{"id":253919,"date":"2026-01-23T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/253919\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T17:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T17:30:07","slug":"indiana-quarterback-and-likely-no-1-pick-fernando-mendoza-declares-for-2026-nfl-draft-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/253919\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana quarterback and likely No 1 pick Fernando Mendoza declares for 2026 NFL draft | NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza announced Friday morning that he is bypassing his senior season and entering the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/nfl\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL<\/a> draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The university\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2025\/dec\/13\/fernando-mendoza-heisman-indiana-college-football-history\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first Heisman Trophy winner<\/a> effectively put himself in position to be selected with the top overall pick of the draft after announcing his decision in a video on his Instagram account. The Las Vegas Raiders hold the top pick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cComing to Indiana was a leap of faith, a leap that led me to go 16-0 with my boys and a national championship,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cAnd has now led me here, the moment where I get to dream bigger. &#8230; With trust in my foundation and gratitude for every person that has helped me reach this moment. I\u2019m ready to take the next step.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cMy LinkedIn status is now, open to work, and I\u2019m officially declaring for the 2026 NFL Draft.\u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Mendoza, 22, provided the signature moment to his epic season with a dive across the goal line on fourth down in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/jan\/19\/college-football-playoff-final-miami-indiana\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No 1 Hoosiers\u2019 27-21 victory over No 10 Miami<\/a> in the College Football Playoff national championship game on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Listed at 6ft 5in and 225lb, Mendoza completed 72.0% of his passes for 3,535 yards and 41 touchdowns this season. He also rushed for 276 yards and seven scores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza announced Friday morning that he is bypassing his senior season and entering the 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-253919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}