The 2026 NFL draft swept over the city of Pittsburgh as hundreds of college football players were selected over a few days in one of the league’s oldest traditions. Beginning on April 23, fans watched as their teams either increased their odds of winning a Super Bowl or ruined the entire offseason.
Before the draft began, there was some shuffling around within the first 10 picks of the first round. About a week before the draft, the Cincinnati Bengals traded its tenth overall pick for New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. Lawrence had spent seven years with New York and had made quite a name for himself, so this move from Cincinnati was a major one before the actual draft.
Draft night itself came with its usual set of expected picks, along with some picks that seemingly came out of left field. The Heisman Trophy winner, Fernando Mendoza, was selected first overall by the Las Vegas Raiders to kick off the night. To say this was expected is an understatement because Mendoza was clearly the best quarterback in the draft class, and this pick was solidified by mid-October.
The next few picks that followed did not come as a surprise, although Jeremiah Love out of Notre Dame went much earlier at three than I had expected, but I do not view this as a bad pick from the Arizona Cardinals.
The Kansas City Chiefs traded up to the sixth pick to grab Mansoor Delane, a cornerback out of Louisiana State University. This was a bit of a surprise as I believed the Chiefs could have gotten Delane where it was at nine.
The New York Giants were the team that had the easiest opportunity to bolster its worrisome defense with two picks in the top 10. With the fifth pick in the draft, the Giants executed and drafted Arvel Reese from The Ohio State University (OSU), the best defensive player, and best overall for me, in the draft. When it came to its tenth pick though, the team drafted an offensive tackle out of Miami University.
This pick is a fairly good one, if you ignore what happened next in the draft. The Giants’ rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, traded up to the very next pick and grabbed the other best defensive player in the draft, Caleb Downs from OSU. The draft is not always about getting your guys; it is sometimes about making sure your rivals don’t get theirs.
The Giants could have easily drafted Downs and seriously elevated its defense in about 20 minutes. Instead, it drafted a tackle that probably will not start and handed arguably the best player in the draft to its biggest rivals.
The other interesting story out of draft night was about the wide receiver from the University of Southern California, Makai Lemon. While Lemon was on the phone with the draft’s host, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Philadelphia Eagles were scheming to trade up. Lemon was talking to the Steelers, who were about to pick him at the 21st pick, before the Eagles called him instead. The Eagles alerted him that they were trading up one pick ahead of the Steelers and it would be Philadelphia selecting him instead. Since he had no choice in the matter, Lemon was then selected before the team that was just on the phone with him. Just a little craziness that happened midway through the first round.
Overall, the draft night was similar to what it has been in recent years, although most of the picks made were expected and even productive picks for most teams. The draft itself has improved over the last 10 years. The NFL draft used to be held annually in Chicago, Illinois, but now the league takes the draft to a new city every year.
It is similar to what the Eras Tour did for cities when Taylor Swift was touring, and it just elevates them to a whole new level each year. Along with the expansion to international games, the expansion of the NFL Draft is one of the few great things that Commissioner Roger Goodell has done for the league, although he will still be booed at next year’s draft like he always does.
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
