Draft night trade fever
- Mock drafters say trading could define Round 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft, with teams expected to be aggressive. (nfl.com) - Daniel Jeremiah projects four first-round trades and specifically names the Eagles and Saints as potential movers. (nfl.com) - Prospects Jeremiyah Love and Arvell Reese keep surfacing in top mocks as teams juggle present needs and future capital. ( )
Round 1 of the 2026 National Football League draft is shaping up less like a queue and more like an auction, with multiple final mock drafts projecting a busy trade market Thursday night. (nfl.com) Daniel Jeremiah’s final mock projects four first-round trades and names the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints as teams moving up. He published that forecast on April 22, one day before Round 1 begins at 8 p.m. Eastern on April 23 in Pittsburgh. (nfl.com) Lance Zierlein’s final mock also projects four trades, including Dallas moving up in the top 10 for linebacker Arvell Reese, while Peter Schrager wrote that teams could “jump all around Round 1” as the board breaks behind the No. 1 pick. Both mocks have running back Jeremiyah Love in the top tier of the class. (nfl.com, espn.com) The setup is unusual because the class is not being framed around a long list of first-round quarterbacks. Schrager wrote that only one top-tier quarterback is viewed as a lock to go No. 1, leaving teams to sort through running backs, linebackers, safeties and hybrid defenders near the top. (espn.com) That kind of board tends to invite movement: teams that see one clear favorite at a thinner position can pay to jump, while teams with several similarly graded options can slide back and collect picks. The National Football League rulebook allows clubs to trade draft choices during the draft, which is how those swings get made in real time. (operations.nfl.com) There is recent precedent for first-round aggression. In the 2025 draft, Jacksonville traded up from No. 5 to No. 2 with Cleveland, and the New York Giants later moved up to No. 25 with Houston for quarterback Jaxson Dart. (espn.com) The 2025 draft opened with every team holding its own first-round pick for the first time since 1967, according to ESPN Research, but that calm did not last once the clock started. That history is part of why late mock drafts often focus less on exact pairings and more on which teams are most likely to move. (espn.com) If the final mocks are close, Thursday’s first round will turn on how fast teams decide that Love, Reese or another top prospect is worth future picks. Once the first surprise lands, the rest of the board could start moving with it. (nfl.com, nfl.com, espn.com)
