‘Bulls***’ reason for pick called out; awkward truth in QB retirement plan: NFL Draft Winners & Losers

The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft has come and gone.

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There were plenty of surprise picks, with the Los Angeles Rams perhaps pulling the biggest of them all while there were eight trades as teams moved up to get their guy late in the round.

Here, foxsports.com.au looks at some of the biggest winners and losers.

WINNERS

Second-year quarterbacks

While this year’s quarterback class outside of Fernando Mendoza is a major question mark, three teams look to have found their potential long-term answer at the position last season.

Cam Ward showed flashes in a less-than-ideal situation with the Titans, while Jaxson Dart exceeded expectations at New York and Tyler Shough proved a second-round hit for the Saints.

Ward was the only one who was really guaranteed a long leash given he was a former first overall pick, but all three clearly have the confidence of their respective franchises after they invested significant capital in offence on Friday.

The Titans gave Ward a genuine alpha in the receiver room by drafting Ohio State standout Carnell Tate at fourth overall. He joins Wan’Dale Robinson, who Tennessee paid up to grab in free agency, giving Ward both a reliable underneath target in Robinson and an explosive playmaker in Tate capable of winning at all levels of the field.

The Giants, meanwhile, couldn’t pass up Tate’s teammate Arvell Reese at fifth overall, but then shored up the offensive line by selecting Miami tackle Francis Mauigoa with the 10th pick that they received as part of the Dexter Lawrence trade with Cincinnati.

Regardless of whether he’s a long-term answer at tackle or moved to guard, Mauigoa is a terrific run blocker and made a promise to his new quarterback after being selected.

“I’ll die by this shield,” Mauigoa said when asked about Dart. “I’m ready to die for you, man.”

As for Shough, he did what he could with a limited receiving corps and anaemic running game last season but that will no longer be the case in his second year with the Saints.

New Orleans paid a premium for Travis Etienne in free agency and then took a swing at Arizona wideout Jordyn Tyson with its first pick on Friday.

While there are genuine durability concerns, if Tyson is able to stay healthy he could be the best receiver in this class and won’t be under too much pressure to produce right away next to an already established top option in Chris Olave.

New York Giants

What a result for new head coach John Harbaugh.

The Giants were consistently linked to top running back Jeremiyah Love but after he went off the board, the Titans were then expected to take the next best option: Ohio State edge Arvell Reese.

Instead, Tennessee went offence and the defensive player with the most upside in this year’s class fell into New York’s lap.

Sure, there was a debate about Reese’s tweener status but the Giants clearly believe there is a difference between being a tweener and being versatile.

Reese was an edge rusher and middle linebacker his first two seasons with the Buckeyes before Matt Patricia’s arrival as defensive co-ordinator saw Ohio State weaponise him as more of a hybrid player.

Reese said after he was drafted that he could see the Giants leaning into his unique ability to play multiple positions, but whatever the future may hold for him, this is a terrifying pass rush that Harbaugh has at his disposal.

“That’s an embarrassment of riches they now have that can rush the quarterback,” NFL Network’s draft expert Daniel Jeremiah said, and that is particularly important in a division with scrambling quarterbacks like Jalen Hurts and Jayden Daniels.

“I know Dexter Lawrence is no longer there but when you already have Brian Burns and Abdul Carter, Thibodeaux is still there at the moment and now you add another one and all these guys are elite athletes — if you think of the last two Super Bowl winners, they both won Super Bowls not based on talent but the depth of their defensive front. Now this is all of a sudden a Giants team that is extremely deep up front.”

The Giants then helped out second-year quarterback Dart by bolstering the offensive line with Mauigoa to cap off an impressive first round for the G-Men.

Jets’ quarterback in 2027

Unless he miraculously rediscovers the form that made him the 2022 Comeback Player of the Year, it won’t be Geno Smith.

Instead, the Jets are expected to be picking high in next year’s draft after trading away Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams before last season’s deadline.

Whoever the quarterback of the future is in New York, they must be happy with what the Jets came out of the first round with.

First, the Jets took Texas Tech edge David Bailey, but then they double-dipped at pass catcher by taking Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq before trading up into the end of the first round and selecting Indiana receiver Omar Cooper Jr.

