Best NFL Draft 2026 QBs: 1 stud, 1 sleeper and 1 'who's that guy?' pick

Indiana's Fernando Mendoza (15) scores a touchdown during the College Football Playoff National Championship college football game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026.

There's only one other position in the 2026 NFL Draft where the player at the top of team's wish lists ranks so highly above his peers -- Jeremiyah Love's reign over a deep pool of good-not-great tailback prospects. Mendoza is a full tier beyond the rest of his class, even if a desperate team talks its way into Ty Simpson on Day 1 come April.

Mendoza has earned it, rising from zero-star prospect to Heisman Trophy winner with quick processing, pinpoint throws to tough spots and the toughness and athleticism to keep drives alive with his legs. There was a clear bond between quarterback and his targets, even for a player who spent only about eight months in Bloomington before starting the Hoosiers' historic season. He trusted his wideouts to be where they were supposed to, then rewarded their execution with easy gains.

He's tall enough to see the whole field and made key reads over the middle. He doesn't have a cannon, but his arm can fire precise shots to the sideline or float perfect deep balls downfield. But, most importantly, he processes quickly through his reads, utilizing a perpetual grasp of what comes next that should help overcome the limitations of a good-not-great athletic makeup. He's not a sexy prospect, but he's one that wins no matter where he goes.

Can he improvise effectively when NFL defenses close out all his reads? Will he be fast enough to outrun edge rushers and extend plays? Those are fair questions, but ones the Las Vegas Raiders are almost certainly comfortable taking a chance on answering.

The sleeper: Cade Klubnik, Clemson

Klubnik came into 2025 with first round hype. Like most things in the late-stage Dabo Swinney era, it didn't work out as well as expected for Clemson. The senior backslid to prove 2024's 43-touchdown season was an outlier rather than a sustainable explosion of eye-popping production.

He was still a solid, risk-averse quarterback with running chops, however. There's a place for that in the NFL, especially for a team deep in his junior season film. Klubnik does several things pretty well there are just enough limits on his game to put his ceiling somewhere in the "perfectly cromulent NFL quarterback no team quite loves" camp with some development. He's an athletic scrambler who can avoid pressure but also has the versatility to get the ball off quickly from multiple angles to avoid swatted-down passes at the line. He's got solid downfield touch and knows where his receivers will be, anticipating their open window and putting the ball in places where only they can get it.

However, he's also not an elite athlete. He has average arm strength. Introducing pressure to his pocket creates a cascading panic effect, leading to rushed throws and missed windows. While the good news is his misses aren't immediately destructive -- he only had 12 interceptions his final 26 college games -- they still tend to manifest as drive-stalling mistakes on key passing downs.

Now that guy has to diagnose NFL defenses that can maximize his bad habits. Klubnik isn't an NFL starter in 2026, but he has the traits to get there if his offensive line keeps him clean and he can shed the "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face" flaws that ultimately took him out of the running as a first round pick.

The deep sleeper: Cole Payton, North Dakota State

This section is reserved for the players too overlooked to even be sleepers. At quarterback, that means a developmental place on the depth chart and a few games as his team's emergency option on Sundays. But, as we've seen from players like Tanner McKee, overlooked prospects can still bring value (even if it's a long shot.

Payton is the latest link in a proud chain of quarterbacks who helped make the Bison an FCS boogeyman and paved the way for a jump up to Mountain West competition. While Carson Wentz and Trey Lance were top-three picks, Payton probably won't sniff the first three rounds this spring. But he's been overlooked before; as one of the most athletic quarterbacks in his class (a 4.5-second 40!) and good size at 6-foot-3, he was only a two-star recruit out of an undefeated Omaha high school. His only scholarship offers were from FCS programs.

He sat for four seasons behind Cam Miller before getting his turn to start in 2025. The result? Nearly 3,500 total yards in 13 games last fall, 29 total touchdowns and a scorching 12.1 yards per pass attempt. Few players at any level of football could match Payton's efficiency over a season-long pace -- and few could match the crushing sting of how it ended, with a four-of-12 performance in a stunning playoff loss to Illinois State that saw him leave late after being injured in the midst of a strip sack.

Payton reclaimed some momentum with a bonkers NFL Scouting Combine performance:

Payton is a lottery ticket; a mobile quarterback whose option-heavy game won't translate to the NFL but whose speed and efficiency could (72 percent completion rate, four interceptions in 225 attempts last season). He's a lefty quarterback with lovely downfield touch, though the secondaries he roasted were significantly less than the Power 4 defenses his peers faced. Before crumbling vs. Illinois State, he was averaging 66 yards and more than a touchdown per game on the ground -- especially impressive when you consider the NCAA lumps in sacks with rushing yards.

Best case scenario, you've got a high ceiling developmental passer who can fill in for a few series in the regular season and work his way into a bigger role. Worst case scenario, you've got a guy who can be a new generation's Taysom Hill. Maybe he's a man without a position in the NFL. Payton's supernova 2025 suggests it's worth a Day 3 pick to find out.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Best NFL Draft 2026 QBs with 3 quarterbacks to watch