The Forgotten Quarterbacks: Why This Year's Undrafted Signal Callers Could Write the Best Stories in Football

You know what I love about football? It's the same thing that makes me love life itself. It's the fact that nobody gets to write the ending before the game starts. Every single year, we get these kids who didn't get invited to the dance, who heard "we're going a different direction" or "we're looking at other options," and they go out and prove that all those evaluators with their fancy charts and their combine metrics might have missed something important. This 2026 draft class is loaded with that kind of story, and I'm talking particularly about the quarterback position.

Let me tell you something about quarterbacks who don't get drafted. They've got something that can't be measured at the combine. They've got hunger. They've got a chip on their shoulder the size of a defensive tackle. When you're Haynes King or Diego Pavia, and you watch name after name go off the board while you're sitting there waiting for your phone to ring, something happens inside you. That's not a weakness or a sign you can't play. Sometimes that's the best thing that can happen to a young quarterback because he's about to learn what it takes to survive in this league.

Haynes King is the kind of kid who reminds me of quarterbacks from another era, the ones who had to learn the game the hard way. This kid can make plays. He's got arm talent that shows up on film, and he's not afraid to get dirty in the pocket. He's going to get a look from somewhere, guaranteed. Maybe it's a team that needs depth. Maybe it's a team that saw something in the tape that other people missed. Either way, King is going to have an opportunity, and here's the thing about undrafted quarterbacks, they take those opportunities and they live them like it's their last meal.

Diego Pavia is another story altogether, and this is the kind of guy you've got to really study to understand what makes him special. Pavia's got the kind of pedigree that might confuse people about why he's sitting here undrafted. He's played at the college level and shown flashes of brilliance mixed with moments where you can see why teams might have had some questions. But here's what matters: he's a competitor, and when he gets his shot, he'll take it seriously because he knows the margin for error is razor thin. That's actually an advantage because it teaches you faster than anything else in football.

Throughout NFL history, we've seen this story play out over and over again. You think about guys like Kurt Warner, who was stocking shelves at a grocery store before he became a Hall of Famer. You think about Joe Montana, who wasn't exactly a blue chip prospect coming out of Notre Dame. These weren't guys who had everything handed to them on a silver platter. They earned it the hard way, one play at a time. The undrafted quarterback has to prove himself in the preseason, in the practice squad, against competition that's fighting just as hard to stick around. That's the ultimate proving ground.

What's beautiful about this year's class of undrafted signal callers is that they're coming into the league in a time when there's more opportunity than ever before. You've got more roster spots for backup quarterbacks. You've got developmental spots on practice squads that didn't exist ten years ago. You've got teams that are actively looking for value in places that other teams ignored. The infrastructure exists now for these guys to actually get a real chance to compete, and that changes everything.

The thing about quarterbacking in the NFL is that it's not just about arm talent. Sure, you need to be able to throw the football accurately and with velocity. Sure, you need to understand coverage and know where to go with the ball. But what separates the guys who stick around from the guys who wash out is something that happens between the ears and inside the heart. It's the ability to learn from mistakes. It's the willingness to put in the work when nobody's watching. It's the mental toughness to take a sack, get back up, and execute the next play like the previous one didn't happen.

King and Pavia both understand this intuitively because they've been fighting their whole lives just to be heard. They've been overlooked enough times that it becomes fuel. That's not something you can teach at a coaching clinic. That's not something you can measure with a radar gun. That's something that comes from the soul of a competitor who refuses to accept other people's evaluations of his abilities.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that every undrafted quarterback becomes a success story. That would be lying to you, and I don't do that. The reality is that some of these guys won't make it past their first training camp. Some of them will get their shot and realize that the jump from college to the professional level is bigger than they thought. Some of them will find success in other areas of life, and that's fine too. Football isn't the only way to be great at something.

But here's what I know to be true: if you're looking for stories that matter, if you're looking for the kind of narrative that reminds you why you love this game in the first place, you should be paying attention to guys like King and Pavia and the other undrafted quarterbacks coming into this league. These are the guys who could end up being stealing reps in practice, making your favorite team's incumbent quarterback work harder, or stepping in when someone gets injured and proving that he's a legitimate option to move the chains.

The undrafted quarterback also represents something pure about professional football. He represents the meritocracy that we all want to believe this sport is. In theory, it doesn't matter where you came from or whether some scout had you on his board. What matters is whether you can execute the playbook, whether you can make the throws that need to be made, and whether you can lead your teammates in moments that matter. For undrafted quarterbacks, that meritocracy is their only path, and that makes them incredibly dangerous once they get their opportunity.

What really gets me excited about King and Pavia and this group of overlooked signal callers is imagining the possibilities. I'm imagining one of them getting into a game situation. I'm imagining him leading a drive down the field with the game on the line. I'm imagining him converting a crucial third down because he made the right read and delivered the ball on time and in rhythm. I'm imagining the announcers saying his name with surprise in their voice because they didn't expect him to be good enough to do that. Those moments exist out there waiting to happen, and somebody undrafted could be the one to deliver them.

For fans, this means you should be watching training camps and preseason games with the understanding that you might be watching the beginning of something special. You might be watching the guy who, five years from now, people will say "I can't believe he went undrafted." You might be watching the next chapter in the great tradition of quarterbacks who had to fight for everything they got. These stories matter because they remind us that talent evaluation is an imperfect science, and that heart, hustle, and preparation can overcome almost any obstacle. Keep your eyes on Haynes King and Diego Pavia, because one of them could be writing a story that sticks with you for the rest of your football life.