NFL Draft 2026 winners and losers: Raiders continue very good offseason, while Cowboys clean up and Jermod McCoy falls

The Raiders’ future won’t be dictated by mid-round picks or even any of the many players they acquired in free agency. It will be about Mendoza and his development. He gives the Raiders hope for the future. And if he develops, he might have plenty of help after the Raiders took a step in their rebuild this offseason.

Here are the other winners and losers from the 2026 NFL Draft, broken down by day.

Day 1 NFL Draft winners

Dallas Cowboys: Just about everyone knows how long it has been since the Dallas Cowboys have been to the NFC championship game. It’s brought up all the time.

What doesn’t get mentioned enough, as people fire off jokes about team owner Jerry Jones, is that the Cowboys have hit some absolute home runs in the NFL Draft. And they did it again Thursday night.

Dallas played the first night of the draft better than anyone. It helped to have two first-round picks, as a result of the debatable decision to trade Micah Parsons, but the Cowboys maximized those selections. It included taking a prospect who might end up being the best player in the draft.

The Cowboys saw Ohio State safety Caleb Downs slipping, so they made a low-cost trade to move up one spot to No. 11 and take him. They traded picks 177 and 180 overall to the Miami Dolphins. They’d make that up later.

With Downs, the Cowboys got a player some analysts (including Yahoo Sports’ Charles McDonald) thought was the best prospect in the draft. He is a versatile safety who can impact the game from all over the field. It’s hard to see him being a bust. Here’s what McDonald said before the draft about Downs, who could turn into the next Kyle Hamilton, a great safety who slipped because safeties are still undervalued in the NFL:

Downs has been arguably the best defensive back in college football since his freshman year at Alabama. He won’t be the first pick in the draft because safeties tend to slide on draft day, but he has all the skills and smarts to immediately be one of the better safeties in the league from Day 1 with upside to be an elite, premier player in the league.

To get Downs without having to give up any valuable draft capital was an absolute steal. We could look back on that as the best pick of this draft, especially in terms of value.

And if that’s all the Cowboys did, it would have been a good night. Dallas wasn’t done. The Cowboys traded down three spots with the Eagles from No. 20 to No. 23, collecting picks 114 and 137 while shipping off a seventh-rounder (218th overall). The Cowboys moved up to No. 11 in the first round and somehow, by the end of the round, ended up with better draft capital than they started with. That’s how you work a draft.

With the 23rd pick, the Cowboys drafted UCF defensive end Malachi Lawrence, a big and explosive edge rusher who can help right away.

The Cowboys have done well to fix their defense this offseason, starting with firing coordinator Matt Eberflus and hiring Eagles passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach Christian Parker to replace him. They have added defensive ends Rashan Gary and Lawrence, safeties Jalen Thompson and Downs, and get a full season from defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. The Cowboys’ offense will be very good as long as George Pickens is engaged on the franchise tag, and certainly that’s a concern. But if that works itself out and the defensive additions click, the Cowboys will be dangerous.

Dallas hasn’t had ultimate success in a long, long time. Cowboys haters will remind you often that the 1995 season was the last time they reached the conference championship round. But they usually do pretty well in the draft, and they nailed it Thursday night.

Ty Simpson: The Los Angeles Rams’ side of the Simpson pick will be debated. They could have taken someone who would help them now as they chase a Super Bowl. Simpson had just one season of being a starter in college and there were plenty of questions about his ceiling as a prospect.

But it’s not hard to argue that Simpson fell into the right situation.

Going to a team like the Jets or Cardinals, who never get quarterback right and would have jammed Simpson into the starting lineup too early, would have likely led to a terrible result. The Rams can let Simpson sit and learn. In a perfect world, Simpson won’t play a meaningful snap for the Rams all season. And he’s a rare first-round quarterback who needs to sit and learn, after just 15 college starts. That’s a good match.

Organizations fail quarterbacks way more often than the other way around, the saying goes. Many teams that could have picked Simpson might have put him in a bad spot. The Rams’ choice will be debated and/or panned, but the braintrust of Les Snead and Sean McVay deserve the benefit of the doubt. And if Simpson is going to turn into a top-end NFL starter, he fell into the right spot to make that happen.

