CAA Football places 11 players on 2026 preseason All-America team
CAA Football's 11 preseason All-Americans were spread across seven programs, but Rhode Island's four picks make the Rams the league's sharpest playoff bet.
CAA Football placed 11 players on the 2026 Stats Perform FCS Preseason All-America team, and the way those honors were spread across the league says as much about the conference as the names on the list. Rhode Island accounted for four of the 11 selections, Elon had two, and Monmouth, North Carolina A&T, Maine, Stony Brook and Bryant each landed one, a mix that points to real top-end talent without a single program dominating the board.
The headliner was Rhode Island wide receiver Marquis Buchanan, who earned first-team honors after a 2025 season in which he caught 78 passes for an FCS-best 1,337 yards and eight touchdowns. He hit 100 receiving yards seven times, a reminder that his production was not built on one spike game. Buchanan also posted 82 catches for 1,124 yards in 2024, became the eighth player in Rhode Island history to reach 1,000 receiving yards in a season, and enters 2026 with AP, Stats Perform, FCS Football Central and Phil Steele All-America recognition already on his résumé.
The second team showed the CAA’s depth at every level. Elon linebacker Brodie Carroll, Rhode Island linebacker Rohan Davy, Monmouth safety Jaeden Jones, Elon kicker Luke Barnes and North Carolina A&T punt returner Elijah Kennedy all landed there. Carroll was already a 2025 All-CAA second-team linebacker and a Phil Steele third-team pick, while Davy and Jones backed up the honor with production that jumped off the page. Davy finished with 101 tackles and 7.0 sacks, while Jones led Monmouth with 118 total tackles, including 74 solo stops and 44 assists. Jones also returned an interception 38 yards against Stony Brook on Oct. 18, 2025, another piece of evidence that Monmouth had him in the middle of everything. The Hawks finished 9-3 overall and 6-2 in the league, which is the profile of a team still squarely in the playoff mix.
Barnes’ selection was equally telling in a different way. The Elon sophomore went 15-for-18 on field goals and a perfect 40-for-40 on extra points, while Kennedy’s return to the field after a preseason injury wiped out his 2024 season gave North Carolina A&T a specialist with big-play potential.
The third team added Rhode Island offensive lineman Tre Alexander and defensive lineman Case Mankins, Maine offensive lineman Anthony Iliano, Stony Brook linebacker Anthony Ferrelli and Bryant kick returner Keylijah Williams. That spread is the real story: the CAA keeps putting national names on the table, but it is doing it through multiple programs, multiple position groups and multiple paths to impact. Rhode Island looks like the most complete playoff threat. The rest of the league looks dangerous enough to make the race messy.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
