By Walt – @walterfootball
April 24, 2026
2026 NFL Draft Day 2 Preview – Ten Observations:
1. Before I get into what specific teams did in the 2026 NFL Draft, I need to discuss the overarching theme of the first round, which was that it felt extremely rushed. At one point, the TV broadcasts fell behind by three picks, prompting someone on the NFL Network panel to say, “This feels like Day 3.”
I’ve said for years that the NFL needs to slow the draft down so that picks aren’t tipped online, allowing the TV networks to keep pace with the actual proceedings. So, what does Roger Goodell do? The complete opposite, of course! Goodell, in his infinite wisdom, decided to shorten the allotted time per pick from 10 to eight minutes. The result was a hastened first round that was 43 minutes shorter than the opening frame of the 2025 NFL Draft.
This was yet another huge swing and a miss for Goodell, whose disastrous regime continues to hurt the overall progress of the NFL. Installing 9:30 a.m. games that no one watches and perpetuating horrible Thursday night games was bad enough, but now Goodell meddled with the NFL Draft. Enough is enough.
If Goodell isn’t extremely stubborn for once, he’ll revert back to the 10-minute formula, or perhaps even go the other way and attempt 12 minutes, which would allow the TV networks to keep pace. I’d ordinarily say that Goodell wouldn’t admit that he was wrong, but the shortened draft undoubtedly hurt the bottom line, as there were fewer commercial breaks throughout the process.
2. Let’s get to the actual picks. If you didn’t follow the betting market during the first round, you may not have seen that the odds on Arvell Reese were astronomical. They were -232 when the draft began, meaning that you had to wager $232 to win $100. By the time, Fernando Mendoza was selected, the line had gone to -656 ($656 to win $100). Someone told me that the line moved to -1700 at one point. That’s right – you had to bet $1,700 to win only $100. That’s how much of a sure thing Reese was to the Jets!
Obviously, people who wagered these astronomical sums to win a relatively small amount of money were slaughtered when the Jets picked David Bailey. I was completely shocked even though I mocked Bailey to the Jets. When the line rose like that, I assumed someone close to Woody Johnson – perhaps his third cousin thrice removed – had inside info and was betting the max ($75,000) on multiple accounts. If that were actually the case, they won’t be attending the next family reunion.
It’s very surprising to me that someone close to Johnson or the general manager didn’t get information and bet the farm on Bailey. It’s nice to know that the NFL has more integrity than the inside-trading thieves in congress.
3. Once Reese to the Jets became a “sure thing” in the betting market, the odds on Bailey going to the Cardinals exploded as well. Of course, we knew that this was a sure loser, thanks to the amazing intel we were able to receive from our great Arizona source. Jeremiyah Love to the Cardinals was the second-largest bet we placed.
Even though we won lots of money with Love going to the Cardinals, the pick was foolish. The Cardinals, like the Raiders last year with Ashton Jeanty, are in no position to support a high-priced running back. Their offensive line was strengthened with Isaac Seumalo in free agency, but is still a liability. There is also not much of a passing game, so teams can concentrate on stopping Love. I believe Love will have a better season than Jeanty because there’s more around him than Jeanty had in Las Vegas, but it’s still going to be a wasted year, which is something you never want with a running back and their brief careers.
But before you criticize the general manager or head coach for making this pick, you must know that the Love decision was not up to them. This pick was made by Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell, who meddled with the draft like other bad owners have done in the past. We’ve seen Daniel Snyder do this over the years, while Panthers owner Axe Tepper defied all of his football personnel by choosing Bryce Young over C.J. Stroud. Bidwell is now in that category.
Here’s an idea for meddlesome owners – maybe, just maybe, you should allow the football people you hired to make your football decisions.
4. While we were able to profit from Love going to the Cardinals, the next selection was a disaster. We didn’t bet the No. 4 pick outside of an early wager on Love, but the Carnell Tate selection screwed up everything up. It left Reese on the board for the Giants, who was the one player Charlie warned us to hedge with our Jordyn Tyson wager. The Giants were set to draft Tyson, but saw Reese as too good to pass up at No. 5 – even though they have a billion edge rushers on the team.
This stung. We still profited from the 2026 NFL Draft – I came out $2,100 ahead (results on the NFL Draft Props page – but if the Titans had just picked Reese instead of Tate, I would have won about $10,000 with the Tyson selection. Ugh!
