A lower-round AJ Brown to a 306lb missile: the 2026 NFL draft’s under-the-radar prospects

Cole Payton, QB, North Dakota State

You have to go back to 2013 to find a year in which fewer than four quarterbacks were selected in the top 100 picks. But in this year’s mediocre quarterback class, the fourth quarterback may not go off the board until day three. After Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, it’s unclear who will even be the third taken. There is a chasm from the top two down to LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Miami’s Carson Beck. All three are flawed. The most tantalizing mid-round quarterback is Payton, a one-year, lefty starter out of North Dakota State.

Behold:

NDSU have become something of a quiet quarterback factory. Over the last 10 drafts, the Bison are tied with Alabama for second among quarterback draft selections. Payton is more Trey Lance than Carson Wentz as a prospect: an impressive athlete who needs development as a passer.

At 6ft 2in and 235lbs, Payton is built like a running back. And before 2025, he was used as one, lining up in the backfield as a battering ram in the run game. But in 2025, he was handed the starting quarterback job and torched everyone at the FCS level. He was efficient and explosive as a runner and thrower. The numbers are jarring. According to PFF, Payton joined Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, and Joe Burrow as the only quarterback to post a big-time throw rate over 8%, lead college football in big-time throws versus the blitz, and limit his turnover-worthy play rate to less than 2% when throwing from a clean pocket. That’s an impressive CV for a one-year starter with the wonkiest throwing motion you will ever see.

Payton doesn’t really throw the ball as much as hurl it. There is a little Philip Rivers, a little Tim Tebow. But even with his peculiar release, there are high-level throws to every area of the field. At this stage, he’s more of a runner who throws occasionally than a quarterback capable of marshaling an entire offense.

NFL teams will question whether he can be a viable pro quarterback. Absorbing the nuances of a rhythmic, full-field passing attack while overhauling his throwing mechanics will be a challenge. Most likely, he will be viewed in the Taysom Hill mould: part-time running back, part-time tight end, short-yardage weapon. But in a quarterback class that lacks sizzle, Payton will be an option late on day two. The right team could take him as an early-down, do-everything offensive weapon while developing him as a quarterback in the background.

Chris Bell, WR, Louisville

What if I told you that AJ Brown may be available on day two of the draft?

This year’s class lacks fireworks at the skill positions, with one exception: wide receiver. There may not be a sure-fire playmaker like Malik Nabers or Ja’Marr Chase topping the board, but there are currently 17 receivers in the top 100 of the Consensus Big Board. And they broadly fall into three buckets: reliable, pro-ready receivers with some athletic upside; reliable, smooth receivers without game-breaking speed; and height-weight-speed phenoms who lack refinement or played in goofy offenses that inflated their production.

Then there is a fourth bucket: Chris Bell.

Comparing anyone to Brown sounds silly, but Bell brings the same profile to the party. He is a big, friendly target who delights in bodying up cornerbacks and separating late in the rep. Unlike Brown, he isn’t a consistent downfield threat. But Bell does his damage on short, sharp routes and then creates after the catch – the lifeblood of pro schemes. In the open field, he is tough to tackle and has the plant-and-fire burst to turn easy completions into chunk gains.

Yet there are caveats. He tore his ACL in his final game for Louisville, meaning he will miss a significant chunk of his rookie season. Beyond the medical concerns, there are also other red flags: an allergy to the middle of the field, persistent penalty problems, his college usage and his emotional maturity. Those risks will push him down draft boards as teams chase players who can make an immediate impact or gravitate to more reliable prospects.

Bell is far from perfect but the talent is undeniable. He smacks of a player who will fall through the cracks as teams overthink the process. For a playoff-caliber team with a settled wide receiver room, Bell will add a genuine playmaking ability outside the top 50 picks.

Max Iheanachor, OT, Arizona State

In four years, Iheanachor has gone from not playing the sport to being a potential first-round pick.

The mammoth, 6ft 6inch, 321lbs tackle only picked up football in junior college. Born in Nigeria before moving to Compton for high school, Iheanachor’s first loves were soccer and basketball. His high school didn’t even have a football team, and he didn’t take his first snap until his second year in junior college. But he has fallen for the game and recently got a tattoo of the NFL shield. “It’s definitely something that means a lot to me,” Iheanachor said at his pro day. “I love football, love the game, so why not?”

After discovering football, Iheanachor quickly became a high-level junior college recruit and, over two years as a starter at Arizona State, rounded into a top 50 prospect. Despite his inexperience, he has shown all the traits of a starting NFL tackle: size, spring, balance, length and natural strength and power. He didn’t give up a sack in 2025 and conceded the lowest pressure rate of any of the tackle prospects.

