Way Too Early 2026 NFL Mock Draft (Part One)
From a guy who’s watched more MACtion than is medically advisable.
I like Jaxson Dart. I love Shedeur.
- Mel Kiper, (??)
There are few things in this world as sick (and not in a good way) as a way-too-early mock draft. In fact, all mock drafts are utterly useless, so let me just clear the air right away by saying that I’m aware this is a silly endeavor. And yes, I felt like the world’s biggest wanker upon completion of it.
Nonetheless, my terminally ill brain always finds itself prognosticating on next year’s NFL Draft immediately upon the conclusion of the present one. I think it’s only natural—how does one go cold turkey overnight after months of pre-draft speculation?
The reason I’m publishing this article is that I think it would be fun—a year from now—to reflect back on this list; a piece that is (more or less) reasonable in terms of which players are being selected given the current info we have, and is (more or less) well-reasoned in terms of the logic of each selection; just to compare how much has changed in one year’s time.
Last year, I did something similar in prognosticating UGA’s crop of draft picks here:
The NFL Draft record (set by Georgia in 2022) is 15, they got to 13 with Xavier Truss, Chazz Chambliss, Nazir Stackhouse and Benjamin Yurosek going undrafted. Stackhouse (imo) fell because of the medical issue, but it still wouldn’t have broken the record regardless.
However, I’d still say the article was a success—particularly in forecasting the range of each pick and what the concerns may be on each prospect. I think the highlight of the piece is correctly predicting that the unknown walk-on safety Dan Jackson would, in fact, be drafted *pats self on back*.
Picks 1-16 are discussed in this article. The remaining selections will be the focus of the next. I will post the full board in the second article for the reader’s reference.
Also note that I don’t watch the NFL anymore, so very little attention is paid to the teams that are picking; rather, the focus is on the individual players and their backgrounds. Think of this as more of a ‘Top-32’ exercise, with NFL teams sprinkled in for shits and giggles.
1. Garrett Nussmeier (QB), Cleveland Browns
I know, I know, the Browns just took two QBs in the 2025 draft (including a future all-world all pro according to our guy Mel Kiper). Yet, I remain unconvinced that the chosen one is on the roster currently. And, this just happened to be the ordering that this simulator had for me; so, c’est la vie.
Between Nussmeier and Klubnik, I think both returning players are well positioned to capitalize this year and ascend into a future #1 overall draft pick. Both QBs could have left this offseason but (wisely, imo) chose to return. Both will have a smorgasbord of weapons to choose from at WR and TE in 2025, so that helps too. Not to mention the continuity in coaching staffs.
If this were a CFF draft, I’d say the red flag with Nuss is that he’s less mobile—more of a pocket passer, if you will—but alas, it is not, and thus I have him going first overall to Cleveland over Klubnik. TBH, the ordering could go either way. But the Browns’ front office has endured the torture of watching another former LSU QB tear it up in their own division (and in their own state, mind you), so maybe they seek to recreate the wheel here via Nuss Bus. All aboard! Choo Choo!!
2. Cade Klubnik (QB), New York Jets
There isn’t much suspense here as to who the #2 overall pick will be as it was already mentioned several times in the previous section. Klubnik is a true senior this year, returning for his fourth year of college football (Nuss is a senior, but it’s his fifth year), and he has the benefit of what might be the best WR corps of any program in 2025. One of his receivers, Antonio Williams, may even find himself in the first round conversation this time next year too.
The sky is the limit here, and he could easily find himself as the #1 overall pick as well (and God help him if Cleveland has that pick). He’s more mobile than Nuss, but hasn't demonstrated the arm talent that I’ve seen from his LSU counterpart just yet (doesn’t mean he can’t develop it, just that Nuss may be more advanced in this category currently).
Like with most QBs, if Clemson has a big year and ends up… I don’t know, winning the natty, it would surprise no-one that Klubnik would be taken in this range. That’s probably not going to happen, but I still believe he’ll be viewed as one of the top QB prospects in 2026, which itself should be enough momentum to propel him into the first round discussion.
3. LaNorris Sellers (QB), New Orleans Saints
FYI, I’m assuming Arch Manning doesn’t declare next offseason. I debated on whether Sellers would choose to declare after next season too. He’s still raw in many ways and I don’t know if one year is enough to make him the type of polished player to entice NFL GMs to select him in the first round, in which case his coaches and/or agent may advise a return for another year.
