NEWS AND NEAR NEWS

Bearcat QB weighing draft, transfer … Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby, one of the most dynamic dual-threat QBs in the country who started to attract some draft buzz earlier this year, is reportedly evaluating his football options for 2026. Sorsby has put his name into the transfer portal, but is also awaiting a report from the NFL draft advisory committee on where he stands for 2026. Stay tuned!

Giants, Raiders stay 1-2 at top of board; top 10 picks set … The NY Giants and Las Vegas will hold onto the 1st and 2nd slots in this week’s updated selection for the 2026 draft were it to be held this week, at least for another week, after both lost early games this afternoon. The Giants kept trying to give their game with Washington away, but the Commanders kept trying to give it back before finally prevailing 29-21 when a last gasp Giants rally fell short. The Raiders, on the other hand, left nothing to chance as they were drubbed 31-0 in Philadelphia. Remember for the record the Giants and Raiders are scheduled to play in Vegas in a couple of weeks. Tennessee also stayed at #3 with a loss in San Francisco, while Cleveland holds onto the #4 pick after getting drubbed in Chicago. However, wins by New Orleans and Washington will shuffle the top 10 to some degree with the NY Jets moving up to #5, followed by Arizona, New Orleans, Washington, Cincinnati and the LA Rams with a pick acquired from Atlanta.

Top 10 SEC DE enters draft; Big XII QB stays put … Auburn junior DE Keldric Faulk announced late yesterday that he will be entering the 2026 draft. The 6-6, 285-pound Faulk is considered to be a potential top 10 pick this coming April, despite the fact that he had somewhat production this year as he only posted a couple of sacks after registering 7 in a breakout campaign in 2024. On the other hand, Houston QB Connor Weigman has indicated that he will be returning to school for his final year of eligibility next fall.

IU QB Mendoza wins Heisman … To no one’s surprise, Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza was awarded this year’s Heisman at the annual ceremony in New York earlier this evening. Mendoza beat out Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia, Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love and Ohio State QB julian Sayin for the award, although the voting wasn’t all that close. Indeed, Mendoza captured over 70% of the first-place votes after leading Indiana to an unbeaten record and the #1 seed in the CFP playoffs this fall. And while he hasn’t yet declared for the draft, Mendoza who does have a year of eligibility remaining, is also the heavy favorite these days to be the first player selected at the 2026 draft if he should in fact opt to turn pro this winter..

Star Missou DE Young facing DWI charge … Missouri DE Zion Young, one of the better prospects at the position for the 2026, was arrested overnight and charged for an alleged DWI offence. The 6-4, 265-pound Young, who had 6.5 sacks this past season is currently #11 on the GBN positional ranking.

Sellers reportedly to return to South Carolina … Multiple sources are reporting this morning that South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers will be returning to school next fall for what will be his redshirt junior season. Sellers had been considered a potential top 5 pick this coming April, but he didn’t have a great year this past fall as the Gamecocks struggled to a 4-8 record.

PSU OG, Vols LB enter draft; Ducks DT stays home … There were several player announcements related to the 2026 draft overnight. To no one’s surprise, redshirt junior Penn State OG Vega Ioane, the consensus top IOL this year and a legitimate mid-to-late first round candidate, has declared for the upcoming draft and has opted out of the Nittany Lions’ Pinstripe Bowl date with Clemson later this month. In what is a little bit of a surprise, Tennessee LB Arion Carter has also opted to enter the 2026 draft despite having a year of eligibility remaining. The 6-1, 235-pound was a 2nd team All-SEC selection this past season when he had 76 tackles, including 6 for loss and 1.5 sacks in just ten games, but is considered to be more a mid-to-late round prospect. On the other hand, Oregon redshirt junior DT Bear Alexander announced on his social media that he would not be declaring for 2026 as many expected, and would instead be returning to Eugene for one more season in 2026.

ACC DE Parker hilites latest Senior Bowl commits … The Senior Bowl announced that four more players have committed to this year’s game including Clemson DE TJ Parker, Alabama DT Tim Keenan, Penn State DE Dani Dennis-Sutton and Texas S Michael Taafe. In fact, all four are interesting prospects with at least top 100 potential, none more so than Parker who entered the season rated #1 overall on more than one board around the NFL, but slipped well down the opening round after a very disappointing 2025 campaign.  However, by going to Mobile, where he may very well be the top-rated Senior Bowl prospect, will give Parker the chance to maybe regain some of that lost ground with a dominating type performance.

Top WR enters draft … Arizona State junior WR Jordan Tyson, arguably the top prospect at the position for the upcoming draft, has confirmed that he will be turning pro this winter and entering the 2026 draft. Sun Devils’ S Xavier Alford, an oft-injured 5th year veteran who barely played in both 2023 and 2025 because of injuries, also indicated that he’ll also be entering the draft where he projects to be either a late-round or free agent candidate.

Red Raider heads latest Senior Bowl commits … The Senior Bowl announced the addition of 8 new players to this year’s roster including 3 from 4th ranked Texas Tech including rugged NT Lee Hunter and WRs Caleb Douglas and Reggie Virgil. The other new commits announced earlier today include LBs Deontae Lawson of Alabama and BYU’s Jack Kelly; Minnesota DT Deven Eastern; Georgia State WR Ted Hurst and Washington CB Ephesians Prysock.

Vols WR Brazzell enters draft … Tennessee junior WR Chris Brazzell is the latest underclassman to confirm that they will be passing on their final year of college eligibility and entering the 2026 draft. Brazzell, a rangy 6-5, 200-pounder with legit deep speed was a consensus first team all-SEC performer this year when he hauled in 62 passes for over 1,000 yards and 9 TDs. He is considered to be a late first, early second round candidate for this coming April’s draft.

