DRAFT DAY DISCUSSION 2026 NFL Draft: Day 1

[DoubleDeluxe]

People really sleeping on Elijah Ponder making a jump in year 2

Who?
He had 4 sacks in 15 games (altho limited time last year).
Do you expect him to have double digit sacks this year?
Landry is a question mark
Jones is a good all around end who can kick inside but he is not a great pass rusher.
We need a real pass rusher, even if Ponder ups his game.

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

We’ve got Bryant and Wallace in the mix for backup RT as well.

I like this, we may now have starting quality backups at both OT slots.

We now have plenty of versatility for now and the future

 

[DaBruinz]

I was thinking more about Campbell replacing Onwenu who is massively overpaid and has endless weight issues and is in the last year of his deal.

25m cap hit this year.

Some money is going to have to give if the Gonzalez contract gets done.

Just stop. You clearly have no clue what you're talking about. Onwenu was a top 10 Guard last year. A cap hit of 25M is about right for that level of play. You'd know this if you paid attention to anything.

Campbell isn't replacing Onwenu. Fools like you said Matt Light was moving to guard every year. And every year it never happened. As others have pointed out, Campbell's year was actually better than Trent William's rookie year.

The Pats have 2 years to get the Gonzalez Contract done. Hell, they could do it NOW if they wanted to without touching Onwenu's contract.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Nor should they be. They haven’t addressed the real problems of not having a legit starting NFL QB, and of being the Jets. They’re just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic now,

Was Ty Simpson worth the #2 overall pick though? I haven't paid attention to early QB prospects simply because we don't need one.

 

[Ross12]

I wonder if Campbell is any better of a fit at RT than Lomu. Seems like they’re very similar players but Lomu has much better wingspan to help against the tougher assignments at LT. Maybe you could put Campbell at RT but feels weird and probably not something they could attempt until 2027 anyway.

 

[raduray]

That's a cool idea but the LT got absolutely ran thru by every elite pass rusher he faced.

We'll see how he holds up against a harder schedule.

He wasn't fully recovered from his injury. Next season will tell

 

[raduray]

Not bad. Pick swap and we gave up a 4th rounder that was 6 picks earlier than our other 4th rounder. Big deal. If they think he's the best option to beef up the line, well worth it.

Plus now Vrable will only miss three picks on Saturday.

 

[mayoclinic]

Pats got their 2 tackles of the future. Lucky lomu was in range/available

Young bookend tackles are priceless.

 

[n1997y]

Plus now Vrable will only miss three picks on Saturday.

By tomorrow night he might not be missing much at all

 

[patfanken]

I was an edge guy along with many others, but I get the logic of this pick. EVERY pick at this end of the draft comes with warts and flaws, even in the first round. We needed a swing tackle and we got one. We needed a guy to replace Moses next season, and we got one. We got a guy who is an athletic freak with a combination of size length and athleticism that is rare and gives him a ceiling is exceedingly high.

Yes, it's irritating our first round pick is likely to have red shirt year, and YES it pisses me off that we had t give up a 4th round pick to get him. But I do not think he would have gotten to 31 if we hadn't moved up, though it seems like a 4th round pick was a bit rich. I would have been happier giving up the 5th and one of the 6ths to make that move. I wanted those 2 picks in the 4th.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Was Ty Simpson worth the #2 overall pick though? I haven't paid attention to early QB prospects simply because we don't need one.

Not at all. Jets messed up by winning too much last year so they couldn’t get Mendoza, the only guy potentially worth it. They could never truly expect to get a permanent solution as a QB this year, but they really just needed to sign someone better than Geno as their stopgap QB. Otherwise they’d be throwing a rookie into the fire with all the expectations of the world on him, like they did with Darnold and Wilson. At least in Darnold’s case the hope was somewhat justified. It wasn’t in Wilson’s case and definitely not in Simpson’s case.

Anyway, I’m just happy I’m not a fan of them and that they’re still in our division.

 

[The Gr8est]

I was an edge guy along with many others, but I get the logic of this pick. EVERY pick at this end of the draft comes with warts and flaws, even in the first round. We needed a swing tackle and we got one. We needed a guy to replace Moses next season, and we got one. We got a guy who is an athletic freak with a combination of size length and athleticism that is rare and gives him a ceiling is exceedingly high.

Yes, it's irritating our first round pick is likely to have red shirt year, and YES it pisses me off that we had t give up a 4th round pick to get him. But I do not think he would have gotten to 31 if we hadn't moved up, though it seems like a 4th round pick was a bit rich. I would have been happier giving up the 5th and one of the 6ths to make that move. I wanted those 2 picks in the 4th.

The team we traded with likely knew we wanted the last OT.

Supply and demand.

It was also with a division opponent, right?

 

[Raccoonsuit]

So with Lemon playing 75% of his snaps in the slot at USC id say our buddy boutte is a likely trade candidate for AJ was they both play lots of X

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

I was an edge guy along with many others, but I get the logic of this pick. EVERY pick at this end of the draft comes with warts and flaws, even in the first round. We needed a swing tackle and we got one. We needed a guy to replace Moses next season, and we got one. We got a guy who is an athletic freak with a combination of size length and athleticism that is rare and gives him a ceiling is exceedingly high.