Indeed, he’ll only be entering his third year of CFB next season so there’s plenty of time to work with.
Nonetheless, I’m making a bet on his upside and development here; if he does put it all together, it’s hard to imagine him escaping the top-10 of next year’s draft, especially considering how dire the QB options were this past draft. Teams will be desperate, I suspect.
Sellers has ridiculous athleticism, and he’ll probably be comp’d to former 4th overall selection, Anthony Richardson (6’4, 240), with his 6’3, 240 pound frame and skill set. Whether or not that’s a favourable comp, I’m not sure (and you thought I was just joking when I said I don’t watch the NFL anymore…)
4. Dani Dennis-Sutton (EDGE), Tennessee Titans
It feels like every year for the past half decade PSU has a stud edge rusher/OLB in the upcoming draft. At the current juncture, DDS, the former five star from Maryland, looks to be the next one up.
Sutton was a big recruiting win for James Franklin and the Lions staff, beating out SEC programs such as Georgia and Alabama for his commitment in the class of 2022.
The two lead recruiters from those programs? Dan Lanning, who was the DC at UGA at the time, and Sal Sunseri, who is now coaching with Deion Sanders at Colorado. Wild.
Sutton has a better pedigree as a prospect than Abdul Carter, who just got taken in this range this year, so we’re off to a good start. He’ll of course need to capitalize with a monster season as PSU’s new number one guy off the edge to cement his spot in this range too. Personally, I think this is likely to happen. He may not be a top-five selection but I will be very surprised if he’s not at least in the first round conversation in April 2026.
5. Francis Mauigoa (OT), New York Giants
One can assume that by the fifth pick of any NFL Draft, there will be at least one offensive tackle taken, given the premium value of the position. I don’t feel overwhelmingly strong about this player—this pick could be a different tackle—but I do feel strongly that around this range we will see some offensive linemen taken off the board.
The Giants whiffed on their former first round pick in OT Evan Neal not too long ago, but they do still have All-World superstar Andrew Thomas on the other end. Shoring up both sides of the offensive line is still on the table for the Giants here; they just have to make sure they pick the right player this time.
6. Caleb Downs (S), Carolina Panthers
Downs had not one, but two prime opportunities to play for the good guys and learn under defensive maestro Kirby. The first shunning was understandable—who wouldn’t want to play for Nick Saban at Alabama? Fine. But the second time? C’mon, man!
And even if you’re not a UGA fan, surely you feel some type of loss for the fact that we were robbed of a Malaki Starks-Downs safety pairing last season, and a KJ Bolden-Downs pairing this upcoming season.
Seriously, how crazy is it that for three straight classes, the nation’s #1 safety (and top 10 prospect) not only came from the state of Georgia but from a radius that is essentially a 60-minute drive? (Starks from Jefferson, Downs from Hoschton, and Bolden from Buford.)
Positional value will be the limiting factor here for Downs. Indeed, we just saw a player of similar caliber and pedigree get taken in the late 20s of the 2025 draft (as the first Safety taken, no less), so a top 10 selection feels a bit rich. However, given that we’re doing this mock so early, it’s hard to place many of the other available talents in place of the All-American Downs.
He’s a special player who did everything for his high school program and continues to be used in a myriad of ways at Ohio State, cycling through various DB positions and also returning kicks. His brother played at UNC for several seasons, so there is already a North Carolina connection here—Downs at #6, why the hell not?
7. Carson Beck (QB), Indianapolis Colts
Wait a minute—WHAT?! Not only is this pick a head-scratcher from the player perspective (Beck was not great last year), but the Colts already have A-Rich! Well, I find myself wondering if the Colts aren’t ready to move on and try their hand with another pivot.
That, and the fact that the simulator tells me QB would be a need for Indy (and I never question the all-knowing powers of this random internet mock draft simulator). Indeed, I’ve always said that if anybody knows the minds of NFL GMs inside and out, it’s the programmers behind PFF’s mock draft simulator.
Look, how many people had Cam Ward going first overall after his so-so season at *checks notes* Wazzou in 2023?! If you haven’t learned by now that: 1) things change quickly in CFB, and 2) strange things happen when teams decide they want to draft QBs, then I don’t know what to tell you. A year in a stat-padding, soft schedule environment can do wonders to rehabilitate Beck’s image.
