Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy's draft slide ends, as Raiders pick him to begin 4th round

Jermod McCoy, who missed all last season after suffering a torn ACL, slid in the NFL Draft. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

(Jacob Kupferman via Getty Images)

At least Jermod McCoy didn’t have to wait long on Saturday, after a difficult fall over the first two days of the NFL Draft.

McCoy, a cornerback from Tennessee who missed all last season due to a knee injury, was the first pick of the fourth round to the Las Vegas Raiders. He was expected to go much sooner. Some thought he could go in the first round on Thursday. There were multiple concerns about his ACL injury and whether he’ll need more surgery, Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson reported.

If McCoy was healthy coming into this year’s NFL Draft, it seems like a foregone conclusion he would have been a first-round pick. He might have gone in the top 10. But in January of 2025, he tore his ACL while working out. That forced him to miss the entire 2025 season, but he was still considered a potential first-round pick based on what he had shown already in college.

But NFL teams were clearly worried about his medical exams. McCoy didn’t get picked in the first round and he slid in the second round too. Cornerbacks Colton Hood, Avieon Terrell, D’Angelo Ponds and Brandon Cisse were taken in the second round with McCoy on the board. That’s when it was obvious teams were scared of his medical exams. McCoy probably would have gone ahead of all of those cornerbacks, and perhaps even the two first-round cornerbacks Mansoor Delane and Chris Johnson, if he never got hurt.

The third round came and went without McCoy being picked, leading to another night of wondering where he’d go. The Raiders took a chance on him to start the third day of the draft. If his knee holds up, it will be tremendous value.