Here's Why Wisconsin Football Just Had Its Worst Draft Class in Almost 50 Years

After the Badgers' dismal 4-8 season last fall, it was clear the repercussions of such a miserable campaign would be felt long after the final whistle of the regular season.

Flash forward to the 2026 NFL Draft, and Wisconsin fulfilled a prophecy that looked increasingly likely in the lead-up to the draft — the Badgers failed to have a player selected, their worst showing at the event since 1978 when they also didn't have a single player hear their name called.

Wisconsin football, a program that's regularly sent multiple players to the NFL each season across the past 30 or so years, has fallen from grace in that regard. How did the Badgers' NFL pipeline dry up so quickly and dramatically? Below, we take a look, position-by-position:

Quarterback

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Billy Edwards, Hunter Simmons

Edwards suffered a freak non-contact knee injury in Wisconsin's opener that knocked him out for the season and doomed the Badgers' offense. If Edwards had stayed healthy, did he have a shot to get drafted? It seems highly unlikely, especially behind that offensive line last fall. Wisconsin was never going to send a quarterback to the NFL this offseason.

Running Back

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Cade Yacamelli, Grover Bortolotti

Wisconsin's running back core last fall was comprised mainly of underclassmen. With Yacamelli essentially an afterthought (two carries for 26 yards last season), this is another room that wasn't likely to send a player to the league even if the Badgers' offense didn't implode.

Wide Receiver

Wisconsin wideout Vinny Anthony speaks to members of the media during the NFL Combine. | Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Joseph Griffin Jr, Chris Brooks Jr, Dekel Crowdus, Jayden Ballard, Vinny Anthony, Tyrell Henry

Anthony had the best shot to get taken after he notched 1,063 receiving yards and five touchdowns across the last two seasons. But again, an abhorrent Wisconsin offense doomed its wideouts to meager scraps of production throughout the season. This passing game could barely support one semi-productive wideout, let alone two. The Badgers' offensive ineptitude eliminated any chance their wideouts had at being selected in the NFL Draft.

Tight End

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Lance Mason, Tucker Ashcraft, JT Seagreaves, Jackson Acker, Jackson McGohan

Mason had a very solid senior year in Madison, and wound up as the Badgers' leading receiver. But again, considering he accomplished that in the statistically worst passing offense in the Power Four, that's not saying much. Mason should at least get a rookie minicamp invite somewhere, but Wisconsin still hasn't produced an NFL Draft-caliber tight end since Jake Ferguson.

Offensive Line

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Davis Heinzen, Kerry Kodanko, Jake Renfro, JP Benzschawel, Riley Mahlman, Joe Brunner, Barrett Nelson, Leyton Nelson, John Clifford, Joey Okla

Of this group, the Badgers' top prospects were Brunner and Mahlman. The latter had a disappointing year after he was forced to switch to left tackle in the wake of the Davis Heinzen disaster, while Brunner could've potentially been selected had he declared. However, his game still had some growing to do and he elected to make that happen with the defending national champion Indiana Hoosiers. Renfro also looked primed for a sendoff season, but injuries did him in and he only played 225 snaps. Ultimately, a variety of factors led to the Badgers' worst showing in the offensive trenches in years, one that didn't exactly entice many NFL scouts.

Defensive Line

Wisconsin defensive end Ben Barten. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Jay'viar Suggs, Parker Petersen, Ben Barten, Brandon Lane, Charles Perkins

The Badgers' defensive line actually played pretty well in 2025. It was one of the highlights of the team, and it anchored a run defense that was stout in pretty much every game except the rout at the hands of Iowa.

But while Wisconsin's strategy of consistently rotating enormous, run-stuffing linemen worked in fixing its ailing run defense, it also prevented one single defensive lineman from making an outsized impact (no defensive lineman played more than 360 total snaps).

Outside Linebackers

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Corey Walker, Aaron Witt, Mason Reiger, Darryl Peterson, Micheal Garner, Tyreese Fearbry, Sebastian Cheeks

Like the defensive line, Wisconsin's edge defense took big strides last fall. Mason Reiger was the headliner, with 32 tackles, five sacks and 45 pressures. But even he couldn't parlay that production into a draft pick.

A handful of those players including Garner, Fearbry, Witt and Cheeks return in 2026, and Peterson, for all of the strides he made last fall, is going to have to fight for a roster spot the hard way.

Inside Linebackers

Former Wisconsin linebacker Christian Alliegro. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Antarron Turner, Tackett Curtis, Christian Alliegro

Before the 2025 season began, it wouldn't have been outrageous to say that Alliegro had a great shot to be drafted after three years in Madison, and there was optimism Curtis was going to put it together as well. Of course, Alliegro got hurt and Curtis continued his sporadic play, and both players were eventually surpassed on the depth chart by a pair of true freshman who are now positioned as the nucleus of the Badgers' defense moving forward (Mason Posa, Cooper Catalano).

Yes, inside backer looked primed to potentially produce at least one NFL prospect last fall, but the Badgers will take the alternative: the emergence of two budding superstar inside linebackers who are just true sophomores.

Cornerbacks

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Ricardo Hallman, D'Yoni Hill, Geimere Latimer

This one is rather straightforward. Hill was a solid one-year stopgap player but by no means an NFL-caliber prospect. Latimer had a rough year in the slot; his game didn't translate to the Big Ten all that well. And Hallman's two-year decline in Madison after his electric seven-interception season in 2023 remains one of the more puzzling developments in the Luke Fickell era.

Safeties

Wisconsin Badgers safety Austin Brown. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Draft-eligible prospects before the 2025 season: Preston Zachman, Matt Jung, Charlie Jarvis, Owen Arnett, Austin Brown

Had Zachman not sustained a season-ending injury in Week 3, he would've had a great shot to be a late-round flier prospect with his football IQ and production. Brown's athleticism never matched his production, while the other players mentioned above played too-small roles in a too-dysfunctional secondary to garner any kind of NFL Draft consideration after last season.

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