LSU punts on playing ‘former’ NFL players … Faced with the possibility of being expelled from the SEC, LSU has apparently abandoned plans to play at least a couple of players who had been in NFL training camps this summer, but opted to return to college after a legal ruling ordered that they be allowed the same 5th year of eligibility that similar players who did not attend pro camps received. LSU filled the final two spots on their season’s roster with players not named Dae’Quan Wright or Zxavain Harris, both of whom had been in NFL camps this summer, but had left when the opportunity to play another year in college presented itself. The SEC has scheduled a meeting tomorrow at which time conference members were going to be asked to vote on whether LSU should remain in the conference, which in the end was a bridge too far for school officials. However, nobody should assume that the issue is dead just yet as the players involved, who have now been left in limbo, are planning to file suit against the NCAA and SEC; then there’s the judge who had enjoined the SEC from not threatening the school or its staff with punishment for proceeding with something that the courts had deemed legal who can’t be happy this morning.
Initial in-season 2027 mock posted … Our long national wait is almost over as the 2026 NFL regular schedule kicks off tomorrow evening with a Super Bowl rematch between Seattle and New England. To help wile away the hours until kick-off here is our initial first-round projection for the upcoming draft which for the record is just 236 days away. Of course, this is still done with more than a little tongue-in-cheek as so much is going to change between now and next April 22nd. At the same time, though, hopefully it will give people some early idea on what players might be available and where they might go based on current thinking.
GBN fearless forecast … If you believe us – and its not entirely clear why anyone actually would – it will be Denver and the LA Rams in the 2026 Super Bowl next February in Los Angeles. At least that’s what it says in our annual Fearless Forecast predicting the outcomes across the board in the NFL this coming season. And we guarantee – in writing if anyone wants it – that maybe we get one or two right!! Have a great season everyone. PS: Also note that to help kick off the season we’ll also be posting our first in-season 2026 mock draft of the year in the next day or so.
SMU-FSU wrap long college football weekend … A very busy first full weekend of college football wraps Monday evening with #19 SMU playing at Florida State on ESPN with a 7:30 PM ET KO. And yes that is correct; the Mustangs are ranked, the ‘Noles are not! A case can certainly be made that SMU is potentially the more interesting team in large part because of the presence of athletic dual threat QB Kevin Jennings (#7, 6-0, 190) who is not that big, but makes big plays with both his arm and legs. In fact dual-threat QB may be the watch-word in this game as the Noles also have one in Ashton Daniels (#14, 6-2, 225) who transferred in from Auburn after starting his career at Stanford, although he is at best a marginal passer. Both teams also feature quality LTs in PJ Williams (#59, 6-5, 315) of the Mustangs and massive Xavier Chaplin (#77, 6-6, 345) another Auburn transfer. In the end though the best prospect in this game may be FSU WR Duce Robinson (#0, 6-5, 230), a TE sized specimen who still averaged over 19 yards per reception when he had 56 catches for over 1,000 yards.
Triple-header in college football … With the NFL on hiatus until the start of the regular season next week, college football takes center stage with a triple-header of games including the Apple Bowl between Washington and Washington State at 4 PM ET, while Mississippi will play Louisville in Nashville and Notre Dame will meet Wisconsin in Green Bay, both with KO at 7:30 PM ET. Here’s a preview of the players to watch in all three games with an eye to the 2027 NFL draft.
Star Longhorns’ OT back in lineup … Good news for Texas – and for NFL teams looking to upgrade their offensive line at next April’s draft – as Longhorns’ All-America LT Trevor Goosby was in the starting lineup when the team kicked off its season against Texas State in a late afternoon game. Goosby, a legit top 10-15 candidate for the upcoming draft, was listed as ‘out indefinitely’ after suffering a bone bruise on his knee two and a half weeks ago and there were fears that he could miss extended time. Indeed, the best-case scenario for Goosby and the Longhorns at the time was that he might be able to get back for next week’s huge showdown with Ohio State. Instead he practiced fully all this week and was cleared to go.
