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2026 Nfl Mock Draft 1st Round Mock Draft Sends A Franchise Qb To New

Bonisiwe Shabane
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2026 nfl mock draft 1st round mock draft sends a franchise qb to new

Week 10 of the NFL season is almost in the books, as the only game left this week is a pivotal clash between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football. This week had a massive impact on the NFL season with the Trade Deadline turning teams into contenders and other teams into franchises looking to reset. This weekend saw a massive shakeup in the draft order as the New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, and Miami Dolphins all picked up wins, shaking the top of the draft. After the trade deadline, for disappointing teams, the rest of the year is all about jockeying for position in the upcoming draft. The Tennessee Titans spent the weekend on the bye, but it was a succesful weekend as they moved into position to have the first overall pick. This team needs an influx of talent, and they may trade out of the top pick when the draft rolls around.

If the Titans stay at 1, Rueben Bain Jr would be a great pick as it would give the team an elite edge rusher to pair with their talent on the interior. The Saints won their second game of the year on Sunday, and Tyler Shough showed some promise, but if the Saints are on the clock early, Kellen Moore will take his pick of quarterbacks. This season, no quarterback has been more impressive than Alabama's Ty Simpson, who continues to make NFL-level throws each week in the SEC. Even with all of the weapons the Giants have lost this season, the issue for this team isn't the offense, as Jaxson Dart's rushing ability has masked a ton of holes. The Giants' defense is one of the worst against the run, and the team needs to address the linebacker position this offseason. Arvell Reese is a dominant force like Abdul Carter who can make plays off the edge while also playing linebacker, and he'd be a great addition to help this team slow the run.

The rising importance of the 2026 NFL Draft for several teams came into focus after last week's trade deadline. With the New York Jets having dealt cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts, there are now four NFL teams that have multiple first-round picks in April. And with the Tennessee Titans and New York Giants having already fired their head coaches, several fan bases are probably ready to close the book on this season and enter offseason mode. But with the first-round order still shifting significantly week to week, there's still ample time for team's draft fortunes to rise or fall. With that said, here's USA TODAY Sports' latest first-round projection and 2026 NFL mock draft: There's a strong possibility for Tennessee to possess the No.

1 pick in consecutive years after the Saints' and Browns' victories left the Titans as the only one-win team remaining. And that creates a bit of a mystery atop the order. An organization that's yet again rebooting would clearly stand to benefit from trading back and stockpiling more early selections to support Cam Ward. Yet this quarterback class doesn't seem particularly conducive to drumming up a bidding war for this choice. If Tennessee does end up in the slot and stands pat, it could supercharge its defense with Reese. Though he operates as a linebacker for the Buckeyes, the 6-foot-4, 243-pounder has Micah Parsons-like movement abilities that could be best put to use in a full-time edge rushing role.

The Titans could pair him with Jeffery Simmons to create one of the league's most formidable inside-outside tandems and then use the rest of the draft – and free agency – to focus on... A franchise with a decades-long habit of being trigger-shy when it comes to selecting quarterbacks might be hard-pressed to go this route, especially if Tyler Shough continues to exhibit the promise he displayed in... But unless the second-round rookie firmly establishes himself as New Orleans' answer at the position in the back half of the season, Mendoza might be massively alluring. The Heisman Trophy front-runner now also figures to be the favorite to be the first quarterback taken, with his game-winning drive against Penn State highlighting resiliency and a knack for operating out of structure... The 6-5, 225-pounder is the kind of precise thrower who could allow Kellen Moore to launch a new era for the organization in earnest. It feels weird to even say it, but we’re already about to wrap up the first month of the 2025 NFL season.

Time flies when you’re having fun, right? Well, not everyone is having fun at this point, but you get the idea. Some fan bases are already fixated on the 2026 NFL Draft after the first month of the season, and understandably so. You can see the writing on the wall for some teams, even though there’s still plenty of time to turn things around. As the NFL season has progressed, we’ve seen a number of college football players emerging as potential future first-round talents. We’ve got a brand-new 1st-round mock draft projection reflecting some of the hottest rising prospects in next year’s cycle, new quarterbacks emerging, and plenty more.

