There’s already been a ton written about the 2026 class of quarterback prospects, and there’s plenty more to come in the next several months. The league is always looking ahead with hope, as nothing energizes fans and the media quite like an exciting young quarterback. This offseason in particular will be a lean year for teams seeking help at quarterback, and it will put even more of an emphasis on the draft. 

The problem is this class, despite the preseason hope of a lot of scouts this past summer, just doesn’t seem to have a battery of franchise-caliber passers available. There will be multiple first-round quarterbacks just because of the inherent demand seemingly baked into the league — I mean good grief, the Colts just signed 44-year-old Philip Rivers out of retirement. But plenty of landmines await for teams. 

That doesn’t mean that there can’t be good players. This is true of just about every young quarterback, but in this 2026 class especially, the outcomes are going to be driven by where each prospect lands. There are no generational prospects, no finished products. There are some interesting players, though. 

Here’s a deep dive into the expected top prospects. While the Senior Bowl, Combine, workouts, pro days and all of that are still yet to come, these players have compiled 95 percent of the tape that teams supposedly will make the foundation of their assessment. The tape is what the following scouting reports are based on. Some underclassmen are included who could go back to school; consider that bonus content for 2027. 

1 – Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza

H/W: 6-5, 225

Games watched: 2024 Florida State, 2024 N.C. State, 2025 Iowa, 2025 Oregon

Strengths

• Gunslinger mentality. Mendoza is always looking for the chunk play and the two college offenses he’s been in have been built around his proficiency and eagerness for attacking down the field and outside the numbers. Some of his favorite routes are go balls, fades, comebacks and deep outs, and he has a knack for both going over the top or pinning it on the back shoulder. 
• Well above average mobility, especially for his size. Not an elite dual-threat option but capable of pulling out of sacks and gashing defenses with his legs if he’s presented with a scramble lane. Long strider who eats up ground, yet is a little more graceful and light on his feet than a lot of other clunky 6-5 quarterbacks. 
• Comfortable throwing on the move and it doesn’t compromise his attacking mentality at all — quite the opposite actually. 
• Quick release and snappy throwing motion without an elongation like some passers at his size. Allows him to get the ball out quickly, including on RPOs, and his accuracy in the short game is generally strong. 
• Solid pre-snap command to find completions and hone in on indicators from the defense. Go-ahead TD against Iowa was when the Hawkeyes telegraphed the blitz (which they’d had success with) and he beat it with a slant that went for a huge gain. He also will take the checkdown and throw it away, generally walking the line well between aggressiveness and recklessness. 
• Tough player who puts mistakes behind him quickly and is resilient. Will stand in the pocket to take hits and attack. 
• Quality arm strength, both to put balls on a line and bomb it down the field, however…

Weaknesses

• I came away from Mendoza’s tape feeling like his arm didn’t always cash the checks he was trying to write when he was launching down the field. Anything within 40 yards was great, and he has the fastball in the 20-30 range, but there was a tendency for a lot of deep shots to fall off at about the 45 to 50-yard range. That said, he had some nukes in the Big 10 championship against Ohio State that were in the 60-yard range, so could be a sample size issue. 
• The real critique of Mendoza is that his consistency deteriorates significantly under pressure — like most quarterbacks. Teams had success heating him up, sometimes with the blitz, sometimes just with the flash of color from defenders beating their blocks. When that happened, he would fade away from passes, lose his accuracy and make poorer decisions, including taking more sacks. 
• Both Cal and Indiana relied on a lot of half-field reads, things like RPOs or cutting the field in half with play-action bootlegs. Mendoza also likes to pick a side pre-snap and work that. Not a ton of full progression dropback reps on his tape, but not zero either. 
• In the games I watched, he had at least two interceptions and probably a couple other turnover-worthy plays because he missed on an over route, leaving it a little behind or flat for the defender to undercut and make a play on the ball. Perhaps just a quirk, but interesting to note. 
• Related perhaps — Mendoza is definitely more comfortable attacking outside the numbers and deep down the field than the middle of the field, perhaps because there’s less risk of an incomplete pass going wrong. Either his guy will catch it or no one will.

