2026 nfl draft

The Game Room
1

There are so many reasons for me not to be interested in the NFL Draft this year. My beloved Packers don’t have a first round pick (they traded it, and their 2027 1st rounder and a very good player for Micah Parsons, who tore his ACL in week 14. Of course). Their recent drafts have been … lets be charitable here … underwhelming at best. And their offseason has been equally unimpressive. They’re a team that, at a time when they should be getting better, is basically treading water. But treading water and making the playoffs shows just how spoiled Packers fans are.

But, the Packers do have some draft needs (OG, CB, EDGE, DT), and I had a bit more time this spring, so I’ve dipped my toe back into being interested in the NFL Draft. I generally split up my NFL draft post with a discussion of My Guys, Your Guys, and then the best names in the draft. The “My Guys” and “Your Guys” are based on value, not necessarily only talent, so a My Guy going in the 1st round could be a massive reach, while I’d jump all over a Your Guy if he fell in the draft. (I want extra points for not making a joke about “jumping all over a guy”. Wait, I just did. Dammit!) So, without further ado, here’s my list of NFL My Guys 2026.

MY GUYS

1st Round

Jordan Tyson, WR, Arizona State
Jeremiah Love, RB, Notre Dame

2nd Round

Chris Johnson, CB, San Diego State
Emmanuel Pregnon, G, Oregon

3rd Round

Elijah Sarrett, WR, Indiana
Derrick Moore, Edge, Michigan

4th Round

Ted Hurst, WR, Georgia State
Keyron Crawford, Edge, Auburn

5th Round
Michael Taafe, S, Texas
Nate Boerkircher, TE, Texas A&M

6-7th Round
Febechi Nwaiwu, OG, Oklahoma
Tyren Montgomery, WR, John Carroll

YOUR GUYS

David Bailey, Edge, Texas Tech
Kenyon Sadiq, TE, Oregon
Max Iheanachor, OT, Arizona State
Caleb Banks, DT, Florida
Chase Bisontis, OG, Texas A&M

BEST NAMES IN THE 2026 NFL DRAFT

Sonny Styles
Romello Height
Domonique Orange
Dontay Corleone
Will Lee
Jake Slaughter
Zxavian Harris
Hezekiah Masses
Ephesians Prysock
Trey Smack
Denzel (boston from) Washington
Devonta Smith
Justin Jefferson

So, who are your “My Guys”? Who are your “Your Guys”. Did I miss any good names? Let’s hear from you.

NFL 2026 Offseason Thread
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Seattle has all of 4 draft picks, and as the reigning champions they don’t start picking until the last pick of the first round.

I’m definitely curious about who they’re going to pick, but I’m also curious about who will be left by the time a pick becomes available, and how they are best leveraging the minimal picks they have.

I hope they can find a good guard, because I think they are just one guard away from having a real solid O-line (which is so rare for any team to have). And maybe get some defensive linemen as well.

They may also trade back for more picks at a certain point.

3

I forgot to mention another aspect of this year’s draft, held in Pittsburgh, that I’m enjoying:

The 57th pick of the draft (currently held by the Chicago Bears), will receive a special red jacket and … a lifetime’s supply of Heintz ketchup.

Definitely cheesy and commercial, but I kinda really like it.

4

I do too.

5

Dolphins fan checking in.

This is our playoffs. This is our Super Bowl.

The Fins have 11 total picks, including 2 first rounders and 4 in the third.

These picks are the seeds of a dynasty. It starts Thursday.

A guy can hope.

6

I live 2 miles away from this. Are any Dopers attending? If so, welcome to the 'burgh!

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Now that the Giants have 2 1st rounders it will be interesting.

Mendoza is of course number 1.
Arvell Reese and David Bailey should go next.

Then it starts getting muddy. I’m hoping Sonny Styles is still there at 5 and they don’t take Love. Love is an impressive talent but I don’t think the team is good enough to take a running back that high. On the other hand they need weapons. Malik Nabors’ injury was worse than what anyone thought. He might not be back by the beginning of the season and may never be the same. I won’t hate having Love on the team but I’d rather have Styles.

A few mock drafts Caleb Downs dropping to 10 for the Giants. I will be happy if the Giants have 2 out of Love, Styles and Downs.

8

That sounds like a sexy law firm.

