{"id":874415,"date":"2026-04-25T16:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874415\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T16:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:30:28","slug":"2026-nfl-draft-best-players-still-available-for-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874415\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft: Best players still available for Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fernando Mendoza is off the board<\/a>, as are 31 other players after Round 1 of the NFL Draft<\/a>. Who are the best players still available?<\/p>\n

Here, according to the combined big boards of Yahoo Sports NFL Draft experts Nate Tice and Charles McDonald, are the top players still on the board after the first two rounds of the 2026 draft:<\/p>\n

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(Ranking from Yahoo Sports\u2019 big board)<\/p>\n

Round 1 grades<\/a> | Rounds 2-3<\/a> | NFL Draft Guide<\/a><\/p>\n

Nussmeier had an inconsistent final season as he survived the death throes of the Brian Kelly era in Baton Rouge. He has a below-average build and isn\u2019t an overwhelming athlete, but his gunslinger mentality maximizes every concept that\u2019s run for him and he knows how to get the ball in play. Nussmeier will push the ball<\/a> and does so with clean timing and ball placement. He has plenty of arm and maximizes it with his timing. He can get himself in trouble with his aggression, but he really makes constant good decisions with the football and plays to win the game rather than just find the safest answer. I see a potential solid starter in the right situation with a good understanding of properly playing quarterback. \u2014 NT<\/p>\n

Scott is an older prospect, who will be 25 at the start of his rookie year, but he has the playmaking ability to immediately be a weapon in the secondary. Scott really made his presence felt during the Hurricanes\u2019 run through the playoffs en route to the national championship game. As an older slot defender, maybe this is a bit high for him, but the ability to win in multiple ways and get his hands on the ball as an aggressor in the secondary will be key. \u2014 CM<\/p>\n

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Another Penn State edge has dominated the scouting combine, stop me if you\u2019ve heard this before. Dennis-Sutton has been a longtime contributor for the Nittany Lions\u2019 defense and he cemented his status as at least a Day 2 pick by having an outrageous combine workout relative to his size (6-5, 256). Sutton had nearly a 40-inch vertical leap and was one inch away from 11 feet on the broad jump, firmly cementing him as one of the most explosive players in his draft class. He has a solid all-around game to give him credence beyond the athletic results. \u2014 CM<\/p>\n

Lance, yes he\u2019s Trey\u2019s brother, is a springy athlete who is a valid three-level weapon because of his size, ball skills, speed and overall athleticism. Despite being all of 6-foot-3, Lance is consistently smooth getting in and out of his breaks, with real burst to maximize the separation he creates. He easily overwhelmed the FCS competition, but that matches his high-end testing at the combine. Lance benefits from routes that allow him to use his speed, and his route running could still use further polish, but he snatches the football consistently away from his body, shows loose movement on vertical route stems, and has explosive play ability that never goes out of style. \u2014 NT<\/p>\n

Like his teammate Omar Cooper Jr.<\/a>, Sarratt had a very consistent season at Indiana and launched himself into consideration for being drafted within the first couple rounds. Sarratt is a smooth, big-bodied receiver who immediately built strong chemistry with Fernando Mendoza and can profile as a dirty work, starting WR2 in a good NFL offense. \u2014 CM<\/p>\n

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Connor Lew was a tough player for Auburn and he has a chance to be a high-floor interior starter on teams that need offensive line help. Lew tore his ACL in October, but he put up enough solid tape beforehand to possibly end up as a Day 2 pick. \u2014 CM<\/p>\n

Halton is another standout who played a huge role in Oklahoma\u2019s defensive resurgence under Brent Venables. He is not the biggest interior player out there, but he makes up for being a 290ish-pound defensive tackle with strong technique and considerable athleticism to get up the field and wreak havoc on offenses. Depending on what weight he plays at in the NFL, he may be just a high-octane rotational piece. That\u2019s valuable. \u2014 CM<\/p>\n

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Feisty is the best way I can describe Abney. He has quick feet and consistently closes with a burst on the football. Even though he doesn\u2019t have great size (5-10, 187), Abney plays physically and is willing to tackle. Abney can get a bit too upright in his backpedal, and it can lead to penalties when combined with his lack of size and tendency to get handsy in coverage, which is why I like him best primarily in the slot. I could see a defense that majors in Cover 2 or Cover 6 (like the Seahawks, for example) as being a good fit if they want to try Abney on the outside because of his awareness, tenacity and nose for the football. \u2014 NT<\/p>\n

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85. Travis Burke, OT, Memphis88. Sam Hecht<\/a>, C, Kansas State93. Mike Washington, RB, Arkansas<\/a>97. Malik Muhammad, CB, Texas<\/a>103. Jalen Farmer, OG, Kentucky<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Mendoza is off the board, as are 31 other players after Round 1 of the NFL Draft.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1001,22040,41875,32195,45432,6756,49533,3619,7,1802,80026,932,32192,33925,48920,16855,80997,51850,993,19652,978,6,15,6751,1135,61529,948,520,109817,1686,20703,526,51,855,19342],"class_list":["post-874415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-arkansas","tag-brian-kelly","tag-bryce-lance","tag-chandler-rivers","tag-connor-lew","tag-dani-dennis-sutton","tag-elijah-sarratt","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-football","tag-garrett-nussmeier","tag-gracen-halton","tag-indiana","tag-jalon-kilgore","tag-jonah-coleman","tag-joshua-josephs","tag-kaytron-allen","tag-keionte-scott","tag-keith-abney-ii","tag-kentucky","tag-kyle-louis","tag-lsu","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-north-dakota-state","tag-oklahoma","tag-omar-cooper-jr","tag-penn-state","tag-pittsburgh","tag-sam-hecht","tag-south-carolina","tag-taylen-green","tag-tennessee","tag-texas","tag-washington","tag-zane-durant"],"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\/874415","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=874415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}