Dan Graziano
Multiple Authors
Another NFL draft is within the books, and also you’re all overreacting.
Please do not take this the mistaken manner. The NFL draft is constructed for overreactions. Your team provides a half-dozen or so school gamers in a frenzied 48-hour span and all you’ll be able to take into consideration is which one would be the savior, which one would be the bust and which one you would like they’d picked as an alternative.
The factor is, a few of your reactions will end up to be appropriate. Some will not. We simply do not know which is which as we sit right here on Saturday night with the 2026 draft nonetheless contemporary.
What we will do is take our greatest guesses. And you simply knew the overreactions column was going to wake from its offseason nap to weigh in on a number of.
NFL draft protection:
Day 2 wrap | Round 1 winners
Pick recap | Pick analysis
Round 1 questions
The Eagles’ two-year NFC East title streak will finish in 2026
You additionally knew we had to trot out this outdated chestnut. The 2025 Eagles repeated as division champs, ending a shocking 21-year stretch through which no team gained the NFC East in back-to-back years. Can they make it three in a row? Absolutely, they will.
The Eagles spent the previous couple of days including a first-round receiver in Makai Lemon (USC), a second-round tight finish in Eli Stowers (Vanderbilt) and a third-round offensive lineman in Markel Bell (Miami). They additionally acquired edge rusher Jonathan Greenard in a trade with the Vikings on Day 2 of the draft.
A productive-looking draft weekend for the Eagles as ordinary. But they’re additionally expected to trade their greatest broad receiver, A.J. Brown, to the Patriots after June 1. They’re changing offensive coordinators for the fourth 12 months in a row — this time to Sean Mannion. And quarterback Jalen Hurts will enter the 2026 season underneath a microscope because the offseason has raised contemporary questions on his function within the team’s 2025 offensive struggles.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
This level of this annual train, in fact, is that the opposite groups within the division have purpose to consider they obtained higher, too. The Giants obtained a ton of reward for his or her Day 1 haul, which noticed them land Ohio State edge rusher/linebacker Arvell Reese and Miami offensive deal with Francis Mauigoa within the prime 10. They drafted Tennessee cornerback Colton Hood within the second spherical and traded up for broad receiver Malachi Fields within the third. With new coach John Harbaugh and hopes excessive for second-year QB Jaxson Dart, the Giants might be in for an enormous leap in 2026.
The Commanders, who had been Philly’s opponent within the NFC Championship Game two seasons in the past, hope to rebound from a down 12 months with QB Jayden Daniels now wholesome and first-round linebacker Sonny Styles on board to shore up the protection. And the Cowboys had their ordinary spectacular, workmanlike draft, including security Caleb Downs and edge rusher Malachi Lawrence within the first spherical and Michigan edge Jaishawn Barham within the third within the hopes of lastly fixing a protection that fell off a cliff final 12 months.
The Eagles would possibly nonetheless be the favorites to repeat, however repeating is all the time onerous on this division, and there are many causes for the opposite three groups to suppose they’re closing the hole.
The Rams will remorse taking Ty Simpson within the first spherical
The Rams delivered the shocker of the primary spherical after they used the No. 13 choose on the Alabama quarterback. It was a shock as a result of there was a lot debate within the league about whether or not Simpson can be a first-round choose in any respect. And the Rams have 38-year-old reigning MVP Matthew Stafford at quarterback, making them as a lot of a win-now team as any within the league.
After barely dropping the NFC West title, the No. 1 seed and the NFC Championship Game to the division-rival Seahawks, the Rams appeared like a very good wager to use the choose they obtained from Atlanta in a 2025 draft-day trade to make their 2026 roster higher. Instead of taking a large receiver or edge rusher who might have helped this 12 months, they took a participant who, if Stafford stays wholesome all season as they hope, will not see the sphere till 2027 on the earliest.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
Could the Rams probably remorse not taking, say, Makai Lemon if Puka Nacua and/or Davante Adams have to miss time? Sure. Could they remorse not taking Miami’s Rueben Bain Jr. if they’ve bother attempting to signal their wonderful younger edge rushers to extensions within the coming years? I assume. But I believe the response to this choose has been manner an excessive amount of.
