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Joel Klatt Ranks No. 1 Player in 2026 NFL Draft

The college football analyst picked his top NFL Draft-eligible talent.
Joe Cox|
FOX's Joel Klatt shared his pick of the top collegiate talent on the NFL Draft board.
FOX's Joel Klatt shared his pick of the top collegiate talent on the NFL Draft board. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Indiana HoosiersOhio State BuckeyesNotre Dame Fighting Irish

With the wraps on the college football season and the NFL Draft creeping closer, plenty of analysts on one or both sides of the college/pro divide are weight in on the upcoming Draft and the available talent. Of course, ranking the best players and forecasting the Draft isn't an exact match-- specific player and position needs are an inexact and complicated science. But FOX analyst Joel Klatt shared his picks for the best players available in the upcoming Draft.

Klatt's Top Draft Prospect

In a fairly unsurprising start, Klatt chose a conventional top prospect. The prospect plays the most-watched position and plays the position where he figures to have an immediate impact on games regardless of system or team fit. The player recently completed a dream college season ahead of his NFL jump.

Klatt picked Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza as his top NFL Draft player. The Hoosiers' passer not only led the team to an undefeated season and a CFP title, but he passed for 3,535 yards and 41 touchdowns en route to a Heisman Trophy. Mendoza had been solid in two seasons at California, passing for just over 3,000 yards in 2024, but saw a significant step up in his performance in the 2025 season.

Most NFL Draft experts have Mendoza as the top player and or Draft pick ahead of the upcoming Draft. The only real issues have been fellow QB Dante Moore, who short-circuited any competition with Mendoza by choosing to return to Oregon rather than enter the Draft, and the possibility that another top player at another position could be adjudged more meritorious or desirable than Mendoza.

Other Klatt Draft Favorites

One recent player in a potential battle for top status with Mendoza is outstanding Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love. But while quarterbacks have tended to soar to the top of Draft boards, running backs are rarely in as high of demand. So while some are willing to jump Love over Mendoza, that rarely seems to matter in terms of potential Draft order. Klatt has Love second to Mendoza.

Klatt picked a trio of Ohio State defenders in the third, fourth, and fifth positions. Linebackers Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles are projected as the third and fifth best players in the Draft class by Klatt, who split them with safety Caleb Downs. Receiver Carnell Tate tops his position group and comes in at seventh on Klatt's list for a group of four Buckeyes in the top seven prospects in the Draft.

The only SEC player who made Klatt's list is LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane, who came in tenth on Klatt's top prospect ranking.

Love
Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love was Klatt's No. 2 player in the upcoming NFL Draft. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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