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

[DWinzit]

Regarding the Conerly/Campell discussion, remember that draft was freakishly strong between the mid 1st to the mid 2nd rounds. There was never any real consensus on how the draft could go in that areas because the players were all graded in a similar range. It was more about how the teams graded the players out and what their strongest needs were.

The team could have gone in a ton of different ways with their first choice. The only question was which players would be available when they selected and would they receive a good offer to trade back and still get an equally graded player while gaining another pick. It was a little surprising they went T because we had a fairly successful first year at LT from Coleman once he got his feet under him and we just traded for Tunsil. It was assumed moving Coleman to RT and Tunsil and LT was set and we just needed to cinch up at G. That would have allowed them to select a player that filled another need

 

[DWinzit]

Keim in his last podcast said this team's intention is for MaGee to become the green dot guy and followed with an interview with Magee talking about how Wagner is teaching him about that role and he's been doing it in practice -- comes off like a bright guy.

Oh wow, that is great to hear! Thanks

 

[skinsinparadise]

Good segment about this team from all people RG3. He echoes a point I've made which is go get Jayden Jeremyiah Love or Carnell Tate and for Jayden to develop he desperately needs a another WR and Tate fits that perfectly.

 

[skinsinparadise]

On Keim's podcast he interviews Ben Sinnott and the TE coach -- it comes off like he's going to get opportunity. I haven't heard much of Sinnott in interviews, he comes off bright and self-aware lol gives me some confidence we might see something out of him finally as a pass catcher -- he's been good as a move blocker. Will see.

 

[skinsinparadise]

Love is just 20 years old. High character. If you see him in interviews just wearing a T-shirt he looks out of a Marvel movie. Good power runner. Great breakaway speed -- he's like Barkley in that if you crowd the line of scrimmage to stop him and he gets past your first level of defenders he can take it to the house. Soft hands -- pass weapon. OK as a pass protector -- improving. 7 YPC this year. 7 YPC last year. Great zone runner. Good gap runner. There is a reason why some draftniks and supposedly some scouts have him as the best player in this draft. Seems like its a toss up to them between him and Reese.

 

[skinzplay]

That was a good set of interviews, SIP. Sinnott is YAC guy, and he plays faster than that 4.6 time. For youngsters like that, the thinking was they'd capitalize and build his existing strengths (i.e. use them) while developing the rest of his game. They've never done the former, though they did trust him enough to burn the Eagles on that fake punt.

 

[DWinzit]

On Keim's podcast he interviews Ben Sinnott and the TE coach -- it comes off like he's going to get opportunity. I haven't heard much of Sinnott in interviews, he comes off bright and self-aware lol gives me some confidence we might see something out of him finally as a pass catcher -- he's been good as a move blocker. Will see.

Through Keim you have been the bearer of good news on two of our underutilized young draft selections with unreached expectations hung on them. You have made this a good Saturday morning

I am looking forward seeing what their opportunities bring over the next few weeks

 

[Commander Wraith]

MaGee hasn’t really proven himself and has had injuries.
Luvu’s on the last year of his deal and while he’s a good player, I don’t think the fundamentals of line backing are his strengths, namely diagnosing, shedding blocks, and coverage.
Medrano and Kano are completely unproven.
Will we run a lot of 3 LB sets next year and beyond?

So while I think DE, TE and WR are our top needs, IMO corner and LB aren’t far behind. I think at minimum we need a guy that provides decent competition/depth, preferably someone proven… which is about how I feel about corner. For both, I think FA probably makes more sense, though at corner we could also use a young guy to develop.

 

[The Chump Bailey]

why?

He seems the more explosive of the 2 to my eyes not that Love is not very good in his own right. Just how I see it thus far. I think the BYU back is being underrated a bit too.

 

[Riggo44]

Lanorris Sellers heading back to school. Right call for him

 

[skinsinparadise]

MaGee hasn’t really proven himself and has had injuries.
Luvu’s on the last year of his deal and while he’s a good player, I don’t think the fundamentals of line backing are his strengths, namely diagnosing, shedding blocks, and coverage.
Medrano and Kano are completely unproven.
Will we run a lot of 3 LB sets next year and beyond?

