NFL Network’s Kurt Warner on Who Could be the 3rd QB Selected in’26 NFL Draft

The third quarterback off the board in the 2026 NFL Draft is the most interesting question on the QB1 board behind the consensus top two, and on The Rich Eisen Show this week NFL Network analyst Kurt Warner laid out a three-name shortlist that he believes will define the back end of the first round and the early second. Warner pointed Rich toward Carson Beck, Garrett Nussmeier and Drew Allar as the names worth tracking, with the caveat that none of them should be drafted to start on day one.

"I think teams look at them right now and say we're not drafting them to be our starter right now," Warner said. "Can they be a starter? Maybe, but I don't think you draft them to be a starter."

Warner has more than analyst tape on Beck. The Hall of Fame quarterback's son EJ has been training alongside the former Georgia and Miami passer, and Warner relayed the scouting report with unusual transparency given the family stake. "Carson Beck, huge fan. He's actually been training with EJ and EJ raves about how smart he is, how well he knows the game," Warner said, before naming the gap that gives him pause. "I'm not sure he's got that one thing that separates him as a starter, but when you start to hear that big moments he's played in a lot of big moments. A lot of success both at Georgia and Miami. Smart guy. I think he's got the potential to maybe be a starter. He could be number three off the board."

Nussmeier presents a different evaluation problem. Warner told Rich the tape splits depending on the year and the health of the LSU quarterback's throwing arm, and the bloodline is doing real work in his projection. "His dad played in the league, his dad's a coach. He looks like a coach's son. He understands the game. He's got good physical ability, especially when you look at times when he wasn't injured," Warner said. "He could excite people. He could be the number three guy."

The outlier, in Warner's framing, is Penn State's Drew Allar, whose physical tools may be the best in the class but whose play has not caught up to his arm. "Physically he's probably the most gifted thrower of anybody in this class. Like it just comes off his hand, it's easy. He's got the big arm, but his play at the quarterback position doesn't match the physical part of it," Warner said. He then pointed to the developmental bet that has driven first-round QB picks for a generation. "We can teach playing quarterback. We can't teach those physical things."

Warner closed by reframing all three as backups drafted with starter ceilings, players who will be asked to prove they belong before they are handed the keys.