The Rams haven’t any urgent wants on their 2026 roster. They used their very own first-round choose to trade for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie. You could make a robust case that they do not want something greater than they could want a quarterback a 12 months from now, if Stafford decides to retire. This is clearly a quarterback about whom Rams coach Sean McVay has conviction, and the team clearly trusts McVay when it comes to his QB analysis.
Heck, if he is what McVay thinks he’s, it isn’t out of the query to suppose Simpson might assist them in 2026 if Stafford has to miss a recreation or two they usually want their backup to win a recreation. The Rams are a corporation that has earned the advantage of the doubt. I’d be stunned if this choose prices them an opportunity at subsequent 12 months’s Super Bowl. I’d not be stunned if Simpson seems to be Stafford’s successor and this appears like a really good choose looking back.
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Domonique Foxworth: Rams’ collection of Ty Simpson is a ‘dangerous wager’
Dan Graziano and Domonique Foxworth element why the Rams’ choice to draft Ty Simpson within the first spherical is not anticipated to repay instantly.
The Cardinals blew it by selecting Jeremiyah Love at No. 3
There is not any query that Love is a superb participant who, on expertise alone, deserves to be picked this excessive. The purpose that is even a debate is that Love performs working again, and selecting a working again at No. 3 in 2026 means giving him a four-year, $52.5 million absolutely assured rookie contract.
That’s by far essentially the most cash ever assured to a working again — rookie or in any other case — at signing, dwarfing the $36 million Saquon Barkley obtained from the Eagles in his most up-to-date deal. Love’s common wage of $13.125 million makes him the seventh-highest-paid working again within the league immediately (pending anticipated extensions for Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs), which makes this a really costly choose relative to the marketplace for his place.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
The drawback is that the primary function of the draft, in a league with a wage cap, is to extract most worth from gamers throughout the early years of their careers so you’ll be able to spend your cap house elsewhere. You are searching for guys who will outplay the worth of their contracts.
If Love performs like a top-10 working again all 4 years, the Cardinals will likely be paying him accordingly. If they’d taken, for instance, Ohio State’s Arvell Reese with that choose, Reese would have made the identical $13.125 million per 12 months (thirty fifth amongst edge rushers). Ohio State’s Carnell Tate, who went one choose later to the Titans, will make a mean of $12.7 million over the primary 4 years of his profession. That makes him the Thirty second-highest-paid broad receiver.
This is what we imply after we discuss extracting worth. The Titans have a a lot better likelihood to spend the subsequent 4 years underpaying Tate relative to his efficiency than the Cardinals have of doing the identical with Love. The Cardinals additionally play in a division that featured three 12-win groups in 2025, one among which gained the Super Bowl. Their quarterbacks room consists of Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew II and third-round rookie Carson Beck. They should not a win-now team that may take a look at a working again on an costly contract as the ultimate lacking piece, the best way the Eagles did with Barkley after they signed him as a free agent in 2024 and went on to win the Super Bowl.
Again, that is no offense to Love, who I hope has a wonderful profession. The concern is that by the point the Cardinals are doubtless to contend, they’re going to be confronting a contract extension with Love that they won’t have the ability to afford. Arizona might simply be losing the early years of his profession whereas paying him a premium wage.
Malik Willis made an enormous mistake signing with the Dolphins in free company
After two encouraging seasons because the backup quarterback in Green Bay, Willis signed a three-year, $67.5 million deal with the Dolphins this offseason. Miami has a new coach and a new GM and is clearly in a rebuilding part. The Dolphins launched Tyreek Hill and traded away Jaylen Waddle, leaving them with a large receivers room led by Malik Washington, Jalen Tolbert and Tutu Atwell.
Miami drafted two broad receivers — Texas Tech’s Caleb Douglas and Louisville’s Chris Bell — within the third spherical Friday evening, however Bell is recovering from a torn ACL, and it could be some time earlier than he is usually a issue for the team this season. The pass-catcher cabinet is not precisely naked in Miami, but it surely’s not overflowing with clearly wonderful choices on a roster that additionally wants assist in loads of different areas.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
The Dolphins view the Willis signing as greater than a one-year proposition. They suppose he could be their franchise quarterback, and their hope is to construct up the roster round him within the coming years.
