He was the eleventh overall pick in the draft. As of Friday, however, Cowboys safety Caleb Downs had the top-selling jersey among all rookies.
Fanatics has announced, via Fox Sports, the ten best-selling rookie jerseys in the wake of the 2026 draft. Downs leads the way.
Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick, lands at No. 5. That’s one spot behind Steelers rookie quarterback Drew Allar, a third-round pick, who sits at No. 4.
Here’s the full top ten: (1) Downs; (2) Dolphins linebacker Jacob Rodriguez; (3) Cowboys linebacker Malachi Lawrence; (4) Allar; (5) Mendoza; (6) Dolphins cornerback Chris Johnson; (7) Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love; (8) Patriots offensive lineman Caleb Lomu; (9) Bears safety Dillon Thieneman; (10) Jets linebacker David Bailey.
The presence of two Cowboys defensive players in the top three and two Dolphins defensive players in the top six could be a reflection of the overall optimism the fans of those teams are currently feeling. For Dallas, the offense is among the best in the league; it won’t take much defensive improvement to make the team a contender. As to the Dolphins, it’s a new era with the hiring of G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley.
It’s somewhat surprising that none of the four receivers taken in the first round made the list. And the absence of Rams quarterback Ty Simpson reflects the reality that he’ll be spending a year (or two, or maybe three) behind Matthew Stafford.
The numbers will surely change once the depth charts are determined for 2026 and, after that, the games are played. The rookies who play and play well will see a spike in jersey sales.
The Patriots have signed fifth-round cornerback Karon Prunty to his four-year rookie deal, Christopher Price of the Boston Globe reports.
New England used the 171st overall pick on Prunty, who had a pre-draft visit with the team.
At the NFL Scouting Combine, Prunty ran a 4.45-second 40-yard dash.
Prunty played at Kansas and North Carolina A&T before finishing at Wake Forest last season. He totaled 40 tackles, a sack, an interception, eight passes defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in starting all 13 games in 2025.
He joins a cornerbacks room with Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis III, Marcus Jones, Charles Woods, Kindle Vildor, Marcellas Dial, Kobee Minor and Brandon Crossley.
Given the developments to date and the possibility, if not inevitability, of more developments to come, it remains possible that Mike Vrabel won’t remain the head coach of the Patriots.
The question has become a wager on both of the leading prediction markets.
At Kalshi, the question of who the Patriots coach will be as of Week 1 2026 has Vrabel at 77 percent. That’s a surprisingly low percentage, given that, a month ago, it was a given that Vrabel would be the coach in New England for years to come. Polymarket poses the question as whether Vrabel will be out by December 31, 2026. “Yes” is currently at 23 percent.
For now, the situation seems to have stabilized. That could change with any further revelation.
The wild card is whether and when the other person in this situation — Dianna Russini — will tell her side of the story. No one knows what, if anything, she’ll say. No one will know where she’ll say it. Surely, multiple outlets are already trying to get the interview. Maybe she’ll write a book. Maybe there will be a documentary.
However it happens, that’s the biggest unknown piece in all of this. Depending on what she says (if she says anything), it could reshuffle the deck in a way that complicates Vrabel’s situation to the point at which it’s not possible to continue.
For now, 23 percent of the people who are betting on Kalshi and Polymarket believe that the story will end with Vrabel not remaining. That’s still a low number, but it’s dramatically higher on May 1 than anyone would have expected it to be on April 1.
Anyone in the media who says “I ignore social media” is either lying or dumb. It’s important to keep an eye on whether any of the things we say or write are interpreted correctly — and whether they’re being twisted and warped in the name of engagement.
Sometimes, the only thing to do is untwist and unwarp for the benefit of those who are either too stupid to apply common sense or smart enough to distort reality for profit. (I’m not sure which is worse.)
Two weeks ago, after USA Today fired Crissy Froyd for comments she made on Twitter when Dianna Russini resigned from The Athletic, I addressed the manner in which the aggregators had reacted to my effort to steer Chris Simms on PFT Live as he was potentially deviating from the known and reported facts about the controversy involving Russini and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel. They believed (or pretended to believe) that I’d reached through the camera and applied a concrete muzzle to Simms, just as he was about to make some dramatic revelation that would have provided a definitive solution to the entire situation (along with a clip they could steal and post).
The truth was far less interesting. I practiced law for 19 years. I know where the line is. I was trying to keep my co-host and friend away from it, by getting him to stick to what was known and/or properly vetted and reported.
I didn’t silence him. He could have then said whatever he wanted to say. (And the first thing he said to me after I told him to “stay on target” was to “shut the hell up.”)
He also could have said whatever he wanted to say on his own Twitter page. On his Instagram account. On his own podcast. He was free to say whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted.
At that specific moment, my goal was to protect my co-host and friend from accidentally saying something that isn’t known and/or hasn’t been properly vetted and reported. Such comments can have consequences, potentially in the form of a civil lawsuit for defamation.
Fast forward to Monday. Chris announced on PFT Live that he won’t be on Football Night in America this season. It’s part of the broader overhaul of the show. It started with Tony Dungy’s announcement that he won’t be back, and it continued with NBC’s announcement that Mike Tomlin has joined the show — and that the show will go on the road every week this season.
Somehow, the two threads have been tied together into the asinine (to put it mildly) notion that Chris was “fired by NBC” because I told him to “stay on target” when we were discussing the Vrabel-Russini situation in the very early days of a story that has lingered for 23 days and counting. (It didn’t help that one specific person whose 15 minutes of notoriety have expired may be trying to leverage a little extra time by injecting herself into the story.)
It’s stupid. It’s illogical. It’s cuckoo for mutherf—king Cocoa Puffs. And while it may be good for aggregator engagement, it’s very bad for brain cells — and it reveals the absence of them in those who actually believe there’s a link between the two things.
Also (and since this one has caught some traction, too), NBC didn’t “fire” Chris. He’ll still co-host PFT Live. He’ll still do his podcast, Chris Simms Unbuttoned. He’s still part of the NBC Saturday college football studio show.
And, no, I’m not the next to be “fired.” I own PFT. And while there’s always a chance NBC will decide on the expiration of the current contract or a future one to go in a different direction, PFT isn’t going away until I sell it, drop dead, or decide I’ve had enough.
The fact that I had to set the record straight on something so damn idiotic makes the third option a lot more attractive than it ordinarily would be.
The attention paid to the fallout from the publication of photos showing Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and NFL reporter Dianna Russini together makes it inevitable that Patriots players are going to be asked questions about the impact on their preparations for the 2026 season.
A couple of players got their chance to address the matter at the facility earlier this week and quarterback Drake Maye’s first comments since the photos were released came on Wednesday night. Maye said that he and the rest of the team are supportive of Vrabel because of the way he’s been supportive of them since joining the team last year.
“We’re here for coach. We love coach, what he does for us, what he’s done for us this past year — you can’t speak into words,” Maye said via Jonathan Hall of 7News. “Just thankful he’s our head coach. I know he’s dealing with some stuff off the field and out of the coaching world, we’re here for him. And I know he’s going to come back.”
Vrabel missed the final day of the draft, but has been back at work this week and the messaging from Patriots players has been that nothing has changed for him inside the locker room.
