Warren Moon, Mick Tingelhoff, Willie Brown, John Randle, Larry Little, Sam Mills, Antonio Gates, Willie Wood, Donnie Shell, Kurt Warner, Jim Langer, Emmitt Thomas, Drew Pearson, Cliff Harris, Adam Vinatieri, Dick “Night Train” Lane, Y.A. Tittle, Lou Groza, Joe Perry, and Emlen Tunnell.
If you had those 20 players to form the bones of an All-Time NFL team, you’d have a pretty good chance of knocking off any other All-Time variants. What’s so specifically special about these players, who are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? They’re all from the realms of the undrafted for various reasons, and they each had the stones to take that ignoble status and drive it into the ground with their excellence and determination.
The point of this preamble, of course, is to say that just because you’re undrafted doesn’t mean that you can’t make a ginormous impact in the NFL. It takes your own talent, the right environment, and a structure of belief on both sides, but it can happen.
Every year has its undrafteds who are on the way to stardom, whether the world realizes it or not, and we have identified nine prospects from the 2026 class who could be on that path.
Jeff Caldwell, WR, Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs come into the 2026 offseason with some questions at the receiver position — what else is new? — and it’s possible that two Cincinnati rookies could be the Answer Men. Kansas City took Cyrus Allen with the 176th overall pick in the fifth round, and then signed Allen’s teammate Jeff Caldwell as an undrafted free agent.
It’s an interesting skill and stylistic palette in that Allen is the smaller crafty route-runner, and Caldwell is the guy who can get downfield and make defenders very nervous with his pure speed. The 6’5”, 216-pound Caldwell ran a 4.31-second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine, and all that speed can be seen on the field. Last season for the Bearcats, Caldwell caught 32 passes on 58 targets for 478 yards and six touchdowns; five of those catches on 16 targets for 179 yards and one touchdown came on passes of 20 or more air yards.
Caldwell has some work to do on his overall route tree — he was mostly a hitch/go guy at the college level — but he can make some big plays while he’s figuring that all out.
Logan Fano, EDGE, Cleveland Browns
I don’t ask much from any draft, because outside of the occasional obvious first-overall pick, you never really know what’s going to happen. All I really wanted from the 2026 draft was for one NFL team to take both of the Fano brothers from Utah — offensive tackle Spencer and edge-rusher Logan — just so everybody could resuscitate the “Two Utes” bit from My Cousin Vinny.
Thankfully, the Cleveland Browns were in on the bit. They took Spencer with the ninth overall pick in the first round after trading down from the sixth pick with the Chiefs, and they then signed Logan as a free agent.
In 2025, the 6’5”, 252-pound Logan Fano had five sacks, 34 total pressures, 34 solo tackles, 23 stops, and three tackles for loss. Injuries have taken their toll on Fano’s journey to date, and he’s probably never going to be a 10-sack, 80-pressure disrupter in the NFL, but there’s a place for him once he expands his technique as a pass-rusher as a rotational force who is also a strong run defender.
So, for the time being… “TWO UTES!”
Jakari Foster, DB, Tennessee Titans (maybe)
If there’s one player on this list who most surprised me with his undrafted status, it was Louisiana Tech defensive back Jakari Foster. The 5’11”, 206-pound Foster didn’t just put up impressive numbers for the Bulldogs in 2025; he also proved to be the kind of defender NFL teams should really want these days as every defensive coordinator is trying to tie all three levels of their defenses together in a coverage sense.
Foster led the NCAA in interceptions with eight, and overall, he allowed 14 catches on 26 targets for 105 yards, 53 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, those eight picks, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 49.8. Foster can also do his thing closer to the line of scrimmage (35 tackles, 11 stops, one tackle for loss, and two forced fumbles), but he’s really the kind of safety you want roaming from the box and slot to the deep third to shut intermediate and deep passes down. There were times when the overhead camera couldn’t keep up with Foster’s range once he took off for those areas.
Yes, strength of competition is an issue to a point — he wasn’t tested against LSU, and Washington State got him for a 23-yard touchdown on a slant — but the fact that Foster is still waiting to he signed is just odd to me. He has accepted an offer from the Tennessee Titans to try out during spring OTAs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if something clicked there. Overall, given Foster’s raw skills and how they translate to the modern NFL, I’d certainly give him a shot.
Michael Heldman, EDGE, New Orleans Saints
It very much looks as if Cameron Jordan won’t be rushing the passer for the Saints for the first time since the 2010 season. The 8-time Pro Bowler played on a one-year contract in 2025, and he had double-digit sacks for the first time since the 2021 season, so there’s still something left in the tank.
Regardless, a Jordan-less Saints defense allows room in the rotation for even undrafted rookies, and perhaps Michael Heldman can benefit. In 2025 for the Central Michigan Chippewas, Heldman had 12 sacks, 53 total pressures, 24 solo tackles, 29 stops, five tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles. Defensive coordinator Brandon Staley might like how Heldman is able to generate pressure both in straight four-man fronts, and with pre-snap line movement.
