Acme Packing Company
NFL draft prospects have until January 14th to declare for the 2026 draft, but some of these players are already making their decisions clear. So far, 10 players have already declared for April’s draft, which is a fairly significant amount considering how few underclassmen have come out in recent years.
From 2019 to 2021, before the extra eligibility for Covid seasons, NIL payments and the transfer portal really started to kick in, the league averaged 126 underclassmen declarations per class. From 2023 t0 2025, though, that number dropped to just an average of 70, 56 fewer underclassmen per class and a 44 percent overall drop in underclassmen declaring.
With direct payments from schools to players now allowed, plus the NFL still having a rookie wage scale, you could see even more kids elect to return to college football this season. With that in mind, let’s take you through the position-by-position breakdown of who is in or out of this class. We’ll update this page through the league’s official underclassmen announcement date, likely the week after the January deadline.
All rankings below come via the consensus draft board. We’ll also highlight which top-150 prospects have yet to make a decision at this time.
