{"id":799563,"date":"2026-03-08T03:09:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799563\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T03:09:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:09:28","slug":"colin-cowherd-releases-2026-nfl-mock-draft-before-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799563\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Cowherd Releases 2026 NFL Mock Draft Before Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the start of NFL<\/a> free agency just four days away, FOX’s Colin Cowherd<\/a> has unveiled his latest mock draft.<\/p>\n

Just like every other sports analyst in the business, Cowherd has the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> to use the No. 1 pick on Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza. The 2025 Heisman Trophy winner had 3,535 passing yards and 48 total touchdowns during his only season with the Hoosiers.<\/p>\n

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“Fernando Mendoza is easily the best quarterback prospect. Is he Matt Ryan plus Heisman Winner? 16-0 at a non-traditional power, big arm, moves well, humble, gratitude, and you get that rookie quarterback contract for the next four to five years,” Cowherd said.<\/p>\n

\"Indiana's<\/p>\n

Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza (15) talks to the crowd on the podium after the College Football Playoff National Championship college football game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026.\u00a9 Rich Janzaruk&sol;Herald-Times &sol; USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 Rich Janzaruk&sol;Herald-Times &sol; USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Where things get interesting is the No. 2 spot in Cowherd’s mock draft. As of this weekend, he has the New York Jets<\/a> taking Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey, not Ohio State’s Arvell Reese.<\/p>\n

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“My second pick is a little different than everyone else\u2019s mock. I think the Jets draft David Bailey, the best pure edge [in the draft],” Cowherd said<\/a>. “He\u2019ll walk into the Jets \u2014 on one side you\u2019ll have Will McDonald, on the other it\u2019s David Bailey. I hear about Arvell Reese \u2014 Arvell Reese projects as an edge rusher. I don\u2019t trust the Jets to get that right. This guy is a plug-and-play guy. He will be starting the first week.”<\/p>\n

Here’s the top 10 from Cowherd’s mock draft:<\/p>\n

Las Vegas Raiders: Fernando Mendoza<\/p>\n

New York Jets: David Bailey<\/p>\n

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Cowherd’s predictions don’t always age well.<\/p>\n

If you’re not fond of Cowherd’s current predictions, just know he whiffed on several teams leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft. For example, he had the New York Giants selecting Shedeur Sanders<\/a> with the No. 3 overall pick.<\/p>\n

Cowherd also had the New England Patriots<\/a> selecting pass rusher Abdul Carter and the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> drafting running back Omarion Hampton.<\/p>\n

The 2026 NFL Draft is set for April 23-25 in Pittsburgh. There’s no question Cowherd’s predictions will change between now and then.<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published by The Spun<\/a> on Mar 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the start of NFL free agency just four days away, FOX’s Colin Cowherd has unveiled his latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[291,390,2222,613,256,54,6405,332,257,4155,7,96724,110,393,2859,4002,249,55,56,255,6,15,288,520,17,2239,394,111],"class_list":["post-799563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-draft","tag-abdul-carter","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-arvell-reese","tag-caleb-downs","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-colin-cowherd","tag-college-football-playoff","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-david-bailey","tag-football","tag-indiana-quarterback","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-matt-ryan","tag-mock-draft","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-jets","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-omarion-hampton","tag-pittsburgh","tag-shedeur-sanders","tag-sonny-styles","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-washington-commanders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}