Five overlooked FCS prospects deserving more NFL draft attention in 2026

Bryce Lance, North Dakota State

The FCS pool looks thinner because it is thinner. Josh Buchanan said the class had been “thinned out big time” by the transfer portal, and even a name like Mark Gronowski leaving South Dakota State for an FBS finale only sharpened that point. Still, the small-school pipeline is alive, and 15 FCS players being selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, up from 12 in 2024 and 11 in 2023, proved teams are still willing to shop this aisle when the production is real. Lance is the first player who makes scouts stop and reset the board.

At 6-foot-3 and 209 pounds, Lance already has the frame NFL teams pay for, but the number that jumps off the page is the one that matters most: 17 touchdown catches in 2024, an FCS high, including seven scores in four postseason games. That is not empty volume. That is a receiver who kept winning when the stage got smaller and the pressure got louder, which is exactly the kind of postseason signature that can turn a good prospect into the one every meeting room starts talking about. Opta’s Round 3 grade makes sense, but the next leap comes if Lance proves he can pair that red-zone finish with enough separator juice to win outside the hash marks against better corners.

Jalen Walthall, UIW

Walthall is the kind of receiver who punishes lazy scouting. At 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, he does not look like a museum piece, but the production is too loud to keep treating him like a footnote: 85 catches, 1,290 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns, all top-five FCS marks. When a receiver lives that high on the production board and still comes in with a Round 6-7 grade, that is the exact mismatch that creates a draft riser.

What makes Walthall dangerous as a sleeper is that his case does not depend on one weird game or one lucky scheme fit. The body of work says he is already a chain mover, a separator and a finisher, which means the only thing left is for him to validate that profile in front of NFL personnel with the route-running and burst that his numbers suggest are already there. If he shows he can separate cleanly against press and still threaten defenses after the catch, the conversation changes fast, because wideouts who produce like that rarely stay buried for long.

Jalen Jones, William & Mary

Corners usually have to do more than make tackles or survive in coverage. Jones did the part scouts care about most: he was always around the football. William & Mary’s 6-foot-0, 195-pound corner finished last season as the FCS leader in overall passes defended with 22 and led the subdivision at 1.8 passes defended per game, and that kind of production is not accidental.

The reason Jones deserves more attention is simple: coverage production often travels better than reputation. A Round 7 grade makes him sound like a depth play, but players who bat down that many passes are forcing quarterbacks to throw elsewhere, and that is a skill NFL teams can build on if the athletic testing and interview work back it up. One strong workout showing loose hips and the recovery burst to stay attached in man coverage would give him the kind of proof that turns a late-round corner into a real developmental target.

Max Tomczak, Youngstown State

Tomczak is the opposite of a flashy one-year teaser. He is the steady, durable receiver who keeps banking yards until people finally notice the total. Youngstown State’s 5-foot-11, 195-pound target has 2,003 career receiving yards, and that is the kind of number that tells you a player has already survived enough defensive attention to matter.

The national attention has lagged because he does not arrive with a viral testing clip or a monster touchdown season attached to his name, but the profile still works. He has enough thickness to handle contact and enough experience to win in the middle of the field, which is the first thing NFL teams look for when they decide whether a Day 3 receiver can survive the jump. If Tomczak shows he can separate quickly against nickel defenders and keep creating after the catch, that 2,003-yard résumé starts to look less like compiler stats and more like a steady projection of usable Sunday value.

Charles Demmings, Stephen F. Austin

Demmings may be the clearest scout-obsession candidate in the group because the tool set is already obvious. He has a low-4.4-second 40-yard dash, five interceptions and 21 pass breakups in his career, and that combination should make teams lean in harder than a Priority Free Agent tag suggests. Corners with that kind of speed and ball production do not grow on trees, especially when they also bring a 6-foot-1, 185-pound frame that fits multiple coverage asks.

This is where the public and the league often diverge. Fans see the label, but scouts see the stopwatch, the hands and the disruption, and Demmings has all three ingredients that can force a reassessment once all-star workouts, the combine and pro days put his movement skills in front of the whole league. If he backs the forty up with clean transitions and sticky press-man tape, he will stop looking like a fringe add and start looking like the kind of late riser teams brag about finding after the fact. By the time the 2026 draft lands in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Demmings could be the name that makes everyone wonder how he stayed this quiet for so long.