Payton Thorne

Former quarterback at Auburn. 2024: 2,713 passing yards, 21 TD, 9 INT.

QB · Auburn · Sr. · #1

6′2″ · 203 lb · Naperville, IL

CFB Index 70 · #27 of 137 QBsHigh confidenceAuburn 2024 — college career complete

The story

Former quarterback at Auburn. 2024: 2,713 passing yards, 21 TD, 9 INT.

Transferred from Michigan State to Auburn in 2023.

His career, year by year

How it ended

Five seasons at Auburn, 10,969 passing yards — his college career is complete.

His career

Nobody recruited him. He earned the honors anyway.

The week the volume broke through — put up 282 yds vs Samford.Samford · W 45-132023

202313 games

Entered the portal

Career arc

Recruit

—

No recruit profile

CFB

College

2 teams

2020–2024

NFL

NFL Draft

—

Not drafted

Coaching lineage · 2020–2024

4 coaches

2020

Kevin Steele

Auburn

2021

Bryan Harsin

Auburn

era →

2022

Cadillac Williams

Auburn

era →

2023–2024

Hugh Freeze

Auburn

era →

Played under 4 different head coaches: Kevin Steele, Bryan Harsin, Cadillac Williams, and Hugh Freeze. Multi-era developmental context.

2024 snapshot

Season context · Team result + system

2020Michigan State2-5HC: Mel Tucker · Balanced

2021Michigan State11-2HC: Mel Tucker · Run-leaning

2022Michigan State5-7HC: Mel Tucker · Balanced

2023Auburn6-7HC: Hugh Freeze · Run-heavy

2024Auburn5-7HC: Hugh Freeze · Balanced

Where this profile ranks vs the QB cohort

Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles

70Quality starter #27 of 137?

High confidence13 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: epa / dropback (87th percentile). Strength: explosive rate (84th percentile).

Real play-by-play efficiency

EPA / dropback#22 / 169 · 87th pct

0.36

Explosive rate#27 / 169 · 84th pct

12.7%

Success rate#82 / 169 · 51st pct

41.5%

Sack rate#110 / 169 · 35th pct

6.8%

Interception rate#111 / 169 · 35th pct

2.5%

Box-score rates (8)

Yards / att#19 / 165 · 88th pct

8.6

Pass TDs#36 / 165 · 78th pct

Fumbles lost#21 / 159 · 73rd pct

Rush yards#49 / 165 · 71st pct

283

Pass yards#52 / 165 · 69th pct

2713

Completion %#65 / 165 · 61st pct

62.8%

Rush TDs#83 / 165 · 44th pct

Interceptions#108 / 165 · 32nd pct

Season trend

Last seasonThis season

EPA / dropback

49th → 87th percentile

Success rate

34th → 51st percentile

Explosive rate

56th → 84th percentile

Sack rate

9th → 35th percentile

Interception rate

16th → 35th percentile

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season. Most bars are box-score rates; EPA / success-rate bars are computed from real play-by-play (offense only — no defensive EPA model exists yet).

Passing profile

Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)

Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from

196/314 (62.4%) · 21 TD · 9 INT

314 of 317 attempts matched to play-by-play

Adjusted ANY/A

7.6143 of 205 QBs

Sack rate

6.8%136 of 205 QBs

Sacked on 6.8% of dropbacks (136 of 205) — and still 43 of 205 in Adjusted ANY/A.

Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.

Short

0–9 yds

50%of completions

98 comp5.0 yds avg4 TD

Middle

10–19 yds

30%of completions

58 comp14.1 yds avg3 TD

Deep

20+ yds

20%of completions

40 comp34.8 yds avg14 TD

Overall 62.4% completion on 314 attempts · 40 deep completions averaging 34.8 yds.

Situational

Is he a different quarterback when it matters

Each situation vs his own 2024 baseline

-47

percentile points worse on first down

BaselineThis situation

Down 1

-47 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 13/132 (9.8%) · league sack rate 4.9% · ~our read

Down 2

+14 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 5/98 (5.1%) · league sack rate 4.9% · ~our read

Down 3+

+56 pct pts vs baseline · sacks 5/86 (5.8%) · league sack rate 8.1% · ~our read

Deltas are vs. this player’s own season baseline, never a league average. League sack rate by down is shown as context because sack attribution isn’t incompletion-denominated.

Splits & context

Splits · Per-game

2024 season · 11 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	YDS/g	TD/g	YPA	INT/g
Home7g	266	2.6	9.8	1.0
Road4g	212	0.8	6.8	0.5

First half vs Second half

	YDS/g	TD/g	YPA	INT/g
Weeks 1-75g	248	2.0	9.8	1.2
Weeks 8+6g	246	1.8	7.8	0.5

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2026 season

Head Coach

Alex Golesh

Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.

