There’s a New Sheriff in Town: Aidan Chiles Film Room

On Jan. 6, 2026, former Michigan State and Oregon State quarterback Aidan Chiles committed to Northwestern out of the transfer portal, likely stepping in as the Wildcats’ new signal caller under head coach David Braun, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and quarterbacks coach Jerry Neuheisel. Chiles almost certainly going to be the starter to open 2026, which would make him the fourth consecutive transfer quarterback to start the first game of the season for the Wildcats. Here’s a look back at what Chiles did last season, and a potential glimpse of what he could bring to Evanston.

The Numbers

In 2025, Chiles appeared in nine games with eight starts. He only played one snap in his ninth appearance (against Minnesota on Nov. 1) and didn’t play in the Spartans’ final three games. Part of that was due to a foot injury that sidelined him and was a part of the reason he was benched. After Chiles led his team to a 3-0 record, MSU would go on to lose the remaining five games he started. His 63.4 PFF offensive grade is his lowest in a season across his three years played in college (18th in the Big Ten of the 22 quarterbacks this season who played over 100 snaps). Chiles finished his 2025 campaign 128-of-203 passing for 1,392 yards, 10 touchdown passes and three interceptions, while posting a 56.6 PFF passing grade (20th in the Big Ten of the 22 quarterbacks who played over 100 snaps). On the ground, Chiles posted a 73.0 PFF rushing grade as he turned 81 carries into 227 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns (includes yards lost from sacks). His PFF rushing grade was ninth in the Big Ten of the 28 quarterbacks who had 10 or more rush attempts. Chiles was sacked 21 times in 2025, while he lost three fumbles.

Chiles posted a PFF offensive grade of 70 or higher three times this season: a 71.6 in Week 2 against Boston College, a 70.6 in Week 3 against FCS Youngstown State, a 73.8 in Week 8 against Indiana. From watching the games, though, his performance against Boston College was by far the most impressive. Chiles put his team on his back, scoring on both drives of overtime, including a game-tying rushing touchdown and a successful two-point conversion throw to win 42-40.

Of his three interceptions this season, the first came against Youngstown State. The Spartans would go on to win that game 41-24, but if the Penguins hadn’t missed the field goal following Chiles’ pick, it could have ended differently as the score would have been 31-20. His other two interceptions came against Nebraska. The 50.0 PFF offensive grade Chiles posted against the Cornhuskers was his second lowest of the season, behind only his 47.7 PFF offensive grade versus Michigan.

The talent with Chiles is there: he was a high four-star prospect out of high school, ranked as the No. 58 overall player and the No. 7 quarterback in the 2023 recruiting class per 247Sports. The six quarterbacks ranked higher than him in order were Arch Manning, Nico Iamaleava, Dante Moore, Jackson Arnold, Malachi Nelson and Jaden Rashada. While high school rankings don’t always translate to play in college, he was part of a recruiting class that includes some of the better college quarterbacks in the country right now. With Kelly and Neuheisel in his ears, there’s a real chance that Chiles can reach new heights with both coaches’ experience with quarterbacks of his style and his raw skills. Nonetheless, it’s hard to know how he will produce for the ‘Cats until they play their first game of 2026. With all that said, it’s now time to dive into the film behind Chiles’ 2025 season to see what he brings to the table for NU.

The Good

The first thing that comes to mind with Chiles is that he’s a dual threat.

Born to run

Chiles looks like a running back on designed runs with his ball carrier skills.

This QB power run fits perfectly for Chiles’ play style. He’s super talented when it comes to breaking tackles, something that will be showcased often in these clips. For a quarterback that is 6-foot-3 and 225 lbs, Chiles’ speed combined with his vision is the perfect combination for a new-era quarterback.

Similarly to the play above, Chiles showcases his ability to break sure-looking tackles. His ability to bounce off defenders and maintain or get back to his top speed is impressive.

While this QB power seems to be simpler than the plays before, Chiles showcases his ball carrier vision. He uses the second he has with the ball in his hands after the snap to assess where he’s going to attack. In this clip, his patience leads to him walking into the end zone untouched.

Aside from just breaking tackles, Chiles is able to make moves when one-on-one with a defender to extend plays. He starts the play by running right, but quickly changes direction and jukes out the defender to convert the first down with room to spare.

This is the longest run Chiles has had in his career. He showcases his speed here, while also showing off his ability to run through holes paved by his offensive line and his prowess in his vision to remain untouched until he was hit out of bounds. Chiles has a talent in running the ball that Northwestern will almost certainly be using to full capacity.

Escape artist

In EA Sports’ Madden NFL 20, the escape artist ability was the most broken one in the game, especially when used on fast and elusive quarterbacks. Chiles has moments where he looks to be using that ability in real life. While this section is similar to the one above as this part involves some runs, it’s more about scrambling to extend plays.

Unscripted playmaking. That’s what Chiles can do. After the play-action fake, he can’t find an open man so he runs through a gap in the offensive line while pump faking to draw defenders away from him. Chiles has the ability to turn what would be a dead play into a first down like he does here.

Chiles somehow evades the sack and turns what would’ve been a huge third down stop for Boston College into a huge first down for Michigan State. He dropped the free rusher to the ground with his maneuvering in the pocket before tucking it and running for the huge gain.

Once again, Chiles shows his ability to break sacks and turn what would have been a huge stop for the defense into a huge play for the offense. He bounces off of tacklers like a running back.

This play is so impressive. Chiles snapped the ball with 7:36 on the clock. The ball left his hand at 7:30. There were multiple parts of this play where he could have (and should have) been sacked, but Chiles used his elusiveness in the backfield to escape the pass rush and find the open man.

