NFL draft 2026 live updates: Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza goes No. 1 to Raiders

Only weeks after trading away one of the league's best corners in Trent McDuffie, the Chiefs traded up with Cleveland to take McDuffie's replacment. Mansoor Delane from LSU is Kansas City's selection.

"They weren't really on me too much in this process but they said they wanted to keep it quiet," Delane said on the ESPN telecast. Delane called himself the best pick in the draft.

The Ohio State standout drew rave reviews at this year’s combine, one of the best performances for a player of his size this century. But he’s more than that as his speed and explosiveness matches the tape and stats. It’s rare for a true off-ball linebacker to get taken this high, but it’s rare that a linebacker possesses Styles’ dominant blend of traits and productivity.

Delane is an athletic, fast, and feisty man cover corner. His back pedal looks natural and he can mirror pass catchers altering speeds.

He was a confident and dominant man cover corner for LSU in 2025. In press, he is physical and disruptive, but has the long speed to open up and recover down the field. On underneath throws, he consistently congests the catch point and has an infectious energy in the secondary.

Previously at Virginia Tech, he was late reacting to in breaking and intermediate out routes, but improved in this area in 2025. He will throw his body around like a safety but will occasionally whiff by lunging. Overall, Delane is an excellent cornerback that should eventually be able to travel with opposing No. 1 wide receivers at the next level.

John Harbaugh will have a lot of athletes to play with on the edge in his first year as the Giants head coach.

Arvell Reese will join a linebacker/defensive end group that also includes Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeau, Abdul Carter and Tremaine Edmunds.

It should be a familiar feeling for longtime Giants fans, who remember better than anyone the ferocious pass rush that powered two Super Bowl runs in 2007 and 2011.

With some great quarterbacks in the division, New York now has the horses to get after them.

Reese is one of the most intriguing prospects in the draft thanks to a blend of production and athleticism that’s sparked a debate over whether he should play linebacker or edge defender in the pros. A pick this high is likely a signal he’d make the conversion to edge, with the hopes he could follow a path similar to the one Micah Parsons went a few years ago. But if he doesn’t, the fallback is an electric linebacker.

Cleveland picks up two extra picks:

Few people had Tate mocked to go this high, especially if Arvell Reese was going to be on the board. But it's a great fit and a fantastic way to keep investing in last year's No. 1 pick.

Tate is arguably the most well-rounded receiver in the draft, the latest in a long line of successful Ohio State pass catchers. He eclipsed 3 yards-per-route-run last year, an important metric that lends well to success at the next level, didn't drop a pass and dominated on contested catches. That's a fun new weapon for Cam Ward, and a clear new top receiver for the Titans.

The Jets need more talent on defense. Last season, they traded away two defensive cornerstones Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner.

At pick No. 2, the Jets took David Bailey, a pass rusher from Texas Tech, who posted 19.5 tackles for loss and 14.5 sacks last season. Now coach Aaron Glenn hopes Bailey can be the next building block of his defense.

Tate is a technician with good length and ball skills to finish plays. He’s extremely detailed in his footwork to win at multiple levels of the field and does not drop passes (he has 10 ¼-inch hands).

Tate has hauled in an absurd 18 of 24 contested catch opportunities over the last two seasons, showing off excellent tracking, concentration and adjustments to the football. He’s not very creative or explosive after the catch and could add more strength to his 192-pound frame.

Overall, Tate should be a high-end No. 2 wide receiver at the next level with a chance to blossom into more.

Trent Richardson and Saquon Barkley are the only running backs who have been drafted in the top three picks in the last two decades of the NFL draft, but Jeremiyah Love joins that group as the Cardinals take the unusual move of drafting a back this high.

The Cardinals are in transition after releasing quarterback and former No. 1 pick Kyler Murray, with journeymen Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew seemingly set to battle for the starting spot next fall. As their rebuild goes on, they'll have to eventually address acquiring a franchise quarterback, but this wasn't the draft with the kind of depth to take one this early. The Cardinals instead chose to rebuild their foundation by going for a different need in the backfield.

"I feel very honored to represent the running backs and I'm going to put on for them," Love said on the broadcast.

The last time a running back went with the third overall pick was in 2012, when the Browns picked Trent Richardson.

A running back has gone higher only three times this century, most recently when the Giants picked Saquon Barkley second overall.

It was the first big question of the NFL Draft and the Jets chose David Bailey, the proven pass rusher who stuffed the stat sheet at Texas Tech.