Awards

Player standing · 2024

Impact starter

Producing measurably more than a replacement-level starter.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Production · CFB Index Score

70 · #27 of 137 QBs

Career stats

Season	Team
2024	Auburn	199	317	62.8%	2,713	8.6	21	9	150.8	67	--	--
2023	Auburn	162	265	61.1%	1,755	6.6	16	10	129.1	25	--	--
2022	Michigan State	242	387	62.5%	2,679	6.9	19	11	131.2	53	--	--
2021	Michigan State	235	389	60.4%	3,240	8.3	27	10	148.1	75	--	--
2020	Michigan State	48	85	56.5%	582	6.8	3	3	118.6	50	--	--
Career		886	1,443	61.4%	10,969	7.6	86	43	139.0	56	--	--

Season	Team
2024	Auburn	112	283	2.5	2	--
2023	Auburn	134	515	3.8	3	--
2022	Michigan State	60	42	0.7	1	--
2021	Michigan State	82	181	2.2	4	--
2020	Michigan State	25	47	1.9	1	--
Career		413	1,068	2.6	11	--

Signature game

SIGNATURE GAME · Week 13 · 2024

W 43–41

vs Texas A&M

301 yds · 2 TD · 1 INT · QBR 77.3 · 38 rush yds (11 car)

Edged out Texas A&M at home in a shootout.

With O. Chapman — 34 AVG · 46 LONG · 5 NO · J. Hunter — 130 rush yds (28 car) · 3 TD

Signature plays

Signature plays · top plays by |EPA|

The plays that mattered most

fact

Week 4 · Arkansas · 4&2 · Q4 · EPA +6.90Payton Thorne pass complete to KeAndre Lambert-Smith for 67 yds for a TD (Towns McGough KICK)
Week 13 · Texas A&M · 2&9 · Q1 · EPA +6.00Payton Thorne pass complete to Cam Coleman for 63 yds for a TD (Ian Vachon KICK)
Week 1 · Alabama A&M · 1&10 · Q2 · EPA +5.69Payton Thorne pass complete to Perry Thompson for 70 yds for a TD (Towns McGough KICK)
Week 1 · Alabama A&M · 1&10 · Q1 · EPA +5.43Payton Thorne pass complete to KeAndre Lambert-Smith for 67 yds for a TD (Towns McGough KICK)
Week 8 · Missouri · 2&9 · Q3 · EPA +4.52Payton Thorne pass complete to Cam Coleman for 47 yds for a TD (Towns McGough KICK)
Week 13 · Texas A&M · 2&12 · Q2 · EPA +4.34Payton Thorne pass complete to KeAndre Lambert-Smith for 60 yds to the TA&M 15 for a 1ST down
Week 5 · Oklahoma · 4&1 · Q4 · EPA +3.77Payton Thorne pass complete to Rivaldo Fairweather for 43 yds to the OU 13 for a 1ST down
Week 12 · UL Monroe · 4&4 · Q3 · EPA +3.76Payton Thorne pass complete to Cam Coleman for 22 yds for a TD (Ian Vachon KICK)
Week 5 · Oklahoma · 1&10 · Q2 · EPA +3.69Payton Thorne pass complete to Malcolm Simmons for 48 yds for a TD (Towns McGough KICK)
Week 12 · UL Monroe · 2&7 · Q3 · EPA +3.66Payton Thorne pass complete to Malcolm Simmons for 40 yds for a TD (Ian Vachon KICK)

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2024 season · 11 games

Box score · CFBD

Wk	Opp	CMP/ATT	YDS	TD	INT	YPA	QBR	Note
Wk 1	W 73-3vs Alabama A&M	13/21	322	4	0	15.3	95.1	4 TD passes
Wk 2	L 14-21vs California	14/27	165	1	4	6.1	28.9	4 INTs — rough day
Wk 4	L 14-24vs Arkansas	13/22	213	2	1	9.7	62.1
Wk 5	L 21-27vs Oklahoma	21/32	338	3	1	10.6	65.5	Season-high 338 yds
Wk 6	L 13-31@ Georgia	16/27	200	0	0	7.4	68.1
Wk 8	L 17-21@ Missouri	17/29	176	1	0	6.1	43.1
Wk 9	W 24-10@ Kentucky	20/26	172	1	1	6.6	76.0
Wk 10	L 7-17vs Vanderbilt	20/29	239	1	0	8.2	52.9
Wk 12	W 48-14vs UL Monroe	22/32	286	5	0	8.9	86.1	5 TD passes
Wk 13	W 43-41vs Texas A&M	19/31	301	2	1	9.7	77.3
Wk 14	L 14-28@ Alabama	24/41	301	1	1	7.3	63.5
Total		199/317	2713	21	9	8.7	65.3

How he plays

Play style

Elite arm talent, pushing downfield. Completion rate is the variable.

CFB Index positional classification

Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long

Where the completions actually land

fact

59.5%Completion %

26.1%Conversion/dropback

52.0%Land short of sticks

0INTs

59.5% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 26.1% conversion-per-dropback — 52.0% of completions land short of the sticks.

Where completions land is fact — whether incompletions were aimed deep is intent, not recorded here, so this card counts completions only. ~ our read: checkdown by design

Short-yardage / goal-line · enumeration

Who gets the tough yard

fact

5/22Inside-5 share

5 of the team's 22 inside-the-5 carries (22.7%).