NFL draft 2022 notes and rumors - Last-minute updates on potential Round 1 trades, rising prospects, surprise picks

This might be the toughest time of year to get reliable NFL information. There is no bigger smokescreen season than the pre-draft season, when it's easy to get sources on the phone but hard to know how much of what they're telling you is true. We do our best, but no matter how many mock drafts or pre-draft notebooks you read, you have to understand there's very little we know for certain.

That said, we believe we're pretty good at figuring out which stuff feels more real than other stuff. And we are making a lot of calls right now. So what we wanted to do here was share with you some of the best, most real-feeling, reliable-sounding stuff we're hearing with Round 1 of the 2022 draft set to start Thursday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN and ABC).

Who's going where, who likes whom, which teams could trade up, trade down, trade a player on their roster — all of it. Hopefully, if nothing else, it gets you fired up and maybe a little bit educated before you sit down and start to find out what really happens:

Jump to a topic:How far could Stingley rise?The Packers' plan on Day 2What could the Giants do early?Trade buzz: Who could move up?Will Deebo Samuel get dealt?Latest on Malik Willis' stock

Unlike last year, when the whole world knew the Jaguars were taking Trevor Lawrence, or the year before, when the whole world knew the Bengals were taking Joe Burrow, we really don't know for sure who the No. 1 pick will be Thursday night.

ESPN NFL draft analyst Todd McShay shook up some folks earlier this week when he wrote that Georgia edge rusher Travon Walker sounded as if he would be Jacksonville's pick, and it definitely sounds as if Walker is a strong possibility. The other contenders are Michigan edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson or one of the top