2026 NFL Draft Preview: Best Quarterback Fits

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2026 NFL Draft Preview: Best Quarterback Fits

Doug Farrar · Athlon Sports

Thu, Mar 12, 2026 ·

17 min read

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[Editor's note: This article is from Athlon Sports' 2026 NFL Draft Preview magazine. Order your copy today online or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]

Some quarterback classes are tall; others are deep. It's rare that you have a quarterback class that can claim to be both. The 2024 class spoiled us in that regard, with Caleb Williams , Jayden Daniels , Drake Maye , Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix in the first 12 picks alone. When you get six early NFL starters in one class, that's highly unusual.

The 2025 class appeared to be deeper than tall, with first overall pick Cam Ward and 25th overall pick Jaxson Dart as the only first-rounders, some intriguing developmental prospects in the later rounds, and Shedeur Sanders shocking everybody by lasting until the fifth round (144th overall).

On its face, the 2026 QB class is much taller than wide, with one sure-fire prospect — Indiana's Fernando Mendoza — and several quarterbacks with question marks that they'll have to overcome to maximize their potential at the next level.

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To that end, we've tried to find the best coaching and schematic fits for every prominent quarterback in this class. Because at the quarterback position more than any other, the fit is the thing.

Fernando Mendoza, Indiana

In a recent interview with Athlon Sports , former NFL star quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III referred to Mendoza as "The Supercomputer," and there's a lot to that description. Most of us have seen the viral videos in which Mendoza breaks down plays and concepts at a forensic level, and it all shows up on the field.

Against all the obstacles that can befuddle young NFL quarterbacks, Mendoza seems to have it on lock. He's marvelous against the blitz; he re-sets mentally when defenses throw simulated pressures at him; and he has no issue flipping the script when opponents show him disguised coverage — where the safeties rotate from pre- to post-snap.

Mendoza has said that he's at his best when he avoids trying to be Superman and sticks with the point guard/ball distributor aspects of his game. That's true, but he's been great with the deep passing game. Mendoza completed 29-of-55 passes of 20 or more air yards in the 2025 season for 955 yards, 11 touchdowns, one interception and an NFL passer rating of 130.1.

While Mendoza is functionally mobile, nobody will ever mistake him for Lamar Jackson . He's at his best when he's moving around in the pocket and throwing from there; from inside the pocket in 2025, he completed 259-of-338 passes for 3,213 yards, an NCAA-high 38 touchdowns, five interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 136.9 — also the NCAA's best.

Are there potential barriers? In the wrong offense, perhaps. Though he does have good in-pocket movement, he's nobody's idea of a mobile quarterback. On throws outside the pocket in 2025, Mendoza completed just 24-of-50 passes for 324 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and a passer rating of 80.8.

Mendoza was throwing weird incompletions outside the pocket against Old Dominion last season, so imagine what it will look like when it's time to deal with NFL defenses that force you to leave the safety of your home.

It's difficult if not impossible to succeed in today's NFL if you can't leave the pocket when needed to a degree, and Mendoza can do it functionally, if not impressively. And his movement within the pocket is NFL-ready. Any offense with an above-average line and well-developed receivers would benefit more from Mendoza's acumen than from any other quarterback in this class.

Just don't ask him to be a run-around guy.

In 2025, Mendoza completed 273-of-379 passes (72.0%) for 3,535 yards (9.3 yards per attempt), 41 touchdowns, six interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 129.4. He ran the ball 76 times for 377 yards (excluding sacks), seven touchdowns and five fumbles.

Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson passes against the Indiana Hoosiers in the first half of the 2026 Rose Bowl and quarterfinal game of the College Football Playoff at Rose Bowl Stadium. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Ty Simpson , Alabama

When Simpson has a clean pocket and time to go through his progressions, he has an above-average arm, and he's capable of throwing to all areas of the field with good velocity. He also has good touch when he needs to layer throws, though the touch passes can be off-target when there's no reason for them to be.

Simpson is not overly reliant on the NCAA's wide hashmarks to make timed throws over the middle — when throwing over the middle in 2025, he completed 81-of-118 passes for 933 yards, nine touchdowns, two interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 110.6. While the accuracy issues happen over the middle as well, Simpson likely won't face a serious adjustment in the NFL when the field is more compressed.

