The 2026 Draft Thread - Day 3

Eli would be a nice PS guy. I can't see room on the roster otherwise as he seems raw in pass pro, and routes but dang, he is intriguing and a Navy team captain. Now that says a lot!
 
I watched Jason Canady, the 5’10, 181-pound nickel out of Oregon, against USC and it was a pretty eventful tape. He came away with an interception, nearly had a second, gave up a touchdown, and picked up two penalties (one hold, one DPI). He was matched up with Makai Lemon most of the game, so it was a lot of legit good-on-good reps.

In coverage, there’s a real mix of positives and negatives. In zone, I thought he looked pretty good. His eyes are active, he understands spacing, and if he’s not immediately threatened he’ll go find work. There was a nice play on a double pass where he recognized it and took away an option, and his ball skills definitely show up—he picked Lemon on a quick out and nearly had another pick on a similar read. He also had a rep where Lemon scored on a short TD, but that felt more like a good throw than a clean loss, especially since Canady had inside help and could have shaded outside more. He’s comfortable in bracket coverage too and had a nice PBU in that role. Where things start to break down is vertically. In press, he can be a little late opening his hips, which puts him out of phase, and with 4.49 speed he just doesn’t have the makeup ability to recover easily. When he’s stressed downfield, he tends to get a bit panicky—he drew a DPI on Lemon and another penalty on a TE, and there were a couple other reps where he could’ve been flagged for grabbing.

Against the run, I actually thought he was pretty solid, especially for his size. His fits were generally sound—there was one snap where he got overeager and gave up outside leverage, but for the most part he understood his assignments. He’s physical for a smaller corner, willing to punch tight ends and receivers and work to shed blocks. Sometimes he disengages quickly, sometimes it takes a second, but the willingness is there. He also showed some ability to slip blocks entirely. As a tackler, he’s more of an ankle/knee tackler than a body guy, but he’s functional. The bigger issue is in space—he can struggle to throttle down and miss against more elusive runners.

Athletically, you see a player with good short-area quickness and decent mirror ability, but limited top-end speed. That shows up most when he’s challenged vertically—once he’s beat, it’s hard for him to recover, and that’s where the grabbing creeps in. He actually reminds me a bit of Mike Sainristil: smaller nickel type, good ball skills, very comfortable with eyes on the quarterback, willing to mix it up physically, but with some limitations when asked to carry vertical routes consistently.

Overall, I thought it was a mixed but informative tape. There’s enough there to like—zone instincts, ball skills, competitiveness, and run support—but also clear limitations, especially against vertical threats. Pick 71 would feel a bit rich to me, but if he’s there in the 4th or especially the 5th round, that starts to look like pretty good value for a nickel with his skill set.
 
Pat Coogan - OG - Indiana

This is my day 3 dood. I think he could come in and immediately be versatile IOL depth, and develop into a challenger for the starting OC job.
 
The thing about top 30 visits is teams usually use them on players they are interested in but still have questions about. That means two groups often don’t get visits, guys they aren’t interested in and guys they like where they already feel they have a complete evaluation. So the visits are telling, but not in the way people think. They don’t necessarily identify the team’s favorite prospects, they highlight the players where there’s still something to figure out.

Take Emmett Johnson as an example. It’s pretty well established on film that he has good vision and lacks straight line speed, and his forty time basically confirmed that. The question is his short area quickness. Scouts think it’s good based on film, but the testing didn’t really back that up. That’s the kind of situation where a team might bring him in, put him through drills, and try to resolve the discrepancy between what they see on tape and what showed up in testing.

On the flip side, there are players where the film is clean, the testing matches, and the off field is checked out. Teams feel confident in the evaluation and just don’t need more time with the player, so they don’t burn a top 30 visit on them. So yeah, top 30s matter, but more as a signal of unanswered questions than a ranking of favorites. There are plenty of players teams really like who never get one.
 
Pat Coogan - OG - Indiana

This is my day 3 dood. I think he could come in and immediately be versatile IOL depth, and develop into a challenger for the starting OC job.

There is a bunch of decent day 3 options Parker Brailsford, Matt Gublin, and Logan Jones are all decent 5th round options.

If we are going to do the wide zone thing I think that makes Coogan a good scheme fit. If you need him to move people in the run game or handle a lot of isolated 1 on 1's in pass pro his lack of play strength will limit his upside. But in a shanahan offense where you run a lot of wide zone, where its hard to tee off in any non-obvious pass rush situations because the run and pass are so well married together, he could be a starting level player. I think Logan Jones is a slightly better version of Coogan (mobile smaller center somewhat lacking in playstrength). I think Gublin is better than Coogan in a vacuum, but less of a scheme fit and Gublin lack of lateral mobility may make him a bit of a liability in a wide zone scheme so Coogan may be better for a Shanahan scheme. I think Brailsford is a bit more well rounded but less well tailored for any particular scheme than Coogan and Gublin and while I would probably take Brailsford over Coogan, don't know if he is worth taking at 147 if you can get Coogan at 209 for example because the scheme could protect Coogan enough that his weaknesses are not a big issue and he is a better value in the 6th than Brailsford is in the 5th. That said my favorite option of the that bunch may just be taking Logan Jones at 147 as I think he is a similar but slightly better player than Coogan (both are scheme fits).
 