Aaron Glenn: The New York Jets head coach enters this season on the hot seat. He’ll have some help to get off it.

Glenn had to be pleased when the Jets chose Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey with the second overall pick, selecting him over Ohio State edge/linebacker Arvell Reese. Reese might have a higher upside, but Bailey helps more right now. That’s good for Glenn.

Then the Jets got two offensive pieces later in the round. They took Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq with the 16th pick and then traded back up into the first round to take Indiana receiver Omar Cooper Jr. with the 29th pick when Cooper fell a bit. The offense needed to add firepower and got it.

It helps to have a good draft when you start it with four picks in the top 44. But the Jets got a nice haul on the first night. Glenn has some young talent to work with. Now he has to show he can develop it.

Whoever the Cardinals’ next QB will be: The Arizona Cardinals taking a running back at third overall, when they had significant needs up and down the roster, is questionable. But it’s hard to say they will regret having Jeremiyah Love for the forseeable future.

Love is dynamic and in a draft class that wasn’t that strong, he was a fine reach at No. 3. And perhaps new QB Carson Beck, who they drafted with the first pick in the third round, will be in a good place if he wins the starting job. They have Love, Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson and Trey McBride at the skill positions. That’s a lot of fantastic young talent. This season might be uneven, with Jacoby Brissett likely to start at quarterback while Beck develops, and Love might have some Ashton Jeanty-type rookie struggles as teams load up the box against him, but a foundation is being set for Arizona’s offense.

A.J. Brown, if he wants out: When the Eagles sent late picks in a trade with the Packers for Dontayvion Wicks, it was viewed as a sign Brown would be traded. If that was a sign, Thursday night was a blaring alarm.

The Eagles traded up to draft USC receiver Makai Lemon with the 20th overall pick (sneaking past the Steelers in the process). Now it seems inevitable Brown will be traded. A post-June 1 trade of Brown has been anticipated, presumably to the Patriots. The Lemon pick seems to confirm that. Lemon will have a hard time replacing Brown, one of the best receivers in the NFL, but the Eagles were proactive to make sure they didn’t leave a huge hole in the offense if they do move Brown.

Day 1 NFL Draft losers

Rueben Bain Jr., but not the Buccaneers: Bain was considered a possibility to go as high as No. 2 overall as the offseason started. He had to be surprised to slip to the 15th pick.

Probably not as surprised as Tampa Bay.

The Buccaneers came into the draft with a clear need at edge rusher, but couldn’t have dreamed that Bain would be available at No. 15. When the Baltimore Ravens made the reasonable decision to pass Bain to take guard Olaivavega Ioane, the Buccaneers couldn’t have had a moment of hesitation. The Bain pick was a perfect match of need and talent.

Bain might have slipped a bit due to his arms being shorter than usual for an edge rusher and his involvement in a fatal 2024 car crash, but the talent is undeniable. Bain was a game changer at Miami. The Buccaneers hope he replicates that in the pros.

The Giants’ glut of edge rushers: The New York Giants have an issue that other teams would take. They have too many edge rushers.

When the Giants drafted Abdul Carter third overall last year, there was a question of how he, Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux, the fifth pick of the 2022 draft, could all fit together. And then on Thursday, the Giants added Arvell Reese to the mix.

The Giants got great value on Reese at fifth overall. He played linebacker and was a part-time pass rusher at Ohio State, but he has said he considers himself an edge rusher entering the NFL. The Giants said Thursday they plan to use Reese at inside linebacker and weakside linebacker, via Dan Duggan of The Athletic, though it will be hard to keep him from being a full-time edge rusher if he flashes there early in his career. It could mean Thibodeaux gets squeezed out because it’s very unlikely Burns, Carter or Reese goes anywhere.

It’s a good problem to have. The Giants will figure out what to do with Reese. They weren’t passing on one of the better values of the first round.

Safeties: Safety might be the new running back.