There was some significant offseason hype surrounding Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who was transferring from Cal in 2025. The hype wasn’t immediately met with on-field production, but in recent weeks, Mendoza has proven exactly why so many people were intrigued by his NFL projection after last season. He has looked like a future top pick, even though the 2026 NFL Draft class is anything but settled at quarterback. If the Saints get the top pick, you already know they’re going to be after the top QB on their board. The Tennessee Titans will have questions to answer on both sides of the line of scrimmage in the 2026 offseason, but general manager Mike Borgonzi has to focus on taking the best player available... After going to “The U” for his #1 overall pick in 2025, he goes right back to the same well here in 2026 with Rueben Bain, one of the hottest prospects in the entire...

Bain has been dominating off the edge for the Hurricanes and looks like he’s going to be the top defensive player in the 2026 class. The dust has barely settled on the 2025 NFL Draft, but it’s never too early to look ahead to 2026. In this early mock, I’ve got the Saints finally landing a franchise quarterback, half the top ten coming from the ACC, and a total of four quarterbacks coming off the board. The Saints spent a second-round pick on Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough this year, but his extensive injury history makes it hard to see him as the long-term answer. That leads to New Orleans taking a quarterback in the top 40 for the second straight year, this time selecting LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier with the No. 1 overall pick.

I expect rookie Shedeur Sanders to show enough this season to convince the Browns they don’t need to draft another quarterback in 2026. While Cleveland could end up picking lower than this, I’m sticking with Tankathon’s draft order. With this spot, they grab Clemson’s T.J. Parker, a disruptive edge rusher who earned second-team All-ACC honors last season after posting 19.5 tackles for loss and 11 sacks. The Titans found their franchise quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft with the No. 1 overall pick, Cam Ward.

Now they turn to the defensive side of the ball, where finding a top-tier pass rusher is the priority. Rueben Bain brings explosive get-off and stands out as one of the best athletes in this year’s edge class. With better health in 2025, expect his production to take a big step forward. The Giants are another team that hope they found their quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft. For Jaxson Dart to succeed, though, they need to upgrade his protection. Kadyn Proctor has true left tackle feet and offers the highest upside of any offensive lineman in the 2026 draft class.

Alabama QB Ty Simpson makes his first appearance in this updated first-round projection for the 2026 NFL Draft. Oregon's Dante Moore, Indiana's Fernando Mendoza, and South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers join Simpson as first-round quarterbacks in this mock draft. Other big-name quarterbacks like Texas' Arch Manning, Clemson's Cade Klubnik, LSU's Garrett Nussmeier and Penn State's Drew Allar fail to make the first-round cut. There's still plenty of promise among the top quarterback prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft class, even if some of the names have changed. While the early going of the 2025 college football season hasn't been kind to Arch Manning or Cade Klubnik, and others like Garrett Nussmeier and Drew Allar have failed to deliver high-level performances on... Technically, rookie Tyler Shough is the Saints' starter for the rest of the season.

When New Orleans goes on the clock in the 2026 NFL Draft, Shough will almost certainly become the latest high-round pick whose team uses an even higher-round pick 12 months later in the hopes... The Panthers did it in 2011 when they took Cam Newton No. 1 overall, and the Cardinals did it eight years later when they selected Kyler Murray with the top pick. And as we sit here, nine weeks into the 2026 season, the Saints are staring that first-overall selection in the face. There will no doubt be discussions in the building about trading down and what such a draft haul might do to reset this roster, but if the organization feels that Fernando Mendoza or Ty... Former Titans GM Ran Carthon and I talked about this last week on "With the First Pick," our NFL Draft podcast:

In my Mock Draft 2.0, I have just three QBs going in the first round -- and one via trade; after trading down from No. 2 to No. 5 last April, the Browns move up from No. 6 to No. 2 in this excerise for a quarterback. And much like the conversation surrounding Shough, it's fair to assume that neither Dylan Gabriel or Shedeur Sanders (or any other QB currently on Cleveland's roster) will be penciled in as the 2026 starter...

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