So while I think DE, TE and WR are our top needs, IMO corner and LB aren’t far behind. I think at minimum we need a guy that provides decent competition/depth, preferably someone proven… which is about how I feel about corner. For both, I think FA probably makes more sense, though at corner we could also use a young guy to develop.

To me LB is way behind DE, WR. But the good thing is there are so many of them in FA and are relatively cheap. TE almost the same thing albiet tough to find killer TEs in FA or in the draft.

 

[skinsinparadise]

He seems the more explosive of the 2 to my eyes not that Love is not very good in his own right. Just how I see it thus far. I think the BYU back is being underrated a bit too.

To me explosion is exactly why Love > Price. Love's hands also much move proven, Price is barely used as a passing weapon. Love averages about 1 yard more per carry than Price both this year and last.

But I do like Price ironically as sort of a poor man's Love. He's probabaly the best kicker returner in this class I've watched so far.

I haven't dove deep into the RBs yet but to your point about underrated -- for what I've seen so far, Smothers is underrated. Smaller back but explosive,

 

[Commander Wraith]

To me LB is way behind DE, WR. But the good thing is there are so many of them in FA and are relatively cheap. TE almost the same thing albiet tough to find killer TEs in FA or in the draft.

That’s fair. I think it kind of depends on how you view it. If the thought is - at which positions do we need a stud the most, I totally agree with you, there’s a big gap.

If the thought is - we can get by with Luvu, MaGee, Medrano, Kaho and Bellore, I’m not sure I’d agree. Could it work? Sure. But it’d be a terrible idea to not add a quality player there IMO.

Corner is even worse as I think Amos and Sainristil are the only corners on the 53 signed through next year. Rounding out the position with UDFAs, late round draft picks or super low end vets could easily sink the season. Obviously, that’s not what they’ll do (or what you’re suggesting), but that’s kind of my point… we absolutely need to add quality there (there’s a reason they say you can never have enough corners).

Point being, if you want to say DE and WR are 1a/1b and LB/corner are more like 3a/3b, that’s fine, but I still see them as pretty big time needs.

 

[skinsinparadise]

That’s fair. I think it kind of depends on how you view it. If the thought is - at which positions do we need a stud the most, I totally agree with you, there’s a big gap.

If the thought is - we can get by with Luvu, MaGee, Medrano, Kaho and Bellore, I’m not sure I’d agree. Could it work? Sure. But it’d be a terrible idea to not add a quality player there IMO.

Corner is even worse as I think Amos and Sainristil are the only corners on the 53 signed through next year. Rounding out the position with UDFAs, late round draft picks or super low end vets could easily sink the season. Obviously, that’s not what they’ll do (or what you’re suggesting), but that’s kind of my point… we absolutely need to add quality there (there’s a reason they say you can never have enough corners).

Point being, if you want to say DE and WR are 1a/1b and LB/corner are more like 3a/3b, that’s fine, but I still see them as pretty big time needs.

They definitiely need to add a corner. Two edges IMO.

As for the rest of the defense, I don't sweat it a heck of a lot. I'd probably put safety over LB. Don't get me wrong, I would love it if they added a LB. But assuming they are right about Magee, my priorty would be a depth veteran as opposed to starter.

 

[DogofWar1]

We should be able to add a LB in FA for a reasonable cost. 10th highest paid LB is at 11M APY, with our cap space we should be able to add someone solid without breaking the bank. I'm not entirely opposed to adding someone later in the draft, but I think we have bigger fish to fry with those 1st and 3rd round picks.

That's another reason we probably gotta go Edge or WR in the 1st, and why Caleb/Love are kinda luxury picks. 10th highest paid edge is 28M, 10th highest paid WR is 29M. RB is only 9.8M, S is only 15.1M.

I feel like one of those 6th rounders is a great spot to draft a receiving back, and while not perfect, a CRod/Bill/McNichols/6th rounder backfield is probably pretty competent if our OLine is solid.