Summary

Mendoza has asserted himself into the national conversation along with the Hoosiers this year after a magical season that has them as the No. 1 team in the nation entering the College Football Playoff. Like many on the team, he had more humble origins, transferring this past offseason from Cal where he won the starting job as a true freshman and held it for two years. His numbers have taken a big jump — after recording 34 total touchdowns his first two years at Cal, he’s at 39 and counting so far this year and is the heavy favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. 

When Mendoza is on time and in rhythm, he has some of the best tape of any quarterback in this class, dicing up defenses short and long with terrific accuracy. When he’s not, his game can regress. Lions QB Jared Goff is similar, and that’s probably why Goff will be a popular comparison for Mendoza in the coming months (along with the fact he’s 6-5 and a tough kid). But unlike Goff who is a true pocket-only passer, Mendoza has a mobile element to his game to create when the play breaks down and even change the math in the quarterback run game in high-leverage situations. 

There’s a lot to like with Mendoza. Odds are he’s going to be the betting leader to be the first quarterback off the board, potentially with the No. 1 pick — even if he’s not necessarily as talented as some other quarterbacks to go No. 1 in recent years. I’m not sure he’d have gone over Titans QB Cam Ward last year, though reasonable minds in NFL war rooms could certainly differ. 

Still, Mendoza is a high-floor prospect with enough tools and traits to become a really solid starter. Given the scarcity of options this year, Mendoza’s profile will be compelling. 

2 – South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers

H/W: 6-3, 240

Games watched: 2024 Alabama, 2025 Kentucky, 2025 Alabama 

Strengths

• Impossibly fast and strong. Well maybe not impossibly, but definitely an incredible athlete. Sellers’ combination of speed, strength, elusiveness and balance is pretty unique. Multiple times a game, he’s getting out of a sack that he has no business getting out of and turning it into a positive play — and the South Carolina offense inexplicably gave him plenty of chances to show that off with a parade of free rushers straight up the gut all over his tape. 
• Dynamic and dangerous in the QB run game for the same reason. Crucially, he also has a good sense for how to protect himself despite South Carolina leaning on him heavily as a ball carrier. 
• Outstanding arm strength and eyebrow-singing arm talent. Sellers drops a few dimes every game, whether it’s throwing the ball over the whole defense or rifling it into difficult windows like between three defenders or in the sideline hole against two-deep shells. 
• Took over the starting role as a 19-year-old redshirt freshman in 2024 and doesn’t turn 21 until June of 2026. Young starter with tons of room to grow but is also entrusted with more mature aspects of the position. It’s tough to say definitively but it looks like Sellers was entrusted with some audible authority and he used it a few times to get into more positive plays for the offense against the blitz. 
• Sellers also flashed a good hard count to create free plays, and has the arm strength and scrambling ability to be lethal on those. 
• Not allergic to the checkdown and will take what the defense gives him at times in the quick passing game, though he’s still working to find a balance here. 

Weaknesses

• Inconsistent accuracy, which is even more maddening because of all the other times he displays high-level accuracy. Will misfire on basic patterns in the short game for what should be easy completions. I’m not an expert on quarterback mechanics and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night, but it does seem like his base is abnormally wide compared to other prospects, which could be a contributing factor. 
• Like most athletically gifted quarterbacks, Sellers will sometimes trust his own scrambling ability more than his ability to deliver the ball down the field, especially when it comes to some throws over the middle that require negotiating through a little more traffic or throwing with anticipation. 
• The double-edged sword of Sellers not giving up on a play (and making some incredible ones as a result) is that he takes more sacks and fumbles more than a less talented quarterback would. 
• Inexperienced still, and it shows up in some of the decisions he does and doesn’t make, like throwing into coverage or missing opportunities within the structure of the play. 

Summary

There might not be a QB prospect with a wider range of outcomes in this class than Sellers. He’s capable of doing things on the field that almost no other quarterback in the group can, with jaw-dropping plays. He’s truly unique as a runner, as he’s not just a speed demon like Lamar Jackson and isn’t just a bully like Jalen Hurts. It’s the combination of strength, speed and balance that make him such an exciting playmaker. The peaks of his game as a thrower are pretty exciting, too. 

