Not long after Fernando Mendoza quarterbacked Indiana to a perfect season and a national title, FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt floated the idea that he would take the Hoosiers star over any young quarterback in the NFL to lead his team to a game-winning drive. Now, with the 2026 NFL Draft fast approaching, Klatt not only has bought into that idea, but he might also have another top draft analyst agreeing with him.
In the latest episode of “The Joel Klatt Show,” Klatt and NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay agreed that they would trust Mendoza to lead a team to a game-winning drive in the final moments more than nearly any other young quarterback.
“I think I would take Mendoza,” Klatt said, as he listed Caleb Williams, Cam Ward and others.
McShay, meanwhile, believes that the debate is between Mendoza and just one other quarterback.
“It would come down to Mendoza and Drake Maye, maybe,” McShay said. “I’m armed with what I’ve seen in the NFL, which isn’t fair. But if we’re talking about college careers, absolutely, 1,000%.
“But even knowing what I know in the NFL, I still may [pick Mendoza]. He is other.
Whilst Indiana received all 16 of its video games this previous season, no longer all of the ones wins had been lovely. Mendoza had to lead the Hoosiers to fourth-quarter comebacks in difficult street environments at Iowa and Penn State. He needed to make large throws and take Indiana on a game-winning force within the fourth quarter of its win at Oregon. He additionally had to make some grab throws and performs to assist seal the win over Ohio State within the Big Ten Championship ahead of doing the similar factor in Indiana’s victory over Miami (Fla.) within the identify sport.
Which QB would you need in grab time in a sport?
In fact, the NFL is a distinct stage of pageant than the school sport, and probably the most league’s best younger quarterbacks proved they are able to care for grab moments this previous season. Williams, 24, helped the Chicago Bears get six fourth-quarter comeback wins in 2025, which used to be essentially the most within the league. Bo Nix, 26, had 5 fourth-quarter comeback wins and led the league in game-winning drives (seven) for the Denver Broncos.
Mendoza arguably had the most efficient faculty profession of any quarterback because the flip of the last decade; he is the primary signal-caller to win the Heisman Trophy and nationwide identify since Joe Burrow in 2019. That is why Klatt concept it used to be a very simple selection to pick out Mendoza because the quarterback he’d flip to with the sport at the line over the opposite younger quarterbacks.
“You are taking him over Cam Ward,” Klatt stated in a prior episode. “Williams? Most likely. Jayden Daniels? Most likely? Maye? Indisputably after the Tremendous Bowl. [Michael] Penix [Jr.] and [J.J.] McCarthy? Completely. Nix? Questionable with the way in which Nix performed in crunch time and in a few of the ones [big] video games, specifically within the fourth quarter.
“Mendoza in crunch time is implausible. He anticipates, is correct, good and a super teammate. He tests each and every unmarried field.”
As Klatt marveled at Mendoza’s talent to accomplish within the grab, McShay believes that the Indiana product’s best traits are how he is in a position to control adversity and his management.
“I do not believe he [has] been round [Tom] Brady a lot, however you simply get that very same vibe the place he is that specialize in issues that in case you are in a lecture room in highschool and this child’s speaking, together with his arm raised, he is stressful,” McShay stated. “However armed with those 26 years of doing this and being attentive to the issues he is fascinated with as a tender guy, I am like, ‘Guy, he will get it.'”
“I worth adversity and no longer essentially the chip [on your shoulder] and the stuff we love to speak about on TV, however I believe as human beings, we’ve got all been thru other ranges of adversity,” McShay added. “Just one human being on the earth can reside thru that failure, insult or embarrassment and inform you what it used to be love to have to control that internally and inform your self, ‘I’m nonetheless who I believe I’m. I am nonetheless that man, and now I am in a more difficult spot to head turn out it.’ … The ones moments, they make us and so they outline us. For Fernando, it used to be ‘stars don’t subject. Stars do not outline Fernando Mendoza.’ I love the truth that he is getting into the league and he is already had a few of that.”
Klatt agreed with that evaluate of Mendoza, who turns out all however positive to be taken by the Las Vegas Raiders with the No. 1 overall pick within the 2026 NFL Draft.
“He saved pronouncing to me this remaining 12 months, ‘Each day I’m simply seeking to be the most efficient Fernando Mendoza I will perhaps be,’ which sounds nerdy,” Klatt stated. “Such as you stated, in case you are in a highschool lecture room, you roll your eyes and you are like, ‘Oh, OK.’
“But if it is actual, then there is something to it and will obviously force you towards being a super participant someday.”