Saturday AM college football notes … Couple or three things to catch up on we count the hours down to the start of the full college football season with a full slate of games later today. LSU backs down for now: After all the drama whether LSU would defy the conference and play players who had been in NFL training camps this summer before returning to the college football wars in tonight’s season opener versus Clemson, the SEC Tigers have not added either TE Dae’Quan Wright or DT Zxavian Harris to their active rosters meaning they can’t dress today. All that despite the fact that a court had ordered the players be awarded an extra year of eligibility and prohibited the SEC from exacting any punishment on the schools or their staffs using such players. Going for three in a row?: Miami QBs have been taken first overall in each of the past couple of drafts and already there is a bit of a buzz that the Canes could make it 3 in a row after Darian Mensah, who transferred to the program from Duke this past winter, was almost flawless in the team’s season opening win at Stanford last night. Mensah completed 27 of 30 passes for 400 yards and 5 scores leading the Canes to a 45-6 rout. And what’s scary for ACC foes is that Mensah might not even be Miami’s best player as star WR Malachi Toney, who had 12 receptions for 234 yards and 3 of those scores, sent a message up north to Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith that he’s got some competition for the title of ‘best player in college football!’ Bonus coverage: Folks looking for a chance to scout out a top prospect who won’t get much national TV coverage this fall might want to check in on the Boston College-Cincinnati game this afternoon (3:30 PM ET) on Fox as the Bearcats feature one of the best interior offensive line prospects in the country in All-American OG Evan Tengsedahl (#50, 6-3, 315), a prototype road grader with excellent feet and a great motor.
More chaos in chaotic SEC situation with suits and countersuits … Just a quick update on last night’s preview of tomorrow’s big season-opening clash between LSU and Clemson which highlighted the ongoing controversy regarding the potential eligibility of several former college players who opted to try and return school this fall after the NCAA adopted its new 5-year eligibility regimen. After we posted, a state court judge in Louisiana ruled that the SEC will not be allowed to punish member schools or their staffs if they use a player who had participated in an NFL training camp this summer. That would appear to have made players like TE Dae’Quan Wright and DT Zxavian Harris, both of whom played for LSU head coach Lane Kiffin at Mississippi last fall and are reportedly practising with him at LSU as we speak after leaving for the NFL this past winter, eligible to play in tomorrow night’s game. However, the SEC immediately followed up by filing its own appeal in US district court. As we say, stay tuned!
‘Tiger Bowl’ highlights first full week on college sched: who to watch … The college football season kicks off in earnest this weekend with a full slate of games on Saturday headlined by the ‘Tiger Bowl’ beween the SEC’s LSU Tigers and the ACC’s Clemson Tigers (7:30 PM ET; ABC) in a battle of perennial contenders both coming off disappointing 7-6 seasons and looking to jumpstart a rebound campaign. And needless to say with LSU and Clemson facing each other there are going to be plenty of prime draft prospects to check. Unfortunately, though, the game itself has become something of a sideshow with LSU and head coach Lane Kiffin at the very epicenter of the whole ‘should players who’ve been in pro camps be allowed to return to college football.’ Indeed, maybe the biggest question regarding this game is whether Kiffin will dare incur the wrath of the SEC establishment and face a threatened suspension if he plays former Ole Miss TE Dae’Quan Wright who left Cleveland’s training camp last month with the intention of rejoining Kiffin at LSU. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, speaking the talent that we know will be on the field Saturday, LSU has at least a couple of top 10-15 candidates for the 2027 draft in LT Jordan Seaton (#77, 6-5, 315) and super athletic TE Trey’dez Green (#7, 6-6, 265). Kiffin also got one of the better QBs in the country when Sam Leavitt (#10, 6-2, 210) transferred in from Arizona State. The SEC Tigers’ D also got a big boost from transfers with the arrival DEs Jordan Ross and Princewill Umanmielen from Tennessee and Mississippi respectively, along with Canadian safety Ty Benefield (#2, 6-2, 215) who transferred from Boise State. The leader of LSU’s defense, though, is holdover MLB Whit Weeks (#76-2, 235), a prototype tackling machine who is coming off an injury plagued season, but has early third-day potential if he can stay healthy.
The ACC Tigers are another team looking to get back into the national hunt, although unlike their SEC cousins they’ll have to do it without much proven talent or experience at QB; indeed, they’ll be starting Chris Vizzinia (#17, 6-3, 210), who is a 4th year journey, but to date has been a career backup with barely 100 pass attempts in those 4 years. Vizzinia, though, will have a couple of very good targets to work with in WRs Bryant Wesco (#12, 6-2, 195) and TJ Moore(#16-2, 200), both of whom could get some early second-day interest this coming April. The Tigers’ best prospects, though, are on the other side of the ball where rising DE Will Heldt (#13, 6-5, 260), athletic LB Sammy Brown (#47, 6-2, 235) and CB Ashton Hampton (#2, 6-2, 205), each has at least some late first-round potential. Heldt, in particular, should get a real test – and vice-a-versa – when he goes up against LSU’s Seaton.