Bailey was top five in college in hurries and led the country in sacks. That's the kind of production the Jets pass rush needs right now.

Reese has sky-high potential, and looked incredible in college. But he split time at linebacker and edge, so teams wanting him to play edge full-time are making a projection on what he can be.

Love is an explosive home run hitter who can impact the game on any down. He’s a multi-scheme, gifted runner who creates his own yards at a special rate. His patience helps him seek out an opening and his acceleration allows him to explode through it. He is very difficult for defenders to tackle in one-on-one situations with quick cuts, ridiculous hurdles, or pure breakaway speed.

Love is in a special tier of running back prospect due to his pass game ability on top of the work he does on the ground. His routes are twitchy and his speed translates to easy separation skills.

For how talented he is, Love does not get the credit he deserves from a pure compete and determination standpoint. This shows up in pass protection where he stays square and strikes with authority.

Shortly after being picked No. 1 overall by the Las Vegas Raiders, Fernando Mendoza gave a brief interview on the ESPN telecast.

"What a great organization, great legacy," Mendoza said of the Raiders. "There's so many great teammates I'm looking forward to talking to, coaches, owners. I'm ecstatic for the opportunity."

He said "owners," plural. Remember, Tom Brady is a minority owner.

The Raiders co-owner weighed in on X:

Bailey is a well-built (6-foot-3 ⅝, 251 pounds, 33 ¾ inch-arms and 10 ¼ inch-hands) creator of chaos. He uses his explosiveness to win early against blockers, throwing a variety of moves ranging from a shoulder dip to spins. His quick steps can cause tackles to lose their balance, and his burst to turn pressures into sacks is tremendous.

He’s forced eight fumbles over the last two seasons and consistently helps his defense get off the field, killing drives. Bailey is not a plus run defender, but he got better in that area down the stretch of the season. Overall, his play speed and ability to instantly put blockers in recovery mode sets a high floor for him to impact quarterbacks at the pro level.

The Raiders will do all they can to give their first overall pick a soft landing spot.

Las Vegas signed center Tyler Linderbaum in free agency, lavishing the center with the richest deal for a center in NFL history: three years, $60 million guaranteed.

With a veteran signal caller on the line, the Raiders also signed quarterback Kirk Cousins in free agency. Cousins’s presence means Mendoza likely won’t have to start right away, and will also have a veteran quarterback who can mentor him — not dissimilar to how Alex Smith started for the Chiefs during Patrick Mahomes’s rookie year.

Between tight end Brock Bowers and last year’s first-round pick Ashton Jeanty, Mendoza should also have some young weapons to grow with when he’s eventually given the keys to the offense.

Mendoza became the No. 1 pick in the draft after making tremendous strides from his 2024 season at Cal to his 2025 national title season at Indiana. He cut down the sacks he took from 40 to 25, decreased his turnover worthy play rate from 3.5% to 2.6% and increased his yards per attempt when pressured from just 5.8 to 7.6 (per PFF).

Mendoza is accurate to all three levels of the field and has developed a great understanding of when and where to attack down the field. When he’s at his best, there are clear shades of Matt Ryan and Jared Goff in his game. If the Raiders can keep him upright, he’ll be able to stabilize their passing attack in a heavy play action system under new head coach Klint Kubiak.

As Fernando Mendoza is poised to hear his name called first overall, it's gotten me thinking: We really haven't had a suspenseful first overall pick since 2022. Each of the last three drafts, we knew who the first pick would be: Cam Ward in 2025, Caleb Williams in 2024 and Bryce Young in 2023.

The 2022 draft was the last one to be truly wide open at the top — the Jags ended up picking edge rusher Travon Walker in a year that featured three edge rushers and two cornerbacks in the top five, and no quarterback selected until Kenny Pickett at 20.

As Goodell came to the podium to open the draft, he accompanied by two Pittsburgh Steelers, TJ Watt and Cameron Heyward, who were waving Terrible Towels. And still, Goodell was greeted by a loud chorus of boos.

"C'mon, you can do better than that," Gooddell said. "We have over 300,000 people. Let's go! Let's hear you!"

Teams will have eight minutes between picks in this year's first round, down from the 10 minutes that teams had since 2008.

That reduction has led to more trade discussions in the lead-up to draft night, Steelers general manager Omar Kahn said at a pre-draft press conference.

"They moved the first round from 10 minutes to eight minutes, so naturally we’ve been having more conversations to set parameters of what the value is if you move up to this spot or trade back," Khan said. "There’s more conversation, but until we get there, I’m not sure how that’s going to go."

