NFL draft news: Eagles trade up, draft WR Makai Lemon; night begins with surprise pick; Cowboys WR open to a trade

USC wide receiver Makai Lemon was expected to be drafted much earlier than No. 20, and the Eagles moved ahead of Pittsburgh in order to draft a receiver whose ball skills are well regarded.

Lemon, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, “doesn’t wow with his size or athletic profile, but he is a smooth, manipulative route runner and catches everything thrown his way. Similar in ways to fellow former Trojans receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, he already plays like a pro and projects as an NFL starter (Z or slot).”

According to The Ringer’s Todd McShay, Lemon posted three-plus yards per route run versus both man and zone. Only five other receivers drafted since 2021 have done the same, according to McShay: Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Miami’s Jaylen Waddle and Dee Eskridge, Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase, and DeVonta Smith.

One of the Eagles' top first round targets is officially off the board.

The Miami Dolphins selected Alabama offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor with the 12th overall pick. Proctor, who was brought to Philly for a predraft visit and the team had shown significant interest in during the draft cycle, is a powerful and massive offensive linemen at 6-foot-6, 352 pounds.

His projection in the lead up to draft night was all over the place, but his talent suggested that he would go higher than the 23rd pick to the Eagles.

The Eagles will have to contend with two young New York Giants edge rushers for the foreseeable future.

The Giants selected Ohio State's Arvell Reese with the fifth pick in the draft, a year after taking Abdul Carter with the third overall pick.

The Giants already had a dangerous trio of pass rushers in Carter, Brian Burns, and Kayvon Thibodeaux. Drafting Reese begs this question: Is Thibodeaux on the market? According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Giants plan on keeping him for the final year of his current contract.

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who was drafted No. 1 overall by the Las Vegas Raiders, did not come as a surprise. But the draft shook up after the New York Jets selected Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey second overall.

The Arizona Cardinals, who are rebuilding and need help on the defensive side of the ball, decided to take Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love with the third pick, instead of taking Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles or Ohio State versatile edge rusher Arvell Reese.

Love, an explosive running back that also brings a receiving element out of the backfield, joins an offense that needs to continue building its offensive line and find a longtime quarterback after moving on from Kyler Murray this offseason.

In a highly unusual move, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel spoke to reporters less than an hour before the start of tonight's NFL draft to address the ongoing controversy over his relationship with former Athletic reporter Dianna Russini.

"My previous actions don’t meet the standard that I hold myself to," Vrabel said, reiterating his plan to step away from team activities Saturday to attend counseling.

Vrabel's comments come after the New York Post posted more pictures of him with Russini, this time showing the two getting close at a bar in New York City in 2020.

The Eagles are thin and largely inexperienced at safety. It's the only starting role on defense up for grabs going into training camp.

Howie Roseman said at the annual league meeting last month that in “some shape or form, we will add at that position.”

Roseman could also look to the draft to identify Reed Blankenship’s successor.

Howie Roseman has had a lot of success over the years when it comes to drafting players, but Roseman said last week that he thinks about his first-round misses “I don’t know, every day really.”

Luckily for him and the Eagles, hits have happened more frequently than misses since Roseman began drafting Eagles players in 2010.

Roseman has been in charge of all but one of the last 16 Eagles draft classes.

The wide receiver class is once again one of the stronger position groups in this year’s draft class, with at least six players in position to be taken in the first round. The Eagles have brought in one of them for a predraft visit (Indiana’s Omar Cooper Jr.) and have been linked to another, Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson, as a potential prospect whom the Eagles could trade up for in the first round.

Even if the Eagles opt to draft a wide receiver later, there will be plenty of starter-level players to find well into the fourth round. Adding Dontayvion Wicks via trade makes receiver less of an urgent need, but the Eagles can still use some young, inexpensive help in an expensive position room. And of course, a potential A.J. Brown trade to the Patriots is still looming.

Here are six players the Eagles could target in the draft ...

With Dallas Goedert signing a one-year deal to return to the Eagles for his ninth season, Howie Roseman is likely going into the draft on the hunt for the team’s TE1 of the future.

This is a relatively deep draft class of tight ends, led by Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq. The 2025 Big Ten tight end of the year could be an option for the Eagles with their first-round pick, or the team could wait until Day 2 or 3 to take advantage of the value in the mid-to-late rounds.

Roseman hasn’t drafted a tight end in the first round in his tenure as Eagles general manager. His earliest picks at the position include Goedert (2018, Round 2, No. 49 overall) and Zach Ertz (2013, Round 2, No. 35 overall). However, the same could be said for the inside linebacker position last year and the cornerbacks position the year before. The Eagles went on to draft Jihaad Campbell with the No. 31 overall selection in 2025 and Quinyon Mitchell at No. 22 in 2024.

