The NFL draft kicked off with its first round on Thursday night, as most teams made their initial selection in what’s become a multi-day affair.
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The Las Vegas Raiders began the festivities by selecting Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick. While Mendoza’s selection was a foregone solution, what happened next had plenty of twists and turns.
Here are the biggest takeaways from the draft’s opening night.
Biggest surprise: QB Ty Simpson, Los Angeles Rams
The Rams made perhaps the biggest reach of the first round, taking Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th pick. For context, NBC Sports’ Connor Rogers had Simpson ranked as the 42nd-best prospect in the draft on his big board.
So why Simpson? Well, if anyone can coax the most out of him, it should be Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay, a quarterback whisperer whose play-action heavy offense could unlock Simpson. Remember, before he was making the Super Bowl or winning double-digit games with the Detroit Lions, Jared Goff was seen as a potential bust until McVay became his head coach.
Simpson will definitely be a project. He was only a one-season starter for the Crimson Tide, and he faded down the stretch of his final collegiate season. In his last five games at Alabama, Simpson failed to complete 20 passes in any of them. He also threw only six touchdowns in those five contests, compared with three interceptions. In his final start for the Tide, Simpson threw for just 67 yards in a playoff loss to Indiana.
Los Angeles may have the luxury of time, though. Unlike most first-round quarterbacks, Simpson almost certainly won’t be expected to start any time soon. Matthew Stafford will be the top QB for at least the next season, and there are far worse players Simpson could learn from until he’s ready to take the reins.
Biggest slide: DE Rueben Bain Jr., Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Though it wasn’t a foregone conclusion Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. would go in the top 10, many considered him worthy of such a selection. NBC Sports’ Rogers had him eighth on his big board, while NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah had him ranked seventh. Instead, Bain Jr. fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 15.
The elephant in the room was Bain Jr.’s arm length of 30 ⅞ inches. No pass rusher with arms shorter than 31 inches has been picked in the first round since 2003, which could explain his slide.
What Bain Jr. lacked in measurables he made up for in production, however.
He had 20.5 sacks in three years with the Hurricanes, including 9.5 in his final season. Bain Jr.’s ability to create pressure from the edge was a key factor in Miami’s run to the national championship game. If he can bring that same intensity to Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers may have picked up one of the biggest steals of the first round.
Biggest gamble: RB Jeremiyah Love, Arizona Cardinals
Teams rarely spend top-five picks on running backs and when they do, they rarely pan out — see Trent Richardson, a No. 3 pick in 2012 who lasted just three years, and Saquon Barkley, whom the Giants took second overall in 2018 and opted against retaining before a breakout 2024 season. Even last year, Ashton Jeanty (sixth overall) struggled in his rookie season behind a patchwork offensive line in Las Vegas.
Arizona, though, was undaunted in taking Notre Dame’s Love third overall Thursday, and disregarding conventional wisdom that quality running backs can be plucked much later, and at much lower cost, in the draft. Many analysts consider Love the best pure player in the entire 2026 draft class but running backs are largely dependent on teammates for their success, and the Cardinals ended last season a mess. They will not have a dynamic quarterback to reduce pressure on the run game this season, meaning opponents may be able to stack the box to stop Love.
Biggest sign of what’s to come: WR Makai Lemon, Philadelphia Eagles
“A.J. Brown is an Eagle,” Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman said earlier this month. Yet the question after Thursday night’s first round is, for how much longer? With Brown the subject of trade talks, the Eagles traded up to select USC receiver Makai Lemon with the 20th pick to juice an offense that last season scored on the seventh-lowest percentage of its drives.
The choice to draft a player at Brown’s position wasn’t Philadelphia taking a flyer. The Eagles wanted him enough to swoop ahead of Pittsburgh in the draft order, even as the Steelers were already talking with Lemon on the phone, according to the NFL Network. It will only fuel speculation that Brown’s time in Philadelphia is coming to a close. At his best, Brown was a dynamic weapon who helped open the field for the rest of Philadelphia’s offense during its 2024 Super Bowl run. But Brown has seemed to often be frustrated by his role in the team’s offense, which continued last fall as his production dipped and the offense as a whole sputtered.
The selection of Lemon is yet another signal that Philadelphia is planning for life after Brown. The Eagles also acquired three other receivers earlier this offseason, too.
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