Raiders Day 3 pick named 2nd biggest steal of 2026 NFL Draft by ESPN

After the first two days of the draft, teams get a chance to sleep on it before revisiting the remaining picks for day three. Among those remaining picks, there was one prospect sticking out like a sore thumb. Tennessee's Jermod McCoy, whose pre-draft ranking had him as a potential top ten pick in the draft was still there. And it was revealed that concerns about McCoy's knee was the reason why.

The Raiders literally jumped at the chance to get the talented cornerback, trading a 2027 seventh round pick to Buffalo to move up one spot to ensure they landed him.

While many teams had removed McCoy from their boards altogether, the Raiders had not. They only waited until they thought the potential return on talent matched the risk in draft capital. Turned out round four was that time.

The made the pick to the delight of many draft analysts, including ESPN's Matt Miller who named McCoy as the second biggest steal of the draft.

There's always a really good player who slips due to injury. Ranked as my No. 10 overall prospect, McCoy fell to No. 101 based on concerns that a surgical procedure he had done following a January 2025 ACL tear might need to be redone. But McCoy was cleared to work out at Tennessee's pro day and excelled with a 40-yard dash time of 4.38 seconds. Las Vegas aggressively attacked its secondary needs, but getting McCoy here could be the weekend's biggest steal if he's healthy. It was a smart bet to make and shows that general manager John Spytek is correctly thinking about risk, value and potential.

The Cowboys landing number three overall prospect Caleb Down at pick 11 was the only player viewed as a bigger steal in Miller's view.