The NFL Draft is one of the most exciting times of the entire sports calendar year. It’s a three-day event in which college football’s brightest stars ascend to the highest level of football, the NFL.
Between mock drafts, the combine and pro days, hype just continues to build and build for the draft’s top-end prospects every year as more and more fans and front offices begin to daydream about how certain players could fit on their respective rosters. That same pre-draft hype can also lead to certain top prospects being selected too high in the draft’s opening round. They’re easy to spot once a draft is a year or two in the rearview mirror.
Here at CBS Sports, we’re looking to give you some of that hindsight upfront with our “Buyer Beware” list. Players analyzed on this list below aren’t surefire busts, but they have a glaring issue or two that could make them potentially risky picks in the first round or early in the second round. Essentially, these are players who have the potential to struggle to provide their future NFL homes with commensurate value based on their draft slot.
Here’s a look at five buyer-beware prospects for the 2026 NFL Draft.
Fornelli 2026 NFL mock draft 5.0: Vikings make move into top 10 to fill need on offense
Tom Fornelli
Ty Simpson, QB, Alabama
Why: Limited experience as a starter, meh traits, unpolished processing thanks to inexperience
Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson is the consensus second-best quarterback prospect in the 2026 NFL Draft after likely first overall Fernando Mendoza, the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner and national championship-winning quarterback for the Indiana Hoosiers. However, that does not mean Simpson is a first-round-caliber quarterback.
He only started for one season in college after waiting his turn for years behind both Bryce Young and Jalen Milroe, and his lack of starts, just 15 in 2025, is evident on tape. Simpson is mostly accurate, and his mechanics are sound. However, he struggles to maintain a consistently strong level when going through his progressions. Sometimes it’s tunnel vision, other times it’s moving off of routes right as his intended target is about to break open at the top of their route pattern. In short, it’s a lack of feel that all quarterbacks need to have to be successful for the long haul, especially in the NFL when everything moves at a way faster speed than in college.
Alabama’s opponents clearly figured this out down the stretch of the season, which also coincided with the Crimson Tide’s schedule stiffening exponentially. Simpson faced Oklahoma twice, played in the Iron Bowl at Auburn, Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and against Indiana in the Rose Bowl. He also played at home against Eastern Illinois in this six-game stretch, and Simpson threw two interceptions and no touchdowns in a 56-0 Crimson Tide victory. The first interception occurred when he failed to see the middle of the field defender dropping back in zone coverage, which allowed for his pass to be undercut for a turnover. The second one came on a Hail Mary heave to the back right corner of the end zone in which his intended target was double-teamed.
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Team W-L
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8-1
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3-3
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Comp Pct
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67%
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61%
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Pass YPG
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273.4
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184.3
|
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Pass yards per attempt
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8.3
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6.2
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TD-INT ratio
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21-1
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7-4
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Passer Efficiency Rating
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159.5
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121.5
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Simpson’s mobility is fine, but the bottom line is, he just needs to play more to speed up his processing. It would’ve been better for his long-term football future if that was at the collegiate level because the tolerance for mistakes is much lower at the NFL level.
Rueben Bain Jr., EDGE, Miami
Why: Short arms, relies more on power and motor than refined pass-rush plan, might not age well in the NFL
Rueben Bain Jr. dominated in his final season with the Miami Hurricanes by helping power them to national runner-up finish in 2025. He earned the Ted Hendricks Award as the nation’s best edge rusher after leading the country with 83 quarterback pressures, the most by an FBS player in a season since 2017. That number was also aided by his FBS-most 533 pass-rush snaps, 98 more than the next closest player. Bain did also turn it on in the clutch with five of his nine-and-a-half sacks coming in the College Football Playoffs.
However, the All-American has 30⅞-inch arms, which makes him undersized in the NFL where offensive tackles are bigger, longer and more athletic. Not being able to bend and detach from lengthier offensive tackles is a legitimate concern, and Bain isn’t incredibly explosive off the snap. He wins with power, his bull rush and his motor. Operating this way allowed him to be like a man among boys in college, but that style of play may not age well in the NFL where the athleticism gap is much, much smaller. Bain also didn’t perform any athletic testing at the combine or Miami’s pro day, only doing measurements and position drills. The questions about how his game will translate at the next level could have been tempered to a degree with strong athletic testing, but Bain declined to help himself in that department. That could cause him to potentially slide out of the draft’s first 10 picks.
CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reports NFL teams are aware of Bain’s legal history, and they consider his past transgressions in that area handled.
Jordyn Tyson, WR, Arizona State
Why: Concerning injury history that prevented him from working out at the combine and ASU Pro Day
There’s a case to be made that Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson is the 2026 NFL Draft’s most explosive wide receiver after the catch. He’s phenomenal at maintaining his stride after the catch before breaking free for massive amounts of yards after the catch. That’s one of the many reasons why he led the Big 12 in catches (136) while ranking second in receiving yards (1,812) and receiving touchdowns (18) across the last two seasons. Since 2024, only Tyson, Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and UConn’s Skyler Bell are the only three players in the nation with 1,800-plus receiving yards and 18-plus receiving touchdowns.
However, his lengthy injury history is a clear red flag. Tyson blew out his knee as a freshman at Colorado by tearing his ACL, PCL and MCL in his left knee. He suffered a broken left collarbone injury that prevented him from suiting up for the Sun Devils in the 2024 Big 12 Championship Game and the College Football Playoffs. Tyson’s hamstring injury from the 2025 season is still bothersome to the point where he has yet to perform any athletic testing at both the combine and Arizona State’s pro day.
Tyson himself knows how the optics of his recent injury have led to his draft stock to deflate, which is why he is holding a workout for NFL teams on April 17 to show he can still move at an elite level. His draft status heavily relies on him having a successful showing six days before the first round kicks off in Pittsburgh.
CJ Allen, LB, Georgia
Why: A lingering, nagging meniscus injury
CJ Allen earned first-team All-SEC and consensus All-America accolades in 2025 after leading the Georgia Bulldogs in tackles (88), tackles for loss (8.0) and forced fumbles (2) in 2025. He thrived as Georgia’s green dot linebacker/on-field defensive signal-caller. He’s also fundamentally sound as he didn’t commit a single penalty in 41 games played at the college level.
However, his decision to gut through a meniscus injury in his knee at the end of the last college football season is coming back to bite him. Allen suffered a meniscus tear in the Bulldogs’ 35-10 victory over the Texas Longhorns on Nov. 15, and he opted to have surgery on it right away. He then powered through the rehab process for the injury by returning to play 13 days later against Georgia Tech.
Swelling in that knee has come back to bite him during the pre-draft process. ESPN stated that was the reason why Allen didn’t participate in athletic testing at Georgia’s pro day. Rushing back from that injury may be nothing, but a meniscus injury also derailed the trade of five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby from the Las Vegas Raiders to the Baltimore Ravens. It’s not nothing, especially for a player who sometimes struggled to break through as a blitzer and when dropping back in zone coverage.
Monroe Freeling, OT, Georgia
Why: Raw prospect who still needs plenty of development in order to succeed at NFL level
Monroe Freeling came off the bench to line up at both right tackle and left tackle for the Georgia Bulldogs starting in 2024, but he worked his way into the starting lineup in the second of the 2024 season and improved the more and more he played. Freeling certainly has an NFL body standing at 6-feet-7-inches tall while weighing 315 pounds with 34 3/4-inch arms.
However, he’s still raw from a technique perspective. At times, he can put himself in a perilous position against counter moves after setting his feet in pass protection. Being too stiff and upright in pass protection is also a recurring issue, and he can sometimes get too far out over his skis when run blocking. A number of those things stem from Freeling only having one full season as a starter along the Bulldogs’ offensive line in 2025.
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Pass-block snaps
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340
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434
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QB pressures allowed
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21
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9
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QB pressure rate allowed
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4.1%
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1.6%
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|
Sacks allowed
|
4
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2
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Whichever team selects him in the first round needs to have a clear plan to develop him because Freeling may not be an immediate, plug-and-play starter beginning in Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season.