Alabama didn't use a ton of RPOs to get to the passing game, but when it did, Simpson proved to be a capable runner on designed and option concepts, and he has reasonable movement skills when he's evading pressure.

Simpson is more of a see-it-and-throw-it guy than a true anticipation thrower. He will leave opportunities on the field as a result, and his NFL coaching staff will need to design as many first-read openings as possible. This is not a death sentence — Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay did that for Jared Goff in 2017 to basically save his career — but it may take a while for Simpson to throw with progression reads and anticipation accuracy. He will mistime simple slants and other underneath crossing routes too often.

On deep passes and other contested one-on-one situations, Simpson asks his receivers to do a lot of the work. He's not consistently accurate to the target, and as such, his targets will have to expand their catch radii to make the most of those opportunities. He's more of an "in the vicinity" thrower than a dead-on accuracy thrower downfield.

When pressured in 2025, Simpson completed 58-of-120 passes for 703 yards, four touchdowns, one interception and a passer rating of 74.4. When he's not blitzed — blitzes allow him to find easy openings — Simpson will tend to hurry his process, make arm-angle throws that aren't consistent (he doesn't re-set well when bumped off his spot) and become wildly inaccurate at times. It should also be mentioned that Simpson was pressured on 166 dropbacks in 2025, and while he was responsible for some of that, he could do well with a better pass-blocking offensive line.

Two terms often misunderstood and misused are system quarterback and game manager. Every quarterback is a system quarterback to some degree, and every quarterback needs to manage the game. But what we generally mean with these terms is a quarterback who won't typically transcend his circumstances — he will need things around him to be a certain way.

At this point in his process, Simpson is very much that kind of quarterback. And given his one year of NCAA starting experience, he could be completely derailed if he goes to an NFL team whose offense is more execution-based than schematically set up for success. Ideally, Simpson will land in a place with somebody from the Shanahan school (or an adjunct) who can refine the rough spots and optimize his skill set.

In 2025, Simpson completed 305-of-473 passes (64.5%) for 3,567 yards (7.5 yards per attempt), 28 touchdowns, five interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 102.6. He ran the ball 70 times for 292 yards (excluding sacks), two touchdowns and seven fumbles.

LSU Tigers Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier (18).© SCOTT CLAUSE / USATODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Garrett Nussmeier , LSU

If you want a quarterback who can create outside the pocket, you will find Nussmeier very interesting. It was a feature throughout his college career, and even in his injury-shortened season of 2025, he completed 22-of-37 passes outside the pocket for 244 yards, two touchdowns, one interception and an NFL passer rating of 85.9. Second-reaction plays are a mixed bag — he runs boot-action very well with an easy mobility when his mechanics are right, and he can hurl the ball into tight windows when everything's aligned. But Nussmeier will drift back in the pocket at times, which affects velocity and accuracy. His NFL coaches will need to refine his functional mobility.

As you would expect from the son of a former NFL quarterback and longtime offensive coordinator, Nussmeier can read through progressions well, and he has a good sense of what to take from defenses. He's not just a checkdown artist; he will make tight-window throws from the pocket when reading through.

At times, Nussmeier believes that he can make throws he really shouldn't, getting him into trouble. When he throws with anticipation, it's fine, but when he's playing the "see it and throw it" game, he'll deliver the ball late into windows, and negative plays often result. Nussmeier can also throw high, which speaks to mechanics that are not always consistent.

There is a rogue element to Nussmeier's play that provides occasionally amazing and occasionally regrettable results. He'll be best-suited to a system and coaching staff that provide him with a defined structure to make those highlight plays, while at the same time minimizing the dangerous stuff. If you think of the Seattle Seahawks , Minnesota Vikings , Los Angeles Rams or Chicago Bears — heavy play-action and boot-action offenses with defined reads downfield — those would be ideal landing spots. Nussmeier may need a redshirt NFL season, but he does have all the physical tools.

In 2025, Nussmeier completed 194-of-288 passes (67.4%) for 1,927 yards (6.7 yards per attempt), 12 touchdowns, five interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 92.8. He ran the ball 24 times for 64 yards (excluding sacks), one touchdown and one fumble.