Once again, super impressive. Chiles is able to not only evade a free rusher and get to the first down marker, but he also splits through a group of defenders as he finds daylight to walk into the end zone. His rushing ability, along with his ability to evade sacks and extend plays is exactly what can elevate an entire offense.

Let ‘er rip

As talented as Chiles is as extending plays and using his legs, he’s still a quarterback at the end of the day. While he didn’t throw deep very often in 2025 and wasn’t the most accurate when he did, Chiles threw four touchdowns on passes of 20 or more yards.

The two plays above I’m writing about together as they happened in succession. In the first clip, Chiles sails the ball to Omari Kelly, who adjusts to make the contested grab. While his arm isn’t the strongest, he still has a pretty good deep ball. That’s exactly what is seen in the second clip, where the play-action fake gives Chiles the extra time to launch one down the left sideline again, this time finding Nick Marsh behind the defense in the back of the end zone.

Once again, the play-action fake allows Chiles to stand in the pocket and deliver. This time, with pressure in his face, he finds the open man in the end zone.

The ideal archetype of a quarterback from high school through college and to the NFL has shifted from traditional pocket passers to more dual-threat athletes (at least quarterbacks who can take off and run when they need to). Chiles shows his ability to not only throw on the run, but also to throw deep on the run. He’s seen success when rolling to his right like he does on this play.

Chiles does a great job of buying time to allow Kelly to sprint down the field. This touchdown was the longest pass of Chiles’ 2025 season and second longest pass in his college career. He launches the ball down the right sideline as Kelly beats his man at the perfect time to allow the ball fall right into his arms. While he did have to slow down a bit, Chiles did set up his receiver to catch the pass on the run, which Kelly did. The ball also spent close to three seconds in the air from watching the clip.

The last throw from Chiles’ 2025 season is a picture-perfect throw. He stands strong in the pocket before launching the rock down the right sideline to Marsh between two defenders for the touchdown. Chiles was 5-of-12 passing for 202 yards and three touchdowns when throwing to the deep right of the field per PFF. With the right deep threat X or Z receiver on the right side of the field for NU, there could be a real connection in 2026 between Chiles and whoever that is.

The Bad

The skills and talent are there. It’s just about putting it all together on the field and limiting mistakes.

Loose ball

Chiles has struggled at times with holding onto the ball. Across his last two seasons, he has lost seven fumbles (stats from searching through the MSU football website).

Chiles lost the ball the instant he was hit. It wasn’t even necessarily the hit that jarred the ball loose, Chiles just lost the ball. He does have a tendency to fumble here and there, which could be a problem if Northwestern’s offensive line isn’t at the same level it was in 2025 (only one starter is returning for the ‘Cats). Taking sacks is one thing, holding onto the ball is another.

This was Chiles’ second lost fumble of the season. It’s almost reminiscent of the famous Tuck Rule play with Tom Brady. Chiles looks to throw the ball, but he doesn’t and is instead sacked and has the ball knocked out of his hands again.

This fumble wasn’t on a sack. Instead, Chiles was running a play he routinely runs (and often breaks loose). He was hit from multiple angles, causing him to lose the ball and handing it to Michigan in this case. While he did just lose three fumbles, turning the ball over on the opening drive is a killer.

That’s the wrong team

Chiles improved a lot from 2024 to 2025 in not throwing interceptions. He threw 11 picks in 12 games played in 2024. In 2025, he threw only three in eight starts, but there is still the worry that he regresses back and throws more interceptions this upcoming season.

This was Chiles’ second interception of the season and the first thrown against Nebraska (his first came on a tipped pass against Youngstown State). Chiles completely airmails his target as the ball sails perfectly into the arms of the Cornhusker defender. While it looked like he was trying to avoid the pass being tipped when he released, he put a little too much under the throw.

This interception came on the next Michigan State drive following Chiles’ first interception in this game. His right tackle was beat, putting a practically free rusher in his face. While Chiles was hit, the throw left his hand before the defender got to him. This throw is just a duck. Chiles both overthrew one of his receivers, while also underthrowing another (who was double-covered anyways).

Sack lunch

In 2024 and 2025 combined, Chiles was sacked a total of 50 times (per the MSU football website’s stats), despite many of them not being his fault.

Chiles stood in the pocket for too long. He could have scrambled to his right and extended the play (like he’s accustomed to doing), but the pressure here got to him as he was brought down on third down.

This play is similar to the one before. While Chiles does try and evade the sack at first, he could’ve thrown the ball away. If not a throw away, Chiles could have tried to scramble to his right initially instead of spinning back around. It is still impressive he stayed up for as long as he did though.

This sack wasn’t fully Chiles’ fault, and his offensive line didn’t help him too much over the course of the season. However, taking a sack on 2nd-and-20 and losing the number of yards he did here isn’t great. He could’ve tried to step up in the pocket to at least limit the yardage lost from the sack.

Final Thoughts

I was extremely bullish on Preston Stone last year when he transferred to Northwestern. While Stone was solid, he didn’t reach the extremely high expectations both I had in my mind, but also that Northwestern fans maybe had expected. That’s why with Chiles, it’s hard for me to be over the moon about him landing with the Wildcats, even though he fits the presumed scheme of Kelly and Neuheisel like a glove. The turnovers are for sure something to be wary of, as with any quarterback, but his ability to extend plays is special. The quarterback archetype that Chiles fits is something Northwestern hasn’t had recently. He may be the most athletic quarterback to open a season for NU in the 21st century, maybe even ever! Either way, it’ll be fun to see Chiles in purple.