Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar was still waiting when the 2026 NFL Draft reached its final day on April 25, with Rounds 4-7 unfolding from Pittsburgh and his name still on the board. He knew any call would come late on Day 3, if it came at all.
Aguilar entered the day as ’s third-ranked quarterback available and NFL.com projected him as a sixth- or seventh-round pick. NFL Network’s Chad Reuter had him going to the Green Bay Packers with the 236th pick in the seventh round, while CBS Sports initially linked him to the Indianapolis Colts with the 214th pick in the sixth round before later projecting him to Green Bay with the 255th pick in the seventh round.
The numbers behind the wait are hard to ignore. Aguilar, 25 years old when the 2026 season started, passed for 13,317 yards and 101 touchdowns over five college seasons and led the SEC in passing yards during the 2025 regular season. He played at Diablo Valley Community College in 2021 and 2022, then at Appalachian State in 2023 and 2024 before transferring to Tennessee in 2025. At Appalachian State alone, he threw for 3,757 yards, 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2023.
There was also the matter of the injury. Aguilar was recovering from surgery to remove a benign tumor on his throwing arm, a complication that hung over his draft stock even as his production kept him in view for teams looking deeper on the board. At 6-foot-3 and 229 pounds, he fit the profile of a developmental quarterback, but not one without a résumé.
His path has rarely been the straightforward one. He started as a junior college walk-on and moved from one level to the next while being doubted along the way, yet he kept putting up numbers at each stop. That history matters because late-round pick and undrafted free agent status can leave a player with little practical difference on draft weekend, and Aguilar likely would begin his NFL career as a third-string quarterback if he makes a roster.
That is why the final rounds matter now. A player who led the SEC in passing yards in 2025 and piled up 13,317 college passing yards is still being measured against health, age and the fit of the room he enters. If his name comes off the board, it will be as much a judgment on his ceiling as on the long, uneven route that got him here.