Miami Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck throws during the second half against Florida State. (Melina Myers-Imagn Images)© Melina Myers-Imagn Images

Carson Beck , Miami (FL)

Given Beck's experience in college — he was a true freshman at Georgia in 2020 — you'd think that the Malcolm Gladwell theory about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice turning anybody into an expert would kick in. With Beck, the answer is both yes and no.

On the plus side, he can throw with both touch and velocity downfield into tight windows and through route combinations. He can progression-read to a point, and while the anticipation aspect of his throwing game isn't perfect, it's there. Beck doesn't have first-tier mobility, but he's perfectly fine on scrambles, RPOs and the occasional tush push. When throwing outside the pocket in the 2025 season, Beck completed 10-of-19 passes for 181 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 125.2. His NFL coaches might want to expand that part of his game.

From within the pocket (328 completions on 448 attempts for 3,634 yards, 26 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 105.1), Beck is more of a mixed bag. You'd expect a quarterback with this much experience to possess more consistent vision, but Beck struggles with eliminating what isn't there in coverage and isolating what is there. He needs a better GPS to tell him when the throw is a bad idea.

Beck isn't a consistent anticipation thrower because he tends to see openings late, and when you're throwing to the opening as it happens, the opening disappears before the ball arrives. He'll also throw balls over the middle of the field that put his receivers in danger.

When Carson Wentz came out of FCS North Dakota State as the second pick in the 2016 draft, the Philadelphia Eagles ' coaching staff did a commendable job of refining his athleticism while corralling and developing the parts of his game that were not NFL-ready. That included first-read open concepts that allowed Wentz to avoid waiting too long and thinking too much. Similarly, Beck would do well to develop in an offense where the concepts aren't advanced algebra — he needs to simplify his internal process, get the ball out at the right time and make that the play-to-play thing.

In 2025, Beck completed 338-of-467 passes (72.4%) for 3,813 yards (8.2 yards per attempt), 30 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 106.7. He ran the ball 55 times for 158 yards (excluding sacks), two touchdowns and two fumbles.

Vanderbilt Commodores quarterback Diego PaviaAndrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Diego Pavia , Vanderbilt

Pavia is a fascinating evaluation. While the raw numbers hint that he's NFL-ready, there's work to be done. The combination of explosiveness and efficiency in the deep passing game does show up — Pavia has a throwing motion where he's almost pushing the ball out of his hand, but he can make touch throws downfield with impressive accuracy. He's also capable of zipping the ball into converging coverage, and he does throw his receivers open with credible anticipation.

That said, Pavia did a lot of throwing to or outside the numbers with the Commodores, and that was with the benefit of the NCAA's wider hashmarks. When he's required to make bang-on throws over the middle of the field in the NFL's more constricted windows, that could be an adjustment. When Tennessee 's Hendon Hooker was selected by the Detroit Lions in the third round of the 2023 draft, the transition from Josh Heupel's extreme spread offense to the NFL did not work.

Pavia did complete 77-of-89 passes in 2025 on throws over the middle for 1,021 yards, 10 touchdowns, one interception and an NFL passer rating of 147.2, and there were enough of those plays in condensed formations to make you think it's transferable. For a guy with a sawed-off, slightly squatty body type, Pavia doesn't appear to have trouble seeing things between the guards. He does struggle with disguised coverages, and he'll see a lot more of those in the NFL, so that will be high on the to-do list for his NFL coaching staff.

As a runner, Pavia provides value right away. Both on scrambles and designed runs, he's tough and quick in and out of run fits, and he has some downfield juice. He will default to running at times when he should stay in the pocket, but it's not an epidemic issue. In 2025, 48 of his completions came under pressure on 101 attempts for 551 yards, six touchdowns, two interceptions and a passer rating of 76.0.

Pavia doesn't exactly look the part. But he does meet the thresholds in most areas for NFL success in a system where he's allowed to build the passing game around his threat as a runner.

As far as Pavia's NFL transition, Robert Griffin III had this to say to Athlon Sports : "Yeah, you're talking to a guy who came from one of those spread offenses [at Baylor]. So what I would say is this — if you bring in a guy like myself, Diego Pavia, Joe Burrow was in that spread offense [at LSU href="https://athlonsports.com/college/lsu-tigers"], you need to bring in elements of that offense. The days of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole are over."