...Was 2022, when the Steelers took Kenny Pickett.

Only twice in the last 24 years have their been first rounds with only one QB taken, per the AP. In 2025, two quarterbacks were taken in the first: Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart.

Nineteen quarterbacks have been taken with the first overall pick this millennium, and they have a checkered history.

Some, like David Carr and Jamarcus Russell, never lived up to the hype.

Others, like Michael Vick or Carson Palmer, had long careers with high highs but never made the mountain top.

But there are also plenty of successes. Eli Manning, Matthew Stafford, Cam Newton, Jared Goff and Joe Burrow were all starters on a Super Bowl team, (Alex Smith also began the season as the starter for a team that made a Super Bowl.)

To the host go the spoils. Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney II told a local radio show this week he'd asked the NFL to swap where fans of the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, a hated rival, were sitting in a theatre outside Pittsburgh's stadium on draft night.

“On the normal seating chart, I noticed that the Ravens fans were sitting in front of the Steeler fans in one section of the draft theater,” Rooney said, according to WDVE. “So I asked [the league] to make that change, and they agreed to make that.”

Chris Simms and Mike Florio look into the factors at play that make the NFL draft such an intriguing event, discussing the time in between first-round picks changing and the new “formula” of picking players.

Connor Rogers and Chris Simms talk about all things Fernando Mendoza, explaining why the star quarterback "is being a little disrespected in this conversation" and deserves credit for his historic success in college.

There is much intrigue around the No. 3 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, and Drew Dinsick analyzes why he believes Jeremiyah Love is the choice despite much discussion around David Bailey.

Dallas has one of the league’s best receiving duos in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, but while Lamb is playing under a contract extension he signed in 2024, Pickens will play under the franchise tag this season, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Wednesday.

That means Pickens will only be signed for the upcoming season and not beyond. Is he in Dallas’s long-term plans? Or could the front office be looking for his replacement at picks 12 or 20?

Mike Florio and Chris Simms evaluate the quarterback options for the Steelers and break down the possibility of Pittsburgh turning to Ty Simpson as Aaron Rodgers has yet to make a decision on his playing future.

Having a successful draft is more complicated than just picking the best players — it’s also about considering team needs and fit. One complicating factor of this draft class is the consensus blue-chip prospects are largely at positions that aren’t as valuable to NFL teams than the ones that command the most money on the open market. 

Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs and Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles are consistently at the top of most big boards. And offensive guard Olaivavega Ioane also comes up regularly as one of the draft’s top players too. How teams balance their evaluation of these players with the debate over positional value will be one of the key stories of this draft.

Kyle Dvorchak reveals the latest news surrounding who the Jets will select with the second overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, detailing why "there's a few people on the planet that truly know" what New York is planning.

It’s one of the most memorable moments of any draft, when the top pick greets the commissioner and poses with the jersey of his new team. But Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza won’t be in Pittsburgh for that moment. He told “The Rich Eisen Show” this week he’d instead be at home with his family, including his mother, who lives with multiple sclerosis. 

“Pittsburgh is a great opportunity and it’s a great venue and I’m really excited to see all the guys, or most of the guys, walk across the stage on Thursday night. It’ll be a dream for a lot of guys. However, my mom really wanted to do it at home,” he said. 

“It’s a lot easier for us with the family situation. You have to hop on a plane the next morning anyways. I wanted to stay and make the memory with everybody who poured into my football journey.”

Mike Jones of The Athletic explains why the lack of top-tier quarterback prospects beyond Fernando Mendoza limits the intrigue typically expected of NFL drafts.

The saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” works with draft prospects, too. There are a handful of top prospects who may be high up on some boards given their talent or lower on others because of certain outlier traits. 

Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr.’s arm length has been much discussed, but it’s also a complicating factor for Utah tackle Spencer Fano, who is seen as one of the top tackles in the draft. USC wide receiver Makai Lemon and Clemson cornerback Avieon Terrell could be viewed differently by different teams depending on their feelings about their small stature, while Miami edge rusher Akheem Mesidor’s age (he just turned 25) might play differently with different teams, too.

Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss some of the top storylines heading into the 2026 NFL draft.

Chris Simms talks Connor Rogers through his mock draft selection for the Detroit Lions at No. 17.

Edge is one of the strongest, and deepest, position groups in this draft. So teams looking to grab one of the top prospects have an interesting question to answer: What’s their favorite flavor? 

Ohio State’s Arvell Reese is the pure projection — the college linebacker was one of the most exciting players in college football last season and many believe he could make the switch to edge given his pass rush juice. 

