NFL Draft rumors: Eagles losing AJ Brown trade leverage and Diego Pavia landing spot

The 2026 NFL Draft is fast approaching, and while it might not seem like there's anything new under the sun to be said after nearly two full months of waiting, well, think again. The draft isn't just about the players selected, after all; it's also the moment when trades get consummated, when teams put their grand plans into motion.

With that in mind, we've got a fresh batch of rumors on Tuesday, April 7. How might the draft deadline affect how the Philadelphia Eagles approach an AJ Brown trade? And what about the quarterbacks in this class not named Fernando Mendoza?

Eagles bumping up against draft deadline for AJ Brown deal

• Philly continues to show no public inclination to trade its star wideout
• But the draft figures to tip the team's hand — especially if they want to draft Brown's potential replacement on Day 1

The song remains the same regarding Brown's future with the Eagles: Philly hasn't budged on its position that they're not trading him, and even if that's merely spin, their asking price for him is so high as to be prohibitive.

But there's a chance that we could see some movement here soon, as WIP's Eliot Shorr-Parks pointed out on Tuesday.

Draft weekend looms as an inflection point here. If — and yes, it's still a big if — the Eagles want to move on from Brown, they're likely going to take at least one receiver in the first two or three rounds. But once that happens, it would send speculation about a Brown deal into overdrive — and make it very hard for Howie Roseman to keep driving a hard bargain.

This is the tension at the heart of Brown trade rumors. The Eagles don't want to sell low on a player who is still very talented and very productive, while the rest of the league sees how dysfunctional the situation has become and sees no reason not to sit back and wait. Philly will lose even more leverage if they draft his replacement later this month, meaning the clock is ticking.

Does Panthers interest in Diego Pavia hint at Bryce Young's future?

• The former Vanderbilt star is visiting with Carolina on Tuesday
• Panthers brass has vocally supported Bryce Young, but he remains without a contract extension as he enters his fourth season

Beyond the increasingly inane Fernando Mendoza-Ty Simpson debate, there hasn't been much attention paid to the rest of this quarterback class. And with good reason: With prospects like Arch Manning, Dante Moore and LaNorris Sellers all opting for one more year in school, there are precious few players worth getting excited about, much less sinking a Day 1 pick into.

But the need for quarterbacks doesn't take a year off, and there are still some interesting players available. Like, for instance, Diego Pavia, who checks basically none of the physical boxes NFL teams look for but comes with a track record of production that can't be ignored. And it seems like that track record has piqued the interest of at least one team: the Carolina Panthers, which NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports has invited Pavia for an in-person meeting on Tuesday.

It's not surprising that Carolina would be in on some quarterback depth in this year's draft; their current backup to Bryce Young is Kenny Pickett, which hardly feels like a tenable situation for a contending team. But there's also some potential drama looming here: The Panthers have picked up the fifth-year option on Young's deal but have yet to hand him an extension, making 2026 potentially a prove-it year for the former No. 1 overall pick. If he builds on the flashes he showed last season, Carolina can still lock him up next offseason. If he struggles, though, it could open the door for another young player like Pavia to swoop in.

Latest ESPN mock draft shows Ty Simpson's stock falling

• As the QB2 in this class almost by default, Simpson has garnered plenty of Round 1 buzz in recent weeks
• But after canvassing the league, ESPN's Peter Schrager thinks the former Alabama star could fall further than expected

Nature abhors a vacuum, and NFL media definitely hates a quarterback vacuum, which helps explain why so much digital ink has been spilled in recent weeks wondering whether Simpson is actually a better prospect than previously thought — maybe even someone who could go in the top half of the first round given the lack of other QB prospects in this class.

On Tuesday, though, ESPN's Peter Schrager poured some cold water on that idea with his latest mock draft. Schrager had Simpson falling out of Round 1 entirely, pointing out that "there are only so many rooms at the inn" — i.e., that there are very few teams who have a need at quarterback but pick late enough that a flier on Simpson might make sense.

The truly needy teams, your Jets and Cardinals and Browns, are likely content to wait until next year. They're all facing multiyear rebuilds, so unless you're really convinced that Simpson is the guy — convinced enough to take him in the top 10 — why not keep your powder dry and focus on cleaning out the payroll and building the infrastructure around any of the better prospects you might get your hands on in 2027?

Simpson won't last past Day 2; this isn't a Shedeur Sanders situation, both because Simpson is a better prospect and because this is a worse QB class. But he simply hasn't shown enough, either physically or mentally, to warrant an executive pounding the table for him.