Griffin also said Pavia reminded him of what Baker Mayfield has become with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers , and you could do a lot worse as a comparison. Give Pavia a complete passing game with shot plays off of play-action, let him be a bit reckless and train him at the same time to work within the system. Pavia has enough above the neck to make that happen over time.

In 2025, Pavia completed 267-of-378 passes (70.4%) for 3,539 yards (9.4 yards per attempt), 29 touchdowns, eight interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 116.7. He ran the ball 152 times for 983 yards (excluding sacks), 10 touchdowns and three fumbles.

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik looks to pass during the first half of the 2025 Pinstripe Bowl against Penn at Yankee Stadium.Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Cade Klubnik , Clemson

When Klubnik gets in rooms with teams, the primary question will be: What's the deal with the fall-off in 2025? In 2024, Klubnik looked like at least a second-day draft pick, completing 308-of-486 passes for 3,639 yards, 36 touchdowns, six interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 105.6. There had been a gradual rise to his game in his first three seasons at Clemson, and then 2025 happened.

Injuries didn't help — Klubnik dealt with ankle, throwing hand and quadriceps ailments last season — and his intermediate and deep passes didn't have the same zip. He was less efficient in the red zone, with as many negative plays as positive ones. Klubnik was also a more dangerous (in both ways) runner in 2024, with 588 yards, seven touchdowns and nine fumbles on 99 carries (excluding sacks).

At his healthy best, Klubnik can work the ball to all areas of the field, and he's particularly good with the deep ball, throwing with both touch and velocity. In 2024, he completed 35-of-78 passes of 20 or more air yards for 1,240 yards, 15 touchdowns, three interceptions and a passer rating of 115.1. As a thrower on the move in 2024, he completed 30-of-73 passes for 446 yards, four touchdowns, three interceptions and a passer rating of 62.9. The pocket is really where you want him.

At his best, Klubnik is an interesting combination of above-average athletic tools and a good head for the game. He can process coverages and progress though his reads, and as a result, he would be a good developmental starter in any Shanahan/McVay system in which the design of the offense gives the quarterback a comfortable landing.

In 2025, Klubnik completed 257-of-392 passes (65.6%) for 2,943 yards (7.5 yards per attempt), 16 touchdowns, six interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 95.2. He ran the ball 69 times for 223 yards (excluding sacks), four touchdowns and four fumbles.

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar drops back in the pocket while looking to throw a pass during the second quarter against Villanova. (Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images)© Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Drew Allar , Penn State

Allar may have the most variance of any quarterback in this class. When he's on, he's absolutely terrifying, with arm strength and athleticism straight out of science fiction. But on the downside — and this is why a lot of people were encouraged by his decision to return to the Nittany Lions for a third starting season — there are a lot of basic, fundamental things where he lags. Sadly, the broken left ankle he suffered against Northwestern in October halted his development.

Allar can just bull through defenders as a designed runner or scrambler, and his arm strength is truly formidable. But the difference between arm strength and arm talent shows up far too often in a negative sense. In 2025, Allar completed just 5-of-13 passes of 20 or more air yards for 143 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 119.6.

Interceptions aren't Allar's problem — his 61:13 career touchdown-to-interception ratio will tell you that — but timing and accuracy? Those are serious issues. He will miss his targets on simple screens and slants; his predilection for pre-determining his targets will leave him shorthanded in the NFL; and his throwing mechanics are inconsistent at best. When he tries to truncate his delivery to deal with pressure, his accuracy slips precipitously.

Josh Allen may be the NFL's ultimate outlier as a big, raw, gifted quarterback because he was able to transcend some major mechanical and accuracy issues at Wyoming to become what he is today. Betting on any prospect to become the next Josh Allen is a good way to get fired. That said, former New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll got that job based on his work as Allen's offensive coordinator with the Buffalo Bills from 2018-21. Daboll rebuilt Allen from the studs, beginning with route concepts that would provide easy answers, and let Allen's freakish athleticism do the rest. Allar will require a similar journey and similar patience.

In 2025, limited by a season-ending broken ankle in October, Allar completed 103-of-159 passes (64.8%) for 1,100 yards (6.9 yards per attempt), eight touchdowns, three interceptions and an NFL passer rating of 93.8. He ran the ball 30 times for 209 yards (excluding sacks), one touchdown and one fumble.

Some stats for this article were provided by Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions.

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Mar 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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