2026 Indiana Pro Day Recap: How Did Fernando Mendoza Perform & Who Else Stood Out?

Today with the first pick, we are recapping the Indiana Pro Day and Bloomington, Indiana

on the road.

Ryan Wilson here, no rancarth on today, unfortunately, he had some family stuff to take care, but

he will be back in the next one, and I just got back from the Indiana Pro Day about

to do some stuff for HQ, hop on an airplane and get home.

My initial takeaways are pretty much what I thought was going to happen when it came

to Fernando Mendoza.

A couple of things, when you go to these pro days, what are you looking for?

Obviously, we know that everyone can throw and catch and run and jump and do all the things

that you expect them to do when the shorts and t-shirts portion of the pre-job work out.

But what you're looking for with quarterbacks, especially, is how do they look in their

shorts and t-shirts, how do they fill out their frame, and then, of course, how they move

from Fernando Mendoza will not be mistaken any time soon for Anthony Richardson athletically.

But he's a pretty good athlete when you talk about pocket passers, how did he move in terms

of the drills, the warm-ups, and then he went, once he went through his throwing sessions,

and then how does the ball come off his hands?

Because let's see, I've been to a bunch of pro days going back to 2023, the very first

pro day.

For me, it was with our guy Rick Speelman, we went to CJ Strauss pro day, the very next

day, we were in Tuscaloost to watch Bryce Young.

The very next day after that, we were back in Lexington, Kentucky to see Will Love, some

of the following week, we were down in Gainesville to see Anthony Richardson.

And CJ Strauss and Bryce Young had similar arm shrinks.

I would argue that maybe CJ is a little better now.

Now that he's been in the league a few years, but they can make all the throws.

Will Bryce really excels at it, and even CJ early in his time in Houston are the anticipation

throws.

Will Love is an Anthony Richardson.

Anthony's arm was better than Will Love is, but both those guys could throw it through

a brick wall.

The problem, of course, when we talked about this a lot during that 2023 draft is that

Love is was just so tight, both physically in terms of the way he was built his body,

and then mentally, when things weren't going his way, he would press, and the ball he

was struggling to accuracy, and getting in the ball where he wanted to go, was never

a lack of throwing that fastball.

Washington was a fluid, smooth, thrower of the football.

It's just that there was no idea where it was going to go, and the work ethic hadn't played

a ton of ball up to that point, and the work ethic didn't really show up once he got to

Indianapolis, and those are conversations for another time.

But I mentioned all that to say that when I saw Fernando Mendoza warming up on Wednesday

and the workout facility, the indoor workout facility for the Hoosiers, it was immediately

clear to me that the ball snaps.

It flies off his hand, and he's a big guy, he's six-five.

We know he can move pretty well athletically.

We saw the touchdown he scored against a U. When he manufactured that, I think it was

going to fork down, right?

Fourth and five scored to touchdown.

But the ball absolutely explodes off his hand in warm-ups, and side note here, he was

warming up with Charlie Becker.

The add-in nowhere, six-four receiver, whoever the second half of the season finally got

some looks, and all he did was dominate.

Obviously, we knew by the lightest the rat, talking about him more, Omar Cooper.

I'll talk about him more as well, but Charlie Becker came on the scene, and he's going to

be a hot topic as you go through the 20-27 draft, a little sneak peak there.

He was warming up with Fernando Mendoza for about 15 or 20 minutes while the other players

were working through their 40s and broad jumps and three cones.

I'll just say this, start at five yards, work their way all the way back to about 40-40

of shards, warming up, and there were a lot of ropes and a lot of ropes thrown accurately.

Again, this doesn't mean anything other than we can check that box after having seen

Fernando in person, but it's a much better conversation than say you're going back to

the draft room, and you have to explain in front of their room, yeah, we're going to take

this guy number one overall, but his pro-day workout was just mad.

When you think about mad pro-day workouts for quarterbacks, and I was talking about this

earlier today on HQ, the first, and maybe only, but the first one that comes to mind

is 2014 Teddy Bridgewater, right?

We've heard a guy Rick Spillman talk about that on this podcast several years ago in

terms of the overthinking at part of the pre-draft process because Teddy had worn gloves throughout

his time at Louisville.

He has worn gloves throughout his time in the league since.

The one day he didn't wear gloves because it was a talking point for some reason leading

up to that draft was during his pro-day, and it was not a great pro-day, and Rick later

said he was incredibly excited about the fact that Teddy didn't play well, because he

knew who Teddy was as a person, and he knew who Teddy was as a player, and they were happy

to get him at the bottom of the first round with that fifth-year option, and who knows

how things would have gone differently, because I know Rick was really high on him, having

not suffered that serious knee injury in August before, I can't remember what year that was,

but that's a year.