There is a bunch of decent day 3 options Parker Brailsford, Matt Gublin, and Logan Jones are all decent 5th round options.

If we are going to do the wide zone thing I think that makes Coogan a good scheme fit. If you need him to move people in the run game or handle a lot of isolated 1 on 1's in pass pro his lack of play strength will limit his upside. But in a shanahan offense where you run a lot of wide zone, where its hard to tee off in any non-obvious pass rush situations because the run and pass are so well married together, he could be a starting level player. I think Logan Jones is a slightly better version of Coogan (mobile smaller center somewhat lacking in playstrength). I think Gublin is better than Coogan in a vacuum, but less of a scheme fit and Gublin lack of lateral mobility may make him a bit of a liability in a wide zone scheme so Coogan may be better for a Shanahan scheme. I think Brailsford is a bit more well rounded but less well tailored for any particular scheme than Coogan and Gublin and while I would probably take Brailsford over Coogan, don't know if he is worth taking at 147 if you can get Coogan at 209 for example because the scheme could protect Coogan enough that his weaknesses are not a big issue and he is a better value in the 6th than Brailsford is in the 5th. That said my favorite option of the that bunch may just be taking Logan Jones at 147 as I think he is a similar but slightly better player than Coogan (both are scheme fits).
I have been championing Jones as the best fit for a couple months now. I liked Gublin early as another late round option but more if the others aren't available in the 6th. I really hasn't said attention to Coogan until Primus Porcus brought him up in the latest draft Blind Pig podcast. I think it was amazing if he made it until the 6th but if Logan is gone he might be worth it at 147.
 
my most recent update of center stats. Slaughter jumps out as an athlete-zone guy. Logan Jones.

Screen Shot 2026-04-12 at 3.21.31 PM.png
 
The thing about top 30 visits is teams usually use them on players they are interested in but still have questions about. That means two groups often don’t get visits, guys they aren’t interested in and guys they like where they already feel they have a complete evaluation. So the visits are telling, but not in the way people think. They don’t necessarily identify the team’s favorite prospects, they highlight the players where there’s still something to figure out.

Take Emmett Johnson as an example. It’s pretty well established on film that he has good vision and lacks straight line speed, and his forty time basically confirmed that. The question is his short area quickness. Scouts think it’s good based on film, but the testing didn’t really back that up. That’s the kind of situation where a team might bring him in, put him through drills, and try to resolve the discrepancy between what they see on tape and what showed up in testing.

On the flip side, there are players where the film is clean, the testing matches, and the off field is checked out. Teams feel confident in the evaluation and just don’t need more time with the player, so they don’t burn a top 30 visit on them. So yeah, top 30s matter, but more as a signal of unanswered questions than a ranking of favorites. There are plenty of players teams really like who never get one.

I haven't fully studied it but saw some periodical that did which is for THIS team under this regime, the 30 day visits have a good correlation to who they draft. Especially if they had meetings for both the combine and the 30 day vists. The Top Golf event too, lol, I'd love to find out who is invited to it.
 
I mentioned this on the podcast I did here. That is, if I am going with a late WR....

Slot -- Cyrus Allen is a smooth player, good hands, poor man's Antonio Williams. Good hands, good seperator, good YAC guy. Nothing electric but he's not raw. Not the most phyiscal WR.



Another that I watched a little this weekend is Kendrick Law. If Zachriah Branch is a thing why isn't Law who is a bigger version but not as fast albiet he's fast enough. 9.5 YAC which is sick. Best in this class among the WRs am tracking. And some sick combine numbers. He's a menance with the ball in his hands. Mostly screens, hitches, slants, shallow crossers so like Branch he's a projection.

 
my most recent update of center stats. Slaughter jumps out as an athlete-zone guy. Logan Jones.

View attachment 14615
I have recently been hearing more on Burton. I think the main reason is due to Kentucky using a similar offense to what we believe the team will be running in 2026. He has experience at LG, RG and C. He is extremely good on the move in the run game. Lacking some in pass pro though.

I favor Hecht earlier but I don't see them drafting a C until the 5th round. I am still extremely high on Jones there if he reaches there.
 
Last edited:
I haven't fully studied it but saw some periodical that did which is for THIS team under this regime, the 30 day visits have a good correlation to who they draft. Especially if they had meetings for both the combine and the 30 day vists. The Top Golf event too, lol, I'd love to find out who is invited to it.

Believe the Top Golf event was all our top-30 visits combined (or at least a big chunk of them) in year one, the QB year. Don’t think we’ve done it since, or at least it hasn’t been reported. You only get the one “home” visit with those guys, we just used them in year one to see a bunch of the QB’s and such mingle together. Don’t think you can do both with the same players, and not sure we’re still combining visits like that anymore
 
Believe the Top Golf event was all our top-30 visits combined (or at least a big chunk of them) in year one, the QB year. Don’t think we’ve done it since, or at least it hasn’t been reported. You only get the one “home” visit with those guys, we just used them in year one to see a bunch of the QB’s and such mingle together. Don’t think you can do both with the same players, and not sure we’re still combining visits like that anymore

They did do one last year. I recall hearing later Croskey-Merritt went to it among others. It just didn't have the same hype because no QBs. And heard they are doing it again.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 2, Members: 0, Guests: 2)

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.

    You haven't joined any rooms.
    Top