Even though players like Kyle Hamilton and Nick Emmanwori were clearly underdrafted and have become very valuable defenders in the NFL, there hasn’t been a revolution at safety. The position is still undervalued. Caleb Downs might be the best player in the draft, and he fell to No. 11. Oregon’s Dillon Thieneman was raved about by draft analysts, and he had to wait until No. 25 to be picked. The Chicago Bears made a great pick there to take Thieneman. Toledo’s Emmanuel McNeil-Warren is another versatile playmaker at safety, and it’s he slid to the 58th overall pick to the Browns in the second round after being projected as a potential first-rounder.

Offenses are highlighting scheme versatility, gradually incorporating more multiple tight end sets to attack defenses that got smaller to defend spread attacks. A good way to counter that is with safeties who can do it all. The Cowboys and Bears seem to understand that.

Titans’ reach on Carnell Tate: Ty Simpson was the most surprising pick of the first round. Tate wasn’t far behind.

Among all the reputable mock drafts, none had Tate going in the top four. The Tennessee Titans didn’t care, selecting the Ohio State receiver ahead of Arvell Reese, among others.

Maybe the Titans will be vindicated. Tate comes from a school that has done very well producing NFL receivers. But nobody saw him as a prospect on the same level as some of the receivers recently selected in the top five. Many thought Jordyn Tyson was the true WR1 in the class. But the Titans had conviction. Now Tate has to prove them right.

Day 2 NFL Draft winners

Cleveland Browns: To start the NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns continued to add impressive young talent. They still need the most important piece, but whoever their quarterback of the future ends up being will step into a good situation.

Cleveland made some strong picks early in this year’s draft, which follows up a strong 2025 rookie class. If the 2026 draft class is as good on the field as it looks on paper, Cleveland might finally be onto something in what seems like a never-ending rebuild.

The Browns had a fantastic draft last year. They got contributions from defensive tackle Mason Graham, linebacker and NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Carson Schwesinger, running backs Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson, tight end Harold Fannin Jr. and quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. All seven picks played roles and had success, to varying degrees.

This year, the Browns had a smart first round. They traded down from No. 6 to No. 9, picking up extra picks, and still got a top offensive lineman off the board, tackle Spencer Fano. That filled a major need. Later in the first round they took playmaking receiver KC Concepcion, then they doubled up at receiver early in the second round with Denzel Boston. He’s a typical big X receiver and Concepcion can play from the slot and move around; the two should complement each other well.

With Fano, Concepcion and Boston, new Browns head coach Todd Monken has immediate help for his offense. Just to make sure the defense got some help, the Browns made a smart pick with Toledo safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren in the second round. Many thought McNeil-Warren could have been a first-round pick, but the devaluation of safety pushed him down a bit. He should be an excellent player on a defense that is already pretty good. The Browns rounded out their Day 2 picks by hitting the offensive line again, taking Austin Barber from Florida.

Of course, there’s still one big hole. Even though the Browns had Gabriel and Sanders start games last season, and they each had moments in which they played well, it doesn’t look like either is the long-term answer at quarterback. For some reason the Browns might try Deshaun Watson again, but it has been a long time since he was a viable NFL starter. The Browns will have a close eye on the 2027 quarterback draft class, which is expected to have many first-round worthy players.

Cleveland topped it off by drafting Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green in the sixth round, which is a worthy pick for a team where getting the quarterback position right has been impossible for almost three decades.

Jonathan Greenard and the Eagles’ defense: The Eagles weren’t able to come close to the four-year, $120 million deal that edge rusher Jaelan Phillips got to leave Philadelphia for the Carolina Panthers this offseason. But they did invest in a depressed asset.

The Eagles traded a pair of third-round draft picks, one this year and one next year, to the Minnesota Vikings for edge defender Jonathan Greenard. He had just three sacks last season but 24.5 sacks the two seasons before that. Greenard will be 29 years old next season so there’s risk at that age, but the Eagles were fine making the gamble. It’s easy to trust their track record on those types of moves.

They also made one of the best picks of the second round, grabbing tight end Eli Stowers. He’ll be added to the offense along with first-round pick Makai Lemon.

The Eagles made some strong moves all around early in the draft.

De’Zhaun Stribling: He wasn’t expected to go ahead of some other receivers in the class like Denzel Boston, but he was the first pick of the second round. And he landed in a fantastic spot.