They had to send that first round pick to Philadelphia to get Sam Bradford.

Coming back to Fernando, I will just say there was a lot to like and nothing to be concerned

about physically, and then you want to see how he interacts with his teammates, just sort

of the little subtle things, because we've had conversations about Carson back in his

time, and George not ending well, and how was he accepted or not accepted by his teammates.

We've talked about Jane Daniels leaving theirs on a state before he went to LSU for those

last two years, and how the video of his teammates celebrating that he was leaving turns

out, joke was on them, but no such issues with Fernando.

He is well-loved by everyone on his team.

We talked to four or five or six players on this Hoosier's roster during the pre-drive

process, and to a person they only had glowing things to say about Fernando.

That showed up in terms of their interactions today, and how he took a leadership role

in telling everyone what they were supposed to do, and where they're supposed to be, and

just going about his business, and throwing lasers all over the field during the throwing

session, which felt like it was 15 or 20 minutes, probably through 50 balls.

Of those, I unofficially counted three hitting the ground, two hit receivers right in the

hands, and they just dropped it, and the other was a deep ball that Elijah Serrat just

missed.

It was probably six, seven inches over thrown, but the ball, it's a quick release.

Sometimes you have a long wind up, you think firing left, which back in the day, and then

you step on the gas, and you're throwing a 95 million on our fastballs.

Fernando Mendoza throws high heat.

He also has a quick release, and he also throws with anticipation.

Now the Carson Beck Pro Day last week, we saw a lot more anticipation throws, but if you

watch the tape, Fernando had a ton of anticipation throws over the course of the season.

This is just the one last box-checking for the number one overall pick, because I know

in Brandon, I talked about this on our final QB rankings for with the first pick last week.

We have the conversation about whether, you know, is Ty Simpson in the mix for QB1, that's

some of the meeting narratives that are being pushed.

He is not, and almost likely, almost certainly, excuse me, five years from now, Fernando

Mendoza will be the better quarterback.

That's not to say Ty Simpson can't ball out, but history, Ty's only had 15 starts when

you look at all the first round picks in recent years who have had fewer than 15 starts,

and how they translated to the league, Anthony Richardson, the aforementioned.

You have Mr. Biske, top 10 pick, top five pick, actually, I think, in the Bears.

That obviously didn't work out.

Dwayne Haskins didn't work out for the commanders.

They moved up from him shortly thereafter, RIP, and then KM Newton is sort of the exception

because he had played at junior college before his final year at Auburn, and the other thing

you keep in mind is KM Newton went to Auburn after the JC Stent and led that team to

a national title, and there's a random, like, subpoenaed to me often.

And fairly, you probably can't name another person on that roster unless you're a hardcore

Auburn fan.

That just speaks to how KM transcended the historical stats in that sense.

He also sort of obviously played a full season prior, just not at the FBS power, four

power, five at a time level.

All that is to say, you have Fernando who's six-five versus Tyson Simpson, who's six-one

on a good day.

Fernando has a bigger arm.

They're similarly athletic, and I think that Fernando will command a locker room, perhaps

a little more vocally, not necessarily a better leader, but a little more vocally than

Tyson Simpson will.

And I say that because even though Kaden Proctor and Jeremy Bernard both, when we spoke

with him, could not speak highly enough about how tough Tyson Simpson is, but also what

a good leader is.

He talked to him with the Combine, and of course his dad is a coach, so he has that background.

But he also came off a little nervous, and I'm talking to people that said sometimes

he's a little nervous in terms of talking to the media and make that, make of that what

you will.

Maybe it's not a big deal, but Fernando Medo's in our conversation with him.

He was always, it was quite clear that he was the alpha, and I think his teammates would

tell you that as well.

So he's going to be the first overall pick.

And Kubiak was here, the Raiders of C was here.

It's just a matter.

He's reportedly learning the playbook, which makes a ton of sense because if you're going

to take him first overall, get a head start on that.

And I think he's going to hit the ground, run it.

You have to get some off.

It's a blind help.

They do have action.

Gentile.

You got to fix some defensive things.

But I think this has a chance to be a pretty fun story to watch.

I'm not saying the Raiders are going to win 12 games in year one, but I think it's transition

maybe a little smoother than Kaden works last year.

And because things in Tennessee were sort of sideways early on, it was clear that Brian

Callahan wasn't going to be long for that job, fair or not.

And then Kaden had to work through some of the other things not having receivers, so

and so forth.

