The 2026 NFL Draft opened its three-day selection process in dramatic fashion Thursday outside Pittsburgh Steelers’ home stadium, drawing a record crowd of 320,000 fans to the outdoor event, where the Las Vegas Raiders landed highly touted college football star Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick.
The 22-year-old quarterback was a near-unanimous favorite to claim the top selection after a historic 2025 college season, where he led Indiana to its first ever national championship and claimed the Heisman Trophy. With the selection, Mendoza becomes just the third player in NFL history to earn a Heisman Trophy, a national title, and the first overall draft pick in the same calendar year, joining elite company that includes Cam Newton (2011) and Joe Burrow (2020).
In a break from draft tradition, Mendoza skipped the iconic red carpet walk and opening ceremony in Pittsburgh to share the life-changing moment with his family at his Miami home. In a playful, modern twist on the draft declaration process, the business graduate had previously announced his entry to the draft by updating his LinkedIn status to “Open to Work” — and he refreshed the profile less than 60 minutes after receiving the iconic call from Raiders management to confirm his selection.
The franchise’s minority owner, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, who is also Mendoza’s childhood idol, was quick to welcome the rookie to Las Vegas. Posting on social platform X shortly after the pick, Brady wrote: “Welcome to Las Vegas. Time to get to work.” Mendoza, who will join veteran quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and 2023 first-round selection Aidan O’Connell in the Raiders’ quarterback room, noted ahead of the draft that Brady has already committed to mentoring the team’s new signal-caller. “He has mentioned that whatever quarterback they select… he is going to pour into them and give them advice,” Mendoza said. “I’m really looking forward to that.”
While Mendoza’s selection was widely expected, the first round of the 2026 draft was defined by unexpected picks, strategic trades, and heartwarming personal stories from across the league. Analysts had widely labeled the defensive front as the deepest position group in this year’s draft class, and the New York Jets lived up to pre-draft projections by selecting star pass rusher David Bailey with the second overall pick. The next two selections swung back to offense: the Arizona Cardinals took dynamic running back Jeremiyah Love at third, before the Tennessee Titans turned heads with a surprise fourth-round pick of wide receiver Carnell Tate, who appeared just as shocked as fans and analysts by the early selection.
The New York Giants held two of the first 10 selections, and used the picks to shore up both sides of the ball, selecting pass rusher Arvell Reese at fifth and offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa at 10. The 20-year-old Mauigoa, who grew up in American Samoa, paid tribute to his roots with a custom collage of his homeland printed on the back of his draft suit. “I never thought I’d be here,” he said after the pick. “If I can do it, you can do it.”
The Kansas City Chiefs, who missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014 this past season and are in the midst of a roster rebuild, pulled off one of the first major trades of the night, moving up from the ninth selection to sixth to land coveted cornerback Mansoor Delane. “They weren’t really on me too much in this process,” Delane said after the pick. “But they said they just wanted to keep it quiet and make that sneaky move, and they made the best move of the draft so I’m excited.”
Multiple other teams climbed the draft board to target priority prospects: the Dallas Cowboys moved up one spot to select star safety Caleb Downs at 11, while the Los Angeles Rams pulled off the most controversial surprise of the first round by selecting former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson at 13. Simpson had been projected as a possible first-round pick, but few analysts expected him to be taken as early as the 13th overall selection, after only 15 career college starts. The Rams’ selection has sparked widespread speculation that the team is planning for life after veteran starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, the 2025 league MVP who turned 38 in February and has only committed to one additional season with the franchise.
BBC Radio analyst Rob Staton noted that the Rams’ move hints at a long-term plan that was put in motion a full year ago, when the team traded with Atlanta to acquire the 13th overall pick. “There’d been little expectation that the Alabama quarterback would go that high, given he only started 15 games in college,” Staton explained. “You can’t help but wonder if the Rams, when making that trade a year ago, did so with a plan for the future at quarterback in mind. He does have some excellent throws on tape and he clearly has natural talent, yet his inexperience showed up when he started to feel pressure in the second half of last season. It’ll help that Simpson is working with a head coach like Sean McVay, but there’s no substitute for game experience.”
Elsewhere in the first round, the Philadelphia Eagles pulled off a last-minute trade to jump in front of the host Pittsburgh Steelers and select wide receiver Makai Lemon at 20th overall. The Steelers responded by selecting Nigerian-born offensive tackle Max Iheanachor, who moved to the United States at age 13. First-round picks featured many legacy prospects as well: Washington Commanders selected pass rusher Sonny Styles, the 21-year-old son of Super Bowl-winning linebacker Lorenzo Styles Sr., whose older brother Lorenzo Jr. is also expected to be selected later in the draft. “He’s my best friend, my inspiration,” Sonny Styles said. “We’ve dreamed about this since we were five years old so to see it all happen, we’re living out the dream, but it’s just the beginning.”
Day one of the draft saw eight total trades shake up the selection order, with six teams finishing the first round holding two selections, while the New York Jets ended up with three first-round picks after jumping back into the round to select wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. The draft will continue Friday with rounds two and three, before concluding Saturday with rounds four through seven.