Surprise QB emerging as No. 2 prospect in NFL Draft

As we head into the NFL Scouting Combine in only a few short weeks, we're fully looking forward to the next NFL season. We are two months away from the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, and teams are already deciding what positional need they need to fix before entering training camp in the summer.

Quarterback is always the most-talked-about decision, and even though this year's depth is more shallow than usual, that doesn't mean it still isn't going to take center focus. Indiana's Fernando Mendoza is strongly expected to go No. 1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders , but after that? It's a crapshoot.

While Alabama's Ty Simpson is penciled in as QB2 for the class, everything can change at the drop of a hat, and that's what NFL insider Jason LaConfora believes is already happening. Per LaConfora's trusted personnel executive sources, North Dakota State Bison QB Cole Payton has some teams seeing him as QB2 in the draft with low first-round/high second-round upside.

In an upcoming draft where every signal-caller not named Mendoza has massive question marks hanging over them, the Bison leader could be the Tyler Shough of this year's selections. The dual-threat QB threw for 2,719 yards in 2025 along with 777 yards on the run. At 6-foot-3, 233 lbs., Payton is a physically tough QB in the same mold as former Bison icon Carson Wentz.

Wentz was also in a QB class in 2016 that seemed not very deep, aside from himself and first-overall pick Jared Goff of California. Funnily enough, Mendoza began his career with the Golden Bears, making the similarities uncanny a decade later.

Although Payton isn't seen as a Wentz-level prospect with a chance to go second-overall, a strong combine following an impressive Senior Bowl could see teams using a first-round pick to get him. This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: Surprise QB emerging as No. 2 prospect in NFL Draft Fernando Mendoza is the top QB entering the 2026 NFL Draft.

But a new name is starting to make noise as the next best signal-caller on the board. Fernando Mendoza is the top QB entering the 2026 NFL Draft. But a new name is starting to make noise as the next best signal-caller on the board.