A lower-round AJ Brown to a 306lb missile: the 2026 NFL draft’s under-the-radar prospects
Fernando Mendoza will almost certainly go No 1 overall. But who are the players that teams may take a swing on after the big names have gone?
Cole Payton, Chris Bell and Caleb Banks will attract plenty of interest from teams keen on raw talent. Composite: Getty Images Cole Payton, QB, North Dakota State You have to go back to 2013 to find a year in which fewer than four quarterbacks were selected in the top 100 picks. But in this year’s mediocre quarterback class, the fourth quarterback may not go off the board until day three.
After Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, it’s unclear who will even be the third taken. There is a chasm from the top two down to LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Miami’s Carson Beck. All three are flawed.
The most tantalizing mid-round quarterback is Payton, a one-year, lefty starter out of North Dakota State. Behold: NDSU have become something of a quiet quarterback factory. Over the last 10 drafts, the Bison are tied with Alabama for second among quarterback draft selections.
Payton is more Trey Lance than Carson Wentz as a prospect: an impressive athlete who needs development as a passer. At 6ft 2in and 235lbs, Payton is built like a running back. And before 2025, he was used as one, lining up in the backfield as a battering ram in the run game.
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