2026 NFL draft buzz: Intel on top picks, potential trades - ESPN

The NFL draft is a difficult reporting project. You spend hours and days and weeks on the phone and know for a fact that some people — maybe most of them — aren't telling you the truth. Teams want to keep their plans and their evaluations as secret as possible at this time of year while also floating information and scenarios to throw off the competition.

So, by the time it's the day before the draft and you sit down to write up your best information, it's pretty scary. I'm here to tell you the stuff I feel best about, but I do so with full confidence that some parts of it won't turn out to be correct. One thing can completely shake up the first round.

We can feel 100% sure the Las Vegas Raiders are taking Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first pick. They've been set on that for a long time, and by the time the pick is in Thursday night, it will be a formality. After that, the mystery begins. And that's where I want to start.

I don't have a mock draft for you. I feel confident you can find plenty of them if that's what you want. But here are some of the things I've been hearing about how the 2026 draft might play out, starting once Mendoza has his Raiders hat on and the Jets are on the clock.

Jump to the latest buzz on:
ARI/TEN | CLE | DAL
LAR | NYG | NYJ
Ohio State prospects
Other notes

Everything I've been told since the latter part of last week leads me to believe the Jets will select Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese with the second pick in the draft.

For the longest time, it has felt as if the Jets were deciding between Reese and Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey, and I recognize that some draft analysts have predicted Bailey here. Reese vs. Bailey has been a topic of debate in the Jets' building.