Diego Paiva receives unexpected projection in latest NFL mock draft originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
One of the most polarizing figures of the 2026 NFL Draft is, without a doubt, Diego Pavia. The former Vanderbilt quarterback, who burst onto the scene two years ago, now tries to work his way onto an NFL roster. With the draft just days away, many analysts are starting to drill down on where players might be headed, including ESPN's Jordan Reid.
The full-round mock draft for this year was released on Monday with 257 prospects up on the board. However, you won't find Pavia's name there as he's projected to be an undrafted free agent. In fact, last year's Heisman runner-up is the 12th-best QB available, according to Reid. This is working out to be a rare situation with Pavia. There aren't many players who are second in the final Heisman vote that go undrafted.
For Pavia, this entire process has felt like a series of bad mistakes starting on the night he wasn't named the Heisman Trophy winner over Indiana's Fernando Mendoza. The "F-the voters" skit, along with publicly dissing the Hoosiers Heisman and consensus No. 1 overall pick was the beginning of his draft slide.
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Add that to rough interviews at the Senior Bowl and NFL Combine, it's pretty clear why teams aren't willing to take a risk with Pavia. He's this year's version of Shedeur Sanders in terms of how quick teams have stepped away from him. Not to mention, the decision of not wanting to hire an agent was a clear shot in the foot. Sanders did the same thing and ended up losing over 100 spots on the board.
Pavia already had the deck stacked against him with size issues. But he's done himself no favors to this point, and we'll see what happens after the dust settles.
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