5. Let’s do a what-if scenario regarding the Titans pick. Had Tennessee chosen Reese instead of Tate, we may have seen the rest of the top 10 look like this:
4 – Titans: Arvell Reese, DE/OLB
5 – Giants: Jordyn Tyson, WR
6 – Chiefs: Mansoor Delane, CB
7 – Redskins: Carnell Tate, WR
8 – Saints: Caleb Downs, S
9 – Browns: Spencer Fano, OT
10 – Cowboys: Sonny Styles, LB
We know Tyson was the preferred option for the Giants had Reese not been available (again, Charlie only mentioned Reese as the lone hedge.) As for the Redskins, the organization was divided on Tate versus Styles. They ultimately decided that Tate would be the pick because he’d be better for Jayden Daniels, but it didn’t end up mattering because Tate was off the board. The Saints, meanwhile, liked Downs, but wanted a receiver for their young quarterback as well. And that would leave the Cowboys trading up for Styles instead of Downs.
This draft would have been so much better for our betting and our mock drafts, but the Titans ended up costing us lots of money, just as they did in October with that ridiculous bad beat when Emari Demarcado dropped the ball shy of the goal line. This Tennessee franchise is an absolute menace.
6. We can be sure the Chiefs would have done the same thing in that what-if scenario, but their trade made absolutely no sense. I graded them as a Millen (F) in the 2026 NFL Draft Trade Grades page.
I don’t understand the Chiefs’ logic. Mansoor Delane is a very good cornerback prospect, but he’s not some can’t-miss talent. And the Chiefs probably could have acquired him at No. 9 anyway! I can promise you that the Redskins were not going to draft Delane at No. 7. The Saints may have at No. 8, but so what? If you’re the Chiefs, you can still obtain Caleb Downs, Jordyn Tyson, or Rueben Bain. There were plenty of quality options who were there at No. 9, so moving up for a similar-caliber player made no sense.
7. While the Chiefs made the worst trade in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, the Patriots came away with the best deal of the teams that moved up.
Offensive tackles were flying off the board in the 20s. The Patriots, sitting at No. 31, correctly recognized that they had to do something to land the final first-round tackle remaining on the board, especially considering that there were multiple teams ahead of them that could have drafted that final tackle. They gave up a late fourth-round pick to get Caleb Lomu, but it’ll be worth it if it means that Drake Maye won’t be sacked at least five times in every playoff game.
The Bills came away with a fourth-round pick, which may seem nice until they have issues generating pressure on Maye in their two (or three) meetings each year. The Bills would have been better off surrendering the late fourth-rounder in hopes that one of the teams drafting ahead of the Patriots would snag Lomu off the board.
8. While the Patriots and Bills engaged in a friendly trade, the Eagles and Steelers fought over a prospect. Pittsburgh thought it was going to draft Makai Lemon at No. 21, so much so that the team called Lemon when Dallas was on the clock at No. 20. The Cowboys were obviously not going to draft a receiver, so the Steelers thought Lemon was theirs.
However, the Eagles moved up to No. 20, which obviously changed Pittsburgh’s plans. The Eagles tried calling Lemon, but couldn’t get in touch with him because Lemon was on the phone with the Steelers. This delayed the draft a bit, which helped bail out Goodell and his stupid 8-minute plan.
Pittsburgh fans may be frustrated with the Eagles, but I can tell you that they should consider themselves fortunate that they dodged a major bullet. Lemon had the weirdest combine interviews in NFL Draft history a couple of months ago. I imagine he wasn’t so weird with every team; otherwise, he would be off everyone’s board.
In my book, A Safety and a Field Goal, I wrote about how one NFL player – currently still in the league – said the following during a combine interview when he was asked why he loves football so much, “Playing football is like hitting a b**ch.” Yes, an NFL player admitted to domestic abuse in a combine interview.
Believe it or not, that is quite tame compared to how Lemon conducted himself.
More to come.
Fantasy Football Perspective:
For a fantasy football perspective, there were X players chosen in the first round, compared to 14 last year. Here they are, ordered by 2026 fantasy value:
To be posted soon.
