The 2026 NFL Draft is in less than a month. That means your feeds are going to be littered with breakdowns, videos, and analyses of a whole bunch of prospects. You’re going to get a bunch of names thrown in your face, and it’s hard to keep everyone straight. We’re going to make that whole thing easier for you.
Everyone can do a mock draft, but not everyone should do an NFL Mock Draft. There are a few dozen people out there who do draft analysis that are worth a hoot. We’re going to look at some of what those people who are paid lots of money to analyze the draft are saying about the teams that you care about and the teams that you hate. The four first-round mock drafts that we’re looking at are from NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah, Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice and Charles McDonald, ESPN’s Field Yates, and Arkham Asylum’s (or ESPN) Mel Kiper. Let’s get into it.
Philadelphia Eagles (No. 23 pick in first round)
Jeremiah (NFL.com): OT Kadyn Proctor, Alabama
For the past three years, it’s felt like the Eagles were going to make drafting Lane Johnson’s replacement a priority. That’s a feeling that’s not going away this year. Kadyn Proctor is just about as good as you could get for what the Eagles are looking for. He’s got guard/tackle versatility, which means he’ll be able to be a backup while he rides the bench and learns.
That’s important because he’s got a very high ceiling, but a pretty low floor. The more time that he has to learn from Philadelphia’s future Hall-of-Fame right tackle, the better chance he won’t bottom out.
Tice and McDonald (Yahoo Sports): TE Kenyon Sadiq, Oregon
In 2013, Brent Celek was 28 years old, and the Eagles drafted Zach Ertz to be his replacement. In 2018, Ertz was 28 years old, and the Eagles drafted Dallas Goedert to be his replacement. Dallas Goedert turned 28 years old in 2023, so drafting his replacement has been looong overdue.
Kenyon Sadiq doesn’t have the chonk-sized body that the Eagles normally go after with their tight ends, but he makes up for it by being the best athlete on the field. He’s disgustingly fast, violently explosive, and very cool with being a blocker. If he makes it this late in the draft, it’d mean the Eagles are totally fine with passing over a franchise tackle and drafting the best player available.
Yates (ESPN): WR Omar Cooper Jr., Indiana
If the Eagles trade A.J. Brown, it’s going to happen after June 1st because of contract and money reasons. If they draft Omar Cooper Jr. in the first round, that’s Howie Roseman telling the world that Brown is gone.
Cooper is a great prospect. He’s got amazing body control, great hands, loads of power, and he’s a great route runner… But he’s not a one-for-one replacement for A.J. Brown. It’d be a bummer if the Eagles drafted him.
Kiper (ESPN): OT Max Iheanachor, Arizona State
Mel Kiper might not have heard that Jeff Stoutland isn’t the Eagles' offensive line coach anymore because Max Iheanachor is a project player.
He didn’t play football until 2021, when he was at a junior college in Los Angeles. Then, he only started 31 games (two and a half years' worth of games) at ASU. He’s certainly got the tools in his body to be a long-term tackle, but are the Eagles going to take a gamble with a new offensive line coach? I’d bet they wouldn’t unless the first 22 picks go perfectly wrong.
Dallas Cowboys (No. 12 and 20 picks in first round)
Jeremiah, Yates, and Kiper: Jermod McCoy, CB, Tennessee (12)
The Cowboys’ defense was hilariously and historically bad last season, and a big part of that was because their secondary played like cold puke. They really don’t have a choice but to make this draft centered solely around the defense.
It’s weird that all three of these guys mocked Jermod McCoy to the Cowboys because we didn’t see him at all last season. He tore his ACL in January of 2025, didn’t play a snap all season, and then didn’t do any of the drills at the combine (he’s doing Tennessee’s Pro Day at the end of the month).
I’m not going to flame you for drafting guys who have an injury history if they’ve shown that they can come back from those injuries. McCoy hasn’t done that… but he’d still be an upgrade over what Dallas threw out there last year, regardless of how he plays.
Tice and McDonald: EDGE Keldric Faulk, Auburn (12)
Keldric Faulk is a very interesting prospect. He’s six feet and six inches tall, 290 pounds, very athletic, very versatile, and young… But he’s young young; he’s turning 21 in September.
It really seems like he’s going to end up being one of the premier edge rushers in the NFL, but that might take some time. The Cowboys don’t really have time… or a defense. With their first round picks, they’re going to need guys who can come in on defense and be productive immediately. You’re making a hell of a gamble if you want Faulk to be that guy.
Jeremiah: EDGE T.J. Parker, Clemson (20)
T.J. Parker is a player who would be able to come in and play off the jump… but his ceiling isn’t anywhere close to Keldric Faulk’s. He’s both powerful (will move guys) and strong (will not get moved), and he hustles. That’s something that Dallas’ defense needed last year, needs now, and will need in the future.
Tice and McDonald: LB Anthony Hill Jr., Texas (20)
Linebackers like playing the run rather than the pass because they’re better at it, and they’re better at it because it's easier for them. Anthony Hill Jr. has shown that he’s in that exact same boat.
He’ll be a stalwart in the running game, but he’s going to need to grow, grow, and grow some more before you’re going to be confident that he’s not going to be a liability in coverage. There’s a saying: “You can add a loss to your record for every rookie that you play.”
