The 2026 NFL draft class will have a ton of talent, just like every other one. But at certain positions, it already seems clear it’s going to lag behind the usual average. And that seems especially true at quarterback.
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Last year, the 2025 draft class didn’t have great representation at the quarterback position either. Only two were drafted in the first round, and only one in the top 20. It could be more of the same in 2026, with Indiana standout Fernando Mendoza all but guaranteed to go number one overall. Behind him, however, there’s not much to pique the interest of teams.
But even Mendoza, with his undefeated season, Heisman Trophy, and winning smile, doesn’t have everybody convinced. CBS Sports college football analyst Emory Hunt believes that the entire 2026 QB class, including Mendoza, can’t hold a candle to the sixth quarterback selected in that supposedly weak 2025 QB class: Cleveland Browns fifth-round pick Shedeur Sanders.
“There is not, and not even Fernando Mendoza. I have a higher grade on Shedeur Sanders than I did on anybody in this draft class,” Hunt declared (via 92.3 The Fan).
CBS Sports' Emory Hunt believes there is no QB in the 2026 class who is better than Shedeur Sanders, even projected #1 pick Fernando Mendoza.
"There is not, and not even Fernando Mendoza. I have a higher grade on Shedeur Sanders than I did on anybody in this draft class," Hunt… pic.twitter.com/DPkLkjZskI
— BrownsNation.com (@BrownsNationcom) February 24, 2026
While it’s true that Mendoza was in a great situation with great coaching, and he kind of came out of nowhere to have one good season, that should not count against him. Joe Burrow did a very similar thing, and his game sure translated to the NFL.
Mendoza won every award imaginable last year. Not just the Heisman, but also consensus All-American honors, the Maxwell Award, and the Walter Camp Award. All of those nods generally go to the best player in the nation, which Mendoza was.
He threw for over 3,500 yards and tossed 41 TDs, the latter of which led the country. Mendoza also completed 72 percent of his passes while also leading the nation in adjusted yards per pass (10.78) and passer rating (182.9). Notably, he rushed 90 times and scored seven more TDs on the ground.
Mendoza seems as close to a can’t-miss prospect at QB as we’ve seen enter the league in recent years. Coming out of Colorado, Sanders was certainly highly-rated by so-called draft experts as well before he ended up slipping to the fifth round for a still-unknown reason.
But not nearly this highly-rated. Sanders had a lot more kinks in his game than Mendoza did, and his early NFL career proves he still has a lot to work on. He went 3-4 and had a 7-10 TD-INT ratio as a rookie.
If Emory Hunt wanted to make some headlines with a hot take, he certainly did that here. He’d be hard-pressed to find any other draft analyst worth their salt who would agree with this take. But perhaps that was the whole point.