By the time the fifth spherical ended Saturday, Miami had already made 11 picks and had two nonetheless to go. The Dolphins landed an offensive deal with, Kadyn Proctor, within the first spherical, which they hope will assist make Willis’ life simpler. They drafted some key gamers on protection and a decent finish, Will Kacmarek, from Ohio State.
The Dolphins can lean on dynamic working again De’Von Achane whereas the younger offense takes form. They won’t contend this season, however Willis is a component of a bigger plan, and I’ve to consider he signed with Miami together with his eyes broad open to the truth of the state of affairs.
Drew Allar would be the Steelers’ beginning quarterback in 2027
The Steelers fired up their western Pennsylvania fan base through the use of their third-round choose on the Penn State quarterback. Allar joins a quarterbacks room that features veteran Mason Rudolph, 2025 sixth-round choose Will Howard and possibly … possibly … Aaron Rodgers, ultimately.
Pittsburgh appears to consider Rodgers will return and play a second season for the team, however to date he has not. If he does — and if he stays wholesome all season — Allar ought to get an opportunity to sit and develop for a 12 months a minimum of. But the Steelers nonetheless doubtless will want a brand new quarterback in 2027, by which level Rodgers will likely be 43 years outdated and possibly performed in the end, proper? Right????
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
Dangerous as it may be to assume something when it comes to Rodgers, let’s reside in a world through which he is not again with the Steelers in 2027. They might draft a quarterback for third 12 months in a row. They might go the veteran Band-Aid route for the fourth 12 months in a row. They might go any variety of methods, however the Steelers know they want to clear up this QB drawback in an actual and lasting manner sooner or later.
Allar was drafted three rounds sooner than Howard was. The Steelers appear to like Howard, however he was injured for many of his rookie 12 months and won’t be a lot additional alongside in his growth than Allar is. The Steelers hired Mike McCarthy as their head coach after Mike Tomlin stepped down, partly as a result of they consider in McCarthy’s potential to work with and develop younger quarterbacks.
Can McCarthy deliver Allar alongside this 12 months at the same time as he works to coach a contender with (presumably) Rodgers because the beginning QB? It’s not out of the query. Knowing what we all know in regards to the Steelers’ QB state of affairs for the time being, you’ll be able to’t rule out the opportunity of Allar beginning in 2027.
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What Drew Allar brings to the Steelers
What Drew Allar brings to the Steelers
The Raiders could be official AFC West contenders in 2026
Las Vegas, with one more new coaching staff, used the No. 1 choose on Heisman Trophy winner and CFP champion Fernando Mendoza, hoping he is the man who can stabilize the Raiders at crucial place and lead them right into a extremely profitable future. They had what appears to be a really robust draft even after that.
The Raiders landed Arizona security Treydan Stukes within the second spherical and Auburn edge rusher Keyron Crawford within the third. They took a flier on ubertalented but injured Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy and drafted well-regarded Arkansas working again Mike Washington Jr. later within the fourth spherical.
They made eight whole picks within the first 5 rounds and nonetheless had two left. After an active free agency that adopted the hiring of Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak as their head coach, there’s pleasure for the long run in Las Vegas.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
This is greater than a one-year rebuilding mission, and the Raiders realize it. It’s one of many causes they felt it was definitely worth the threat to cease McCoy’s fall at No. 101 on Saturday afternoon. If he can get wholesome, he is probably a high-impact defensive playmaker on a team that has been quick on these. Mendoza has the traits to make you suppose he is usually a franchise QB.
The Raiders’ offseason has been a very good one. But come on. They play within the AFC West, the place one team was the AFC’s No. 1 seed final 12 months, one other made the playoffs for the second 12 months in a row and the opposite missed the playoffs however had appeared within the earlier three Super Bowls. The Raiders might be a dramatically improved team in 2026 and nonetheless discover it onerous to compete with the Broncos, Chargers and Chiefs. You could make a stable case that the long run is brilliant for the Raiders. It’s rather a lot harder to make the case that the long run is now.
