The Top 300 Players in the 2026 NFL Draft
Caleb Downs, Jeremiyah Love, and Sonny Styles headline a deep 2026 NFL Draft class.
Bandit FootballBrad Beatson

Injury Concerns

    • ⛑️ Availability — Injury history collected from SIS and The Athletic

    Top Quarterback Prospects

    POS RK Player Grade Achetype Badges
    QB1 Fernando Mendoza 83 Sunshine
    QB2 Cade Klubnik 69 Mobile
    QB3 Ty Simpson 68 Career Backup
    QB4 Garrett Nussmeier 65 Pocket
    QB5 Joey Aguilar 63 Mobile ⛑️
    QB6 Drew Allar 62 Project
    QB7 Luke Altmyer 58 Daniel Jones
    QB8 Taylen Green 57 Ball of Clay
    QB9 Diego Pavia 55 Baker Mayfield
    QB10 Haynes King 53 Taysom Hill ⛑️
    QB11 Joe Fagnano 53 "Great in the Room" ⛑️
    QB12 Carson Beck 51 Pop-Punk Distraction ⛑️
    QB13 Sawyer Robertson 46 Pocket
    QB14 Cole Payton 45 Developmental
    QB15 Jalon Daniels 43 Pat White
    QB16 Behren Morton 46 Chris Simms' QB3

    Raw Prospect Scores

    • 🧰 Production Component
      • Source: PFF Weekly Grades — Stresses the importance of game-to-game, play-to-play consistency while adjusting for variance. Accounts for every game played during the quarterback's final two seasons in college.
      • Apply Critical Minimum — Weekly grades below 60.0 cannot be smoothed over by two-year average. Instead, once the acceptable threshold for "below-the-line" grades has been crossed, the prospect's production grade is capped and trends toward more of a boom-bust profile.

    • 🔬 Film Component
      • Source: SIS Scouting Reports — Watch a minimum of 3-5 games per prospect and assign a grade, from 1 (reject) to 9 (rare), to each of their three critical traits and half-dozen or so positional factors. Assign a final grade that projects how the prospect will stack up at their position by the beginning of their second season in the NFL.
      • Apply Critical Minimum — Mediocre traits cannot be smoothed over by average. Instead, once the acceptable threshold for "below-the-line" grades has been crossed, the prospect's scouting grade is capped and trends toward more of a boom-bust profile.

    • ⚖️ Weighting the Two: 80% Prospect Score
      • Position Specific — Some positions have stronger signal in production than film or vice versa and so they are individually weighted to reflect that.
      • 60/20 Film — Quarterback is one of the noisier positions in all of sports from a production standpoint. Film provides a cleaner signal, more often than not.

      Prospect Chips

      • 🔵 Blue Chip Potential 75+ production & 75+ film
      • 🟢 Solid Contributor — 75+ in prod. or film & 68+ in the other
      • ⚪ Situation Dependent — Everyone else

    Player Production Film Chip
    Fernando Mendoza 83.5 68.1 🟢
    Cade Klubnik 79.9 68.5 🟢
    Ty Simpson 77.0 56.4 ⚪
    Garrett Nussmeier 78.6 61.6 ⚪
    Joey Aguilar 79.5 62.5 ⚪
    Drew Allar 76.0 57.0 ⚪
    Luke Altmyer 77.6 54.5 ⚪
    Taylen Green 76.6 39.2 ⚪
    Diego Pavia 81.7 37.5 ⚪
    Haynes King 80.5 37.5 ⚪
    Joe Fagnano 77.0 54.5 ⚪
    Carson Beck 76.0 54.5 ⚪
    Sawyer Robertson 73.6 41.0 ⚪
    Cole Payton Inc. Inc. ⚪
    Jalon Daniels Inc. Inc. ⚪
    Behren Morton Inc. Inc. ⚪

    🦺
    Players with incomplete scores had missing data points and will be revisited after the draft. Bandit Football regrets the error.

    Athleticism, Positional Value, Intagibles

    • 🏅 Athleticism
      • Source: Next Gen Stats — Assigns a 1-10 grade on athletic profile for every player at the Combine. In some cases, NGS estimates the scores if the prospect didn't test in Indianapolis or at their college pro day.
      • RAS, MockDraftable, Football Sheets — I've added these sources to my database for future use. Many prospects had incomplete scores due to lack of testing numbers, so it made more sense to use NGS in this iteration of the model because every prospect ended up with a data point.

    • 📊 Positional Value
      • Source: Spotrac — Analyzing the rookie contract scale and how much guaranteed money each pick receives against the Top 100 cap hits in the NFL by position over the next three seasons. Takes into account the Top 10 highest paid players at their position and the relative cost savings a rookie contract could provide.
      • Additive Bonus — Each player was scored on a 1-10 scale using the consensus big board as a guide for projected savings. Fernando Mendoza was the only player to receive a 10 because starting QBs make anywhere from $30-50 million per season. Other positions, like RB, TE, LB, and S were capped at a maximum 5 points.
      • QB Positional Value
        • 1st Rd: Top 15 pick — 10
        • 1st Rd: Pro Bowl upside — 9
        • 1st Rd: Reliable starter — 8
        • 1st Rd: Situation dependent — 7
        • 2nd Rounder — 6
        • 3rd Rounder — 3
        • Projected Day 3 Pick — 1

      • 🌹🥀 Intangibles
        • Source: Dane Brugler — The Beast prospect guide includes strengths and weaknesses for every player on the big board. Includes off-the-field concerns, quotes from scouts and coaches, and non-negotiable traits for the position.
        • My Judgment — Each player was evaluated based on the additional information, including: injury history, work ethic, football iq, off-field concerns, and non-negotiables for their position. For quarterbacks, my non-negotiable is a willingness to take the hit in order to make a play.

        Badges

        • 💰 Positional Value — Prospect earned a 5.0 or higher based on the potential value of their rookie contract.
        • 💎 Strong Character — Prospect assigned a 5.0 or higher in their intangible score.
        • ⚠️ Investigate Further — Prospect assigned a -5.0 or worse in their intangible score.

        Player Athleticism POS Value Intangibles Badges
        Fernando Mendoza 7.8 10.0 3.0 💰
        Cade Klubnik 7.8 1.0 0.5
        Ty Simpson 6.8 5.0 2.0 💰
        Garrett Nussmeier 7.2 3.0 0.0
        Joey Aguilar 7.5 0.0 -1.0
        Drew Allar 7.3 2.0 0.0
        Luke Altmyer 7.3 0.0 0.0
        Taylen Green 9.9 1.0 2.0
        Diego Pavia 6.3 0.0 5.0 💎
        Haynes King 9.1 0.0 0.0
        Joe Fagnano 7.4 0.0 -3.0
        Carson Beck 7.1 2.0 -11.0 ⚠️
        Sawyer Robertson 6.4 0.0 -1.0
        Cole Payton Inc. Inc. Inc.
        Jalon Daniels Inc. Inc. Inc.
        Behren Morton Inc. Inc. Inc.

        Head back to the Big Board:

        The Top 300 Players in the 2026 NFL Draft
        Caleb Downs, Jeremiyah Love, and Sonny Styles headline a deep 2026 NFL Draft class.
        Bandit FootballBrad Beatson
        Diego Pavia doing the "too small" gesture (L) and looking small (R). Dawg levels for days, though.