Final thoughts on cutdown day … Just a few random final thoughts on cutdown and the like. First let me ask why in reporting transactions and the like does the NFL insist on including such as Jr or John Smith III. In fact there was one guy who was actually listed as John Smith V. Maybe with a Bo Jackson Jr it makes a little sense, but with just about everybody who cares. Indeed, my favorites were several players who were list as John Smith Sr meaning they were fathers almost assuredly toddlers. Along the same lines, I firmly believe the NFL should insist that players with hyphenated names should pick one. Nobody needs two names. And if they have a perfectly good name like Alabama WR Ryan Williams, they don’t need another one.
On a more serious note, it was hard at times when posting about the various cuts this past weekend – and remember something like almost 1,200 players were released last week – that every name posted represented a real person who very likely just has had his hopes and dreams for the future crushed. In that context, one can see why so many coaches say that they hate cutdown day.
Something of a tough year for UDFAs … Perhaps as an indication that the 2026 draft class wasn’t necessarily as strong as some of its recent predecessors, somewhat fewer undrafted free agents made their respective team’s opening day roster than normal. Indeed, whereas historically something in the range of 55-65 UDFAs have made an opening day roster, the figure this year was just 44. At the same time, the number of teams that kept at least one undrafted rookie on their opening rosters also declined slightly from 26 last year to 25 this year. Chicago led the way with 4 UDFA rookies on their original 53-man roster, while Houston, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Carolina, and New England had three UDFAs make their team and Atlanta, Baltimore, Minnesota, Washington, the LA Chargers and the NY Giants each had a couple. Here is a list of undrafted free agents who made their respective team this year, although we do note that it only includes rosters submitted to the league prior to this week’s roster deadline and does not include UDFAs signed or released since as teams tweak their rosters heading toward the season. In fact, had we done so Kansas City would have actually led the league as the Chiefs also claimed a couple of UDFAs off waivers to go with their original trio.
What might be considered a surprise, though, is the fact that 4 undrafted QBs made their team’s roster including Jack Strand at Atlanta, Joe Fagnano at Baltimore, Carolina’s Haynes King, and Jalon Daniels at Tampa Bay. Daniels, in fact, is listed as the Buccaneers’ back-up behind Baker Mayfield, while the final tally of undrafted rookies in the league also included a couple of placekickers, a punter and three long-snappers. The Giants, in particular, will go into the season with a UDFA rookie kicker in Dominic Zvada and a rookie LS in Ben Mann.
The other thing we have noted in the past regarding undrafted rookies who make their team is that they are often not particularly well known or highly rated coming into the draft and that was borne out again this year. Not one of the top 25 UDFAs listed on our list of top 100-plus undrafted 2026 prospects, for example, made a 53-man roster last weekend. In fact, the highest rated guy on our list who made an active roster this week was former Stanford CB Collin Wright, #27 on our raking, who made Houston’s 53-man group. Overall, just 10 of the top-rated players on our list of undrafted free agents ended up on a team this week.
Vegas tabs vet QB Cousins to start season … To no one’s great surprise, Las Vegas has named veteran QB Kirk Cousins as the team’s starter over rookie Fernando Mendoza, the first player selected at the 2026 draft. The Raiders open their regular season hosting Miami on September 13th in what looks to be an early ‘2027 draft bowl.’
Cut-down day by the numbers … We have had a chance to really pour over the numbers from this week’s cut-down roster transactions and on further review the number of players who didn’t make the cut yesterday was up somewhat from the previous year which might be a bit of a reflection from the days leading up to the 2026 draft that this year’s prospect pool wasn’t necessarily all that strong. In the end, 22 players selected this past April were released by their respective clubs prior to the deadline, up from 18 the previous year and 16 in 2023 and 17 in 2022, by far the lowest totals since the league went to a 7-round draft back in 1994. However, this year’s total was also down slightly slightly from 2024 when 24 draftees were released prior to the deadline and well below figures from the middle of the previous decade when 30-40 picks did not make their team’s initial 53-man roster on an annual basis.