Yes, it's irritating our first round pick is likely to have red shirt year, and YES it pisses me off that we had t give up a 4th round pick to get him. But I do not think he would have gotten to 31 if we hadn't moved up, though it seems like a 4th round pick was a bit rich. I would have been happier giving up the 5th and one of the 6ths to make that move. I wanted those 2 picks in the 4th.

Houston gave up a 5th and gave up 22 spots in the 3rd to move up 2 spots in the first.
Our trade was fair.

 

[SlowGettingUp]

Fair number of his rushers end up on the ground ...

 

[PYPER]

PFN's free NFL Mock Draft Simulator with trades

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www.profootballnetwork.com

PFSN gave the pick an A. Here's the pre-draft summary.

Caleb Lomu is one of two Utah tackles in contention for the top OT spot in the 2026 NFL Draft. At a long and lean 6'6", 302 pounds (Note he was 310-313 at the Combine/Pro Day), Lomu underpins his game with an incredible blend of explosion and flexibility, which amounts to awe-inspiring recovery athleticism. In the run game, while he's not as powerful as his teammate, he can pull off high-difficulty reach blocks and fulfill his assignments dutifully.

And in 2025, he improved his point-of-attack power and displacement on down and base blocks. Meanwhile, in pass protection, Lomu is a malleable lower-body technician and a methodical, precise hand-fighter, whose hyper-elite flexibility serves as an ironclad failsafe to swivel his anchor, absorb power, acquire leverage, and play with controlled lean. A safe prospect who's stamped in pass protection and trending up in the run game, Lomu is worthy his assigned Round 1 status and has impact starter potential.

My take is that his true value and potential lies at LT long term and swing tackle this season. If the goal is to change him to RT or OG, he's a misfit. Crownover would have been the better fit for that role later on in the draft.

Disappointed that we didn't trade down, add more picks, and position ourselves to land Jaccas but I understand that nobody expected Lomu to be there and the need/opportunity aligned.

 

[DaBruinz]

Who?
He had 4 sacks in 15 games (altho limited time last year).
Do you expect him to have double digit sacks this year?
Landry is a question mark
Jones is a good all around end who can kick inside but he is not a great pass rusher.
We need a real pass rusher, even if Ponder ups his game.

Ponder didn't just have 4 sacks. He also had 2 QB hits and 9 hurries. All on 134 pass rushing attempts. That's 1 pressure on every 8.9 Snaps.

You may not understand this based on you harping on sacks, but a successful pass rusher doesn't have to sack the QB. Getting hits and hurries have an impact.

Contrary to your downplaying of Dre'mont Jones, he is actually a very good pass rusher when used aggressively off the Edge. Something that Titans didn't do. Wit the Titans, Jones had 18.5 pressures on 234 Pass Rush attempts with the Titans. With the Ravens, he had 32 pass rush attempts on 273 pass rush attempts. That's 51 pressures on 507 pass rush attempts. Or 1 pressure ever 9.9. But it was 1 pressure every 8.5 attempts with Baltimore.

Do I expect Ponder to put up double digit sacks this year? No. Could he? Sure. If he improves his sack rate from 1 every 33.5 snaps to 1 every 30 snaps while getting 300 pass rush snaps, he makes 10 on the year.

Honestly, If he can improve his pressure rate from 1 every 8.9 snaps to 1 every 7.5 snaps and get 250-300 snaps, he'd have a very good chance of getting to 10 sacks.

 

[DaBruinz]

The only thing I said was that he’s weak.

“ His play could improve rapidly with strength gains and additional coaching.”

That one I didn’t say.

“ Weaknesses
-Needs to keep improving upper-body strength.”

That one wasn’t me either.

I’m sure I can find more reports. He’s weak.

You have no clue what "weak" is. You're regurgitating things while lacking understanding.

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

Ponder didn't just have 4 sacks. He also had 2 QB hits and 9 hurries. All on 134 pass rushing attempts. That's 1 pressure on every 8.9 Snaps.

You may not understand this based on you harping on sacks, but a successful pass rusher doesn't have to sack the QB. Getting hits and hurries have an impact.

Contrary to your downplaying of Dre'mont Jones, he is actually a very good pass rusher when used aggressively off the Edge. Something that Titans didn't do. Wit the Titans, Jones had 18.5 pressures on 234 Pass Rush attempts with the Titans. With the Ravens, he had 32 pass rush attempts on 273 pass rush attempts. That's 51 pressures on 507 pass rush attempts. Or 1 pressure ever 9.9. But it was 1 pressure every 8.5 attempts with Baltimore.

Do I expect Ponder to put up double digit sacks this year? No. Could he? Sure. If he improves his sack rate from 1 every 33.5 snaps to 1 every 30 snaps while getting 300 pass rush snaps, he makes 10 on the year.

Honestly, If he can improve his pressure rate from 1 every 8.9 snaps to 1 every 7.5 snaps and get 250-300 snaps, he'd have a very good chance of getting to 10 sacks.

So u don't think we have as big of a need at Edge as I do.
But why do you have to resort to your "you don't understand" comments.
This wouldn't be the first time you've made such comments in an otherwise civil discussion.
I understand plenty.

 

[DaBruinz]

With the Lemon pick it certainly seems AJ is one his way here.
But still you find things to complain about.
You know you are the new Sam right?

The only thing CERTAIN is that the Eagles are likely trading a WR. Whether that's Brown or Smith and where they're being traded remains to be seen.