It's NFL Draft season year-round here are Fantasy Life, so much so that we have an entire page dedicated to coverage for the upcoming draft. Next week, we’re unveiling my first big board of the 2026 NFL Draft process—a top-50 snapshot of where we sit now. In advance of that, we wanted to spotlight a few risers and fallers relevant to that top-50 board. 

2026 NFL Draft Risers

Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza

In our first in-season 2026 NFL Mock Draft, which published last week on FantasyLife.com, we had Mendoza going No. 19 to the Rams. If Mendoza keeps playing like he did over the weekend against Illinois, he’s going to be higher in our next mock.

Over three quarters of Indiana’s 63-10 romp—the game got so out of hand that Mendoza hit the showers before the fourth quarter—Mendoza went 21-of-23 for for 267 yards and 5 TD.

In blowout conditions, Indiana’s passing script toggled conservative, calling for higher-percentage throws. Mendoza converted them like clockwork. He was 17-for-17 on throws within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, and 3-for-3 on intermediate throws between the hashes. 

Mendoza went 1-for-2 on intermediate throws to the left sideline—the completion was for a touchdown—and his other incompletion came on his only throw that traveled 20+ air yards.

While the constriction of the game script didn’t allow Mendoza to show off his full skill set, it did highlight the best aspect of Mendoza’s game: Rhythm throwing inside the pocket. That was especially cool to see in a high-profile matchup one year after Mendoza rarely got clean pockets playing behind Cal’s rancid offensive line.

Mendoza is an in-structure thrower who runs your concepts as written on schedule. He isn’t the athlete that some of the other 2026-eligible quarterbacks are, and we saw him struggle at times at Cal when pushed off his spot. 

We haven’t seen that scenario much this year, with Indiana not having been challenged. In 2025, Mendoza has found himself outside of the pocket on only 8-of-115 dropbacks. Those eight plays featured multiple sacks and a near-interception, and generated, in sum, a mere one yard. 

We know Mendoza can succeed from within structure. Can he show improved out-of-structure decision-making when Indiana’s schedule ramps up? A nice test is coming this weekend against Iowa.

Oregon QB Dante Moore

Moore was a ballyhooed five-star recruit who signed with Chip Kelly’s UCLA Bruins out of high school. Moore was thrown into the fire immediately. He struggled as a true freshman. After the season, Moore left for Oregon, and Kelly agreed to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator.

Moore sat behind Dillon Gabriel in 2024. He’s off to a hot start to 2025, posting a 11/1 TD/INT ration on 74.7% completions through four games. Moore’s passing mechanics look far more polished than we saw in 2023, and he’s clearly more comfortable reading the field. 

 Moore’s re-introduction to the football public will occur this Saturday in a marquee matchup against Penn State. If Moore outperforms PSU QB Drew Allar, you’re going to hear a lot more chatter about the redshirt sophomore potentially joining the 2026 draft class.

Michigan RB Justice Haynes

Haynes ranked RB17 in my too-early 2026 position rankings over the summer. I liked the flashes I had seen of him over 121 plays from scrimmage his first two years at Alabama. But I needed to see more over a larger sample to move him up. 

At Michigan, Haynes found a bell cow role, and he’s thriving in it with 537 yards and 6 TD through four games. Haynes now sits comfortably inside my top-10 RBs of the 2026 class.

Haynes offers home run speed (4.35 estimated 40) in a bowling ball frame (5-foot-10, 210 pounds). He’s effective in both man and zone concepts while offering both explosive plays and rugged efficiency. 

Haynes has averaged 3.9 yards after contact per attempt over his career. He has already broken more tackles this season than he did in 12 games last season, showing increased power and body armor in his third collegiate season.

If Haynes keeps playing like this, he could be in play for Day 2 in April. 

Miami EDGE Rueben Bain Jr.

No player in college football has had a more dominant start than Rueben Bain Jr.

Healthy after an injury-marred 2024, Bain has been a two-way force with 22 tackles, two sacks, four TFL, an interception and a forced fumble through four games. Those numbers do not speak to the totality of his domination, with Bain consistently throwing a wrench early into plays with how quickly he breeches the line of scrimmage.

Bain is easily PFF’s highest-graded FBS defender. The 6-foot-3, 275-pound Bain has a sawed-off build and a violent style. He fires low off the snap and consistently wins the leverage battle, with a power/burst combination that plays against both the run and pass.

Bain is an elite run defender—that part of his game is unimpeachable. And through one month of the 2025 season he’s making an emphatic case that the dropoff in his pass-rushing last season was due to the soft tissue injury that slowed him.

My EDGE3 over the summer, Bain has surged to EDGE1. Check back next week to see where he checks in on our first 2026 big board. 

Tennessee EDGE Joshua Josephs

Josephs sat just outside my top-12 EDGE rushers this summer. He’s now inside the top 10.

Josephs has an unorthodox game because of his unique dimensions. He’s undersized (6-foot-3, 240 pounds), but is blessed with explosive athleticism (estimated 4.63 40) and surprising length for his frame (83⅜”). 

Josephs, who was all over the field in a big matchup against Georgia in Week 3, currently sits with a 90.1 PFF pass-rushing grade one year after posting a strong 86.4 grade in that category. Josephs will appeal to 3-4 teams looking to add juice at the edge-rushing OLB position.

LSU CB Mansoor Delane

Delane, a Virginia Tech transfer, made an emphatic statement in the opener against Clemson. Left on an island in man coverage in a primetime game, Delane allowed a single reception on eight targets.