His passing talent has never been in doubt, but his intangibles and overall athleticism are two question marks that will probably come up a lot in the pre-draft process.
But let’s cut the BS—it’s starting to get hot here in Toronto and seeing as I’m two beers deep currently I’ll offer the first of my bold takes for the 2026 NFL Draft: Carson Beck is either going to be drafted in the first round or fall to day three à la Shedeur. There’s no in-between.
8. Sonny Styles (LB), Cleveland Browns
Wow, Sonny Styles—what an athlete he is. He reminds me a bit of Isaiah Simmons a few years ago because of his size and the fact that he’s a converted safety prospect. Clearly, at 6’4, 220 pounds, he’s outgrown the DB lifestyle.
Styles wisely chose to return for another season, a decision that could pay off immensely with a top-15 selection next spring. The irony with all of these reclassified players (Styles was originally class of 2023), is that they all end up staying for their fourth seasons anyway (see Quinn Ewers and LT Overton). Maybe they would have been better off just staying where they were in high school?
Then again, in the NIL era, I suppose an extra year of college over high school can be quite fruitful ($$$). I really like Styles’s athletic profile, but I think there will be questions in the pre-draft process about what role he projects best to in the NFL. Indeed, (as far as I know) the player I comp’d him to isn’t exactly All-Pro material despite a more productive collegiate career.
9. Denzel Boston (WR), Las Vegas Raiders
I mean, how crazy would it be if Boston, of all players, ends up being the first WR taken in next year’s NFL Draft? It felt like just yesterday when I was writing about this player—a complete unknown even within the CFF community—last spring.
Here’s the Devy to Dynasty podcast with Brandon and Jason talking about Mr. Boston in May, 2024:
He’s a tall, long and rangy athlete who was an absolute TD merchant for the UW Huskies this past year. I suspect he’ll reprise that role in 2025, and with Giles Jackson out of the picture, there could be even more targets coming his way.
On the flip side, the offence will look different with dual threat daddy Demond Williams in the fray. Though, I think Boston will be OK.
10. Tacario Davis (CB), Los Angeles Rams
You know what they say: iron sharpens iron, and here we have back-to-back UW Huskies who will have competed against each other all year in practice. Davis is actually the perfect type of DB to guard a player like Boston at 6 foot 4 inches tall (put your hand up if you actually believe that listed height). Davis is probably closer to 6’3, maybe 6’2 if I HAD to guess.
Like Boston, he’s a tall, long and rangy athlete, only he’s probably not as good at catching the football. No matter—DBs can still get fed too, and here we have the second one coming off the board in 2026.
11. Jordyn Tyson (WR), Arizona Cardinals
In case you haven’t noticed, WR is an important position in the NFL. Tyson, who started his career playing at Colorado of all places, is fortunate enough to stay in the state of Arizona for his professional career with this hypothetical and most likely wrong mock draft selection.
Tyson has dealt with some nagging injury concerns this offseason but by all accounts will be ready to roll for 2025. He’s clearly outperformed his HS rating at this point, and—barring anything crazy—he’ll be regarded as one of the top wideouts in the class of 2026. Whether he’s literally the #2 receiver taken, I’d be a little bit surprised. Then again, this does not appear to be a great WR group coming up, which will benefit players like Tyson.
Another outcome is that GMs in need of an alpha pass catcher—realizing 2027 is a god-tier year for receivers—may simply abstain altogether until the next draft.
12. Will Lee III (CB), Dallas Cowboys
Sticking with the hometown hero theme, Lee won’t be moving far with this draft selection. I won’t pretend to know much about this player as I did not follow him in high school as a recruit, nor do I follow him closely now as a CFF writer given that he’s on defence.
Most of the defensive guys on this list today I’m at least familiar with through my following of high school recruiting, but Lee, a former JuCo standout turned KSU Wildcat turned A&M Aggie is an unknown to me.
So why is he here then? Well, for one he has great size (now listed at 6’3, but probably closer to 6’2). Two: one of his former coaches must have liked him a lot to bring him over to Aggieland from Kansas State. Three (shamelessly), I noticed that he is being mocked into the first round by some of the other way-too-early mocks.