The Ole Miss product went to the San Francisco 49ers, who know some things about offensive football. Stribling will take an immediate role in an offense that will trade or cut Brandon Aiyuk, doesn’t seem interested in bringing back Jauan Jennings, and has to have injury concerns about Ricky Pearsall and also tight end George Kittle as he comes off a torn Achilles. Stribling was a surprise to go as high as he did, and he landed in a spot in which he can be immediately productive.

The Texans’ defense: Houston’s defense was scary last season. And it got better on Friday night.

The Texans took advantage when Ohio State defensive tackle Kayden McDonald slipped to the second round, and picked him with the 36th overall pick. McDonald was considered a first-round prospect, which is the reason he was invited to the green room in Pittsburgh for Thursday night. McDonald had an emotional reaction to finally being drafted on Friday night, and the Texans should have been overjoyed too.

Houston will again have a top-five defense in the NFL. Its offense is still a work in progress, but there are no questions about the defense. McDonald should make it even better.

Tennessee Titans: The Titans had a lot of work to do as they started a new era with head coach Robert Saleh.

They’re off to a good start. The Titans spent a lot of money in free agency to upgrade the roster, then have added some more good players in the draft. Receiver Carnell Tate seemed like a reach at No. 4 overall, but he can play. Then the Titans added two defensive players at good value, Auburn edge defender Keldric Faulk in the late first round and Texas linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. in the third. All three picks could start right away in Tennessee.

There are still plenty of gaps to fill, but the Titans have had a strong offseason.

Day 2 NFL Draft losers

Jermod McCoy: If McCoy was healthy he might have been the CB1 in this class. The actual CB1, Mansoor Delane, went sixth overall to the Kansas City Chiefs. That should give an idea of how high McCoy could have gone.

But McCoy wasn’t healthy. He tore his ACL training in January 2025, and that completely changed his draft stock. He was still considered a potential first-round pick based on talent, but he slipped out of the first round and slipped Friday night too before being selected with the first pick of the fourth round by the Raiders on Saturday.

In the second round, cornerbacks Colton Hood, Avieon Terrell and D’Angelo Ponds went with McCoy still on the board. It was similar to last season, when Michigan’s Will Johnson fell into the second round due to medical concerns. It was clear then that McCoy would keep falling, but it was still shocking to see him go undrafted in the third round too.

Given the optimism about McCoy coming into this draft (he was 16th overall on Yahoo Sports’ consensus big board), that slide had to hurt. He will have a chance to become a top-end cornerback in the NFL with the Raiders, but that won’t erase the disappointment of falling out of the first two days of the draft.

Carson Beck and the Cardinals: The history of quarterbacks drafted in the middle rounds isn’t great. Sure there can be a Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott or Russell Wilson, but generally the hit rate is very, very low.

And it’s not like the Arizona Cardinals deserve the benefit of the doubt.

The Cardinals have a lot of holes and will probably be drafting early in 2027, when they can take their quarterback of the future in a deep class. But the Cardinals used the first pick of the third round, 65th overall, on Carson Beck. He helped Georgia and Miami win a lot of games, but his flaws are a reason he fell out of the first two rounds.

Maybe this will be an exception and the Cardinals found their next starting quarterback on a discount. Beck has skills but Arizona isn’t known for developing quarterbacks, though new head coach Mike LaFleur could do well at it. And that pick could have been used on a player who could help the QB who will likely be the Cardinals’ first-round selection next year. Maybe Beck will be a great investment, but the odds are against it.

Drew Allar and the Steelers: All that above about Beck and the Cardinals? Repeat it here for the Steelers’ third-round pick of Allar.

The Penn State QB has some good traits but the odds of him going the way of most mid-round quarterbacks are much higher than of him replacing Aaron Rodgers as Pittsburgh’s quarterback of the future. Nothing says the Steelers can’t hit the mid-round quarterback lottery with Allar, but history says they’d have been better off using the pick on another position.

Washington Commanders offense: There was nothing wrong with Washington drafting linebacker Sonny Styles in the first round. He was the right pick.