Best Players Available for Day 2:
The top-30 available players for the second round (with links to their scouting reports):
To be posted soon
2026 NFL Draft Mailbag:
To be posted soon (ask questions @walterfootball on X)
2026 NFL Mock Draft - April 23
Fantasy Football Rankings - April 5
NFL Picks - Feb. 9
NFL Power Rankings - Jan. 26
April 24, 2026
2026 NFL Draft Day 2 Preview – Ten Observations:
1. Before I get into what specific teams did in the 2026 NFL Draft, I need to discuss the overarching theme of the first round, which was that it felt extremely rushed. At one point, the TV broadcasts fell behind by three picks, prompting someone on the NFL Network panel to say, “This feels like Day 3.”
I’ve said for years that the NFL needs to slow the draft down so that picks aren’t tipped online, allowing the TV networks to keep pace with the actual proceedings. So, what does Roger Goodell do? The complete opposite, of course! Goodell, in his infinite wisdom, decided to shorten the allotted time per pick from 10 to eight minutes. The result was a hastened first round that was 43 minutes shorter than the opening frame of the 2025 NFL Draft.
This was yet another huge swing and a miss for Goodell, whose disastrous regime continues to hurt the overall progress of the NFL. Installing 9:30 a.m. games that no one watches and perpetuating horrible Thursday night games was bad enough, but now Goodell meddled with the NFL Draft. Enough is enough.
If Goodell isn’t extremely stubborn for once, he’ll revert back to the 10-minute formula, or perhaps even go the other way and attempt 12 minutes, which would allow the TV networks to keep pace. I’d ordinarily say that Goodell wouldn’t admit that he was wrong, but the shortened draft undoubtedly hurt the bottom line, as there were fewer commercial breaks throughout the process.
2. Let’s get to the actual picks. If you didn’t follow the betting market during the first round, you may not have seen that the odds on Arvell Reese were astronomical. They were -232 when the draft began, meaning that you had to wager $232 to win $100. By the time, Fernando Mendoza was selected, the line had gone to -656 ($656 to win $100). Someone told me that the line moved to -1700 at one point. That’s right – you had to bet $1,700 to win only $100. That’s how much of a sure thing Reese was to the Jets!
Obviously, people who wagered these astronomical sums to win a relatively small amount of money were slaughtered when the Jets picked David Bailey. I was completely shocked even though I mocked Bailey to the Jets. When the line rose like that, I assumed someone close to Woody Johnson – perhaps his third cousin thrice removed – had inside info and was betting the max ($75,000) on multiple accounts. If that were actually the case, they won’t be attending the next family reunion.
It’s very surprising to me that someone close to Johnson or the general manager didn’t get information and bet the farm on Bailey. It’s nice to know that the NFL has more integrity than the inside-trading thieves in congress.
3. Once Reese to the Jets became a “sure thing” in the betting market, the odds on Bailey going to the Cardinals exploded as well. Of course, we knew that this was a sure loser, thanks to the amazing intel we were able to receive from our great Arizona source. Jeremiyah Love to the Cardinals was the second-largest bet we placed.
Even though we won lots of money with Love going to the Cardinals, the pick was foolish. The Cardinals, like the Raiders last year with Ashton Jeanty, are in no position to support a high-priced running back. Their offensive line was strengthened with Isaac Seumalo in free agency, but is still a liability. There is also not much of a passing game, so teams can concentrate on stopping Love. I believe Love will have a better season than Jeanty because there’s more around him than Jeanty had in Las Vegas, but it’s still going to be a wasted year, which is something you never want with a running back and their brief careers.
But before you criticize the general manager or head coach for making this pick, you must know that the Love decision was not up to them. This pick was made by Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell, who meddled with the draft like other bad owners have done in the past. We’ve seen Daniel Snyder do this over the years, while Panthers owner Axe Tepper defied all of his football personnel by choosing Bryce Young over C.J. Stroud. Bidwell is now in that category.
Here’s an idea for meddlesome owners – maybe, just maybe, you should allow the football people you hired to make your football decisions.
4. While we were able to profit from Love going to the Cardinals, the next selection was a disaster. We didn’t bet the No. 4 pick outside of an early wager on Love, but the Carnell Tate selection screwed up everything up. It left Reese on the board for the Giants, who was the one player Charlie warned us to hedge with our Jordyn Tyson wager. The Giants were set to draft Tyson, but saw Reese as too good to pass up at No. 5 – even though they have a billion edge rushers on the team.
This stung. We still profited from the 2026 NFL Draft – I came out $2,100 ahead (results on the NFL Draft Props page – but if the Titans had just picked Reese instead of Tate, I would have won about $10,000 with the Tyson selection. Ugh!