The other thing to keep in mind, and we talk about this a lot, is that if Fernando were

in last year's draft class, for example, who would be Kubi one?

And I think it's split in terms of the people I've spoken with.

And if you ask me, I'm actually sort of 50-50, I think that Kaden had a ton of good

tape.

Kaden has an explosive arm.

Fernando's not far behind.

I was sort of surprised at how good his arm was, all things considered.

I think Fernando's arm is better than Carson Beck, so I thought it was slinging it last

week at the Upro Day.

And I think he has a pretty big arm.

Kaden's smaller, obviously, than Fernando, but he's thickly built.

I'm not worried about that just in terms of the stature, how tall he is.

And then the other thing, if we go back two years, we're Fernando Rank in that 2024

class, where we saw 12 quarterbacks go on the top, 6 quarterbacks go on the top 12, excuse

me.

So obviously, Caleb's going to be number one, some version of one, two, or three.

Jane Daines is going to be some version of one, two, or three in the red draft.

And Drake May is going to be in that top degree as well.

After that, I think that it's for Fernando and Dozo.

So I think Fernando and Dozo would have been Kubi for the Michael Pinnick Jr.

JJ McCarthy in Bonix.

If we're drafting at that time in the moment, no one will be known now.

I had JJ McCarthy as a second round pick in Bonix as well, but clearly one has worked

out and one has yet to work out.

We'll see if he ever will.

But I think that Fernando and Dozo is probably Kubi for in that draft class.

And look, man, maybe he makes a push for Kubi three because Drake May had an up and down,

mostly down season that you would see, incredibly raw, but he's been out, lights out.

I'm not going to knock him or ding him or anything, based on what he's played during his

first two years for New England.

So that's just a recap of Fernando, a little Charlie Becker preview and a couple of other

things I'll mention quickly, the Agile of Ponds ran today.

For some reason, I thought he ran at the combine.

He didn't, but he unofficially ran at 431 today.

It does not surprise me.

I think he's actually faster than that.

So we'll get the official numbers on that, Elijah Serrat also ran.

He did not run at the combine and four or five is the number I saw unofficial.

So we'll have to confirm that as we go through it.

He plays in four or five.

So that doesn't change anything either for me.

He's a mid to late day three guy.

I think that fits.

And Omar Cooper Jr. was out there running routes and it was fun to watch in person.

He is incredibly explosive, short air burst flashes in person, just like it does on tape.

And I think he has a chance to be a top 32 pick.

I think DeAngelo, where he's six feet, even 511, would be a top 32 guy.

He probably falls so round two.

I would be surprised if he'd last so round three.

He is so explosive and like all of his teammates at GMU who are now to Indiana told us when

we spoke to them, no one has ever caught DeAngelo Ponds in their minds in their recollection.

And DeAngelo confirmed that he has never been caught.

So he's fast.

He plays fast and he's an absolute dog, not only in past defense despite his size, but

as a run defender as well.

And the only other names I'll mention before I get out of here, just a quick little pod

to watch our appetite before we get back to the YouTube version of the video with me

and Ran.

The two running backs, Caitlin Black and Roman Hamby, I love Caitlin Black.

I didn't see the official 40 times on them, so I don't know.

They both run hard.

They're both really good between the tackles, bulldozers.

Caitlin Black looks smooth, catching passes out of the back field.

I think there are two guys that should beat the three guys.

We'll see what happened.

Caitlin Black didn't get a combine invite, which seemed looking oversight in my mind, but

that isn't me.

He can't get drafted and ball out once he gets that opportunity in the NFL.

But those were some of my notes, my takeaways from watching the pro day in person today.

That's it for our pro day with the first pick around the globe RV trip.

So we'll be with the remaining three weeks back to doing.

Let's see.

What are we doing?

We're going to be doing some finishing up the perfect drafts for every single team.

If you haven't caught those, check them out on YouTube and we're going to get your podcast

audio wise.

We're doing the seven round mocks for all 32 teams to look for that.

Then of course, we're finishing up our individual position rankings.

I'm going to have Lee Jae Duzable join us for Deep into the line, Kyle Long joining us

for offensive line.

And my buddy, Rain Carthon, we'll be back when we fire up the pod later this week.

So thanks as always for you guys for listening to this audio only version.

If you like this and you want more of it, leave us a comment on what you think.

And iTunes or Apple Podcasts or students fight to fight Apple Podcasts.

I'm going back in time with the iTunes Reverses there.

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But remember, you can always check us out on YouTube, audio version where we get your

audio podcast and we will catch you guys in the next one.