Over the past five years, teams have shown they will bet on raw athletic tools along the offensive line in the first round rather than chase technical proficiency. There are only so many people who are big enough and athletic enough to keep up with the likes of Myles Garrett and Micah Parsons swooping in off the edge. The technical details are essential, but they can be taught. What Iheanachor has is unteachable size, athleticism and strength. And he is already ahead, technically, of where Jordan Mailata, Amarius Mims and Patrick Paul were when they entered the league.

There will be growing pains. Iheanchor got by in college largely due to his raw talent, and his technique is shaky. As a relative newbie to the sport, soaking up a pro playbook while trying to hone his craft will take time. But this draft class lacks linemen with prototypical size and agility for a tackle. Iheanachor is one of the few that checks those boxes. If he sneaks into the first round, it wouldn’t be a shock.

Caleb Banks, DL, Florida

If you’re looking for big nose tackles in this year’s class, you can take your pick. The draft is filled with heavy-footed run-stuffers who can survive in the mosh-pit that is an NFL line of scrimmage on early downs. But finding players who can trouble the quarterback on third downs is tough. It’s even trickier to find prospects who can fill both roles, playing all three downs and offering just as much thump against the run as pressure they generate on opposing quarterbacks.

The most likely candidate is Banks, a 6ft 6in, 335lbs bundle of size, speed and power. Banks is as disruptive as they come. He is the most naturally talented defensive lineman in the class, creating constant disruption thanks to his size and agility. Rarely do you find a lineman so big who can play so low to the ground who is also explosive off the ball. Not since Jordan Davis entered the draft has a 6ft 6in defensive lineman tested so well athletically.

But he also happens to have Joel Embiid’s feet. Banks missed almost all of the 2025 season with a foot injury. After a breakout season in 2024, he fractured his foot in Florida’s finale. He made it back for the team’s third game of 2025 against LSU, and then broke his foot again. Banks was able to return for Florida’s final two games of his final college season, but broke his foot again before he tested at the combine. A big man with persistent foot injuries will always make teams queasy.

Add to that, for a player who was bigger, faster and stronger than everyone he played, Banks’ production was relatively muted. He started just 24 games over his three seasons at Florida and was more disruptive than productive.

The upside, though, is through the roof. Every franchise in the league is chasing disruptive players along the interior. And on a per-snap basis, no one in college football lived in the backfield as often as Banks. He had a pressure rate of 21.4% on third down in 2024, which would place him in the 90th percentile among all DTs drafted in the last decade. And it would be by far the highest figure for any defensive lineman drafted over that span who weighed 320lbs or more. Tack on rock-solid run defense, and you’re looking at someone who could have a Dexter Lawrence, Chris Jones or Leonard Williams type impact.

No prospect has a wider range of outcomes. Injuries could force him out of the league early, or he could be a foundational piece. The medical concerns will probably push him into the second round, but his potential may be too much for teams late in the first round to pass up.

Uar Bernard, DL, NFL International Player Pathway Program

In a weak overall draft class, teams will use their late picks to throw darts at the best athletes, hoping they can develop them into football players. Taking a chance on a stash-and-develop player can yield a Mailata.

Enter: Uar Bernard, the 21-year-old Nigerian prospect from the NFL’s IPP. Bernard weighs 306lbs, barely an ounce of which is fat, and has arms so long he can tie his shoe laces standing up. At a recent pre-draft showcase, he broke all known jumping records for a defensive line prospect. He broad jumped 14 inches more than any defensive tackle that tested at the combine and leapt 39 inches on the vertical jump, which was higher than almost all wide receivers who have tested this cycle. Oh, and he also ran a 4.63 second 40-yard dash, a hair away from tying with Notre Dame wide receiver Malachi Fields, a consensus second-round pick.

“Hands down, he is the most explosive athlete I’ve ever seen in my life,” Jordan Luallen, who trains prospects for the combine, told The Athletic. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Can he play football? Who knows? The game is played in pads, not shorts. And Bernard has already said training with pads has been an adjustment. It is also a contact sport, not an athletic showcase. Plenty of teams have whiffed on athletic phenoms with little feel for the game. But is every team in the league racing to meet with Bernard? You bet.

Bernard is working out as a defensive lineman, but he could switch positions depending on which team drafts him. And somebody will take a flyer in the seventh round. Being a member of the IPP brings Bernard added value. Players from the program are given a roster exemption, meaning they do not take up a spot on the team’s 70-man roster. For a late seventh-round draft pick, a team will effectively snag a free hit on one of the most athletic players in the league.