Texas Tech’s David Bailey is a proven commodity, one of the most productive and efficient pass rushers in college football last season, but lacks some of the size and bend that teams like and may be closer to his ceiling than Reese. 

Then there’s Rueben Bain Jr. He ravaged offensive lines during an incredible run at Miami, but some experts worry that his short arm length (which makes him an outlier for edge rushers who could be drafted in the first round) will make it harder for him to win against NFL-caliber tackles. 

With a "monumental gap" between Kenyon Sadiq and other 2026 NFL draft tight end prospects, Drew Dinsick shares why he's "skeptical" to go under on his projected draft position of 15.5.

If the Las Vegas Raiders select Fernando Mendoza No. 1 overall tonight, the quarterback will join a QB depth chart featuring Kirk Cousins. Mendoza won't need an introduction — he's already spent quite a bit of time studying him.

Mendoza told the "Dan Patrick Show" this week that when he was playing at Cal — before his national title and Heisman Trophy at Indiana — he was told he played similarly to Sam Darnold and Cousins, which led him to study them in depth.

“There was two years ago where I watched all Minnesota Vikings pass tape” when Cousins was a Viking, Mendoza said. “Every single pass, whether it was incomplete or a completion throughout the entire season. Which is a lot because the NFL has a lot of games.”

Cousins, at the time, was coached by Vikings quarterbacks coach Klint Kubiak. Kubiak is now the Raiders head coach, and he coached Sam Darnold in Seattle last year. Kubiak, then, should have a good feel for how to coach Mendoza.

Omar Kelly of the Miami Herald catches up with Mike Florio about the state of the Dolphins, including potential draft plans, De'Von Achane's future and why the team is excited about Malik Willis.

The quarterback dynamic in this year’s first round is the same as last year — we know one’s going with the top pick, but then there’ll be a waiting game to see whether another one goes, or if someone trades up to take them. 

This year that quarterback-in-waiting is Alabama’s Ty Simpson, a talented and smart player whose evaluation is complicated by injury struggles, as well as a lack of starting experience and consistency. Connor Rogers, an NBC Sports NFL draft analyst and host of "Fantasy Football Happy Hour," called Simpson a “classic case of a day-two developmental quarterback” who if he hears his name called in the first round, it could be because of the relative weaknesses of this draft class. 

Draft analysts don’t view any other quarterback as a potential first-round pick, so if a quarterback-needy team wants to make sure they get one in this class, they may need to be proactive and trade up. That’s what the Giants did last year, trading up to the back half of the first round in exchange for a second-round pick and two thirds (one in 2025 and one in 2026).

Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss some of the top storylines heading into the 2026 NFL draft and explain why this year likely won’t have a major story like the slide of Shedeur Sanders.

With Dexter Lawrence dealt to the Bengals for a top-10 pick, Pro Football Talk explores why NFL teams aren’t more willing to trade high-value picks for proven commodities.

In the wake of the Dexter Lawrence trade, Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss the options available to the New York Giants with two picks in the top 10 of the 2026 NFL draft.

The Miami Dolphins cleaned house this offseason, then raided the Packers’ to figure out their new direction.

After firing head coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier, Miami brought in Jon-Eric Sullivan to lead the front office and Jeff Hafley as the new head coach, with both coming over from Green Bay.

They’ll have a significant opportunity to remake the roster in the draft, as the Dolphins have seven picks in the first 100 selections, including two first-rounders.

Tryst Krick and Drew Dinsick ponder where the Ohio State safety could go in the 2026 NFL draft.

... was Saquon Barkley in 2018, who was selected second overall by the New York Giants.

Barkley has largely lived up to the billing, running for 8,356 yards and 55 touchdowns in his eight seasons. His incredible 2024 season, in which he ran for 2,005 yards, helped propel the Philadelphia Eagles to the Super Bowl.

If Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love is selected in the top five, he better prepare for the Barkley comparisons.

At the NFL combine, Mendoza's hand measured 9 1/2 inches across. You might be wondering how that is relevant to his draft stock, but in the NFL, players who fit into a certain archetype in size or speed are often slotted ahead of others in a team's ranking of prospects, even if there are differences in their college production.

“Some teams would never, ever draft a quarterback if his hands weren’t big,” former NFL coach Ron Rivera said.

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Chris Simms breaks down the early selections of his 2026 NFL Mock Draft, in which he predicts the Commanders trade up for Ohio State's Carnell Tate and three other Buckeyes go in the top eight.