Draft buzz: April 10th … As we noted in a couple of earlier reports there has been a dearth of chatter around the NFL heading toward the 2026 draft which now gets underway in less than two weeks. However, that seems to be changing, although whether the rumors actually change anything on or before the 23rd remains to be seen. Let’s start with the NY Jets who have the 2nd pick overall; literally for weeks now it has been an almost foregone conclusion that the Jets would be taking Ohio State LB Arvell Reese at that spot after Las Vegas makes Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza the first pick. In recent days, though, there is a growing buzz that the Jets could actually be leaning more to Texas Tech DE David Bailey with the 2nd pick. Both Reese and Bailey are considered to be the premium edge rushers in this year’s draft, but while Reese is more a LB/ER combo, Bailey, who led all of college football with 14.5 sacks last fall, is a pure edge player.
In that context we also wouldn’t totally rule out the possibility that the Jets might actually be eyeing a trade down with a team like Dallas which is thought to be eager to move up from the 12th pick to grab one of the top defensive prospects in this year’s draft, with Bailey likely at the top of their wish list. Needless to say the Cowboys would have to include the 20th pick overall they acquired from Green Bay in the Parsons deal to move up that high, but that would give the Jets three first rounders: the 12th, 16th and 20th and a chance to really dominate the middle of the opening round.
The sense around the league, though, is that if Dallas does indeed move up, and the sense is that they almost assuredly will be trying, they are more likely to deal with Cleveland for the 6th pick. Bailey would almost assuredly be gone by that point, but the Cowboys would still have a shot at several top defensive prospects including Ohio State S Caleb Downs, Miami DE Rueben Bain and LSU Mansoor Delane. Interesting in that context that Cleveland had TE Kenyon Sadiq in for a late 30-visit in the past few days after visiting with all the top WR candidates earlier in the month. Sadiq is more a top 10-15 prospect that a 5-10 guy. And speaking of LSU’s Mansoor, he appears to be a very hot prospect who is not likely going to get out of the top 10.
We are also hearing that nobody should be surprised if Utah’s Spencer Fano is the first offensive lineman selected on the 23rd even ahead of Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, who has generally been considered to be the top OL candidate pretty much throughout the whole process. In fact, the buzz is that Fano is a strong candidate to end up in Kansas City with the 9th pick. The difference seems to be positional value. With his 31-inch arms, Mauigoa who is seen as a real mauler, looks destined to play OG at the next level, while Fano, who isn’t as big or physical, has better length as well as prototype OT athleticism.
Meanwhile, other players generally considered to be second day prospects we keep hearing could very well end up being chosen in the opening round include Missouri DE Zion Young, Texas A&M OG Chase Bisontis, San Diego State CB Chris Johnson and Texas Tech LB Jake Rodriquez, while the top candidates for the dreaded ‘Green Room’ slide include Alabama QB Ty Simpson, Arizona State WR Jordan Tyson and Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy, the latter two because of durability concerns.
