With less than three weeks to go until the 2026 NFL Draft, this class has been sliced and diced seven ways to Sunday, and a consensus is forming near the top — starting with QB1 Fernando Mendoza and a fleet of intriguing defenders from Arvell Reese to Sonny Styles to Rueben Bain Jr.
With so much talent available, and so much time to kill from mid-February to late April, it’s easy to convince yourself that the best players in this class are destined for stardom. But recent history has taught us that the reality of life in the NFL is much messier — and that even very good prospects have ways they can fail at the highest level. So let’s dive into just what those ways might be by breaking down one red flag for everyone in the top 25 of Pro Football Network’s consensus big board.
1. QB Fernando Mendoza, Indiana
Red flag: Taking too many sacks
Mendoza isn’t just going No. overall by default. He checks a whole lot of boxes for a future franchise QB, from his size to his arm to his poise under pressure and his willingness to push the ball downfield. But there is one thing about his statistical profile in college that stands out: Both his sack rate and his pressure-to-sack rate were middling at Indiana, suggesting that he has a penchant to hold on to the ball a beat too long while hunting for a big play. That tends to be a sticky trait in the pros, and could come back to haunt him behind a Raiders line that still very much needs improvement.
2. LB/EDGE Arvell Reese, Ohio State
Red flag: Which position does he play?
You could tell me that Reese will wind up as a Pro Bowl-caliber linebacker or a Pro Bowl-caliber pass rusher and I’d believe you; that’s how talented he is, and he’s just scratching the surface at age 20. But while Ohio State deployed him all over the field last year, it remains to be seen where he’ll be most successful at the NFL level — and while his skills are undeniable, it’ll require some defensive creativity in order to get enough out of him to justify the No. 2 overall pick.
After all, we’ve seen some similar hybrid prospects crash and burn in the past by getting caught in between. If you think Reese is ticketed for the edge, great. If you have someone like Brian Flores that can fully unleash him as a chess piece, even better. If you want him as a middle linebacker … is that worth the price?
3. RB Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame
Red flag: Can he hit enough singles?
Love’s big-play ability is beyond question; just flip on any Notre Dame game from last year and you’ll see just how devastating he is once he hits the second level. In today’s NFL, with two-high defenses keeping the lid on the passing game, the ability to generate home runs on the ground is worth its weight in gold.
You do still need to keep on schedule, though, and Love might not be as complete a prospect in that department as his reputation (or his reported draft stock) would suggest. He can be a bit impatient at times; his Irish counterpart in 2025, Jadarian Price, probably has the better vision and patience of the two. And he doesn’t quite have the same make-you-miss element in close quarters that he does in the open field. We’re picking nits here, because Love sure looks like a star, but it’s just one more reason why a rebuilding team like the Titans or Giants shouldn’t reach for him in the top five.
4. S Caleb Downs, Ohio State
Red flag: Size and athleticism
There isn’t much that Downs hasn’t seen across three years of starting at both Alabama and Ohio State, and when you watch him lurk at the first or second level in college, it’s not hard to picture him blossoming into the next version of Kyle Hamilton or Nick Emmanwori — players whose ability to toggle between big nickels and small linebackers makes them unicorns for defensive coordinators.
But both Hamilton and Emmanwori are much bigger, freakier athletes than Downs is at just 6-foot and 206 pounds. He’s rarely fooled and is a heat-seeking missile once the ball is snapped, but there are enough questions about his ability to hang with the fastest receivers and the biggest tight ends that you wonder whether teams will view him as worthy of a top-five pick. This is just a question of ceiling and positional value, though, because the floor is as high as anybody’s.
5. LB Sonny Styles, Ohio State
Red flag: One year of elite production
Look, your guess is as good as mine here. He proved at the Combine that he’s the complete package physically, and his tape at Ohio State in 2025 was truly breathtaking at times — Styles is a menace downhill against the run who’s also comfortable in coverage as a converted safety. But he’s also only got one year of elite performance, and if you’re spending a top-10 pick (at minimum) on an off-ball linebacker, you’d like to be as sure as possible. My money is on Styles being a star, but it’s worth noting that he’s still progressing in terms of diagnosing what he sees.
6. EDGE Rueben Bain Jr., Miami
Red flag: [deep sigh] Arm length
Personally, I don’t buy this as the issue it’s been made out to be; if it were, we would’ve seen it pop up on occasion against the bigger tackles he faced in college. Instead, Bain Jr. laid waste to basically everybody in his path, excelling against elite competition like Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Ohio State. Yes, the arms are historically short, but he has the smarts and the freakish power, burst and flexibility to make it work, getting his shoulder into opposing tackles on a regular basis. But I will concede that history is not on his side here, and that might understandably spook some teams in the top five.
7. EDGE David Bailey, Texas Tech
Red flag: Run defense
Bailey is a blistering athlete, a true terror coming off the edge and easily the best speed rusher in this class. The question is whether he’ll be good enough to compensate for his deficiencies elsewhere, because that speed comes at a cost — specifically run defense, where Bailey is light in the pants and could be a real liability at the NFL level. There’s a blueprint to make this wide-nine profile work; just look at Broncos star Nik Bonitto, for example. But the bar is very high if you want to be impactful enough as a pass rusher to stay on the field despite getting moved around at the point of attack. Sacking the quarterback is everything, but it’s not the only thing.
8. WR Carnell Tate, Ohio State
Red flag: Frame
The operative word with Tate is smooth — smooth in his routes, smooth at the catch point, smooth in just about all of his movements. And I’m not even really worried about his mediocre 40 time; he sure played fast at Ohio State, and a 4.3 is hardly a prerequisite for success.
I am slightly worried about his overall level of physicality, though: He doesn’t have the ideal build to be a true alpha WR, and he got bodied by big cornerbacks occasionally in college. Combine that with his lack of game-changing speed, and it’s fair to question the ceiling here, even if he’ll be a good player for a long time.
9. CB Mansoor Delane, LSU
Red flag: Could struggle a bit in man coverage
This really comes down to what kind of defense you want to run. Delane is a blast to watch in zone coverage, one of the smartest players on the field in any given game who’s more than capable of reading and reacting and making plays on the ball. And it’s not that he’s bad in man coverage, either; really, it’s hard to find a glaring weakness in his game.
But Delane isn’t the most physically imposing nor the most athletic corner around. Every cornerback is going to get got on occasion with how good NFL receivers are — that’s just the reality of the position — but he might have a harder time handling the true Xs at the next level. If you can scheme him around that, though, you’ll have a heck of a player.
10. OT Spencer Fano, Utah
Red flag: Is he a guard?
Fano isn’t as big as you’d like a franchise tackle to be, noticeably lean on television, and the one blemish on his Combine report card were his short arms at 32 1/8 inches. All of which has ramped up speculation that his best home in the NFL might be inside, where his relative lack of functional strength would be less exposed against pass rushers and his spectacular athleticism and movement ability would really shine as a puller. That might not be the most thrilling pick in the top half of the first round, but hey: Put him in an offense like Mike McDaniels’, and you’ll be in business.
See More