9

We’ll get you off… on all charges!

10

Art Rooney, owner of the host Steelers, noticed that the Ravens fans seating section was directly in front of the Steelers fans.

He asked the NFL to move the Ravens backers to another section of the theater, and the league complied.

11

For what it’s worth Mel Kipper has Love going number 4 to Tennessee. He has the Giants taking Caleb Downs at 5 and the Cowboys trading up and taking Sonny Styles at 6.

I don’t agree that the Giants will take Downs before Styles. I do have the Cowboys as most likely to trade up in the draft.

12

This has been nagging at me for a while and I don’t think it’s worth its own thread, so I’ll just ask it here. Is the mock draft how you expect the picks to go (based on GM mentalities, the “War Rooms”, established patterns, etc.), how you think the picks should go (based on team needs), or how you want the picks to go? For a long time I thought it was the first thing, but given how incredibly petulant Mel Kiper Jr. has become in recent years, I have my doubts.

13

Depends entirely on who’s creating the mock draft, and why. Ideally, I’d expect mocks to be the first category, but if the writer is full of himself (as Kiper is), and/or is just trying to generate clicks, they’ll be writing things that are controversial.

14

Exactly, it’s much like when someone is predicting the outcome of a game. They could be saying who statistically will win, they could be saying what they think would be the most interesting outcome, or they may be making a “hot take” to intentionally generate controversy and get attention. (You know, like Skip Bayless, a notorious sports troll.)

15

I forgot that Denver doesn’t have a first round pick. So what little interest I had in the draft (like most player personnel moves) has dropped to near zero. I guess I’m watching to see if Aaron Rodgers makes an ass of himself having waited this long to announce if he plans to play in 2026 and does so at the draft.

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Most of the time, the Mock Drafter will give a preamble that specifically clarifies this. And many Mock Drafters will do one draft following the “should” pattern based on their personal stack rank of players, and then as the draft gets closer to happening, they switch into predictive mode and start putting out lists that attempt to predict what will happen based on reporting and rumors. Even for mock drafters who don’t communicate their thought process, this shift from “value” to “expectations” happens organically.

17

I did a roster breakdown for the Bears in the Offseason thread here at the start of the league year. Some things have changed since then, we’ve had some key additions at LB and Safety and added some important depth pieces OT and DT. We brought back Braxton Jones at LT, which was a surprise, but made sense. So where does that leave us in terms of “Team Needs” heading into the Draft?

Team Needs

  1. Defensive Tackle - we added 3 veterans here, but none are really expected to be difference makers. We added Grady Jarrett last offseason and he’s was very underwhelming in his comeback from his knee injury. So we have a full room, but it’s looking like a sea of JAGs. This may signal that Poles isn’t planning a day 1 pick here, but I have it as our top need still.
  2. Edge - pretty similar situation with DT. We have Sweat, but lost our big FA addition Dayo to injury last year, and we hope he’s healthy and more productive in 2027. We have Booker ascending, but probably not ready to be a elite rusher. We haven’t added a lot of depth in FA, so I think there’s a signal that we are going to be drafting DEs over the weekend.
  3. Cornerback - we were truly awful in the secondary last season and we’ve rotated a lot of guys out. Jaylon and Kyler need to be healthy and return to Pro Bowl form, which is no sure thing, and Tyrique was in the doghouse last season. He’s currently projected to be the other starter. No one should be comfortable with this, so we need to add a CB on day one or day two. It’s not a great CB class, so let’s pray we’re not reaching when we do.
  4. Safety - we’re in a uglier situation here than at CB on paper, but I still have CB as a greater need due to positional scarcity and importance. We made one major FA addition, poaching Coby Bryant from the champs, but this room is nearly empty. So we may add 2 Safeties this weekend and probably will have some priority UDFAs in the building on Monday too.
  5. Left Tackle - things got weird down the stretch at LT. Last years second round pick looked like a long term answer at the position until a catastrophic knee injury. We moved Thuney to LT instead of playing any of our swing guys in the playoffs. There’s real questions if Ozzy will ever be back, let alone this year. We brought back Braxton Jones and brought in former 1st round pick Wilks to compete for the week 1 start. Protecting Caleb is the top priority, so drafting a LT is a strong possibility in round 1 in spite of the other options we have.
  6. IOL - Drew Dalman’s retirement is a huge monkey in the wrench here. We backfilled the Center position via trade but this is still a potential liability. Dalman might have been the single most important instrument in turning the offense around, so we need to not just be solid, we need to be great in the center. At OG Thuney is an older player and having some more depth inside is essential. Adding a LT could allow us to bump a guy inside, something to watch.
  7. LB - we’ve tried and failed to draft LBs in the middle rounds over the last few years. Edmunds is out, Devin Bush is in. Edwards is back but was hurt all last season, that 3rd spot is a bit of a black hole. We probably aren’t looking here on Day 1 or 2 unless there’s a huge value pick, but on Day 3 maybe we try again.
  8. WR - we shipped DJ Moore out and are expecting some combination of Odunze and Burden to fill that role. But, even if that works, we need to backfill the vacated WR2/WR3 role. We have Walker and Raymond in the building so we have options, but again, if a pass catcher becomes a value, we could surprise people by adding another weapon. I definitely think the organization wants to keep Caleb flush with weapons, so taking a WR on Day 2 could be a strong likelihood.
  9. QB/RB/TE - All these positions are probably pretty stable. We kept Bagent, so drafting a backup is unlikely. Swift, to the surprise of some, is coming back. You can never have enough ball carriers, so maybe we try to replicate that Monangai pick at the tail end, but UDFAs are probably the plan there. Kmet and Loveland are locked in for the immediate future, and we have some developmental guys in house, so taking a TE would be a shocker.