He’s also clearly still raw in some key areas of playing the position. The challenge with that is the NFL has proven time and time again that it’s not a developmental league. The pressures of winning are too high, and for first-round quarterbacks especially, it’s sink or swim. As teams weigh Sellers’ potential, they have to honestly assess whether they have an environment capable of helping him reach it — or if he’ll end up in the same bucket as guys like Trey Lance and Anthony Richardson. 

Those two might have changed how NFL teams approach prospects like Sellers, and there’s a good chance Sellers returns to school for another year of seasoning to try and become more of a finished product. If he does decide to declare, though, his upside is as high as any quarterback in the class. 

3 – Penn State QB Drew Allar

H/W: 6-5, 235

Games watched: 2024 Ohio State, 2025 Oregon, 2025 UCLA, 2025 Northwestern

Strengths

• Prototypical NFL quarterback in so many ways. Allar looks lab-designed when he’s playing, checking the boxes for size and arm strength while adding solid mobility and flashes of great accuracy. 
• Smooth release and the ball comes off his hand effortlessly. On pure arm talent alone, he’s probably the best in this draft class. Allar has moments of outstanding accuracy at every level of the field. 
• When he gets pressure off the edge, Allar will climb the pocket instead of bail, which is an excellent habit because it puts pressure on the defense and gives him more options. He’s quite good at hitting the backside dig in these situations and others when he has to progress through his reads. 
• Long strider as a runner and can eat up ground in a hurry, making him a threat to gash defenses for big chunks even if he’s not a quick-twitch mover. 
• Three years of starting experience and it showed in 2025 with improved recognition of the looks defenses were throwing at him. 

Weaknesses

• Pressure seems to short-circuit Allar. He gets jittery and you can see it in his feet. He tends to fade away from the rush and his accuracy suffers as a result. The game starts to look too fast for him. 
• Down-to-down, Allar’s accuracy can come and go. Even on passes that are on target, he often fails to be pinpoint accurate and either hurts the chances for yards after the catch or makes the play more difficult for his receiver. 
• Takes a minute to get moving and that lack of quick-twitch escapability means he doesn’t break as many sacks as you’d expect. 
• Glaring habit of patting the ball before he throws, which will give NFL DBs a little extra time to make a break. 

Summary

A former top recruit who started as a redshirt freshman, Allar was supposed to be the quarterback who could take Penn State to the promised land of a national title. He couldn’t quite get there. Had he declared for the draft last season instead of coming back to school for another year, there’s a decent chance Allar would have come off the board in the first 32 picks. Instead he returned and was lost for the season after five games, three of which were losses. 

Allar might still end up a first-rounder, as he’s the type of player it’s easy for a coaching staff to fall in love with. He’s a smooth thrower and all the tools seem to be there. But the whole doesn’t necessarily equal the sum of the parts. He’s somewhere between Daniel Jones and Joe Flacco as a quarterback, with all the tools to be a productive passer for a while if he can find a little more consistency. Allar would benefit from not having to play right away as a rookie, unless it’s an optimal situation. 

Oregon QB Dante Moore

H/W: 6-3, 206

Games watched: 2025 Northwestern, 2025 Indiana, 2025 Rutgers

Strengths

• From a technical standpoint, looks great. Smooth throwing motion with good spin, able to change arm slots. His pass dropbacks have urgency to them and he’s always at balance and ready to throw. Wears a glove on his left hand but not his right. 
• Accuracy shows up as a strength. He’s got outstanding touch and can drop throws in the bucket. Also really good at attacking the seams and providing run-after-catch opportunities on short routes. 
• Was tough to get a sense of his mobility but it’s probably underrated. Not sure he’s a true dual threat but he moved around pretty well and flashed with a couple of strong designed rushes. 
• Strong enough arm to attack down the field and take the top off the defense. 
• Still improving here, but frequently plays with a plan to break down coverage and find completions. 

