These NFL Draft picks already feel like gambles gone wrong

Drafting players isn't a precise science. You win some; you lose significantly more, because it's just not possible for the majority of your draft picks to pan out. But you usually expect the first and second round picks to be good, right?

That isn't always the case, though, and these four players who were drafted in the first or second round of the 2026 NFL Draft already feel like mistakes before we've even seen them play a single NFL snap.

Ty Simpson, Los Angeles Rams

It feels like every FanSided writer likes to dump on the Los Angeles Rams for taking Ty Simpson in the first round, and I...am going to count myself among those people, because I still don't get it! Yes, the Rams need to be thinking about a Matthew Stafford replacement, but they also need to be thinking about a Super Bowl window that's about to slam shut.

The Myles Garrett trade made this worse, IMO, because it's another first-round pick that the team has given up. It's clear that the team is willing to leverage draft picks for present production, so using this year's first on a quarterback whose draft stock seemed to massively drop near the end of the his last college season instead of pushing even more chips onto the table seems like a weird change in philosophy.

Also of note here: Simpson remains unsigned! I understand the reasoning for that is complex, but the longer this goes on, the more it's like...yeah, maybe the Rams should have either drafted someone at an immediate position of need, drafted the best available prospect or traded the pick for another veteran.

Peter Woods, Kansas City Chiefs

If you listen to chatter around the league as far as OTAs go, you've probably heard a lot about a lot of guys, but it feels like there's simply not a ton of talk going on about Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Peter Woods.

Kansas City had a weird 2026 NFL Draft. The team traded up for LSU corner Mansoor Delane in a move that felt like a bit of an overpay (though largely should work out fine since Delane is going to be a good player), then used the No. 29 overall pick on Woods, who didn't really feel like a huge need.

Like, yeah...the Chiefs need to be thinking about the post-Chris Jones future, but they spent a first on someone whose 2026 outlook is basically "rotational piece behind Jones." For a team that is both perpetually in a Super Bowl window but also at a weird precipice where it could fall out of its Super Bowl window, it seemed like a weird choice, and we haven't really heard much in the time since the draft to suggest that Woods is about to be some breakout star as a rookie. It just sounds like he'll be depth until Jones is no longer in KC.

Kadyn Proctor, Miami Dolphins

Kadyn Proctor was the second tackle taken in this draft class, and long-term, I think he's the least likely of any writer in this article to bust. With that said, picking him at No. 12 overall felt like a slight reach, especially considering that the team looks set at left tackle with Patrick Paul.

Sure, Proctor could succeed Austin Jackson at right tackle if Jackson leaves in free agency after this season, but the Dolphins still essentially picked a guy in the first round who is blocked from his best position long-term and probably won't win the job at his ancillary position in the short term. Weird allocation of resources there.

Offensive line coach Zach Yenser has suggested that Proctor will instead play guard this season:

Which is fine, but moving your first-round pick to a different position feels suboptimal, even if it's only a short-term thing. He has to learn to play guard in the NFL, then either has to stay there — which takes some of the luster off this pick — or he has to re-learn to play tackle, which seems overly complicated.

Nate Boerkircher, Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars spending a second-round pick on tight end Nate Boerkircher when guys like Max Klare and Oscar Delp were still on the board felt like a bad move at the time. Fast forward a couple of months and it still very much feels like a bad move. Maybe even more than it did back then.

A big part of why is that the tight end Jacksonville took a few rounds later, Tanner Koziol, might already be the better of the two. He's impressed in OTAs, with veteran Jaguars writer John Shipley suggesting that Koziol "looks closer to TE2 right now than he does to TE4." That would suggest that even if he hasn't surpassed Boerkircher yet, he's already closing in on him despite the gap in draft capital.

While the Jaguars still sound like they're high on Boerkircher, his selection was viewed as a reach at the time, and now that another rookie tight end is coming along well, it's like...maybe that pick could have been used on a different position?

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