Florida’s Trey Smack became the first kicker off the board in the e 2026 NFL draft.
The Packers made him a sixth-round pick, No. 216 overall.
Smack joins Brandon McManus and Lucas Havrisik on the roster. McManus made 24-of-30 field goals, with a long of 56, and he missed one extra point.
The Packers drafted Anders Carlson in the sixth round in 2023, but he missed 11 kicks in his rookie season and never played for them again after that.
Smack is a two-time Groza semifinalist and one of only three FBS kickers to make five field goals of 50-plus yards in 2025. He made a 57-yarder in the Shrine Bowl.
Smack made 82.8 percent of his kicks in college.
Pro Bowler Jordan Stout followed John Harbaugh from the Ravens to the Giants, becoming the NFL’s highest-paid punter. That left the Ravens with a need for a punter.
They selected the best one in the draft, using a sixth-round pick on Michigan State punter Ryan Eckley. He joins Luke Elzinga at the position on the roster.
Eckley was a three-time All-Big Ten selection and the 2025 Big Ten Punter of the Year.
He had a punting average of 47.6 yards per punt in his career, breaking the Big Ten record. He led the conference in punting average in 2024 (47.9) and 2025 (48.5).
Eckley placed 34 percent of his punts inside the 20-yard line (50 of 149), with 27 punts downed inside the 10. He had 67 punts of 50-plus yards.
The Browns drafted quarterback Taylen Green at the start of the sixth round on Saturday and General Manager Andrew Berry confirmed that Green will not be switching positions in the NFL.
Green’s size and athletic ability have led some to wonder if an NFL team would look at him as a receiver or tight end. Berry was asked that question at a press conference on Saturday.
“He’s playing quarterback,” Berry said.
Green’s selection came a year after Berry selected Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel, who remain on the roster along with Deshaun Watson. Berry said Green’s selection “doesn’t mean anything” for the other players and that the Browns plan to “roll with” all four quarterbacks this offseason.
Berry said the team’s preference is to have three quarterbacks on the active roster and a fourth on the practice squad, so they could keep the quartet into the regular season as well. They won’t be able to guarantee that Sanders, Gabriel or Green would pass through waivers if they don’t make the active roster, however, and other developments around the league could lead to other options when it comes to filling out the quarterback room.
The Eagles have three quarterbacks on their roster, with Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee backing up Jalen Hurts. That didn’t stop them from taking another one.
Philadelphia used a fifth-round pick, No. 178 overall, on North Dakota State’s Cole Payton.
Payton is the sixth quarterback selected in the 2026 draft.
It is unclear how the Eagles plan to use the dual-threat player, who could be a Tysom Hill-type. NFL teams saw him as an intriguing potential tight end convert before the 2025 season, per Dane Brugler of TheAthletic.com.
As a freshman, Payton lost the starting job to Cam Miller. He served as a backup for four seasons, scoring 23 touchdowns as a reserve in mop-up duty or special packages, before becoming the starting quarterback in 2025.
In 13 starts — the only 13 starts of his career — he completed 72 percent of his passes for 2,719 yards with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions before breaking the thumb on his left (throwing) hand. He also ran for 777 yards and 13 touchdowns on 136 carries.
Payton set school records for total offense per game (268.9) and yards per play (9.71).
University of Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy was projected as a first-round draft choice until a medical recheck revealed he could need another knee surgery.
The Raiders ended his long wait, trading up to select him with the first pick in the fourth round.
“I was prepared for whatever, but I was [expected] to go higher,” McCoy said, via Ryan McFadden of ESPN. “I had a good pro day, ran some good times and did some good things. . . . It’s not in my control, and I’m just truly blessed that the team took me anyway, because it’s an achievement to get here in the first place.”
McCoyn missed all of last season after tearing the ACL in his right knee. Another knee surgery could force him to miss “extensive” time in 2026.
NFL Media reports that McCoy might require surgery to repair a bone plug, which was used to repair a cartilage defect.
“All of my doctors that did my surgery told me [that] I’m good,” McCoy said. “But if there’s something that [the Raiders] want me to do for the longevity of my career, I’m willing to do that because I feel like they have my best interest.”
