{"id":557009,"date":"2026-03-31T22:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/557009\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T22:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:37:11","slug":"2026-nfl-draft-mel-kiper-shakes-up-top-10-qb-rankings-as-draft-gets-closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/557009\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft: Mel Kiper shakes up Top 10 QB rankings as draft gets closer"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the calendar turns the page to April, the 2026 NFL Draft is officially just three weeks away, with the first round set to kickoff April 23 from Pittsburgh. In preparation of that new reality, ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. overhauled his NFL Draft Big Board Top 25<\/a> players and positional rankings this week.<\/p>\n

That included an updated Top 10 quarterback ranking that saw an interesting shift in the middle. Kiper\u2019s Top 5 quarterbacks stayed the same, with Fernando Mendoza<\/a> firmly holding onto the No. 1 spot despite recent buzz around his No. 2 QB, Alabama<\/a>\u2018s Ty Simpson<\/a>. Miami<\/a>\u2018s Carson Beck<\/a>, Penn State<\/a>\u2018s Drew Allar<\/a> and LSU<\/a>\u2018s Garrett Nussmeier<\/a> round out Kiper\u2019s personal Top 5 QB ranking.<\/p>\n

Check out the rest of Mel Kiper Jr.\u2019s Top 10 quarterback ranking ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft later this month:<\/p>\n

The reigning Heisman Trophy winner and national champion QB has long been considered the top quarterback in the draft class and is practically a guarantee to be the No. 1 overall selection by the Las Vegas Raiders in three weeks.<\/p>\n

Mendoza is coming off a magical 2025 season at Indiana, which he capped by securing Indiana\u2019s first-ever national title in football. The Hoosiers QB led the FBS with 41 touchdowns and 3,535 yards on 72-percent passing to cement his status as the top quarterback in Kiper\u2019s QB ranking.<\/p>\n

\"Ty(Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Widely considered the second-best quarterback in the class, Simpson has received some lofty praise of late from multiple NFL draft analysts. ESPN\u2019s Dan Orlovsky and podcaster Todd McShay have even suggested Simpson could be a better QB prospect than Mendoza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, questions remain about the former Alabama QB whose only college experience is one season as the Crimson Tide starter in 2015. Nevertheless, Simpson showed plenty during those 15 starts, when he threw for 3,567 yards and 28 touchdowns to just five interceptions last year.<\/p>\n

This is where it gets interesting. There\u2019s believed to be a significant drop-off between the top two quarterbacks and the rest of the field, though Beck is currently atop that second-tier pack according to Kiper.<\/p>\n

The former Georgia and Miami QB brings some of the most considerable experience to the field having won two national championships as a backup with the Bulldogs and played for another last season with the \u2018Canes. Beck finished 2025 with 3,813 yards and a career-high 30 touchdowns on 72.4% passing.<\/p>\n

Kiper elevated the physically-gifted Allar to No. 4 in his prior QB rankings following an impressive performance at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. The 6-foot-5 and 228-pound Allar proved he\u2019s fully recovered from a broken ankle suffered halfway through the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Along with his prototypical NFL frame, Allar has flashed other NFL-quality traits, including a strong throwing arm. But his lack of consistent success during his time at Penn State has definitely raised questions among NFL scouts and coaches.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Nussmeier certainly has the NFL pedigree as the son of longtime NFL offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, but rounds out the Top 5 in Kiper\u2019s ranking due in large part to a disappointing 2025 season in which nagging injuries sidelined him over the final three games.<\/p>\n

After throwing for more than 4,000 yards and nearly 30 touchdowns as a junior, Nussmeier accounted for just 1,927 passing yards and five touchdowns in nine games in his second season as LSU\u2019s before being benched down the stretch following a coaching change.<\/p>\n

This is the big change in Kiper\u2019s QB ranking. The ESPN draft guru bumped the dual-threat North Dakota State quarterback to No. 6 on his personal ranking after posted one of the fastest 40 times at last month\u2019s NFL Combine in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-3 Payton earned All-American status after a record-setting senior season in which he combined for 3,496 yards and 29 total touchdowns in his lone year as the Bisons\u2019 QB1. That included completing 72% of his passes for 2.719 yads and 16 touchdowns through the air.<\/p>\n

Kiper moved the uber-athletic Green back a spot in this week\u2019s ranking despite an eye-popping showing at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. The 6-foot-6, 228-pound caught the attention of NFL scouts when he ran a 4.36-second 40 to go along with a 43.5-inch vertical jump and a 11-foot-2 broad jump.<\/p>\n

The former Boise State transfer combined for more than 12,000 total yards and 94 total touchdowns between Boise and Arkansas. But after tallying 3,756 total yards and 23 touchdowns in 202, Green had just 2,714 yards on 60.7% passing and 27 total touchdowns last season.<\/p>\n

\"\"(Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Klubnik holds steady at No. 8 on Kiper\u2019s board as one of the more experienced QBs available. The 22-year-old Klubnik amassed more than 10,000 passing yards and 90 total touchdowns over the past four seasons at Clemson, but struggled with consistency, especially in the win-loss column.<\/p>\n

Despite that passing production, which included a career-best 3,639 passing yards and 36 TDs in 2024, Klubnik went just 26-13 over three years as the Tigers\u2019 QB1. That included just 7-6 during a rough 2025.<\/p>\n

After opting to return for his senior season with the Illini, Altmyer bet on himself and it paid off in spades after he produced career-highs with 3,007 passing yards and 22 touchdowns on 67.4% passing during a breakout 2025.<\/p>\n

The Starkville, Miss. native has proven he can win games in one of the toughest conferences in college football after going 23-12 over the past three seasons as the Fightin\u2019 Illini\u2019s starting quarterback.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rounding out Kiper\u2019s Top 10 QB ranking is the dynamic Bears quarterback who is coming off back-to-back 3,000-yard seasons at Baylor after transferring in from Mississippi State in 2023.<\/p>\n

After battling injuries through much of his college career, Robertson finally made it through a full season in 2025. And he made the most of the experience with a career year, producing a Big 12-leading 3,681 yards and 31 touchdowns on 60.3% passing last season.<\/p>\n

Just missed: Diego Pavia<\/a>, Vanderbilt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the calendar turns the page to April, the 2026 NFL Draft is officially just three weeks away,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[7307,7308,222791,125269,7312,7314,399,7315,7322,398,396,397,7327,99,125272,53934],"class_list":{"0":"post-557009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-cade-klubnik-22-westlake","9":"tag-carson-beck-20-mandarin","10":"tag-cole-payton-21-westside","11":"tag-diego-pavia-20-volcano-vista","12":"tag-drew-allar-22-medina","13":"tag-fernando-mendoza-22-columbus","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-garrett-nussmeier-21-marcus","16":"tag-luke-altmyer-21-starkville","17":"tag-ncaa","18":"tag-ncaa-football","19":"tag-ncaafootball","20":"tag-sawyer-robertson-21-coronado","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-taylen-green-21-lewisville","23":"tag-ty-simpson-22-westview"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}