13. Peter Woods (DT), Miami Dolphins
Now here’s a player I’m familiar with. PWoo was a standout very early on in his prep career playing at one of the top programs in Alabama: Thompson High School. They got their asses handed to them when they played one of the top programs in Georgia, Buford High School, though, but that’s neither here nor there (just a PSA, there’s levels to this game).
Very early on in his cycle, Woods was rated as a top player in his class. He didn’t fill out physically the way he was originally projected to when he broke onto the scene as a freshman in high school (now listed 6’2, 315, but is probably closer to 6’1), but the flip side of that equation is that PWoo is an absolute leverage demon at the point of attack.
He is of the mold of an Aaron Donald, or even Geno Atkins when you think of smaller, but extremely powerful interior defensive linemen. He’s the antithesis of a Jordan Davis, for example. Not a space eater by any means, this guy lives to haunt quarterbacks from the interior—a skill that is in high demand in the NFL currently (and rightfully so). He owes Jalen Carter a percentage of his signing bonus with this selection.
How the hell did Dabo manage to pull a composite five star DT out of Alabama when Saban was still there you ask? The Lord works in mysterious ways…
14. Reuben Bain Jr. (DL), New England Patriots
We’ve got yet another oddly shaped defensive lineman here via Reuben Bain Jr. who was listed 6’2, 250 coming out of high school. Miami now lists him at 6’3, and closer to 270, which is more prototypical. He doesn’t strike me as a very long athlete, thus I’ve categorized him as just a ‘DL’ rather than an EDGE at the next level.
Both he and Woods will be given what I’ll call the ‘Jalon Walker treatment’ in the pre-draft process as there will be questions about where they fit due to their tweener size, albeit at different positions.
247 Sports’ Andrew Ivins mentioned this in his evaluation of Bain in 2022:
Tweener measurables won’t be for everyone, but the ability to consistently flush out pockets is extremely valuable in an era where everyone wants to air it out.
For context, Jalon Walker was listed at 6’2 coming out of high school as an LB prospect, and measured at 6’1 inches tall in the combine.
Both Bain and Woods strike me as good DE prospects for a 3-4 base scheme, which Google tells me NE and Miami run as their base defences.
15. Kadyn Proctor (OT), Seatle Seahawks
It wouldn’t be an NFL Draft without an Alabama player being selected in the first round and here we have the first of that group coming off the board. In fact, at this point in the hypothetical process, there have only been three SEC players selected through 14 picks!
Perhaps a sign that I’m getting it completed wrong, which I think we already knew, but nonetheless we carry on.
If my memory serves correctly, Proctor was originally pledged to the in-state program Iowa Hawkeyes, then flipped to Alabama, then transferred back to Iowa for a few weeks before making his way back to the Tide.
Talk about a tug-of-war. Iowa/Alabama recruiting battles aren’t something you see often so his career arc is at the very least a unique one. Clearly both programs weren’t willing to throw in the towel here and I respect that. Proctor is a massive offensive tackle prospect listed at 6’7 inches tall and 350 pounds. Even if he turns out to only be 6’6 inches tall, he’ll still be prototypical enough to appease even the most-exacting members of the NFL cognoscenti.
From what I gather through the grapevine he hasn’t lived up to the hype just yet. But any CFB wiseman worth his salt will tell you that offensive linemen are like fine wine—they take a little bit of time to ferment.
16. Dillon Thieneman (S), Chicago Bears
2026 looks to be a good year for teams in need of Safety help. Between Downs, Thieneman, Jalen Kilgore and Xavier Nwankpa (will appear here soon), there is a strong group of elite athletes at this position coming up.
Safety is not a premium position and thus the safer bet is to say that this player—if they are to be selected in the first—would more likely be in the 20s. But Thieneman is a special talent. Like the previous entry, he epitomizes the ‘new’ era of CFB. He was an under-recruited player coming out of high school who committed to Purdue. A breakout year as a true freshman landed him on the national radar, and he subsequently capitalized with a transfer to Dan Lanning’s Oregon Ducks.
If I could go back and edit the order of the draft I did in the simulator, I’d place this player later, but 16 isn’t a horrendous spot either. Plus, it’s the Chicago Bears; who the hell knows what they’ll do.
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