{"id":270380,"date":"2025-11-08T17:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T17:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/270380\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T17:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T17:11:09","slug":"nfl-evaluators-tab-indiana-qb-fernando-mendoza-as-top-2026-draft-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/270380\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL evaluators tab Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza as top 2026 draft prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza has surged to the top 2026 NFL draft prospect, according to a new <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/46890526\/poll-mendoza-top-vote-getter-qb1-upcoming-nfl-draft\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ESPN poll<\/a> of 25 leagues scouts and executives.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the latest round of voting, Mendoza received 13 first-place votes, edging out Oregon\u2019s Dante Moore (6) and Alabama\u2019s Ty Simpson (3), despite none of those three receiving a single vote in the initial poll six weeks ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Other quarterback included Oklahoma\u2019s John Mateer, Cincinnati\u2019s Brendan Sorsby and South Carolina\u2019s LaNorris Sellers, each with one vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not a stellar class,\u201d one scout told ESPN, noting that the pool becomes more intriguing if underclassmen decide to declare. \u201cThe top is better than last year\u2019s class, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mendoza\u2019s rise stems from his development under new Indiana coach Curt Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan. Since transferring from Cal, the 6-foot-5, 225-pound junior has thrown for 25 touchdowns with a 72.3% completion rate and averaged 9.5 yards per attempt. He\u2019s also rushed for four scores.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has \u2018wow\u2019 throws and playmaking passer ability,\u201d a scout said. \u201cHe\u2019s decisive, he sees the field well, and he\u2019s very tough in the pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mendoza\u2019s abilities resonated positively with NFL evaluators. While scouts caution he\u2019s not yet a lock to be the No. 1 overall pick, his traits have made him the early favorite to headline the 2026 draft class.<\/p>\n<p>More college football news:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza has surged to the top 2026 NFL draft prospect, according to a new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-270380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}