5. Let’s do a what-if scenario regarding the Titans pick. Had Tennessee chosen Reese instead of Tate, we may have seen the rest of the top 10 look like this:
4 – Titans: Arvell Reese, DE/OLB
5 – Giants: Jordyn Tyson, WR
6 – Chiefs: Mansoor Delane, CB
7 – Redskins: Carnell Tate, WR
8 – Saints: Caleb Downs, S
9 – Browns: Spencer Fano, OT
10 – Cowboys: Sonny Styles, LB
We know Tyson was the preferred option for the Giants had Reese not been available (again, Charlie only mentioned Reese as the lone hedge.) As for the Redskins, the organization was divided on Tate versus Styles. They ultimately decided that Tate would be the pick because he’d be better for Jayden Daniels, but it didn’t end up mattering because Tate was off the board. The Saints, meanwhile, liked Downs, but wanted a receiver for their young quarterback as well. And that would leave the Cowboys trading up for Styles instead of Downs.
This draft would have been so much better for our betting and our mock drafts, but the Titans ended up costing us lots of money, just as they did in October with that ridiculous bad beat when Emari Demarcado dropped the ball shy of the goal line. This Tennessee franchise is an absolute menace.
6. We can be sure the Chiefs would have done the same thing in that what-if scenario, but their trade made absolutely no sense. I graded them as a Millen (F) in the 2026 NFL Draft Trade Grades page.
I don’t understand the Chiefs’ logic. Mansoor Delane is a very good cornerback prospect, but he’s not some can’t-miss talent. And the Chiefs probably could have acquired him at No. 9 anyway! I can promise you that the Redskins were not going to draft Delane at No. 7. The Saints may have at No. 8, but so what? If you’re the Chiefs, you can still obtain Caleb Downs, Jordyn Tyson, or Rueben Bain. There were plenty of quality options who were there at No. 9, so moving up for a similar-caliber player made no sense.
7. While the Chiefs made the worst trade in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, the Patriots came away with the best deal of the teams that moved up.
Offensive tackles were flying off the board in the 20s. The Patriots, sitting at No. 31, correctly recognized that they had to do something to land the final first-round tackle remaining on the board, especially considering that there were multiple teams ahead of them that could have drafted that final tackle. They gave up a late fourth-round pick to get Caleb Lomu, but it’ll be worth it if it means that Drake Maye won’t be sacked at least five times in every playoff game.
The Bills came away with a fourth-round pick, which may seem nice until they have issues generating pressure on Maye in their two (or three) meetings each year. The Bills would have been better off surrendering the late fourth-rounder in hopes that one of the teams drafting ahead of the Patriots would snag Lomu off the board.
8. While the Patriots and Bills engaged in a friendly trade, the Eagles and Steelers fought over a prospect. Pittsburgh thought it was going to draft Makai Lemon at No. 21, so much so that the team called Lemon when Dallas was on the clock at No. 20. The Cowboys were obviously not going to draft a receiver, so the Steelers thought Lemon was theirs.
However, the Eagles moved up to No. 20, which obviously changed Pittsburgh’s plans. The Eagles tried calling Lemon, but couldn’t get in touch with him because Lemon was on the phone with the Steelers. This delayed the draft a bit, which helped bail out Goodell and his stupid 8-minute plan.
Pittsburgh fans may be frustrated with the Eagles, but I can tell you that they should consider themselves fortunate that they dodged a major bullet. Lemon had the weirdest combine interviews in NFL Draft history a couple of months ago. I imagine he wasn’t so weird with every team; otherwise, he would be off everyone’s board.
In my book, A Safety and a Field Goal, I wrote about how one NFL player – currently still in the league – said the following during a combine interview when he was asked why he loves football so much, “Playing football is like hitting a b**ch.” Yes, an NFL player admitted to domestic abuse in a combine interview.
Believe it or not, that is quite tame compared to how Lemon conducted himself.
More to come.
Fantasy Football Perspective:
For a fantasy football perspective, there were X players chosen in the first round, compared to 14 last year. Here they are, ordered by 2026 fantasy value:
To be posted soon.
Best Players Available for Day 2:
The top-30 available players for the second round (with links to their scouting reports):
To be posted soon
2026 NFL Draft Mailbag:
To be posted soon (ask questions @walterfootball on X)
2026 NFL Mock Draft - April 23
Fantasy Football Rankings - April 5
NFL Picks - Feb. 9
NFL Power Rankings - Jan. 26