Through four games, Delane has surrendered only four catches for 36 yards on 18 targets. He broke up four of those incompletions, and he intercepted another. The 6-foot, 190-pound corner has entered the first-round discussion.

Holding Pattern for 2026 NFL Draft

Oklahoma QB John Mateer

Mateer was the draft’s hottest riser through four weeks—he had risen all the way to QB2 on my board prior to his injury—but news of his hand surgery earlier this week puts us in a bit of a holding pattern. Mateer will miss a month.

Mateer was sensational in a win over Michigan earlier this month, making a small handful of NFL-caliber throws. His performance in last week’s win over Auburn becomes more impressive with the context that he played through the hand injury after it struck an Auburn defender’s helmet on a follow-through in the first half.

Mateer was averaging 350 YPG of total offense through the first four games. Oklahoma is praying it can get him back for the mid-October game at South Carolina—if Mateer hits that timeline, he will have missed only two games (Kent State and Texas).

The injury is obviously bad news for Mateer and Oklahoma. But with five consecutive top-20 teams on the schedule to close out the regular season following the South Carolina game, the stage is set for Mateer to have the opportunity to not only stabilize his stock, but to potentially make the 2026 QB1 argument if he comes back healthy and plays well down the stretch.

Miami QB Carson Beck

If Beck had declared for last year’s draft, he likely would have been picked around where Quinn Ewers went in mid-R7. Instead, Beck made the inspired decision to return to college. He made another in picking Miami, replacing Cam Ward in a QB-friendly system.

Beck is a divisive prospect who draws varied opinions in the scouting community. Coming into the season, one of the NFL’s scouting services gave him a Round 2 grade, while the other assigned him a Round 5 grade.

Through the first two weeks, Beck made the argument that he should be seen closer to the former projection than the latter. He was impressive in his Hurricanes debut, going 20-for-30 for 205 yards and 2 TD in a win over No. 6 Notre Dame. The next week, Beck had a nearly perfect throwing line against an FCS team.

But even though Beck had 340 passing yards the next week against USF, he threw two interceptions—a coverage misread on the first, and a poor throw on the second. His third interception of the season came in a lethargic performance last weekend against Florida, an on-the-move throw down the field that Beck shouldn’t have attempted.

At two big programs now, Beck has shown he has the skill set to be an NFL game manager. But game managers need to take care of the ball. Beck has thrown 15 interceptions in his 16 games. He simply must take better care of the ball for the remainder of the season.

2026 NFL Draft Fallers

Texas QB Arch Manning

The consensus QB1 on industry boards over the summer, Manning’s stock has cratered. Three years into his career, the game appears to be moving too fast. Perhaps the strangest thing to witness has been the depreciation of his mechanics. 

In a limited two-start sample in 2024, Manning displayed repeatable throwing mechanics. In 2025, Manning has shown a bad habit of forgetting his mechanics under duress, hurrying balls out without a base under him. He will also at times eschew his mechanics in clean pockets, flicking balls out sidearm without a base like Ewers. This has cost him both velocity and accuracy. 

Manning still has a tantalizing combination of athleticism and arm talent in a big frame, along with the bloodlines of football royalty. But he needs the fourth year in college that his family was already planning for.

Clemson QB Cade Klubnik / WR Antonio Williams

If I had released a top-50 board over the summer, each of these guys would have been on it. Neither will be included in our initial top-50 board that drops next week. 

Williams missed two games after suffering a hamstring injury in the opener against LSU. He was a non-factor in limited snaps in his return against Syracuse over the weekend, with zero catches on one target.

One season after posting a 36/6 TD/INT ratio, Klubnik owns an ugly 6/4 TD/INT ratio through four games. When Klubnik is at his best, he’s reading the defense quickly, and he’s layering accurate throws with touch. 

We haven’t seen that as much this year, with Klubnik getting stuck on reads, being late on concepts, and, strangely, losing his accuracy at times. Where Klubnik entered the season as a potential first-round pick, he now looks more like a mid-round flier for a team with a quick-hit passing game.

Utah OTs Spencer Fano / Caleb Lomu

I was lower on this combination than others over the summer, ranking Fano OT5 and Lomu OT6. But it appears that I, too, might have been too generous.

It was stunning to see Utah’s offensive line crater last weekend in a humiliating loss to Texas Tech. Fano and Lamu both played poorly.

Fano was penalized twice and didn’t generate movement coming forward. Lomu was even worse in the run game. He wasn’t penalized, but he got beat like a drum in pass-pro, allowing three pressures and two hurries.

Neither player appeared as dominant through the first three games as they’d shown at times in 2024. But those were games against cupcakes, with game plans skewing conservative. Last weekend in a high-profile matchup, both got exposed.

There’s still plenty of time to pick up the pieces, but it’s been a forgettable start for a tackle duo that was being spoken of in lofty terms only one month ago.

Clemson DT Peter Woods

Seen as a consensus top-5 overall pick heading into the season, Woods has underwhelmed. 

He has been held without a sack through four games. More problematically, Woods has accrued only a modest four pressures over 118 pass-rush reps. If there’s good news, it’s that he had three in his most recent game against Syracuse. 

But it was perplexing to see Woods rendered a non-factor against LSU, Troy and Georgia Tech. Woods is such a gifted athlete that he spent the first half of the 2024 season playing EDGE rusher at 6-foot-3, 310 pounds. 

Freed to return to his natural 3-technique position full time in 2025, we were expecting to see fireworks. Instead, Woods has been pedestrian, and, at times, invisible. If he wants to be a top-10 pick in April, he’s going to need a big finish.

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