You could slap that saying on a poster over a picture of Hill, and sell a million posters. I don’t think this cat is a first-round talent… But if Christian Parker likes him, then there’s probably something there.
Yates: EDGE R Mason Thomas, Oklahoma (20)
Fun fact: The “J” in Homer J Simpson stood for Jay. The “R” in R Mason Thomas doesn’t stand for anything.
He’s very specialized in getting after the quarterback, which is a really good specialty… but it’s not everything because he’s also got to be something against the run. Unfortunately, that’s not really his strong suit. Fortunately, he clearly wants it to be. You hardly ever see edge rushers concede on running plays, and that’s because they can’t find the field. Thomas is still violent on runs; he’s just not nearly as good at stopping them as other prospects that might be available with the 20th pick.
Kiper: LB CJ Allen, Georgia (20)
The football players are the ones who know ball, are supremely talented, and make plays. C.J. Allen knows ball and is supremely talented, but he’s not really a playmaker… and I think that’s going to be totally fine with what Christian Parker is going to ask from a rookie linebacker.
He’s not going to smash downhill and blow up a run in the backfield, and he’s not going to bait a quarterback into throwing in his zone. He’ll do his job, make tackles, cover his zone, and let the guys around him be playmakers.
If Parker is going to be one of those defensive coordinators whose scheme does the talking, then Allen will be perfect, but is that worth a first-round pick?
Washington Commanders (No. 7 pick in first round)
Jeremiah: EDGE Rueben Bain Jr., Miami
When you have a defense as bad and old as the Commanders had last season, the draft is going to be the most important part of the offseason. And with a top-10 pick, they’re set up in a good spot to get a premier guy. Reuben Bain Jr. is that guy.
He constantly wins on the line of scrimmage, and he does it in a billion different ways. The only problem (and the reason he would still be available with the seventh pick) is that his 31-ish inch arm length and 9.125 inch hands are wildly small for his position (bottom 1% and 9%, respectively). With this cat, those problems won’t arise until they do.
Tice and McDonald: SAF Caleb Downs, Ohio State
Safeties are historically hard for teams to assess in the pre-draft process… unless they are absolute freaks and deserve to get drafted in the first 16 picks. Kyle Hamilton, Jamal Adams, Eric Berry, and Sean Taylor were all picked in the first half of the first round, and they were/are all amazing. Daxton Hill and Lewis Cine were drafted at the very end of the first round. Hill has bounced around as more of a general DB for the Bengals, and Cine is in the UFL.
Caleb Downs is definitely worth being drafted in the top 10, and he’s going to be a killer on whatever team gets him, and he’ll be able to do whatever a defensive coordinator wants him to do.
Yates: RB Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame
Jeremiyah Love is the best player in the draft, and it’s not up for discussion (but someone will try to make it a discussion in the next month). Whatever team drafts him needs to be ready to draft a running back.
Last year, the Raiders drafted Ashton Jeanty sixth overall, but they weren’t remotely close to being ready for a high-caliber running back, and his season was terrible. In 2023, the Falcons drafted Bijan Robinson eighth overall. They were closer to being ready than the 2025 Raiders, but they weren’t quite there, and his season wasn’t spectacular.
On the other side of that coin, the Lions drafted Jahmyr Gibbs 12th overall in the 2023 draft. They were ready, and he was awesome from the get-go.
This is all to say that the Commanders certainly feel ready to spend a top-10 pick on a running back. If they do, it’s because they’re drafting the best player available and not for need. That’s a good process.
Kiper: LB Sonny Styles, Ohio State
Sonny Styles rocks. He’s a defensive back-turned-linebacker, and he’s phenomenal. His size, strength, speed, explosiveness, and experience allow him to ruin running games while also making him a weapon in coverage. There isn’t a chance in the world that he’s going to be available when the Commanders make their first pick.
New York Giants (No. 5 pick in first round)
Jeremiah: LB Sonny Styles, Ohio State
If Styles is available at five, the Giants should absolutely draft him. The last two first-round linebackers that John Harbaugh has drafted are Patrick Queen (2020) and C.J. Mosley (2014). That’s a hell of a track record.
Tice and McDonald: RB Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame
Remember how I was talking about there being teams who are ready to spend a premium draft pick on a running back, and there are teams who aren’t? The Giants aren’t. However, the weird part about this is that whichever team drafts Love means they’re drafting the best player available, but for the Giants, they’d also be drafting for need.
Cam Skattebo’s foot got ripped off last season. We know he’ll come back, but we don’t know when that’ll be or how good he’ll be. I imagine that he’ll come back too soon because he’s a different kind of person, and if history tells us anything (it often does), he won’t be back to true form until the 2027 season.
Yates and Kiper: SAF Caleb Downs, Ohio State
Again, Caleb Downs is more than worthy of being drafted like an elite safety… but picking him fifth overall might be a little rich, especially for a team that signed three safeties in free agency.
He’d be great, but picking him over an elite edge rushing draft prospect doesn’t seem like the best use of resources. However, John Harbaugh was hired as the head coach to keep that team from bottoming out, so you have to trust him.
The Giants must’ve known that this guy doesn’t really prioritize pass rushers in the draft. As a matter of fact, three of his last four first-round picks have been DBs, and two of them were safeties. If he wants to keep that train rolling, then you say yes and don’t ask questions. Live by the sword and die by the sword, or something like that.