The divisional round has begun, which means the playoff losers’ draft slots are getting set, after the regular-season ended with the Raiders earning the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft. Here’s how the draft order looks:
1. Raiders
2. Jets
3. Cardinals
4. Titans
5. Giants
6. Browns
7. Commanders
8. Saints
9. Chiefs
10. Bengals
11. Dolphins
12. Cowboys
13. Falcons (traded first-round pick to Rams)
14. Ravens
15. Buccaneers
16. Colts (traded first-round pick to Jets)
17. Lions
18. Vikings
19. Panthers
20. Packers (traded first-round pick to Cowboys)
21. Steelers
22. Chargers
23. Eagles
24. Jaguars (traded first-round pick to Browns)
SUBJECT TO PLAYOFF RESULTS
25. Bills
26. Bears
27. 49ers
28. Texans
29. Rams
30. Patriots
31. Broncos
32. Seahawks
Who has the first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft?
The Las Vegas Raiders earned the first overall pick by having with the easiest schedule of the four teams that finished tied with the worst record in the NFL, 3-14.
What are the tiebreakers for NFL Draft picks?
Draft picks are awarded in order of lowest winning percentage, and the tiebreaker is opponents’ winning percentage, with the team that played the easiest schedule picking first. If two teams have the same record and same strength of schedule, division or conference tiebreakers are applied. If the divisional or conference tiebreakers are not applicable, or ties still exist between teams of different conferences, ties will be broken the following tie-breaking method:
- Head-to-head, if applicable
- Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games (minimum of four)
- Strength of victory in all games
- Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed in all games
- Best net points in all games
- Best net touchdowns in all games
- Coin toss
The 18 non-playoff teams get the first 18 picks. The six wild card round playoff losers get picks 19-24, the four divisional round losers get picks 25-28, the conference championship game losers get picks 29 and 30, the Super Bowl loser gets pick 31 and the Super Bowl winner gets pick 32.
When is the 2026 NFL Draft?
The 2026 NFL draft takes place April 23-25 in Pittsburgh. The first round will be on Thursday night, the second and third rounds will be on Friday night, and the fourth through seventh rounds will be on Saturday.
Who is the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft?
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is the betting favorite to go first overall. Other contenders include Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, Miami defensive end Rueben Bain, Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and Auburn defensive end Keldric Faulk
Jaguars Clips
Could the Browns go particularly young at head coach?
It’s a possibility, as the team is interviewing Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski for the role on Saturday, the team announced.
Udinski, who just turned 30 on Jan. 12, would be the youngest head coach in modern NFL history if he were hired. Rams head coach Sean McVay currently has that distinction, as he was hired just before turning 31 in January 2017.
Udinski has been a fast riser, having joined the Vikings’ staff as assistant to the head coach in 2022, following two years with the Panthers as a coaching assistant.
He was promoted to Minnesota’s assistant QBs coach in 2023 and then added assistant offensive coordinator to his title in 2024.
The Jaguars hired him away to be their offensive coordinator under head coach Liam Coen last February. Udinski did not call plays, as Coen handled that role for Jacksonville.
Udinski is set to be the ninth person to interview with Cleveland for its head coaching vacancy in this cycle.
The NFL previously applied the term “super” to the wild-card round of the playoffs. This year, the ratings were.
Via Sports Business Journal, the six games televised by Fox (which had two), CBS, Prime Video, NBC and ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 attracted an average of 31.9 million viewers.
That’s a 13-percent increase from last year, and the best since the NFL expanded the playoffs from six teams to seven in 2020, which grew the wild-card round from four games to six.
The total average is the best since the four-game format attracted an average of 32.6 million in 2016 for these games: Raiders-Texans, Lions-Seahawks, Dolphins-Steelers, and Packers-Giants. The smallest victory margin that year was 13 points, with an average score of 30-11.
This year, four of the games went down to the wire. Two of the games were lopsided.
The Dolphins would like to speak to one of Mike McDaniel’s former assistants as they look for someone to replace McDaniel as their head coach.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the team requested an interview with Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile. It’s the first time Campanile’s name has come up in conjunction with a current head coaching vacancy.
Campanile was the Dolphins’ linebackers coach from 2020-2023, so he was on the staff when the team advanced to the playoffs in McDaniel’s first two seasons in Miami.
Campanile left the Dolphins to be the linebackers coach and run game coordinator for the Packers — new Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan was in Green Bay at the same time — and then jumped to Jacksonville for the 2025 season. The Jags were eighth in points allowed and 11th in yards allowed while winning the AFC South.
After Travis Hunter’s season-ending knee injury, Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said it was too early to say if the team would continue to play him at both wide receiver and cornerback in 2026.
Coen was responding to questions about the physical toll playing both ways may have taken on Hunter and that the team would evaluate their plans at the end of the season. The Jaguars’ season has been over for a few days and General Manager James Gladstone delivered an update on the team’s plans for Hunter at a Wednesday press conference.
Gladstone said the rehab process is going as the team expected and that the first-round pick is “hitting it hard” before moving on to the question of how he’ll be deployed.
