When the 2026 NFL Draft rolls around, quarterback-needy teams will have to emulate the lyrics of Dave Matthews Band and “make the best of what’s around.” As this season has progressed, several of the top rated QBs (Drew Allar, Arch Manning, Cade Klubnik, LaNorris Sellers) have all seen their draft stock decrease, for various reasons.
This provides an opportunity for other prospects to step, and one guy doing so is Duke’s Darian Mensah. He’s completing nearly 70% of his passes this season, and averaging almost nine yards-per-attempt. He also has 21 TD passes against just two interceptions.
The hype train left the station in June when ESPN listed him as a “top QB prospect to know.” That train is reaching cruising speed now that a CBS Sports midseason list of the top 150 players in the nation ranked him 37th.
Mensah, however, is doing his best to not read his own headlines (which is smart).
“That’s a bunch of rat poison that can hurt you if you let all that stuff in,” Mensah said in an exclusive with RG.org.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done by me. I’ve got to get this team to where they’re supposed to be going. I don’t have the brain capacity to focus on the NFL. Just taking it one game at a time, but hopefully I do end up there (the league).”
In the first part of his response Mensah was extremely colorful and unique. He’s right about how too often hearing, and then potentially believing, hyperbole about oneself is very destructive.
“Rat poison” is the perfect analogy, and it has become a more commonly used phrase in college football circles ever since Nick Saban’s epic rant, which centered around the word, in 2017.
Although, the winner of the 1904 Olympic marathon, Thomas Hicks, was actually given rat poison (specifically strychnine) by his own coach in the middle of the race.
In the second part of his response, Mensah gave, to quote Jim Malone (Sean Connery’s character) in The Untouchables, “the yearbook answer.” In almost every instance, a college athlete with respond to a draft stock question with tried and true platitudes of “not looking ahead,” “taking it one week/day at a time,” or “shutting out the exterior noise.”
Mensah is no different, and honestly, this is the appropriate approach. Not looking ahead is how you eventually get to where you want/need to go.
The San Luis Obispo native is a redshirt sophomore, so he can come out this year, if he chooses to. He is basically regarded to be a top 100 overall, fourth round level prospect. The Tulane transfer obviously still has junior and senior years of eligibility remaining too.
Sure, he could stay in for 2027, or maybe 2028, and work on becoming the finished product. He has pinpoint accuracy and next level mobility that makes among the best QBs in the country in throwing on the run. If he stays in school, he could really develop, and greatly improve his stock.
However, he might also want to make a “strike while the iron is hot” kind of decision, which would be partially fueled by the perceived weakness of the 2026 QB class.