The 2026 NFL Draft kicks off on Thursday night and there are sure to be many headlines written as the 32 teams across the league pick the best players from America’s college football system.
This three-day selection process remains the most important offseason event in the NFL and the final chance for the clubs to stock their rosters before they open their pre-season training camps later this summer.
The stories will not just centre around players who will hear their names called and their NFL dreams realised. There will be a great focus on trades – which could also feature veterans on the move – as well as teams who simply have to make this upcoming weekend a success.
Here are five storylines to follow when the NFL Draft begins on Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday morning.
Mendoza the Raider
The real intrigue will come with the second pick in this Draft because it is a well-known and widely-accepted given that the Las Vegas Raiders will select Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first overall selection.
There are still doubters who suggest Mendoza – a national championship-winning quarterback in college – will be nothing more than a good to serviceable NFL quarterback. But that is probably being a little harsh. He is an accurate passer who has been compared to former Pro Bowler and NFL MVP Matt Ryan, although Mendoza can run when needed.
The move makes total sense. The Raiders got a few good years out of Derek Carr, but they have been in quarterback purgatory for the past four or five seasons. Teaming Mendoza with veteran Kirk Cousins gives the Silver and Black a promising (and arguably the nicest) in the NFL quarterback room.
Action at three?
With the New York Jets expected to upgrade their stagnant pass rush with the second selection, the real fun will begin at three where the Arizona Cardinals will attempt to convince the football world they are going to select Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love.
The Cardinals do have workable running backs led by the newly-signed Tyler Allgeier and many more needs including quarterback, but if they can get a team to trade up ahead of the Tennessee Titans at four; they could add picks that can be used at other positions.
Love is being dubbed as a generational talent who is unlikely to fall out of the top five. He has the explosive ability to score from anywhere on the field and has been compared to Saquon Barkley. Love scored 40 touchdowns over his final two seasons of college football, meaning the Cardinals themselves might be tempted at three. Love is expected to be so good that any number of teams could be willing to come up and grab him ahead of the Titans.
The multiple-pick teams
There are six teams in a good position to grab talent early on Thursday night as they each have two picks in the first round. Those clubs are the New York Jets, New York Giants, Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys.
While those teams are in an enviable position, they will also be feeling pressure to make those extra selections count. In order to get extra picks, those teams traded away some seriously-good talent in the form of Sauce Gardner (NY Jets), Dexter Lawrence (NY Giants), Trent McDuffie (Kansas City), Jaylen Waddle (Miami) and Micah Parsons (Dallas). Cleveland gave up the chance to select Travis Hunter with their pick last year.
Miami will especially be feeling the need to have a good Draft so watch them closely as they look to rebuild under the rookie pairing of general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley. The Dolphins off-loaded veterans such as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, receivers Waddle and Tyreek Hill, and pass rusher Bradley Chubb earlier this offseason. So, they need as many football-playing bodies as possible and have 11 selections (second-most in the NFL).
Importantly, the Dolphins have seven picks in the first three rounds and have to find impact players to begin their climb back to competitiveness.
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Highlights from Super Bowl 60 as the Seattle Seahawks took on the New England Patriots in California.
Will a second QB go in round one?
This version of the annual selection process is not to be confused with 2024 when six quarterbacks – led by Chicago taking Caleb Williams first overall – were chosen in the first 12 picks. There is nowhere near that level of talent in this Class of 2026.
If a second quarterback is to be taken it will be late in round one and likely with a needy team trading back in to secure the fifth-year option on a player taken in the first 32 selections. And it will be more about the value of the position rather than the sure-fire skills of the player being chosen.
That is because the heavy favourite to be the second quarterback off the board is Alabama’s Ty Simpson and he has only started 15 games in his college career. There are always going to be nerves with such a limited body of work. Anthony Richardson started just 13 college games before being chosen fourth overall by Indianapolis in 2023. It didn’t work out and the Colts have already moved on at that position. Simpson appears to be NFL ready, but do we really know given his limited college football experience?
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Inside the Huddle’s Neil Reynolds, Phoebe Schecter and Jeff Reinebold take a closer look at the drama of the NFL free agency.
Veteran trades
Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said this otherwise-ordinary Draft would likely be spiced up by trades. The trading of picks but also of veteran players. That particular fun began over the weekend when the New York Giants traded Pro Bowl defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for their number 10 pick in round one.
Next on the move is likely to be perennial 1,000-yard receiver AJ Brown, who is reportedly going to head from the Philadelphia Eagles to the New England Patriots. Who else could be on the trading block?
The Colts will be keen to ship out the aforementioned Richardson and the New Orleans Saints might also offload a quarterback in Spencer Rattler. Productive slot cornerback Kenny Moore is another who appears to want out of Indianapolis and pass-rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux could be traded by the Giants. He is a warning not to get too excited as soon as a player’s name is called on Thursday night. The highly-touted defender was chosen fifth overall by New York in 2022, but he has only broken 10 sacks once in a season and is already on the verge of being yesterday’s news.
Bonus pick… British interest
We could see a British tight end selected at some point on day three of the Draft as London’s Seydou Traore completes his journey from the NFL Academy to the National Football League.
Traore – who played youth football as a wide receiver for the London Warriors – was a member of the initial class of players in the NFL Academy when the high school program launched in 2019. He went on to play college football at Arkansas State and Mississippi State (where he scored five touchdowns in the 2025 season).
Traore has been preparing for the Draft as a member of the International Player Pathway program and his personal success – when it comes on Saturday – should be celebrated across the globe. But especially by those at the NFL Academy. Traore is living proof that teenage talent can be found thousands of miles from America and honed into professional athletes ready to make their mark at the highest level of the sport.
Watch all three days of the 2026 NFL Draft live on Sky Sports, with Day One under way from 1am in the early hours of Friday morning.