Weaknesses

• Moore doesn’t have a weak arm or anything, but his passes are prone to dying on certain throws. More of a touch thrower than a drive thrower, and his range might cap out at 50 yards on deep balls. 
• Occasionally will get caught staring down plays and giving the defense opportunities to jump short routes. 
• Inconsistent handling the rush. At times was good, but Indiana got to him in a way the other teams didn’t and disrupted a lot of plays. 

Summary

Incomplete feels like the best descriptor for Moore at this point. This is his second year as a starter but his first showing the potential he had as a former top recruit following a rocky true freshman season at UCLA. His performance for an outstanding Oregon team has some NFL scouts buzzing, but the lack of experience is a real pitfall for teams as they try to project to the NFL. 

The other issue is that Moore isn’t necessarily a super-traitsy player. It might be the glove on his left hand, but there were some Teddy Bridgewater vibes watching his tape. Moore might be more athletic right now but both players wanted to win from the pocket with touch throws. 

If Moore thinks he has a real shot at a top-ten pick, there’s a good case to declare given the monetary difference and the chance to start the clock on his second contract. If not, Oregon can make him well-compensated with NIL money and give him a better developmental environment than most NFL teams. He’d be one of a slew of fascinating names for the 2027 class. 

5 – LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier

H/W: 6-1, 205

Games watched: 2024 USC, 2024 Alabama, 2025 Clemson

Strengths

• Son of longtime NFL QB coach Doug Nussmeier, also a former quarterback for five years. That pedigree shows up in Nussmeier’s game. Ball is coming out when he hits the top of his drop more often than not. 
• Strong command of the LSU system at the line of scrimmage, including a pretty neat quick sneak where he calls his own number for short yardage situations. 
• Skilled at layering throws into the middle of the field, over linebackers but before safeties. Adept at touch throws. 
• Great timing as a passer with moments of outstanding anticipation. Nussmeier’s sense of timing also helps him access the deep ball. 
• Whiplike throwing motion that generates perfectly adequate velocity and is enough to threaten down the field. 

Weaknesses

• Throws into windows that he has no business poking into with multiple defenders, little reward and high risk. Far too many lapses with ball security, he led the SEC in interceptions with 12 in 2024. 
• Not very big and not a major running threat, though he’s also not a statue in the pocket and can buy some time. 
• Sometimes it feels like he’s performatively going through his reads — predetermining where he wants to go pre-snap and not really seeing what he’s looking at once the ball is snapped. 

Summary

Nussmeier was one of a few quarterbacks who were getting summer hype as potential first-round caliber players, under the assumption that he would follow up on a big 2024 with a strong 2025. That didn’t quite happen. There’s been a statistical dropoff and Nussmeier has missed a chunk of time with a couple of different injuries. Best-case scenario for him might be Day 2 but there’s some intriguing things about his tape. He does a few things well, well enough to stick around as a backup and potentially even some stretches as a starter. He reminds me a lot of Andy Dalton and that would be a best-case scenario outcome. 

Dalton also has struggled with poor decision-making at times, and that could be a cap on Nussmeier’s long-term potential if he doesn’t kick that habit. Unfortunately, I think that could be tough. For some players, the game just moves too fast too often. 

6 – Georgia QB Carson Beck

H/W: 6-4, 225

Games watched: 2025 Notre Dame, 2025 Florida

Strengths

• Earns passing grades from the NFL in a wide variety of categories, including size, arm strength, accuracy, functional mobility and processing speed. 
• Solid at breaking down the defense and finding completions, moved the ball well in the two games scouted. 
• Experienced, will enter the NFL with 40 starts at two high-end programs, maybe more depending on how deep Miami goes in the CFP. 

Weaknesses

• Moments of really questionable decision-making and putting passes in harms way. Most often triggered by pressure. 
• No single overwhelming trait or strength. 

Summary

Beck has a solid base to his game that NFL teams looking for a high-end backup will appreciate, as he checks off a wide variety of boxes. The league will appreciate the starting experience he comes in with and it could earn him an early opportunity. However, the anticipatory and play-making threads of his game aren’t there to feel confident about projecting him to be anything more. Poor decisions and turnovers are a theme that’s run across multiple seasons at this point and cost him the chance to be a Day 1 pick.