With a big need at cornerback, the Raiders have rolled the dice on McCoy.
He could prove the steal of the draft if his knee holds up.
Rams coach Sean McVay says quarterback Matthew Stafford reacted just the way the Rams hoped he would by the team spending its first-round pick on his heir apparent, Ty Simpson.
McVay said on ESPN that Stafford has been a consummate professional and will be supportive of Simpson.
“He couldn’t be more of a stud,” McVay said. “When you’re an elite competitor the way he is, he responded exactly the way I would want to. He’s going to put his arm around this guy. . . . He’s like, ‘I understand it.’ He’s earned the right to be year to year, and if he tells me he wants to play three more years, no one would be more excited about that than me.”
McVay said having Simpson on the team will make it easier to give Stafford some time off in practice, something that a player Stafford’s age can benefit from.
“Going into Year 18, you manage his workload,” McVay said.
Stafford is heading into the final year of his contract and has considered retirement, and Simpson was picked to be ready whenever Stafford walks away. But McVay wants Stafford to know that he’ll walk away of his own volition, and that the Simpson pick wasn’t about pushing Stafford out.
There’s now another set of brothers in the NFL.
The Saints selected receiver Bryce Lance — quarterback Trey Lance’s younger brother — with the No. 136 overall pick in the fourth round of the 2026 draft.
Bryce Lance also played his college ball at North Dakota State, winning a pair of FCS national championships.
He was a two-year starter at NDSU, garnering first-team All-MVFC recognition in 2024 and 2025. He recorded 75 receptions for 1,071 yards with 17 touchdowns in 2024 and 51 catches for 1,079 yards with eight TDs in 2025.
Now he will be in the pros with his brother, Trey, who is currently the Chargers’ backup QB.
Thursday night didn’t play out the way defensive tackle Kayden McDonald hoped, but he’s planning to use falling to the second round as motivation.
McDonald was one of 17 players who were in attendance for the first round and was one of two that did not hear their names called. McDonald chose to return for Friday night’s second round and got his moment on stage with Roger Goodell when the Texans traded up to select him at No. 36.
After he got picked, McDonald vowed to show the league that he should have come off the board earlier.
“Everybody that went before me, that fuels me,” McDonald said, via DJ Bien-Amie of ESPN.com. “There’s not one player better than me in this class. I’m going to show it. I’m coming in to work.”
McDonald had 65 tackles, nine tackles for loss and three sacks at Ohio State last season.
The Jets have added another quarterback to their roster.
They traded up in the fourth round on Saturday and used the 110th selection to take former Clemson starter Cade Klubnik. He joins Geno Smith, Brady Cook and Bailey Zappe on the depth chart for the AFC East club.
Klubnik was a three-year starter for Clemson and came into the 2025 season with thoughts of going earlier in the draft. He threw 36 touchdowns and ran for seven more in 2024, but his production went the other way in his final season for the Tigers and he’ll now try to turn things around under offensive coordinator Frank Reich.
The Jets also acquired the 199th pick from the Bengals and sent the 128th and 140th picks to Cincinnati.
The prank call that Shedeur Sanders received during the 2025 draft made Kenyon Sadiq wary when he got a call from the Jets during the first round on Thursday night.
In a video shared by the team, Sadiq can be heard telling Jets head coach Aaron Glenn that he thought it was a prank call before Glenn assured the tight end that they were making him the 16th overall pick.
“That’s just like my biggest fear, with Shedeur and all that stuff that happened with him,” Sadiq said in a Saturday press conference. “It’s such a moment full of so many emotions. It’d be kind of not a fun way to get a prank call and stuff like that. But, no, obviously the call and everything was amazing. . . . It was really just when I started talking to each individual coach and management and those things. Then it really kind of hit me, ‘This isn’t a prank call, this is the real deal. I was super excited.”
Sanders was on the receiving end of a prank call by the son of Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich pretending to be from a team picking Sanders before he was ultimately drafted by the Browns in the fifth round. Ulbrich and the Falcons were fined for not securing Sanders’ number. As PFT noted this week, the NFL has tightened the distribution list for contact information this year but Sadiq was still wary before fully celebrating his entry into the NFL.