At the same time, all the drafted players who were released earlier this week had been selected in the late rounds. Indeed, 18 of the 22 players released prior to the deadline were 7th round selections, while there were just 3 from the 6th round and but one from the 5th. The latter, and by definition the highest player released, was former NC State Justin Joly who was selected 152nd overall by Denver; Joly, though, was quickly claimed by Miami once released players hit waivers.
Perhaps the most interesting observation from this week’s roster manipulations was the fact that for the second straight year an unusually large number of draftees were placed on one of the reserve lists; this year, for example, 18 picks were placed on either injured reserve (IR), non-football injury (NFI) or physically unable to perform (PUP). And while that is down somewhat from 2025 when 25 drafted players started the season on one of those reserve lists, as far as we can tell the first time since the league started releasing this kind of data that more drafted players were listed than were released, the current figures are well above earlier numbers when it was historically only around 10-12.
When all the dust from this weekend’s transactions had settled 9 teams kept all their 2026 draftees on the active roster with Pittsburgh leading the way with 10. At the same time, Indianapolis, San Francisco and the LA Chargers had clean sheets with 8 picks, while Chicago, Kansas City, Tampa Bay and the NY Giants had 7 apiece and Washington 6. At the same time, another ten teams did put at least one draftee on a reserve list but did not release any. At the other extreme, defending Super Bowl champion Seattle will go into the season with just 3 of their 8 picks on their active roster after cutting 4 and placing a 5th on IR, while Denver and Philadelphia both released 3 picks and Baltimore 2.
Late round cutdown day trades’ update … Along with all the cuts that dominated last night’s NFL focus, there were four relatively minor trades involving late round picks in both 2027 and 2028. In fact, the LA Chargers made a couple of those deals sending CB Avery Smith to Seattle for a 6th round pick in 2027 and DT TeRah Edwards to Carolina for a 7th round pick in 2028. The Chargers cross-town rivals the LA Rams also got in on the action sending TE Mark Redman to Green Bay for a 2028 7th rounder, while Baltimore sent OT Diego Pounds, an undrafted free agent, to Kansas City for a conditional 6th round pick in 2028.
All cuts posted; 18 picks released … It took awhile but we were finally able to get all today’s cuts posted as teams whittled their rosters down to meet their 53-man opening day limit. We’re going to take a deeper dive into the numbers tomorrow, but by our preliminary, and very unofficial count, 18 players selected at the 2026 drafted were released this weekend. For the record, that’s the same number as last year; as well 15 of the 18 picks released this week were 7th round selections. More to come!
Browns first to 53 … Cleveland became the first team to reach today’s opening day 53-man limit when the Browns made 22 roster moves including placing veteran QB Dillon Gabriel on IR and TE Joe Royer, a 2026 5th round pick on the non-football injury reserve list.
Cowboys get late Texans pick for vet back-up OT … Dallas has reportedly traded OT Nate Thomas down the state to Houston in exchange for a 2027 7th round pick.
We can also update that earlier trade between Pittsburgh and Green Bay for RB Kaleb Johnson; according to sources the Steelers will get a 6th round pick in 2028 for the 2025 3rd rounder.
Broncos waive 5th rounder … It has yet to be officially announced, but Denver has reportedly released TE Justi Joly, a 5th round pick at this past April’s draft. Joly becomes the first 2026 pick to be released and there is a decent chance he could end up being the highest cut to be cut this cycle. However, as we approach 90 minutes to go until today’s 53-man roster deadline, no team has formally announced any cuts so far today. And that suggests we could be deluged with announcements as we move closer to the 6 PM witching hour.
Jets get vet C/G from Raiders in late pick swap … The NY Jets have acquired veteran C/G Jordan Meredith from Las Vegas in a deal involving yet another swap of 6th and 7th round picks this coming April. In another deal this afternoon, Green Bay acquired 2nd year RB Kaleb Johnson from Pittsburgh for undisclosed compensation. Johnson was one of the hot prospects for the 2026 draft and was ultimately taken in the 3rd round by the Steelers, but stumbled thru a very disappointing rookie campaign.
Dolphins add Pack back-up QB for future 6th … Just a day after trading away presumptive back-up QB Quinn Ewers, Miami filled the gap by acquiring Kyle McCord from Green Bay for a 6th round pick in 2028. Somewhat ironically, McCord will back-up Malik Willis another former Packer QB whom the Dolphins signed as a free agent this past off-season.
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