But the Commanders had to know it would be a long time before they got Jayden Daniels any help. And he needs it.

The Commanders didn’t have a pick in the second round. They took wide receiver Antonio Williams out of Clemson in the third and later took RB Kaytron Allen in the sixth. They could use some offensive line help too. Most of their offseason moves have been geared toward fixing a defense that also needed help. That’s meant the offense just gets the leftover resources.

Day 3 NFL Draft winners

Brenen Thompson and Justin Herbert: Herbert has a new receiver that he’ll have a tough time overthrowing.

Thompson ran an astounding 4.26 in the 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine, the third fastest time ever at wide receiver. The Chargers took note and drafted Thompson in the fourth round.

It’s never a bad idea to pair a receiver with elite speed with one of the strongest arms in the NFL.

Thompson fell out of the first two days of the draft for a reason. He’s only 164 pounds, which limits what he can do. But teams have to respect his speed, especially with Herbert at quarterback. At very least he can help open things up underneath in the offense. It’s an interesting combination.

Christian Parker: The Dallas Cowboys’ new defensive coordinator should be happy.

The Dallas Cowboys have given him plenty of exciting young talent to work with. Safety Caleb Downs, at No. 11, might turn out to be the best pick of the draft. Dallas knew it needed multiple players to fix the defense, and it kept loading up.

Five of the team’s six picks in the first four rounds were on defense, including edge rushers Malachi Lawrence and Jaishawn Barham, the latter of which is a third-round pick with plenty of versatility. The Cowboys also traded a fifth-round pick to the 49ers for linebacker Dee Winters, who had 101 tackles in 17 starts last season and fills a need. Whoever the Cowboys drafted in the fifth round was very unlikely to have the same impact the 25-year-old Winters will have this season.

Dallas has positioned itself well to make a big improvement this season. Parker, a first-time coordinator, needs to do his part. But he has a talent infusion to work with.

Day 3 NFL Draft losers

Running backs: From top to bottom, it wasn’t a great draft for the running backs class.

Jeremiyah Love went with the third pick, but he landed in a tough spot with the Arizona Cardinals. Jadarian Price did land in a good spot, with the Seattle Seahawks at No. 32, but then there was a wait. For the first time since 2003, no running back was drafted in the second round. And that came in a draft that was considered fairly weak all around.

Kaelon Black was the third back off the board, in the third round. But he went to the San Francisco 49ers, who have Christian McCaffrey and a bad recent track record drafting mid-round running backs.

Jonah Coleman went to the Broncos, who still have 2025 second-rounder RJ Harvey and veteran J.K. Dobbins. Mike Washington Jr. was interesting because of an elite athletic profile, and he was picked by the Las Vegas Raiders, who have Ashton Jeanty as their obvious lead back. No other running backs went in the first four rounds. Emmett Johnson is another interesting prospect and the Chiefs traded up to draft him in the fifth round, but they just spent heavily to get Kenneth Walker III in free agency. Maybe Nicholas Singleton, picked by the Titans in the fifth round, can emerge from a somewhat murky backfield to be an immediate contributor. But he’d need to beat out solid veterans Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears.

It wasn’t considered an exciting class for running backs. And most of the running backs who went before the late rounds don’t find themselves in a great spot.

Garrett Nussmeier: The longer the draft goes on, the harder it is for a quarterback to overcome where he was taken.

Draft capital matters, and Nussmeier is starting in a deep hole. Nussmeier saw the first six rounds of the draft come and go without him being selected. Nine quarterbacks were selected before Nussmeier finally came off the board to the Kansas City Chiefs with the 249th overall pick in the seventh round.

That kind of fall was unimaginable a year ago, when Nussmeier was considered a first-round prospect for the 2026 draft. Then, last season, Nussmeier’s numbers were down and he dealt with injuries. That hurt his draft stock. His size, at 6-1 5/8 and 203 pounds, was also an issue, and there was a report that combine tests revealed a cyst on his spine. Maybe that scared teams off.

Nussmeier could still emerge and have a good NFL career. Other players who slipped badly in the draft have carved out a successful path. But he is starting from behind.