that bunch with a higher BTT % than McCord. To me, the high rates in both categories on opposite ends of the spectrum of positive and negative plays, simply imply McCord and Ward are aggressive-natured quarterbacks. And it shows on film. 

Syracuse hasn't had a quarterback selected in the draft in over 10 years, and the last Round 1 selection at that position was Donovan McNabb in 1999. McCord is a very talented passer. It's shown now for going on two seasons. If he continues his splash-play creating ways from in the pocket, there's every reason to believe he'll follow the likes of Dwayne Haskins, Joe Burrow, Justin Fields, and C.J. Stroud and hear his name called in the first round of the NFL Draft.