The 2026 rookie quarterback draft class is less than impressive, to say the least.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just one player, Indiana\u2019s Fernando Mendoza, is projected to be anything more than a backup in his rookie year and even he might start the season second on the Raiders\u2019 depth chart behind Kirk Cousins, assuming he\u2019s the top pick in the NFL draft.<\/p>\n
Just one other quarterback, Alabama\u2019s Ty Simpson, is projected as a potential first-round pick. He\u2019s been tied to the Jets and Cardinals in either the first or second rounds.\u00a0 Beyond that duo, fantasy fans are looking at a list of signal-callers who are unlikely to make a first-year impact and might not make a fantasy impact in their career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s my look at the top 10 rookie quarterbacks heading into the 2026 NFL draft.<\/p>\n
2026 Fantasy Rookie Quarterback Rankings<\/p>\n
Rk<\/p>\n
Player<\/p>\n
Pos<\/p>\n
TM<\/p>\n
Bye<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
Fernando Mendoza<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
IND<\/p>\n
22<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
Ty Simpson<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
ALA<\/p>\n
23<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
Garrett Nussmeier<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
LSU<\/p>\n
24<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
Drew Allar<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
PSU<\/p>\n
22<\/p>\n
5<\/p>\n
Carson Beck<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
MIA<\/p>\n
23<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
Taylen Green<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
ARK<\/p>\n
23<\/p>\n
7<\/p>\n
Cade Klubnik<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
CLE<\/p>\n
22<\/p>\n
8<\/p>\n
Cole Payton<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
NDST<\/p>\n
23<\/p>\n
9<\/p>\n
Diego Pavia<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
VAN<\/p>\n
24<\/p>\n
10<\/p>\n
Behren Morton<\/p>\n
QB<\/p>\n
TXT<\/p>\n
24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 rookie quarterback draft class is less than impressive, to say the least.\u00a0 Just one player, Indiana\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-591099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}