The 2026 NFL Draft is just one day away! Here are some rumors that I have heard from sources with the draft just hours away.
One team that is at a crossroads in the 2026 NFL Draft is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs need help in the defensive front seven at linebacker and edge rusher. Sources with Tampa Bay say addressing the defense is most likely the direction they go in the first round, but of course, that depends on who falls to them at pick 15. Sources say Tampa Bay is high on Miami edge rusher Akheem Mesidor and Georgia linebacker C.J. Allen. Those two are the top candidates for the Buccaneers. They also have some love for Texas A&M edge rusher Cashius Howell. Auburn defensive end Keldric Faulk is another candidate, but some sources with the team liked him, while others were not big fans of Faulk. Tampa Bay loves Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy, but the medical report will likely lead to the Bucs passing on McCoy. It sounds like Mesidor was the favorite, but the Buccaneers have been very good at hiding their true intentions, so you can’t rule out a dark horse player being a shocking pick to Tampa Bay.
The New Orleans Saints have been a mysterious team picking in the top 10 with the eighth-overall pick. There are a lot of directions the Saints could go, including a defensive end like Miami’s Rueben Bain, a wide receiver like Ohio State’s Carnell Tate, and a defensive back like LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane or Ohio State safety Caleb Downs. General manager Mickey Loomis has never traded down in the first round, but you never say never. In speaking with sources, the Saints are doing some extra late work on potential players that would be trade-down candidates. Auburn’s Keldric Faulk is one of those players, along with some other defensive backs like Delane, Hood, and Johnson. A team might want to move to pick 8 to get in front of Kansas City at 9. The Saints might make history under Loomis and actually move down. Everything is on the table for New Orleans.
Sources with a few teams say the medical concerns with McCoy are getting him dropped off some boards, even though his 2024 tape was the best tape of any cornerback prospect. Some teams feel he might need another surgery. Thus, McCoy is very fluid to go in the first round or slip to day two. Sources from a few teams thought McCoy’s teammate Colton Hood would be the second cornerback drafted. Sources at other teams thought San Diego State’s Chris Johnson could be the second cornerback selected. Given the demand for cornerbacks in the NFL, sources felt that Hood and Johnson could crack the top 20 picks. They felt either one or both could come off the board in the 11-20 range.
In speaking with a team source, they said they were talking about clients with one of the top agents in the NFL, and this agent said he had spoken with 31 teams about their first-round pick. This is how the agent predicted the top 10 would go. One, the Raiders take Fernando Mendoza. He thought the Jets were taking David Bailey with the second pick. He thought Arizona was taking Jeremiyah Love with the third pick. The Titans would take Arvell Reese at 4. Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson would be the fifth-overall pick to the Giants. At 6, they thought the Cleveland Browns would take Miami offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa. They thought Washington would take Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles at 7. With the eighth pick, they thought the Saints were going with Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate, but also said Miami defensive end Rueben Bain and LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane were in the running for New Orleans. They thought the Chiefs would take Bain or Tate at 9, and at 10, they thought the Giants would take Ohio State safety Caleb Downs. It will be interesting to see how their projections pan out. I have a lot of similar picks but differ at a few spots in my latest 2026 NFL Mock Draft.
