Auburn’s Byrum Brown Ranks No. 1 Among SEC Quarterbacks in This PFF Stat

It is no secret that Byrum Brown is set to be a game-changer for the Auburn Tigers in 2026, and recently, Pro Football Focus released its grading of all returning SEC quarterbacks, and Brown ranked No. 1 on that list.

This, admittedly, is not all that shocking, especially since he ranked No. 1 among all transfer quarterbacks in PFF’s February grading.

Highest Graded Returning SEC Quarterbacks🎯 pic.twitter.com/A9eyYcr2ZG
— PFF College (@PFF_College) July 17, 2026

Brown’s 91.5 grade from PFF is actually a staggering 3.7 points above second place, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who is largely expected to be a Heisman candidate this season. Additionally, he ranks over four points higher than Texas QB Arch Manning, the current second-place leader in Heisman odds.

It is clear that Brown is among the best quarterbacks in football, at least if Pro Football Focus has anything to say about it, but what exactly makes him stand out from the pack?

For starters, Brown’s production jumps off the charts when compared to any other FBS quarterback, regardless of program. His 42 touchdowns in 2025 were second only to Indiana QB and Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza, though Mendoza rushed for fewer than 10 touchdowns, preferring to rely on his receivers.

Contrarily, Brown is a bona fide playmaker in every aspect of the game and seems to have no preference for rushing or passing. In 2025 alone, Brown passed for over 3,000 yards and rushed for over 1,000 yards, a metric that he alone stands in among FBS quarterbacks.

Brown passed for 28 touchdowns and rushed for 14 more throughout the season, and consistently showed up in big moments, even against some of the better teams in the country. He made that point known particularly in last year’s season-opening matchup against Boise State, in which he completed two-thirds of his passes for over 200 yards while rushing for two touchdowns.

This year, Brown is poised to have quite a similar season to last year’s USF team because, well, most of Auburn’s 2026 offense were 2025 USF Bulls. New head coach Alex Golesh has brought over nearly the entire receiving core of his former program, whose familiar faces should make the Tigers’ passing game well-streamlined in 2026.

The rush, though, is where things could get deadly for opposing teams. Brown, though not a rush-first quarterback, boasts a level of strength and physicality that makes him quite a difficult tackle, and now that he is joined by Jeremiah Cobb and Bryson Washington in the backfield, the Tigers will have a litany of options to turn to when looking to establish the rush.

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