Table of Contents
First-round grades| Rounds 2-3 grades| Round 1 winners and losers| Rounds 2-3 winners and losers|Fernando Mendoza is Tom Brady’s successor| Ty Simpson will test Sean McVay| Cardinals made the right No. with Love| Drew Allar doesn’t change Steelers’ dilemma
If you come at the king, you better not miss.
Unfortunately for the Big Ten, which has won just about everything of note this sporting season, the extravaganza that was the 2026 NFL draft might be the lone athletic arena where the conference could not proclaim all-encompassing superiority over the rest of its peers.
Yes, despite all those trophies that really mattered, it would have been a nice cherry on top for the Big Ten if the league was to finally dethrone the SEC when it came to the overall number of draft picks. That’s something that seemed within the realm of possibility after Thursday when the B1G knocked the SEC off their perch of having the most first round selections for the first time in a decade.
Alas, it was a short-lived moment of triumph as the SEC once again proved its depth remains unparalleled in the eyes of all 32 NFL front offices by proceeding to shatter their own record with a grand total of 87 picks over the course of all three days of the event. The conference, where it does actually mean more in this case, broke the mark early in the seventh round when Oklahoma’s Jaren Kanak was drafted and proceeded to crush the old mark by a full eight players—resulting in a full third of the draft hailing from the SEC. Every school in the league was also represented, which is something only the conference office in Birmingham can lay claim to.
The breadth of the SEC was another data point that mirrored the season itself in 2025, where there was a remarkable number of quality teams that had the talent to match from a professional standpoint. The average number of draftees by SEC teams was nearly two players more (5.44 to 3.77) than the average in the Big Ten too, somewhat making up for the disparity at the top of the draft, where the former had fewer than half the first rounders they did a year ago.
While the gap did actually widen between the two leagues compared to the last draft in terms of overall numbers, the Big Ten should still be pretty pleased with the amount of talent that it produced as a result of its top-heavy nature. Ohio State once again set the standard with a draft-high 11 players selected and seven schools from up north managed to have at least seven total players drafted—one more school than the SEC did.
While the number of NFL players never determines which college football team is the best—national champion Indiana had as many drafted as a Penn State side that fired its coach mid-season—it’s still a pretty solid indicator of a league’s general strength. With spring meetings on the horizon in the SEC and its draft crown once again secured, expect to hear plenty from the conference’s coaches to that end as they underscore things are not nearly as dire as the South’s recent lack of championship trophies would indicate.
Here are a few other thoughts on the draft from a college perspective:
The Power 2 (and Power 4) divide continues to grow starker
There’s been a lot of discussion about the changes to the sport that have occurred thanks to the one-time transfer rule being axed and the arrival of both NIL and revenue sharing. Some argue that this has led to talent being spread out far more than it used to be when the likes of Alabama, Georgia and others were regularly overindexing in terms of double-digit draft picks.
After another year of data to comb through, it’s clear that talent is being spread out a little bit more when it comes to players drafted by school—but it’s also becoming more concentrated into the power leagues.
A remarkable 90% of all draft picks in 2026 played at schools within the Power 4 conferences and that number is still a mighty impressive 60% of all picks hailing from just Big Ten and SEC schools. Heck, the Colts only drafted players from the Big Ten and SEC as further proof that things are flowing upwards in the college football pyramid at an even greater clip than ever before.
In the 2022 NFL draft for example-–the first after the one-time transfer rule was waived and NIL had come into effect—43% of players picked were from the Power 2 conferences and an even 70% were from the then-Power 5 leagues. The Mountain West had 11 players drafted just four years ago, significantly more than the three it landed in 2026. This weekend also marked the latest an FCS player was ever taken (pick No. 104), and there were as many international players who did not play in college drafted as there were from Conference USA.
Even accounting for some conference realignment, that’s a trend line that has been pointing in only one direction.
Returning to school is a risky bet for star QBs in the NIL era
Everybody loves a way-too-early mock draft, and if you had looked at a few from last year, chances are you would have seen the likes of Drew Allar, Cade Klubnik, Garrett Nussmeier, Sam Leavitt, LaNorris Sellers and, probably, Arch Manning. It was billed by many, including this here author, as a class of signal-callers worth waiting for given the dire options in the 2025 draft.