Sadiq ran a blazing-fast 4.39 in the 40-yard dash, the fastest time in history for a tight end, and is a freakish athlete who adds an explosive element to the passing offence alongside the Jets’ traditional in-line tight end Mason Taylor.

Cooper Jr., meanwhile, is a yards-after-the-catch weapon who will work the short and intermediate areas of the field to take attention away from Garrett Wilson.

The Jets have put the pieces in place along with a much-improved offensive line for Smith to rebound from his Raiders disaster last year, but it is still expected that they will draft their long-term answer at quarterback in 2027.

They have put that player in a position to succeed right away.

Ty Simpson

Talk about a big swing from the Rams, but more on them later.

For Simpson specifically, this is the dream scenario for the Alabama quarterback.

Not only did he go in the first round but he lands at a team where he won’t be the starting quarterback right away, which is perfect for Simpson who had only made 15 career starts before entering the draft.

There was a risk, especially with next year’s quarterback class looking so loaded, that Simpson would be a one-year wonder if he landed at the Arizona Cardinals or New York Jets, for example.

Instead, the Rams have clearly committed to Simpson as a long-term successor to Matthew Stafford when the reigning MVP retires.

That isn’t expected to come until the end of next season at the earliest and given how Stafford looked last season, he may still have another two or even three years left in him.

Not all situations are created equal but you only have to look at the benefit that Jordan Love had sitting for a few years, and of course the same can be said for Aaron Rodgers with Brett Favre before him.

Now, Simpson is not expected to reach anywhere near the heights of Rodgers’ career and even Love may be a stretch given the current Packers quarterback has a cannon for an arm.

Simpson’s arm strength, on the other hand, is good but not great. He makes up for it with his football IQ and you can tell he is the son of a coach in UT Martin’s Jason Simpson.

Either way, Simpson will be able to physically and mentally mature in Los Angeles without the spotlight that would have been on him in Arizona or New York.

“From Ty Simpson’s perspective, this is where absolutely you would love to go,” NFL Network’s draft expert Daniel Jeremiah said.

“You get a chance to go learn under the reigning MVP in Matthew Stafford, play for the elite offensive mind and Sean McVay. They can develop you properly and you’ll be put on the field when you’re ready to be put on the field.”

Former Super Bowl champion and two-time MVP Kurt Warner called it a “perfect fit” for the Alabama quarterback.

“You have the questions about his experience. You’re in a perfect situation with a Super Bowl-winning quarterback to say, ‘Hey, come in. We’re gonna grow you in this offence, we’re gonna give you a chance to grow and become the quarterback we think you can be’ for whenever that time comes when Matthew Stafford decides to move on,” he said.

Some quick hitters

* Whether you had Spencer Fano or Francis Mauigoa as your top offensive lineman in this draft, the Cleveland Browns did well to trade down with Kansas City and get extra capital (No.74 and 148) for their rebuild while also addressing a position of need at ninth overall.

* Dillon Thieneman wasn’t expected to last beyond 19th overall. If it wasn’t Minnesota, where he was widely mocked, Carolina was tipped to race to the podium to draft the Oregon safety. Instead, the Bears got incredible value on the do-it-all safety.

* The Malachi Lawrence pick may divide opinion, but not this one. Ohio State safety Caleb Downs is probably the best pound-for-pound prospect in this year’s draft and it was well worth the Cowboys sending two fifth-round picks to move up one spot and snap him up.

LOSERS

Sean McVay

On the flipside, let’s look at this from Rams head coach Sean McVay’s side.

He hardly looked like he was jumping for joy in the team’s post-draft press conference while general manager Les Snead sat next to him, waxing lyrical about Simpson.

McVay, on the other hand, wouldn’t even commit to Simpson as the confirmed back-up ahead of former fourth-round pick Stetson Bennett.

The Rams were and still are in a position to compete for a Super Bowl this year after falling just short against the eventual champions Seattle in the conference championship game.

They were expected to take a big swing, but more in the direction of competing now as opposed to building for the future.

“This is a team that was a play or two away from the Super Bowl last year and has the reigning MVP on their roster at that position right now,” Jeremiah said.

“The Super Bowl this next year is in their own building. I thought this would be an opportunity to try and get that extra piece to help nudge them over the team in their division that hoisted the trophy last year.”

