Every fan of the NFL knows the value of the NFL draft, and for years, fans and analysts alike have been putting together mock drafts trying to predict who will end up on which teams. Often, mock drafts are informative, and playing through a variety of scenarios can be a good exercise for fans to see who their favorite team might take. But honestly, with this draft, at this point in the year, it just feels pointless trying to make predictions with so many variables completely up in the air.
Usually, at this point in the year, it is *relatively* clear where teams will pick in the draft and which positions each team will need. This year, that is not the case at all, and when you add the uncertainty about players who could enter the transfer portal, the whole thing becomes a nightmare. To make it that much harder, this year’s QB class is subpar, and all the teams that hold the first few picks in the draft do not need or should not take a quarterback this season.
This means that when you start a draft, there almost has to be a trade, because there is a near 0% chance the Giants will keep the first overall pick. The same goes for the Titans and Raiders, who either have their QB of the future or have much bigger needs to address. Predicting trades is a nearly impossible task, especially when you will likely see more than one in the top 10 of this draft alone. It becomes even harder when you realize that several teams (Steelers/Rams) who are going to be interested in a quarterback may trade up in the middle of the first round rather than the top.
Even if you can iron out all of the trade details, and you start drafting, it becomes a whole new ball game of who declares for the draft, especially at quarterback. Guys like Ty Simpson, Brendan Sorsby, and Dante Moore have been rumored to be returning to school, moves that would seriously shake up the top of this year’s draft. This is just as much the case at positions like wide reciever and edge rusher, and the people who will/will not be in this year’s class could change daily.
Once you have accounted for all of those potential variables, you can then start trying to predict the draft picks, but at that point, you are simply throwing darts at a dartboard. One quarterback not declaring could shake up the entirety of the draft, and one trade could do the same, and without having any inside information, you are never going to come close to being accurate. Not to mention, the NFL season is not even over, so the order of the draft picks is currently very much up in the air.
This inconsistency in the draft, which has been exponentially worse, is why I will not be making a mock draft until likely after the college football playoff. Knowing where teams will be picking and which players are in the draft will eliminate much of the confusion that makes it so hard to make a 2026 mock draft. This is going to be one of the hardest drafts to predict, and there will be wildly different prospect evaluations among scouts, which is why you will see me release a lot more position rankings and big boards this offseason rather than mock drafts.
