2026 NFL Mock Draft Grades: Scoring the Experts

Best Mock: Todd McShay

McShay returned from the wilderness after his stint at ESPN to go to The Ringer to nail this draft. He was the only person to mock Ty Simpson to the Rams at 13. 12 of his incorrect picks were off by just 5 spots or less, and he had the 5th best score in the final ten picks, where most people trip up.

Best mock that had a Ty Simpson trade, not counting a Simpson trade: Evan Silva. 23% of Silva’s points were from a projected trade to 32. Up until then he had a score of 124.

Best mock that had Jermod McCoy, not counting McCoy: Matthew Freedman. 38% of his points were from McCoy, he had 133 points in his 31 other picks.

Most common correct picks that were not Fernando Mendoza: 34 mocks correctly predicted that the Jets would draft David Bailey 2nd overall. 31 correctly predicted the Ravens would take Olaivavega Ioane at 14.

Worst mock: Chris Simms

No surprise here, Simms is a generationally bad mock drafter. He had Monroe Freeling 6th overall, Colton Hood 12th, Denzel Boston 14th, Kayden McDonald 18th, Omar Cooper 21st via trade, TJ Parker 22nd via trade, Spencer Fano 24th via trade, and Jermod McCoy 31st. Making this more impressive is that he didn’t have a Ty Simpson trade, and he was one of only two people to predict Caleb Banks as a 1st rounder.

Whoops: The Yahoo duo of Nate Tice and Charles McDonald, along with Eric Edholm and Danny Kelly, got just one non-Fernando Mendoza pick correct.

Close, but no cigar: 19 mock drafters correctly predicted that the Jets would draft Omar Cooper. They just thought the Jets would take him at 16.

Do’h: 24 mocks had the Cardinals trading up for Ty Simpson.

Reach? The only person who had Carnell Tate 4th overall to the Titans was Titans GM Mike Borgonzi.

Lone wolves-ish:

• Albert Breer and Chris Simms were the only mock drafters to have Caleb Banks, who went 18th overall to the Vikings, in the 1st round at all. Breer had him at 22, Simms at 29.
• Four mocks had Tate Rutledge as a 1st rounder: Josh Norris, Pete Prisco, Rob Rang, and Mike Renner. None of them had him going as early as 26, which is where he went.
• Chris Simms was the only to not have Dillon Thieneman.
• Chris Simms and Connor Orr did not have Keldric Faulk.
• Tony Pauline, Pete Prisco, Ethan Woodie, and the Athletic beat writers did not have Blake Miller.
• Bucky Brooks did not have top 10 pick Francis Mauigoa in his mock.

Red flag: Jermod McCoy’s medical concerns kept him out of the first three rounds. 26 had him in it. The worst of which were Chris Collinsworth, Vinnie Iyer, and Nate Tice/Charles McDonald, who had him 12th overall.

Worst pick that was not McCoy: Curt Popejoy and the BGN Community Mock had Emmanuel Pregnon to the Texans at 28.

Most common misses: Despite wrecking 26 drafts, McCoy was not the most commonly mocked 1st rounder who was not a 1st. He was not even the second most mocked non-1st rounder. 39 mocks had Colton Hood in the 1st round, he went 37th overall. TJ Parker was a 1st rounder in 37 mocks, he went 35th overall. Emmanuel McNeil-Warren was a 1st rounder in 19 drafts, he went 58th overall.

Summer shade: Congratulations to everyone who felt over the summer that Garrett Nussmeier would go to a team with a top 10 pick. You were right!

Confused? 24 mocks had the Buccaneers drafting the other Miami defensive lineman.

Pros vs Joes: Every year I include our community mock draft to see how it fares against the people who get paid to do this. It never does great but it always beats at least a few professionals. This year it was one of just 5 mocks to correctly predict the Lions would draft Blake Miller. Well done BCHaas!