Things did not quite go according to plan on that front however, in one of the few instances where getting guaranteed millions to return to school might have wound up backfiring for some at the position. Allar is a prime example, with his stock extremely high after Penn State’s run to a national semifinal causing some in the NFL to hope he would declare last spring. Instead, he returned to school, where he didn’t play well even before getting seriously injured. The same is true of Nussmeier, who seemed ticketed to be a Day 1 or 2 pick but wound up falling all the way down to the 7th round and pick No. 249 overall.
While it’s always easy to play the retrospective game after the dust settles, the most important position on the field might be the rare one where players wind up losing out on more than they bargained for by going back to school for another season. The flip side of that argument seemed to underscore that in one of the big draft storylines to emerge as one-year wonder Ty Simpson out of Alabama went from first-time starter to the No. 13 pick by a team that doesn’t even need him.
Draft picks told us plenty about teams last season … and why some should be optimistic about 2026
There were 10 Power 4 teams which failed to produce a draft pick, perhaps the most notable of which was a Wisconsin side that had the program’s streak snapped with at least one draftee dating back to 1979. Of that larger group, three of the schools changed coaches after last season and a few others probably would have if there were not large financial strings attached.
It was also pretty notable that Clemson and Penn State, both of whom finished 7–6 on the year, each had more draft picks (nine and eight, respectively) than they did wins, cementing just how badly both coaching staffs underperformed after beginning in the preseason top five.
On the other hand, the draft served as a nice validation for others who had a great year. CFP trips by Texas A&M and Texas Tech were rewarded with school records for players drafted. Miami continued to show what a good job Mario Cristobal has done in rebuilding the program into a national title contender, improving year-over-year during the course of his tenure and falling one pick shy of double-digit players being taken in the 2026 draft, something The U last accomplished in 2002.
Likewise, a slightly smaller contingent of players being drafted by some teams could be a good sign for the upcoming campaign. Notre Dame (six players), Texas (six), Arizona State (four), USC (three) and BYU (two) all sent fewer guys to the league than you would expect given their records in 2025 and may underscore what they have coming back on the depth chart.
North Carolina’s decision to hire Bill Belichick over Jon Sumrall looks even worse
The issues in Chapel Hill, N.C. have run deep lately but the draft had to be another twist of the knife in UNC’s hire of Belichick over one of their other top options in Sumrall. While the Tar Heels loudly and proudly made a big deal about being the “33rd NFL team” last summer, they wound up failing to produce a player drafted for the first time in a decade (2016). While some fans may think this is a byproduct of former coach Mack Brown, that couldn’t be further from the case, when Belichick overhauled the roster with 70 new players before his first season in the college game.
Make no mistake, this was Belichick’s roster and the NFL firmly rejected it. Even former Patriots assistant Bill O’Brien had four players drafted off of his Boston College team, which mustered just two wins in 2025.
Meanwhile, Sumrall also didn’t produce a draft pick at his former school Tulane—which makes it slightly more impressive that he was able to coach the Green Wave to a conference title and an appearance in the CFP before winding up with a much better gig at Florida. While he’s probably thankful for that sliding doors moment, there are a few folks in power blue who got another reminder of what if this weekend.
Favorite draft steals by round
- First round: Caleb Downs (No. 11, Cowboys) and Vega Ioane (No. 14, Ravens)
- Second round: CJ Allen (No. 53, Colts) and Anthony Hill Jr. (No. 60, Titans)
- Third round: Romello Height (No. 70, 49ers) and Ja’Kobi Lane (No. 80, Ravens)
- Fourth round: Jermod McCoy (No. 101, Raiders) and Kyle Louis (No. 138, Dolphins)
- Fifth round: Emmett Johnson (No. 161, Chiefs) and Tanner Koziol (No. 164, Jaguars)
- Sixth round: Kaytron Allen (No. 187, Commanders) and Brian Parker II (No. 189, Bengals)
- Seventh round: Eli Heidenreich (No. 230, Steelers) and Deion Burks (No. 254, Colts)
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BRYAN FISCHER
Bryan Fischer is a staff writer at Sports Illustrated covering college sports. He joined the SI staff in October 2024 after spending nearly two decades at outlets such as FOX Sports, NBC Sports and CBS Sports. A member of the Football Writers Association of America’s All-America Selection Committee and a Heisman Trophy voter, Fischer has received awards for investigative journalism from the Associated Press Sports Editors and FWAA. He has a bachelor’s in communication from USC.
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