“Beyond that, in the role that he’ll play, we still expect him to play on both sides of the ball,” Gladstone said. “Obviously, you can take a peek at expiring contracts on our roster and which side of the ball has more. Obviously at this point, walking into the offseason, corner is a position where we have a few guys who are on expiring contracts. So, by default, you can expect there to be a higher emphasis on his placement.”
Hunte played 324 offensive snaps and 162 defensive snaps in seven appearances before his injury. He had 28 catches for 298 yards and a touchdown on offense to go with 15 tackles on defense.
The numbers are showing up for the 2025 wild-card round.
CBS has announced that 32.7 million viewers, on average, watched Sunday’s Bills-Jaguars game. It’s a 5.1-percent increase over last year’s Broncos-Bills game on CBS, which averaged 31.1 million.
The Bills-Jaguars game peaked at 41.1 million.
Anything less than a 10-percent bump over 2025 is essentially a decline, given the impact of the Nielsen Big Data + Panel metric that has generally boosted all numbers with a greater number of out-of-home viewers.
We’ll see how the rest of the games did. Last year, the wild-card round audience dropped from the year before.
Jaguars running back Travis Etienne shared some advice for quarterback Trevor Lawrence when he spoke to reporters on Monday, but the two players may not be on the same team the next time they take the field.
Sunday’s loss to the Bills brought an end to Etienne’s contract with the team that took him 25th overall in the 2021 draft. Etienne missed his rookie season with a foot injury, but ran for more than 1,000 yards in three of the next four years. That includes his 1,107 yards during the 2025 regular season.
Etienne said on Monday that he’s not focused on contractual matters yet, but that it “would be crazy” if he’s played his final game for the Jaguars. He also suggested that a healthy number of teams will be out of the running if he does hit free agency in March.
“You don’t have to worry about me going to to the cold,” Etienne said, via Fox Sports. “I’m probably not supposed to say that.”
Etienne could have a change of tune in the event he’s on the open market, but the Jaguars would keep that from happening if they are able to strike a deal in the coming weeks.
The Jaguars’ eight-game winning streak and their season came to an end against the Bills on Sunday, but there’s a lot of optimism about the team’s future after their 13-win season.
One of the reasons for that optimism is the way quarterback Trevor Lawrence played over the second half of the season. Lawrence’s luster had dimmed at the end of Doug Pederson’s era and the jury remained out during a 5-4 start to the 2025 campaign, but he played some of his best football to help the Jaguars secure the AFC South title.
Running back Travis Etienne has played with Lawrence since both players were at Clemson and he had a colorful answer to a question about what Lawrence needs to do to take his game to an even higher level.
“I would say the biggest thing for him is just let his nuts hang, I guess. Just be cocky, stop caring what people think,” Etienne said, via Demetrius Harvey of Jacksonville.com. “Just don’t give a damn, you’re the man. Just go out there, be yourself, make plays and just play fearlessly with reckless abandon.”
Lawrence will be in Jacksonville for a while, but it remains to be seen if Etienne will continue to share the backfield with him. Etienne is not under contract for the 2026 season, so he could move on as a free agent in March.
Nearly a decade ago, the Rams hired a then 30-year-old Sean McVay to be their head coach.
It’s worked out pretty well for them ever since.
Could the Browns take a similar approach in 2026?
According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Cleveland has put in a request to interview Jaguars offensive coordinator Grant Udinski for their head coach opening.
Udinski, who turned 30 on Monday, just completed his first season as Jacksonville’s OC under head coach Liam Coen. Udinski did not call plays, with Coen filling that role for the club.
Udinski has been a fast riser since entering the coaching ranks after completing his collegiate playing career as a defensive end at Towson. He started as a graduate assistant at Baylor in 2018. He was a coaching assistant with the Panthers from 2020-2021 before joining the Vikings’ staff under Kevin O’Connell in 2022.
He moved from assistant to the head coach in his first season, to assistant QBs coach in his second season, and was assistant offensive coordinator and assistant QBs coach in 2024.
Udinski, however, does not have the play-calling experience of McVay. He had been Washington’s offensive coordinator for three seasons, calling plays for two of them.
With several coach vacancies, Udinski has an outside shot at landing a head coaching job. Or he could be a potential play-calling offensive coordinator if Jacksonville allows him to move on, since he doesn’t have that role with the Jaguars.
The Jaguars pulled off a remarkable turnaround by going from 4-13 also-rans to 13-4 division champions, but their hopes of an extended playoff run were dashed by the Bills in Jacksonville on Sunday.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen answered two Jaguars touchdowns with a touchdown pass and a touchdown run that allowed his team to advance to the divisional round with a 27-24 win. Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw three touchdowns, but his second interception of the game sealed the win for Buffalo.
Lawrence called it a “tough way” to end the season during his postgame press conference, but said that the team’s success feels like the start of something rather than a case of catching lightning in a bottle.
“There’s no guaranteed success, but I do feel like this is sustainable, the things that we’re doing,” Lawrence said, via the team’s website. “I know offensively and defensively, just both sides of the ball had a hell of a year when it got down to the end, where we finished, and the growth that we had.”
One of the reasons Lawrence feels that way is because he believes he has “complete ownership” of the offense after his first season playing for head coach Liam Coen. The Jaguars will bank on that duo continuing to thrive once they’re back on the field later this year.
