NFL Draft: trades tonight

The 2026 National Football League draft opens Thursday night in Pittsburgh with one name at the top and most of the suspense pushed to the picks behind him. (nfl.com) Round 1 starts at 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, April 23, and the draft runs through Saturday, April 25. Pittsburgh is hosting the event, and the Las Vegas Raiders hold the No. 1 pick. (nfl.com) NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah’s final mock draft projects Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza to the Raiders at No. 1 and forecasts four first-round trades. He has the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints among the teams moving up. (nfl.com) That top-pick projection has held for months. Jeremiah’s first mock in January put Mendoza first overall, and his final mock kept him there after the Raiders added center Tyler Linderbaum and quarterback Kirk Cousins this offseason. (nfl.com (nfl.com)) The draft’s structure helps explain why trade talk is dominating the night. The first round now gives teams eight minutes per pick instead of 10, while the order still starts with Las Vegas at No. 1 and runs through 32 selections. (operations.nfl.com) (nfl.com) Most of the uncertainty begins at No. 2 with the New York Jets. Chad Reuter’s seven-round mock for NFL.com has the Jets taking Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, while Yahoo Sports’ final mock sends them Penn State edge rusher David Bailey instead. (nfl.com) (sports.yahoo.com) The Eagles sit at No. 23 and have nine total picks, including four on the first two days, which gives them room to move if the board breaks their way. Jeremiah’s final mock has Philadelphia trading up, and the team’s own draft tracker lists that first-rounder plus extra Day 2 capital. (philadelphiaeagles.com) (nfl.com) The Saints are part of the same trade conversation. Jeremiah’s final projection includes New Orleans moving up, another sign that this class is being framed less around a fixed top 10 than around which teams decide to pay to jump it. (nfl.com) Betting markets point in the same direction at the top, even if they do not settle the order behind it. Fox Sports reported this week that Mendoza was the clear favorite to go No. 1 at DraftKings Sportsbook as of April 20. (foxsports.com) So Thursday night is set up less like a reveal at the first pick than a test of who blinks after it. If Mendoza goes first as expected, the draft’s real pace could be set by the Jets, the phones, and how aggressively teams like the Eagles and Saints chase the board. (nfl.com)