This is a strong defensive back class with at least five players worthy of being selected in the first round. The Eagles’ signing of Riq Woolen this offseason means taking a cornerback in the first two rounds seems unlikely, but that hasn’t stopped the Eagles from showing interest in the position during the draft cycle.

Looking at thresholds from the Eagles’ previous draft picks under Howie Roseman at the position, which specifically includes players who participated at the scouting combine, the team typically targeted players who measured in at about 6 feet tall and ran an average of 4.47 seconds in the 40-yard dash with a 1.53 10-yard split.

With those numbers in mind, here are five players the Eagles could target in the draft ...

While it’s unlikely the Eagles spend early draft resources at a position where they mostly are set — they have Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby, Will Shipley, and Dameon Pierce — adding a Day 3 running back could be valuable to keep fresh, young legs in the running back corps.

The lack of a reliable receiving and pass-protecting running back after Kenneth Gainwell went to Pittsburgh last offseason was noticeable. The Eagles could be looking for an upgrade at RB3.

Here are three late-round options the Eagles could target in the draft ...

Tonight, the Eagles will — unless they make a trade — make a first-round draft pick. First-round picks are highly scrutinized. The good and the bad. The NFL has made the draft’s first round a pseudo-holiday, but the first round stands on its own for a reason.

Teams can change their direction with just one pick.

The Eagles have made 53 first-round picks in the Super Bowl era (since 1966). Some players have changed the direction of the franchise in a positive way. Others, not so much.

Beyond Indiana's Fernando Mendoza, there are two quarterbacks who will likely come off the board by the end of the third round: Alabama’s Ty Simpson, who is getting late-first-round buzz, and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, who is a firm Day 2 candidate.

It’s unlikely the Eagles are drafting a quarterback early when there are needs elsewhere in the short and long term, and adding veteran Andy Dalton to a corps with Jalen Hurts and Tanner McKee already signals a Day 3 quarterback is a more realistic option for the team.

With that in mind, here are four players to keep an eye on as developmental quarterback options:

The Eagles are poised to enter the 2026 season fairly set at the top of the depth chart on the interior defensive line. All three snap leaders from last season are under contract, including the newly extended Jordan Davis as well as Jalen Carter and Moro Ojomo.

Will that trio last beyond this season? Carter, the 2023 ninth-overall pick out of Georgia, is eligible to have his fifth-year option exercised this offseason and is a top candidate for an extension. Ojomo, though, is entering the final year of his rookie deal, which could be his last with the Eagles. His role increased substantially last season following the departure of Milton Williams for the New England Patriots. Ojomo played a career-high 66% of the defensive snaps and ranked second on the team with six sacks (first among Eagles defensive tackles).

If Ojomo isn’t in the team’s long-term plans, the Eagles may look to Day 2 or 3 of the draft to identify his prospective replacement after 2026. Otherwise, their internal candidates are limited. Here are four names to keep an eye on:

The Inquirer’s annual Draft Meter is where our beat writers rate NFL draft prospects on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being most likely that the Eagles will pick that player, and 1 being least likely.

This year, we rated 14 players.

Here’s who we think is most likely to be on the team by the end of Thursday night — and it's worth noting that our meter has correctly predicted the Eagles' first pick in four of the last five drafts ...

Which player will the Eagles take in the first round of the 2026 NFL draft?

We won't know for sure until later tonight, but the experts at The Inquirer, ESPN, and elsewhere have filed their final mock drafts, so here's what some of them predict will happen.

Devin Jackson, Philadelphia Inquirer: Monroe Freeling, OT, Georgia (No. 19 pick via trade)

The Eagles have eight picks entering the draft, though that’s likely to change with Howie Roseman at the helm.

Since 2010 (and excluding 2015, when ex-coach Chip Kelly was in charge), Roseman has averaged more than three trades per draft, according to NFL data.

Last year, the Birds made five trades, including sending C.J. Gardner-Johnson to the Houston Texans and exchanging backup quarterback Kenny Pickett for Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who was cut before the season started and is now a backup in the UFL.

The 2026 NFL draft is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern and run through 11:30 p.m.

This year’s traveling road show is taking place in Pittsburgh, with the main stage set up at Acrisure Stadium, the home of the Steelers. The city expects several hundreds of thousands of people to travel to Pittsburgh for the event.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream the first round of the NFL Draft.

The Las Vegas Raiders hold the No. 1 pick in the draft, which they're expected to use to nab Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

It's just the second time in NFL history the Raiders have had the No. 1 overall pick. They entered the draft with the top pick in 2007, which they used to select LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell, who lasted just three seasons with the Raiders.

Five teams don’t have a single first-round pick: Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Indianapolis Colts.