This is the heart of mock draft season, with the 2026 NFL draft set to begin April 23 in Pittsburgh. My own final set of projections drops Wednesday. But did you know NFL teams conduct their own mocks in preparation, assigning staffers to rival teams in Round 1 to try to project what could happen at each pick? For the third year in a row, I'm doing the same.
I asked 10 anonymous scouts from around the league to each serve as the decision-maker for a team picking in the top 10. I'm letting them make the pick based on the roster needs of the team they were assigned and their own personal evaluation of the 2026 class. (Here are my previous scouts mocks for 2024 and 2025.)
A couple of rules:
The scouts are unaffiliated with the teams they were assigned. In fact, none even work for a franchise in the same division as the teams they were assigned, and in most cases, we gave them a team from the other conference. They were asked to make selections based on how they'd approach that pick and who was already off the board in this scenario. Because the scouts are anonymous and did not collaborate on the exercise, we didn't allow any trades. Here are how things played out in the top 10, starting with an evaluator from the AFC East making the (easy) call for the Raiders at first overall.
Jump to a team: LV | NYJ | ARI | TEN | NYG CLE | WSH | NO | KC | CIN
1. Las Vegas Raiders
AFC East area scout's pick: Fernando Mendoza, QB, Indiana
There was no surprise at the top of this mock draft, as the AFC East area scout assigned to pick for the Raiders made the chalk pick of Mendoza.
"The Raiders really don't have a choice but to draft the quarterback with how the roster is structured now... and the fact they didn't make any moves for a young quarterback in free agency points to this being the selection," the evaluator said.
When asked to sum up Mendoza, the scout had high praise for him. "He's a lot like Matt Ryan was coming out of Boston College. Super accurate, super poised, doesn't get rattled. Got better every week it seemed like."
Mendoza was unstoppable in 2025, leading the Hoosiers to an undefeated record on the way to winning the national championship and taking home the Heisman Trophy. He paced the nation with 41 touchdown passes and a QBR of 90.3 while throwing just six interceptions.
2. New York Jets
AFC South area scout's pick: Arvell Reese, Edge/LB, Ohio State