The Undrafted Revolution: How King, Pavia, and This Year's Forgotten Men Could Reshape Pro Football

You know what I love about football? It's not always the guy with the biggest name or the most impressive combine numbers who ends up changing your franchise. Sometimes it's the kid who nobody wanted, the one they said was too this or not enough that, who walks into a training camp and makes you look foolish for ever doubting him. That's the beautiful part about the NFL, and that's exactly what we're talking about when we discuss the undrafted free agents coming out of this 2026 class. These are guys who fell through the cracks, got overlooked, or just didn't fit what some general manager thought they were looking for on draft day. But mark my words, some of these names are going to be around for a long time.

Let me tell you something about quarterbacks first, because Haynes King and Diego Pavia are exactly the kind of stories that remind us why football is the greatest game in the world. You've got King coming out of SMU, a kid who's got grit and intelligence running through his veins like premium gasoline. The guy understands how to get out of trouble, how to move around, and how to get his team into the right play. He might not have the biggest arm in the world, and yeah, maybe scouts looked at his hand size or his height and started scribbling negative notes on their clipboards. But here's the thing about King that matters: he wins football games. He competes every single snap, and when you watch the tape, you see a young man who loves the game the way we love the game. That's not something you can teach. That's not something that shows up at the NFL Combine. That shows up on Sunday, and it shows up when the lights are brightest.

Now Diego Pavia is a different kind of cat altogether. Here's a guy who took a winding road to get where he is, and that journey alone tells you something about his character. He played at New Mexico State, which isn't exactly a pipeline to the NFL, but Pavia played with a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas. He's got arm talent that turned some heads, and he's got the kind of toughness you want in a guy who's going to handle pressure and adversity. The mobile quarterback market has completely changed the game in the last five or ten years, and Pavia is cut from that cloth. He can move, he can improvise, and he's not afraid to put his shoulder down and get a tough yard when he needs it. Some organization is going to take a flier on him in camp or after the draft, and they're going to get a heck of a lot more than they bargained for.

What fascinates me about this whole situation with the undrafted quarterbacks is that we've seen this movie before, and it's always got a compelling ending. You go back and you think about the guys who slipped through the cracks in earlier eras. You think about Jimmy Garoppolo, who wasn't even a second rounder, and now he's won football games in the playoffs. You think about guys who came in as undrafted free agents and turned into contributors. The position has changed, sure, and teams are much more invested in quarterbacks now than they used to be, but the fundamental principle remains true: if a kid can sling it and he's got the right makeup, he's going to get his shot. The training camps are where dreams are made and broken, and King and Pavia are going to get their opportunities.

But this isn't just about quarterbacks, because one of the beautiful things about the undrafted class every year is the depth and diversity of talent. You've got guys at virtually every position who got looked over for reasons that sometimes make perfect sense and sometimes make absolutely no sense. Some of them didn't test well on a particular day. Some of them played at smaller schools where scouts didn't necessarily venture. Some of them had injuries that made teams nervous. Some of them just didn't fit the profile that was popular that particular year. I've been around this game long enough to tell you that trends in draft evaluation shift like the wind, and what wasn't valued three years ago suddenly becomes the most important thing in the world.

The wide receiver position, as always, has some tremendous undrafted talent available. There are always guys who didn't get invited to the big dance, receivers who can move, who have excellent hands, who understand how to get open at the professional level. You see these guys in college making incredible plays in hostile environments, and then somehow they don't get selected on draft day. It breaks your heart sometimes because you know they're going to make somebody pay for that oversight. The beauty of being an undrafted receiver is that you almost always get a shot in training camp, because teams need depth and they're always looking for diamond in the rough receiver plays. Some of these young men are going to stick on rosters, some of them might become special teams demons, and some of them are going to turn into guys who are in lineups by year two or three.

The defensive side of the ball always has fantastic undrafted talent, and this year is no different. Defensive linemen who are a hair below the combine threshold. Linebackers who didn't quite measure up physically but who played with intelligence and fury. Defensive backs who might not have the fastest forty time but who have the kind of ball skills that only show up on tape when you're really watching. These are the guys who will fight for spots on practice squads and roster bubbles, and invariably some of them will become regular contributors. I've seen undrafted defensive linemen turn into starter quality guys within a couple of years. I've seen linebackers who didn't get drafted turn into team captains. It happens because football isn't played on a computer, it's played on a field between the white lines, and that's where these guys get their chance to prove themselves.

Here's what makes this year's undrafted class special, and here's what you need to understand about why this matters for the draft cycle coming up. The evaluation process has become so specialized and so compartmentalized that sometimes the best football players get overlooked because they don't fit a particular mold. A general manager might be looking specifically for a type of corner with a specific combination of height and arm length, and if a kid is two inches shorter, he gets overlooked even though he can cover anybody in the world. A team might be obsessed with a certain kind of edge rusher, and a tremendous pass rusher who doesn't fit that exact template falls through the cracks. These undrafted guys are often the ones paying the price for that kind of specialized thinking, and they're often the ones who will prove everyone wrong.

The professional game is beautiful because unlike college, where you're dealing with coaches' preferences and scheme fit, in the NFL every single team gets a chance to work with these undrafted guys. They all get invited to camps, they all get a shot with multiple organizations if their current situation doesn't work out, and they all have the chance to prove they belong at this level. That's democracy in action, my friends. That's giving everyone an opportunity to show their stuff when it matters most.

Haynes King and Diego Pavia represent something that's important to understand about football talent. It's not a perfect science. It's not something you can completely predict by running a kid through the Combine or by looking at game tape from one or two seasons. Some guys need to be around NFL coaching, NFL speed, and NFL talent to really show you what they've got. Some guys need to be in the right system, the right team, the right place. And some guys, frankly, just got unlucky with the draft order or got overlooked because scouts were looking at someone else that day.

What this means for you as a fan is that the offseason and training camp are when you get to discover those hidden gems. These undrafted free agents are part of the reason why September is so exciting, why there's always hope for every franchise, and why the NFL maintains this incredible meritocracy where hard work and talent still matter. You don't need a first round pick to find a contributor. You don't need a pedigree or a huge recruiting ranking. You need football ability and football character, and this undrafted class has got plenty of both. Keep your eye on these guys because some of them are going to surprise you.