The Official 2026 NFL Draft Thread (No Spoilers)

They're all babies.

Youth is great, but the performance has to be there. I think the point is that they're young, but if you get the right pieces and they develop together and play together for a long time, the results can be special and maybe even greater than the sum of their parts.

 

oh, age. i got it. i agree too.

 

i think my biggest surprise was kayden mcdonald still on the board along with lee hunter.

 

Yeah, I like Kayden. Mentioned him last night.

 

Two ass kickers just sitting there... and neither are selected; doubly so in Chicagos case. Kaydem would have fit hand in glove in that system. A missed oppurtunity if there ever was one in Round One.


Dillion though curbs the sting a bit.

 

Sounds good. It would certainly be an improvement on the nap Omar took last night.

 

You like him?!

Whoever gets him in the bottom half of Round 2 is gonna love him..

 

After the Lemon fiasco, I thought there was a chance we'd grab him at 21.

 

Germaine Bernard for me.


There is a lot more positional flexibility with Germaine than there is with Boston imo. Boston does possess the best CIT (Catch In Traffic) abilities in the class but his time to actually complete his route is not very good. By time, his seperation early at the line is poor; not good when you face press happy Corners in a Division filled with them. Add in his limited release abilities and, for me, Boston is more so suited to an Offense that attacks on the perimetet rather than in between the numbers.

 

Omar Cooper was my initial thought. Emmanuel McNeil Warren was my second for the reasons I explained back during my first mock. Kayden was the final pick. Any one of these would have worked.


Instead, they select Max I., an OT I have graded as my 7th overall OT and ranked 55th overall. The potential and latent talent isnt in question. It is how raw he is in his blocking (not inexperienced considering that is completely different) and how much older he is (will be 23 by the time his rookie season concludes) is what is the problem here. Now, if he were say, going on 21, that changes my grade of him in a big way. Why?!


You have a lot more runway with a 21 year old than a 23 year old player. This accounts doubly so for Lineman; a notoriously brutal position.

 

That's who I thought for sure they would draft after they just missed out on Lemon. Nothing really went right for the Steelers in round 1. The best guard (Vega) was off the board (no surprise there), the 5 best OTs were off the board, and the 3 best WRs were already gone. So they end up with a slight reach with Max. I don't think Max was a bad pick by any means. They needed a OT, and Max was the best one available. It is a bit of a downer though knowing that he's 23, I didn't realize that until you mentioned it.

 

Still on the board is the Safety out of Toledo that they love. Emmanuel McNeil-Warren

 

I just knew they would f this up, and they did. This all started way back with not accepting the team needed to rebuild and focus on this draft in Pittsburgh and the one in '27.

But no.

 

We are in win now mode! We are close Art says!!!

 

I'm sure You will. Stubborn is what Stubborn does

 

From what I saw, they met with him at the combine and had a Zoom call.

 

I would bet lot of money that he wasn't even their 3rd Tackle they had on their board, but when the last went off right before, then they scrambled to get their next Wr, and then he was taken they panicked and reached. There were lots of positions still left worthy of the 1st round, but they still took a Tackle even though he was a project

 

Stop . Broderick Jones didn't even look as good as Cook did.

 

Yes. I heard it way back in the day when we were still playing Tennessee in our Division

 

You know how bad last night was because not even usual suspects are defending it, not even those guys.

 

That is my issue, not the player picked, but the incompetence. Counting chickens before they are hatched by calling the player, not considering Roseman could jump him by trading with the Cowboys of all teams, nor considering moving out that pick once the player was gone. Instead Khan panics and picks a not so critical need on the board.

Amateur hour and very troubling.

 

I hear what you’re saying about the sequence of events, but I don’t think it was a panicked pick. These guys do a crazy amount of research and grading…. And their boards are deep… If a player gets snapped up, they pivot and take the next guy. If they panicked….. oh boy… That’s not a good thought.

 

How do you draft three tackles in the 1st round in 4 years?

Never been done in the SB era by an AFC team by the way.