Before Fernando Mendoza, the last Indiana player taken in the NFL Draft’s first round came in 1994.
That player was wide receiver Thomas Lewis, whom the New York Giants selected 24th overall in the 1994 NFL Draft. Lewis had starred for Indiana and was especially memorable for a 1993 game against Penn State in which he caught a 99-yard touchdown and set a Big Ten record with 285 receiving yards.
Mendoza ended the drought by going first overall to the Las Vegas Raiders in 2026. Indiana’s long gap between first-round selections therefore lasted from Lewis’s selection in 1994 through the 2026 draft. The wording refers to the year of the earlier draft, not the player’s final college season or the season in which he made his NFL debut.
The nearby years in the answer choices can be tempting because Indiana produced other notable NFL players during that period. However, the school’s draft history identifies Lewis as the last Hoosier first-rounder before Mendoza. Lewis was also Indiana’s first first-round selection since halfback Corbett Davis went first overall in 1938.