Julian Sayin has turned heads and started debates this offseason.The Ohio State starting quarterback has always impressed people with his accuracy and ability to make throwing a football look easy — it’s why he was the No. 1 quarterback in the 2024 recruiting class when he signed with Alabama before Nick Saban retired. But he has never been viewed as physically imposing or a freakish athlete.It’s made him one of the most divisive quarterbacks in the top tier of The Athletic’s rankings despite finishing fourth in the Heisman Trophy race, leading Ohio State to an undefeated regular season and finishing first in the FBS with a 77 percent completion rate in his first season as starter.He’s still ranked high at No. 5 in our QB tiers after throwing for 3,610 yards, 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions, but his first impression was attempting just 20 passes against Texas and his last impression was struggling in back-to-back postseason losses to Indiana and Miami. Through it all, he had top-10 pick Carnell Tate and likely future top-10 pick Jeremiah Smith to throw to, leading to a range of opinions about his ceiling from opposing coaches The Athletic spoke with.College QB Tiers: Trinidad Chambliss is No. 1Antonio Morales“He was the best pure passer I’ve ever seen live in the high school class,” a Power 4 head coach said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss an opposing player. “He just isn’t a dual-threat option.”“He didn’t carry the burden,” a personnel staffer from a Power 4 conference said. “He was, ‘Just don’t make a mistake.’”“I don’t think he is a high-level NFL talented type kid, but I think he manages the game well, gets the ball where it’s supposed to go and did a good job of that for a young kid last year,” a Power 4 offensive coordinator said. “If he grows a lot this year, maybe he’ll prove me wrong.”It’s put Sayin under an interesting spotlight going into his first NFL Draft-eligible year.When he returned home to California after spring football, Sayin connected with his San Diego-based quarterback trainer Jose Mohler and showed up weighing 212 pounds, up from the 202 pounds he played at last season. Mohler — who said, “We were looking at a kid last year” — saw it as an important step for a player looking to make a leap in his second year as a starter.“He gets disrespected in the arm strength category, but the kid can reach all areas of the field in many different ways, so you know that’s just physics,” Mohler said. “He’s so instinctual of how to deliver the football, so if he can remain like I’ve seen him over the summer, his throwing ability is sky high.”So how do you evaluate a quarterback who was unflappable during the regular season but showed some signs of youth in the postseason? A quarterback who has shown the ability to make every throw but doesn’t have elite athleticism or arm strength that will blow people away?Those are some of the questions Sayin was on a mission to solve this offseason. Not necessarily to answer critics, but to help him reach the level of expectations he has for himself.“For me, I’m not focused on the good plays, but focused on the few plays I wish I would’ve made that gave us a chance to win those games,” Sayin said in the spring. “I’m chasing to be the best version of myself, so how can I improve in those areas?”Sayin has always bet on himself, even when he was a kid. That’s why he messaged Danny Hernandez, a Los Angeles-based quarterbacks coach, out of the blue and asked to be trained by him.“I said, ‘Can you have your parents contact me?’ and he just said, ‘No, my parents let me run this on my own,’” Hernandez recalled. “I was like, ‘OK wow.’”Even when people looked at Sayin and doubted his stature or arm strength, the confidence in his game never wavered.Sayin isn’t a cocky player, and he’s not braggadocious in public, either. But behind the scenes, there’s a quiet confidence oozing off of him, according to the people who know him best.Beyond the weight he added, he has been obsessively watching film. He spent a lot of time breaking down tape with head coach Ryan Day and new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith this spring, but also with Mohler and former NFL quarterback Brett Rypien, trying to find ways to get better.“Brett Rypien, he’s like one of his main off-the-field mentors, and like Ryp will just peel him apart when we watch film,” Hernandez said. “Why are we doing this? Like, why are we sliding this way? And it’s such a cool exercise to see how Julian is able to use what they taught him and teach it to us, and you don’t hear 20-year-olds talk like that.”While he’s always been praised for seeing the field well — his nine straight games completing at least 70 percent of his passes speak to that — there were times at the end of the season when a pass rush mixed with a complicated coverage caught Sayin off guard.That led to interceptions on the first drive against Michigan and again in the Big Ten title game against Indiana.“He will get better in those regards, but he had a tendency to get confused post-snap at times,” a Power 4 assistant coach said.Sayin didn’t make many mistakes last season, finishing fourth in the country in turnover-worthy play rate, according to PFF. His ability to navigate pressure, in and out of the pocket, will help limit mistakes, something Ohio State fans were critical of after the Miami loss, when he was sacked five times and threw two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.When working out this offseason, Sayin and Mohler went through the normal routine of deep throws, short dropbacks and getting the ball out quickly, but a lot of work came on the move, as well.In one drill, Sayin scrambled from one hash to the numbers on the other side of the field and threw to the corner of the end zone, Mohler said. Another time he scrambled left to throw and turned his body to the middle of the field at an awkward angle.Other times he would have to navigate a simulated pressure, either outrunning the pass rusher or sidestepping it.It’s all done to force Sayin to find a solution when his body momentum is taking him in a different direction. Where are his feet? How can he turn his hips and upper body to make one quick throw? Should he throw in the face of pressure or avoid it and then find his window?“You’ll see like all the best ones kind of have an ability to innately manipulate their body and still make a throw, right?” Mohler said.“That’s Josh Allen, that’s Cam Ward, that’s Aaron Rodgers, that’s all these guys.”But there’s a happy balance that any quarterback coach has to find in trying to allow the quarterback to be creative while also keeping their base solid. And Sayin was a talented thrower before he even met Mohler.“I think he does an awesome job of being so, so uniform to like five steps, ball’s out,” Mohler said. “And then he also showed last year the ability to move when things break down, like the first post route he threw to Carnell Tate against Texas, he has to drift away a little bit and he figures it out. He throws a completion despite getting a little bit of heat in his face.”Can Sayin find that balance on the field? That is one of the biggest questions entering the 2026 season.It’s why Sayin has been so intentional this year in the weight room with Ohio State and at home in Southern California, trying to make sure he’s mentally and physically prepared for Year 2 as starter with the Buckeyes, who always have high expectations but will have to navigate a daunting schedule.“At times it looked like he was being hunted, and sometimes quarterbacks live with that kind of presence or that ghost behind them,” Mohler said of last season. “The more he becomes more experienced, I think you’re going to see a lot more intuitive kind of laidback persona out there.“He’s got to get faster, he’s got to get bigger, he’s got to get stronger to continue to put himself and his team in a good situation, because who doesn’t like a guy that can run for a first down, right? Or on third-and-6, right? I know he has that on his palette, he sees these things, so I think they’re turning in the right direction with him becoming that person.”As for the outside questions? The Athletic’s No. 5 quarterback has never been one to worry about what others are saying about him. Whether he can change minds will be determined on the field soon.— Sam Khan Jr. and Antonio Morales contributed to this report.