I’ll talk through some of my wish list guys a little later.

18

My Jets are bound to do something stupid like drafting Jeremiah Love at #2 and Ty Simpson at #16.

Hopefully, they draft Reese at #2 and best available at #16 (Sadiq, Ioane, or McCoy all look good to me). Don’t reach for Omar Cooper Jr, please!

19

I forgot to add that CB is a place where Seattle isn’t desperate (they have a very good pair with Witherspoon and Jobe; Witherspoon is one of the best defensive players on one of the best defenses in the NFL after all). But they could use something there after letting Woolen go. They traded for a veteran in the offseason already, but grabbing a promising rookie might not be bad. I’ve heard that they’d love Chris Johnson if he is still there at 32, but another team might snatch him up. (He seems like the consensus 3rd best CB in the draft, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility but far from a guarantee.)

20

Wish List for the Bears in Round 1.

Blake Miller - OT
He’s a really divisive player, some people have a top 10 grade on him, others have him as a Round 3 guy. I LOVE what I see from him. His technique is awesome and while he’s not as thick and not as strong as you ideally want, I think he can add that in a pro weight room. But his ability to mirror an Edge is elite. LT. is not the most pressing need for the Bears, but we definitely need help there. I’d much rather Caleb and BJ grow the offense and have the defense be a work in progress than to regress there.

Jordan Tyson - WR
This one is probably a fever dream. Early in the process he was a lat teens/early 20s kind of prospect, but in the last several weeks he’s looking more like a top 10 pick and potentially the first WR off the board. Injuries have been a red flag with him, but I’d LOVE to see him catching ball for Caleb. He is great on broken plays and his YAC is dominant. He won’t be there, and WR is not a major need, but what a diffeence making pick he’d be.

Keldrick Faulk - DE
This one feels like the chalk pick for the Bears. He’s been mocked to us a bunch and Edge is clearly a top need, and he’s got the body and game that seems to complement what DA has historically liked to do. My fear is that this is a weak Edge class and Faulk is a Day 2 talent who will come off the board on Day 1. I’m sure I’ll get on board if we draft him and I lov how young he is, but I’m not that fired up.

Dillon Thieneman - S
Probably even more chalk than Faulk based on Mock Drafts. I do like the player and the fit is a no brainer, it’s by far our thinnest position, but he doesn’t really leap off the screen. I like him WAY more than the other Safety we get mocked McNeil-Warren, like it’s not even close, EMW looks like a total bust and I will melt down if we take him. But Thieneman feels like a double and not a home run…which isn’t the worst thing.

I’m not in love with any of the top 3 DTs, and I am dubious that any of them will be there at 25. Of the 3 I think I prefer Woods the most and Banks the least, but none feel like guys that will change the complexion of a defense. All things being equal I’d rather end up with Zxavian Harris in the 2nd round and spend our first on one of the above players.