The 2026 Draft Thread - 1st Round - 7th overall

[The Rook]

I think Concepcion is going to be an absolute baller. But he will be as frustrating as he is electric.

I’d love to have him if we had a more solid receiver corps to surround him with and could use him as a return man, too. Dude is dangerous.

If we did trade back and got him I’d be pretty excited.

But he will drop the ball. And he will not block well. And people will get super frustrated between 60 yard highlights.

2026 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Texas A&M WR KC Concepcion

From now until the 2026 NFL Draft, we will scout and create profiles for as many prospects as possible, examining their strengths, weaknesses, and what they can bring to an NFL franchise. These players could be potential top-10 picks, all the way to Day 3 selections and priority undrafted free...

steelersdepot.com

Listed as his second WR in his eval.




The Rook

 

[washington football]

Who would move up gmen? Who else?

 

[RedWolf]

3.20 to go

 

[Canuck]

He looks like a great possession receiver you’d typically get slightly later in the draft that top 10.

Best I can do.

How much better of an athlete is Nacua or JSN than Tate?

 

[Anselmheifer]

This needs to be us.

 

[KDawg]

2026 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Texas A&M WR KC Concepcion

From now until the 2026 NFL Draft, we will scout and create profiles for as many prospects as possible, examining their strengths, weaknesses, and what they can bring to an NFL franchise. These players could be potential top-10 picks, all the way to Day 3 selections and priority undrafted free...

steelersdepot.com

Listed as his second WR in his eval.




The Rook

I don’t know who this guy is. But reading his stuff I actually agree with a lot of it. I don’t agree with his overall rankings, but that is a flavor thing. Dude is good at this.

 

[washington football]

This needs to be us.

We dont have the picks. We have no second next season. Unless they wanted a player?

 

[skinsinparadise]

 

[skinsinparadise]

This needs to be us.

But then you lose the opportunity to get Bryce Lance

 

[Discobob]

He looks like a great possession receiver you’d typically get slightly later in the draft that top 10.

Best I can do.

But he's a boundary guy whose aDOT is like 85th percentile? That doesn't scream possession receiver to me. We usually see possession guys as lower aDOT with more work in the middle of the field.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Settle

Eh. I don't think Settle is nearly the player Payne is. He fills the role but not as well.

I'm sure somebody is going to quote PFF scores or something to prove me wrong.

 

[heisenberg]

My Top 4 assuming Love is gone
Tate-Top at his position which is a premium position and area of need
Downs-Best pure FB player in the draft, getting downgraded by media fo rnot working out
Styles-Feak athlete, top 10 talent, but not top 5
Delane-Premium position, all the measurables, but how important is CB in the new scheme

This is almost exactly how I feel.
Maybe you could swap tate and downs and then maybe swap styles and delane but I think ill be happy with any of those 4 and id be over the moon if love somehow fell.

 

[skinsinparadise]

We dont have the picks. We have no second next season. Unless they wanted a player?

You mean now. They got all the picks for next season.

 

[ES1974]

How much better of an athlete is Nacua or JSN than Tate?

No idea.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

If styles is there at 6 cowboys may move up with browns.

Last thing we need is gmen to get Love and Cowboys to get Styles.

Every year there is this panic when the other NFC East Teams get some player and we didn't.

Sometimes the panic is warrented.

Sometimes it's not.

And with where the Giants are picking, they're going to get an outstanding prospect we would prefer they didn't get almost no matter who they choose.

 

[KDawg]

Side note: if Canadian Hog doesnt start the 2027 thread the minute the 2026 draft begins I will think less of him.

 

[Faithful Fan]

This is almost exactly how I feel.
Maybe you could swap tate and downs and then maybe swap styles and delane but I think ill be happy with any of those 4 and id be over the moon if love somehow fell.

Yeah, lost in all of this is we should be able to take the top prospect on our board at a position of need. We have discussed these options ad nauseam and have preferences, but I will be happy enough with any of them.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Eh. I don't think Settle is nearly the player Payne is. He fills the role but not as well.

I'm sure somebody is going to quote PFF scores or something to prove me wrong.

Close enough. And the question wasn't whether Settle was better than Payne, the question is who replaces him. Payne plays mostly gap 3 on the left side. In this scheme he probably plays some nose and or 4-5. Settle can do it. Settle is a better player than he was here. One personnel guy actually thought he was Washington's best FA signing.

 

[heisenberg]

Side note: if Canadian Hog doesnt start the 2027 thread the minute the 2026 draft begins I will think less of him.

We definitely have a sickness.

The fact that this thread gets 5 new pages a day despite us regurgitating the same things for the last 3 months is a testament to our insanity.

 

[Voice_of_Reason]

Just for giggles… I’ve been harping on the fact that we only have four skill guys under contract for next season.

We only have 31 total players under contract. Three guys in void years - Payne, Luvu, Armstrong. Also includes McLaurin on an astronomical hit.

Of the guys we have under contract that includes Medrano and Kaho.

So really 25-26 guys. Thats half of a 53-man roster.

3 receivers (counting Terry)
3 guards
2 tackles
1 center
1 running back
1 QB
3 tight ends

2 edge
3 DT
3 CB
2 safeties
4 LB

It really is true we need everything.

It’s almost like the plan is a full reset after this season which… if that was what came to pass I’d be more in line with.

The draft should add six more 2027 bodies… so 31-32

It would be interesting to see how this stacks up against league average. I'd hazard a guess a lot of teams have at least 15-20 FA's every year, because the average career length in the NFL is like 2.8 years. I think I read somewhere that about 20% of the league turns over every year, which is pretty bananas. (I could be getting that wrong, but it's a much higher percentage than I thought it would be.

I will keep coming back to the point that the biggest issue with Peters so far is his 2024 2nd and 3rd round draft picks haven't hit. We spend them on
Newton: A DT who can't replace Payne/Allen (yet)
Sainristil: A CB who had a really good rookie year but we don't know if he's an inside guy or an outside guy, and if he's an outside guy, he's size limited
Sinnott: A TE who can't replace Ertz
Coleman: A OT they want to convert to a guard and got benched last year
McCaffrey: A WR who hasn't developed into a clear role

If those guys had hit, we wouldn't be feeling like we do about the roster.

Some still may. At the moment, only 1.5 of them are projected to be starters: Sainristil and Newton (as part of the rotation, he's the .5)

That draft needs 4 starters to come out of that group and one of the starters to be better than replacement level.

We signed a bunch more guys to one year deals again to plug holes that these guys should be filling.