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Darian Mensah Given odds To Go No. 1 Overall In The 2026 NFL Draft

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I feel like most of our fanbase hasn’t really watched this kid play. Just highlights and such. I need yall to go back and watch this game. Just the first quarter, if you’re pressed for time. This is what we’re getting. Watch the ball placement on every single throw. It’s absolutely pinpoint. Inside the numbers, outside the numbers, with touch, on a line, it doesn’t matter.

It’s precision, and the release is super quick. Many of them are off-platform, and what almost any coach would tell you are poor mechanics with the footwork. He’s stepping sideways, he’s falling back. He’s pressured. And every ball is a ******* dart. Legit every single one. Just do yourself and favor and watch this. Watch how good of a route runner Barkate is. This kid is going to explode this year throwing to him and Mali, and the rest of the best room in the league. And oh, you wanna play a light box and play coverage? Here comes Mark Fletcher in your earhole. I cannot ******* wait to watch this team play. Health permitting, we need just a couple minor things to click and this is easily one of the 5 best teams in America.

 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
I feel like most of our fanbase hasn’t really watched this kid play. Just highlights and such. I need yall to go back and watch this game. Just the first quarter, if you’re pressed for time. This is what we’re getting. Watch the ball placement on every single throw. It’s absolutely pinpoint. Inside the numbers, outside the numbers, with touch, on a line, it doesn’t matter.

It’s precision, and the release is super quick. Many of them are off-platform, and what almost any coach would tell you are poor mechanics with the footwork. He’s stepping sideways, he’s falling back. He’s pressured. And every ball is a ******* dart. Legit every single one. Just do yourself and favor and watch this. Watch how good of a route runner Barkate is. This kid is going to explode this year throwing to him and Mali, and the rest of the best room in the league. And oh, you wanna play a light box and play coverage? Here comes Mark Fletcher in your earhole. I cannot ******* wait to watch this team play. Health permitting, we need just a couple minor things to click and this is easily one of the 5 best teams in America.

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I will be doing the Spider-Man celly a lot this year.
 
IMO he's the best QB in college football and it's not close. He'll be the first QB off the board.

Maybe Smith goes 1st. But would you take a generational WR talent over a sure-fire starting QB if you're a GM? Some would for sure. I would not.

How a kid like Mensah (and Ward before him) could be so low-rated coming out of high school is stunning to me. He was a composite 2-star, the 161st-rated QB, the 2672nd-rated player. Shows how important evaluations and how easy it is for these so-called scouts to get it wrong repeatedly.
 
grover said:
IMO he's the best QB in college football and it's not close. He'll be the first QB off the board.

Maybe Smith goes 1st. But would you take a generational WR talent over a sure-fire starting QB if you're a GM? Some would for sure. I would not.

How a kid like Mensah (and Ward before him) could be so low-rated coming out of high school is stunning to me. He was a composite 2-star, the 161st-rated QB, the 2672nd-rated player. Shows how important evaluations and how easy it is for these so-called scouts to get it wrong repeatedly.
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Thankfully Willie Fritz and his son shined on a light on him. Tulane was his only FBS offer, and Idaho State + Lindenwood offered after them.

California and Texas, two ironically very different politically led states for the past two decades, have the similar restrictive freedom of movement laws for high school transfers.

He dealt with a football issue as well. Before his junior year, he left San Luis Obispo High for St. Joseph, a Catholic school 45 minutes away from his home. Transfer rules forced him to sit out the first five games, and when he became eligible, he played receiver at first and did not start at quarterback until late in the season.

Although he completed better than 70% of his passes as a senior while St. Joseph won eight consecutive games by an average of 30 points, it was too late to attract major college suitors other than Tulane.
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I think this is a major reason why he went unnoticed. We all know HS quarterback recruiting is more advanced than everything else — which have all been pushed up timeline wise as well.

Coaches really have devalued senior stats and film; Summeral talks about this in reference to Mensah in one of the articles i read. The first HS he was at was actually really good at football. They went 10-2 his freshman year. He’s listed on the basketball team yet not the football roster. I believe he played JV. Their JV team went 10-1 as a freshman so he shined there.

His sophomore season was a COVID season so i imagine that messed things up a bit. Maxpreps says they went 0-5 but Darian’s highlights page says it was a two game season so idk. Either way, all this information — especially the junior year partially at WR — starts to paint a clearer picture. At the exposure camps, he’d get ignored. Mensah says because he lives in between the bay and LA that kids from his area are underrecruited.



“We were scouring the country,” said Wes Fritz, the man who, while working in recruiting at Tulane, found Mensah's tape and liked it enough to tell his dad, Willie, then the head coach. Looking for a dynamic quarterback who met the school’s high academic standard, the staff made Mensah an offer.

“Other schools were probably like, ‘Is this Tulane offer even real?’” said Wes Fritz with a laugh, he and dad Willie now at Houston. “They were probably like, ‘What the **** is going on here?’”
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Looking at Mensah’s senior stats reaffirmed to me that Dawson has the right approach in prioritizing accuracy before everything else. You want your quarterback to have high 60s or low 70s in completion percentage then in-person evaluations/workouts to determine if they have the combination of touch, mentality, velocity, footwork, etc to succeed at the next level.

Mensah’s senior year he had 17 passing touchdowns, 8 rushing touchdowns on 391 yards, about 2281 yards through the air and 8 interceptions.

I think Mensah is in a tier of three quarterbacks which include Trinidad Chambliss and Arch Manning. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that all three played basketball as well. It’s as if basketball is the new baseball (as a secondary sport) with the needed mobility quarterbacks need in this day and age.

It’s tough to explain exactly why Mensah is so successful at quarterback.

He doesn’t have the strongest arm. He’s not the biggest or fastest guy. But he is smart, accurate, shifty, reads coverages well and, above everything, is instinctive, coaches say.

Wes Fritz describes him as a “point guard” on the football field — calm and collective, that California vibe materializing on the field. In attempting to pinpoint his best skills, Sumrall mentions Mensah's “rhythm” and the precise location of his passes, even comparing the QB to Drew Brees.

“Drew didn’t have the biggest arm,” Sumrall said, “but he had great instincts.”
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sports.yahoo.com

Darian Mensah's journey to Duke: A modern-day American success story

The new athlete-compensation era isn't all bad. If you need proof, look no further than Duke's Darian Mensah, who cashed in on it and has a chance to see his star grow further against Illinois on Saturday.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com

But maybe there’s something else, says Brewer.

“He’s got a freedom to go rip the ball,” the coach said. “When you’re a big-time recruit out of high school, there’s a little bit of … ‘Oh! If I mess up, I got this ego and I’m this big-time dude and I suck?’ Guys crash fast. I’ve seen it.”
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His junior year film….the first play is unreal — video game stuff.



It’s kinda hilarious that this 2029 kid who transferred to Miami central is getting offers based on 7on7 and tee shirt and shorts throwing-drills.

He went to my Alma mater and he lost the backup job to a 5’8 qb who is more mobile; but also a freshman. Haven’t heard the whole story behind it yet i imagine that is one of the main reasons he transferred.

Really wild how powerful social media and affiliations i.e. they offered this kid now that he is at Miami central but not when he was at my lesser known HS. That’s not to say that kid won’t be special too etc it’s just to contrast that with Mensah who was a hidden gem making outrageous throws on tape and going unnoticed.
 
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