Second Gamecocks’ DB to enter draft … It has not been a great day for the South Carolina secondary. Earlier today, rising junior CB Brandon Cisse confirmed that he’ll be entering the upcoming draft. Then later today, junior S Jalon Kilgore announced that he’ll also be entering the 2026 draft. However, while Cisse has legit first-round aspirations, Kilgore is more a 3rd-day type, although he has good size (6-0, 210) and was very productive in his three years at USC where he had over 170 career tackles, along with 8 picks.

Second SEC CB enters draft … Literally just hours after Tennessee junior CB Jermod McCoy confirmed that he was entering the upcoming draft, South Carolina’s Brandon Cisse also announced his intentions to forego his final year of college eligibility and enter the 2026 draft. The 6-0, 190-pound Cisse, who allowed a completion percentage below 40% this past fall against SEC opponents after playing for a couple of seasons at NC State, is considered to be a late first round prospect.

Top CB McCoy enters draft … Despite not playing a down in 2025, Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy has announced that he will in fact be entering the upcoming draft draft. And despite not playing this fall, McCoy who had an All-American season last year, is still considered  to one of, if not the top prospect at the position for 2026. How high he ultimately goes will likely be determined by how well the medical checks an physical testing go throughout the pre-draft process.

NFL shortens time for first-round picks … The NFL has informed teams around the league that starting this spring, teams will now have 8 minutes to make their first-round picks, down from 10. That is expected to cut about a half hour off the opening round of the draft. As several commentators have noted, it really is annoying when teas, especially those with very early picks including the team with the #1 pick overall, use their entire time allotment and then select the player everyone knew they were going to take anyway. For now, the times allowed to make picks in the rest of the draft remain unchanged: teams get 7 minutes to make picks in the 2nd round; five minutes in rounds 3-6; and four minutes in round 7.

ACC Cards’ WR Bell tears ACL … Louisville WR Chris Bell, one of the top 3-4 prospects at the position for the 2026 draft, reportedly will undergo surgery late this week to repair a torn ACL suffered late last month. The 6-2, 220-pound Bell, who is considered to be a mid-to-late first round prospect, almost assuredly will not be able to workout for pro teams prior to the draft, but is out of eligibility.

Fun with forecasts: Raiders with best odds to pick 1st … The NY Giants, who haven’t had the first pick overall in the draft since 1965 (when they passed on future Hall-of-Famers Gayle Sayers AND Dick Butkus to take Tucker Fredrickson, but that’s another story), are currently sitting on the #1 pick this year in the weekly selection order.  And that has their fan base salivating over the possibility of getting a major haul of picks in a trade with a team looking to move up to get a QB. However, those fans may want to hold their water as it may be a whole lot harder for the Giants to stay at #1 than it was to actually get there. Fact is the Giants, who have played one of, if not the hardest schedule in the league to date, have one of the easiest slates for the final month of the campaign.

The NFC New Yorkers, for example, have played 9 of their 13 games to date against playoff teams (with two of their other games coming at Dallas and against Kansas City), whereas each of the their final 4 games are against teams that are .500 or below, including games against 3-10 Washington this weekend in the Meadowlands and at 2-11 Las Vegas in a couple of weeks in a match-up of teams that currently hold the first and second picks overall. In fact, New Orleans actually may have an easier schedule than the Giants as they also play all four of the their remaining games against teams with losing records including the Jets and Titans.

** remaining games against teams with 2-3 wins to date      ** remaining games against teams with sub-.500 records to date

Of course, the actual games are still to be played and who knows how they’ll ultimately turn out, but we broke down the schedules of each of the teams with 2 or 3 three wins so far this year and, at least on paper, it would appear that Las Vegas may actually be the team most likely to end up with the top pick this year. The Raiders do have that home game with the Giants later this month in what could be THE ‘draft’ game of the year, but also have to face the Eagles, Texans and Chiefs. And while it is admittedly a very inexact science, just based on the remaining schedules for the respective teams, how they’ve been playing over the last while, as well as who they have available, especially at QB, we project the top 8 or so picks could end up as:

1. Las Vegas
2. Tennessee
3. Cleveland
4. Washington
5. NY Giants
6. NY Jets
7. Arizona
8. New Orleans

Another trio commit to Senior Bowl … Three more players have committed to this year’s Senior Bowl including Louisville WR Caullin Lacy, Penn State DT Zane Durant and Iowa PK Drew Stevens.

Clemson exodus continues as DE Parker opts for pros … Clemson lost yet another player with remaining eligibility to the overnight as junior DE TJ Parker became the fourth former Tiger underclassman to announce that he will be entering the 2026 draft. He joins DT Peter Woods, WR Antonio Williams and CB Aveion Terrell who have declared for this year’s draft, while the NFL is still waiting to hear from Tigers’ DE Will Heldt. Parker is going to be an interesting study for NFL scouts this winter. He came into the season as a legit top 5 prospect after posting 11.5 sacks last fall, but had just 5 this year, three of which came in the Tigers’ season finale against South Carolina. As such, he’s likely going to still be a mid-to-late first round candidate, but if he tests well has the physical tools to get back up closer to the top 10.

Another ACC Tiger enters draft … Clemson junior DT Peter Woods, a top 5-10 prospect for the upcoming draft, earlier today became the third former Tiger to announce that he will be entering the 2026 draft despite having a year of eligibility remaining. Earlier this month, both WR Antonio Williams and CB Aveion Terrell, two other Clemson underclassmen, also declared for this year’s draft, while the NFL is still waiting to hear from Tigers’ DEs TJ Parker and Will Heldt.