The 6’4”, 268-pound Heldman can work well against the run, and while he’s not a bendy speed guy around the edge per se, he can use speed to power to displace. I’m not comparing him one-on-one to Ryan Kerrigan, who played 11 seasons in the NFL from 2011-2021 and amassed 109 sacks and 581 total pressures in that time, but if you squint when Heldman blasts out of a four-point stance, you might see it a little bit.
Aidan Hubbard, EDGE, Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks head coach and defensive play-caller Mike Macdonald has a very specific (and very successful) vision for his defense, and one thing about which he is very certain is that he wants his guys stunting at the line more than they blitz to generate pressure. From Week 1 through the Super Bowl, no team stunted more often than the Seahawks, so the team obviously looks for prospects who have proven the ability to get after quarterbacks with geometric leverage.
Which is where Northwestern’s Aidan Hubbard could come right in and stay a while. Last season for the Wildcats, the 6’4”, 259-pound Hubbard had eight sacks and 31 total pressures in just 181 pass-rushing reps, and he did a lot of his work coming in from an angle, and using the defense’s line games to his advantage.
The Seahawks are still figuring out the depth of their EDGE rotation — it’s one reason they recently signed veteran Dante Fowler Jr. to a one-year deal worth up to $5 million — so maybe with a strong offseason and preseason, Hubbard can use his own stunt-fu to ascend in a defense that weaponizes it more than any other.
Mikail Kamara, EDGE, San Francisco 49ers
Speaking of defensive lines that are figuring out their EDGE situation, the 49ers are hoping that the combination of a healthy Nick Bosa and a healthy Mykel Williams will be enough, but if you’re the 49ers, can you ever really count on health? They did add Texas Tech speed-rusher Romello Height with the 70th overall pick in the third round, and they also signed Indiana’s Mikail Kamara to bolster that depth.
Indiana’s defense was undersold all the way through the national championship run because Fernando Mendoza and Curt Cignetti were the main stories, but Kamara was one of many prospects on that side of the ball with NFL potential. Last season, he had two sacks and 59 total pressures in 340 pass-rushing reps, and if you’re worried about his ability to get home to the quarterback, go back to the 2024 season when he had 10 QB takedowns.
49ers defensive line coach Kris Kocurek is one of the best in the business, and he could have some fun with Kamara as a multi-gap disruptor who has some nice power reps in his arsenal.
Diego Pounds, OT, Baltimore Ravens
Offensive line prospects are often developmental in nature to a greater or lesser degree, especially in the later rounds and among undrafted players. If a guy is an NFL-ready blocker right out of the chute, he’s going to be a first-round pick more often than not. Beyond that, it’s about team and scheme fit, and how lacking the player might be in the requirements of the position.
Which brings us to Ole Miss left tackle Diego Pounds. A lot of people were surprised that no NFL team took a shot on the 6’6”, 325-pound Pounds. Weight variance has been an issue at times (he’s tended to balloon up a bit), but he stayed within himself last season, which is one reason why he allowed no sacks, three quarterback hits, and 13 quarterback hurries in 583 pass-blocking reps last season.
I was especially intrigued by Pounds’ performance against Miami EDGE demons Rueben Bain Jr. in the Fiesta Bowl. Pounds was outmatched at times, but he recovered enough to allow just three quarterback hurries, with no sacks or hits.
Nadame Tucker, EDGE, Los Angeles Chargers
There are quite a few edge-rushers on this list, but my favorite (we’re going in alphabetical order here) is Western Michigan’s Nadame Tucker, who was an absolute pass-rushing bomb squad for the Broncos in 2025. He had 14 sacks and 61 total pressures, 31 solo tackles, 37 stops, six tackles for loss, and four forced fumbles. At 6’2” and 247 pounds, Tucker brings more power to his speed than you might expect, and if you’re worried about strength of competition, go ask anybody at Michigan State about Tucker’s two-sack, seven-pressure performance in the 2025 season opener.
The Chargers are okay at EDGE with Khalil Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu, as well as first-round pick Akheem Mesidor, but don’t be at all surprised if defensive coordinator Chris O’Leary finds ways to get Tucker on the field, and for Tucker to maximize the reps he gets.
Dae’quan Wright, TE, Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles are hoping to turn around last season’s offensive disasters with a brain trust led by new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion, and it would appear that you can expect multi-tight end personnel packages as a major part of that lift. Philly selected Vanderbilt tight end/big receiver Eli Stowers in the second round, and they already have Dallas Goedert and Grant Calcaterra, so you can expect the Eagles to align with this current schematic wave.
Another guy who should get an opportunity is Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright, simply because this guy just knows how to get open for big plays — kind of important for Jalen Hurts. Last season, the 6’4”, 246-pound Wright caught 39 passes on 55 targets for 635 yards and five touchdowns, and he was getting it done to all areas of the field. Moreover, Wright is a good enough inline blocker to add to his potential with his new team, as not all Eagles tight ends are great blockers (yes, this is a Grant Calcaterra reference).