It doesn’t necessarily mean it is a bad pick, but it wasn’t the roster upgrade McVay would have been hoping for.

Arizona Cardinals

Let’s start with the Jeremiyah Love pick.

This is nothing against him as a talent. Love could well be the best player in the draft.

Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs have also proven in recent years that sometimes positional value doesn’t matter if you are talking about a generational prospect.

That word, generational, is thrown around a lot but Love may well fit the bill after rushing for 2,497 yards (6.9 per carry) and 35 touchdowns and added 55 catches for 517 yards and five touchdowns over the last two seasons at Notre Dame.

When Love was taken third overall, he became the highest running back drafted since 2018. That running back? Saquon Barkley.

We know what happened there. Barkley didn’t realise his full potential until he ended up in Philadelphia, after struggling to live up to his high draft capital in New York behind a porous offensive line and with inconsistent quarterback play.

So, what do the Cardinals have in common? The offensive line is a major issue and they don’t have a long-term answer at quarterback with Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew on the books (but more on that later).

It isn’t just draft capital either. The Cardinals are now paying Love a fully guaranteed four-year, $50.5 million contract — the highest guarantee ever given to a running back.

For context, that makes him the seventh highest-paid running back in the NFL. If Arizona took Carnell Tate or Arvell Reese instead, for example, they would rank as the 30th and 32nd highest-paid players at their position.

It means Love will need to perform at an elite level to live up to both his price tag and draft capital, making it hard for this pick to be much more than just a pass mark at best.

Love said on SiriusXM that “a lot of teams” had been telling him they didn’t just see him as a running back.

“They view me as a weapon,” he added.

“A guy that can do whatever you need him to do: I can split out wide, play in the slot, run the ball, block.”

That whole concept, however, is “total bulls***” according to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell.

To prove his point, Barnwell used Breece Hall as an example after Jets coach Aaron Glenn said they would “open up his game” last year and have Hall run the entire route tree.

Instead, Hall ran just 20 routes out of the slot or split out wide last season, turning them into five targets and 22 yards.

Barnwell then went back through the numbers between 2023 and 2025, looking at some of the best pass-catching running backs in the league.

Christian McCaffrey fared best with a leading 0.99 yards per route run (YPRR) when split out wide or in the slot. The worst qualifying receiver in that period, Jahan Dotson, recorded 1.13 YPRR.

In other words, while the gravity of a McCaffrey-like weapon in the backfield is worth something there is little to actually be gained by moving Love into the slot or out wide.

As for the quarterback situation, the Cardinals had been widely presumed as the landing spot for Ty Simpson but instead will be forced to settle for either Brissett or Minshew.

At least they can draft a top prospect in next year’s draft, but that means losing even more games in 2026.

Pittsburgh Steelers

You snooze, you lose.

The Steelers thought they were about to land a steal in the first round with USC wideout Makai Lemon seemingly about to fall to them at 21st overall.

Lemon may have the size of a slot-only receiver but is also capable of winning down the field and making plays on contested catches, while his toughness and physicality overall is arguably his defining trait.

It made him an intriguing prospect in this year’s receiver class and while Carnell Tate and Jordyn Tyson were taken ahead of him, most draft experts had Lemon in the same tier.

So, while the Steelers already have two veteran receivers in DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman, they saw an opportunity to build out their room with the Biletnitkoff Award winner.

Instead, the Philadelphia Eagles — who are widely expected to trade A.J. Brown after June 1 — traded up and snapped up Lemon.

“The Dallas Cowboys were on the clock at 20 with everyone knowing they were going defence,” NFL insider Ian Rapoport said.

“Pittsburgh Steelers get Makai Lemon on the phone planning to select him at 21. Except what they didn’t know is the Eagles traded over them.”

It came after ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported earlier in the week that it is “likely” Brown will be traded to the New England Patriots.

That move is expected after June 1, as the Eagles will add an extra $20 million to their salary cap in 2026 instead of spreading it into 2027 if they trade Brown before then.

It was a great value get for the Eagles, although Lemon was primarily used over the middle in his final season at USC, which makes him a slightly awkward fit given Jalen Hurts’ struggles targeting that area of the field.

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