NFL had Peyton Manning pitch Fernando Mendoza on attending 2026 draft

Fernando Mendoza could not be convinced to attend the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh. Not even when one of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks tried. Mendoza is expected to be the No.

1 pick when the Las Vegas Raiders make their selection to begin the first round of the draft on Thursday, April 23. But he decided weeks ago he won't make the customary walk on stage to put on his team hat, shake hands with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and hold up his new jersey for the cameras. Instead, the Heisman Trophy winner who led Indiana to its first national championship in football will watch from home in Miami with friends and family.

Peyton Manning revealed this week he was enlisted by the NFL to speak with Mendoza in an effort to encourage him to come to downtown Pittsburgh to be in attendance with the rest of the top NFL draft prospects for the league's biggest offseason gathering. RELATED: Fernando Mendoza will go No. 1 in NFL Draft.

But he's not Indiana's first top pick. "I'll be honest, the NFL kind of reached out to me," Manning told reporters Wednesday at a "Night of Champions" event celebrating the 2015 Denver Broncos , according to a video posted on social media by a Denver Post reporter "I reached out to Mendoza to maybe encourage him to go to the draft and he was staying home with his family, which will be fine. " Mendoza has drawn some comparisons to Manning in the lead up to Thursday's NFL draft, most recently from ESPN's Mel Kiper, Jr.