It's unclear if former Auburn Tigers quarterback Payton Thorne has taken his last pro snap. All that is known right now is that Thorne abruptly left the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers to go home to Naperville, Illinois, and was subsequently suspended from the team.
Blue Bombers head coach Mike O'Shea sounded like someone who knows his professional relationship with Thorne may be behind him. Per O'Shea on the "3 Down Nation" podcast, "He's a great kid ... He's really smart, and I'm sure he's got a future in football still."
Confidence was greatly lacking in that statement. Certainly, talking about Thorne's general future in the sport isn't something a coach would talk about if he knew that player would be back. It's unclear if the CFL bridge is burned. Many Birmingham Stallions/UFL fans would certainly love to see Thorne playing in Protective Stadium, if Thorne is even interested in playing football right now.
That might be the problem. Payton's father, Jeff, an Illinois high school football coaching legend, passed away in December. Payton may be seeking time off to grieve his father's loss. After being released by the Cincinnati Bengals last August, Thorne didn't sign with a team until two weeks after his father passed.
Payton Thorne has a complicated legacy at Auburn
Since enough time has passed, it's clear that Thorne was underappreciated on the Plains. It sounds crazy to think, since he was part of serious underperformance in 2024, and arguably 2023 as well. Still, he was much better for the program than his successor, Jackson Arnold, was. Cam Coleman, Malcolm Simmons, and Perry Thompson at least came back to the Tigers after getting the chance to play with Thorne.
No Auburn QB had a better performance last year than Thorne had against the Texas A&M Aggies in a 43-41 win under the lights at Jordan-Hare Stadium in November 2024. That game alone had many convinced Thorne might not have been the problem. After all, Hugh Freeze was the one who couldn't see eye to eye with offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery during the 2023 season and then had a convoluted play-calling system with Derrick Nix and Kent Austin, where there were different play-callers on different downs.
Thorne was the best option in a QB room that never had much of a chance in 2024. The Tigers' offensive line had a 10.85% quarterback sacked percentage, which was better than just two teams in the FBS. He earned his way back into the starting job after Hank Brown proved he didn't deserve it against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Freeze pulled his QB1 right before SEC play, which meant Thorne never had a fair chance to be the locker room's leader.
Thorne was done dirty by Freeze, though not by Auburn's donor class. That massive spend and disappointing output made Thorne an unpopular athlete in the NIL/rev-share era. It wasn't completely warranted, though.
Hopefully, Thorne figures out the best path forward in his life, whether it involves football or not. Let's just make sure we remember his football career in East Central Alabama and the Michigan State Spartans, where he was a dominant QB in the Big Ten, correctly.
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