 

[The Chump Bailey]

Smothers is underrated

Agree and I'll raise you Jeremiah Cobb

 

[method man]

We should be able to add a LB in FA for a reasonable cost. 10th highest paid LB is at 11M APY, with our cap space we should be able to add someone solid without breaking the bank. I'm not entirely opposed to adding someone later in the draft, but I think we have bigger fish to fry with those 1st and 3rd round picks.

That's another reason we probably gotta go Edge or WR in the 1st, and why Caleb/Love are kinda luxury picks. 10th highest paid edge is 28M, 10th highest paid WR is 29M. RB is only 9.8M, S is only 15.1M.

I feel like one of those 6th rounders is a great spot to draft a receiving back, and while not perfect, a CRod/Bill/McNichols/6th rounder backfield is probably pretty competent if our OLine is solid.

- It’s great Magee is getting ready to wear the green dot next year but we need a real backup plan in case he can’t handle it in game action. I also like the idea of Magee continuing as the 3rd LB one more season and then taking over a starting role in 2027 when Luvu expires

- What you highlighted is a vector for how I think about the draft. I bashed the Sainristil pick at the time, not because of him as a player, but because good slot CBs were making $5m-$10m a year on 2nd contracts so not much surplus value grabbing one in ghe 2nd round

- Keim had a stat that this is the 5th ranked rushing attack in the NFL. I like the 3 backs we have but does it become the #1 or # 2 attack in the NFL with Breece Hall or K9 as the starter. That would certainly take more press off Jayden next year

 

[method man]

They definitiely need to add a corner. Two edges IMO.

As for the rest of the defense, I don't sweat it a heck of a lot. I'd probably put safety over LB. Don't get me wrong, I would love it if they added a LB. But assuming they are right about Magee, my priorty would be a depth veteran as opposed to starter.

They will need 2 starting caliber CBs if they choose to run a man heavy scheme, an outside guy and a slot

 

[Conn]

A “good” (not elite) FA ILB is too affordable to blindly take the risk on Magee staying healthy and developing. Especially since we don’t know how Luvu will bounce back (or not) being used differently (hopefully, correctly) under another future DC. If you can pay $8-12M/year for a good solid starting ILB capable of wearing the green dot, you kind of have to. Magee developing and becoming a major player just means you have more options, schematically and roster-wise, moving forward. But you aren’t making the same mistake we did this year where a formerly injury-prone/partial-unknown type player, MUST stay healthy to field a team. That’s reckless and we can’t do it. ILB’s are too cheap to take that risk.

 

[DogofWar1]

- Keim had a stat that this is the 5th ranked rushing attack in the NFL. I like the 3 backs we have but does it become the #1 or # 2 attack in the NFL with Breece Hall or K9 as the starter. That would certainly take more press off Jayden next year

Yeah the nice thing about RB is you can cheap out on it a bit both in terms of FA and draft and still get to B-level performance. No real reason to throw major resources at it unless you think a guy gets you to A-level. If the coaches think Breece does that, get him on board.

But in the end, I do think it sorta takes Love off our board, more-or-less. We're not an elite RB away from success.

A “good” (not elite”) FA ILB is too affordable to blindly take the risk on Magee staying healthy and developing. Especially since we don’t know how Luvu will bounce back (or not) being used differently (hopefully, correctly) under another future DC. If you can pay $8-12M/year for a good solid starting ILB capable of wearing the green dot, you kind of have to. Magee developing and becoming a major player just means you have more options, schematically and roster-wise, moving forward. But you aren’t making the same mistake we did this year where a formerly injury-prone/partial-unknown type player, MUST stay healthy to field a team. That’s reckless and we can’t do it. ILB’s are too cheap to take that risk.

This offseason is really going to be enlightening as to either or both of A) Peter's philosophy on using cap money and B) Harris' willingness to write the big player checks.

We have a lot of cap space. We need to use it, and really should be front-loading some things where we can to take the pressure off a bit in a few years when Jayden's contract comes due. If we have 20M+ in cap space left going into the year, we're going to need a good explanation for why, when we should be filling holes with that money.