As the 2026 NFL Draft approaches, NFL.com is keeping you up to date with the latest reports, rumors and rumblings from NFL Network, ESPN and team officials. Here's what we're learning Monday ahead of Thursday's first round.
The New York Jets have been widely rumored to be selecting either Ohio State's Arvell Reese or Texas Tech's David Bailey with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, so when the club canceled a top-30 meeting last week with Bailey it led to more speculation that Reese would be the pick.
Jets general manager Darren Mougey confirmed on Tuesday that the team canceled its meeting with Bailey but warned about speculating what that meant.
"We had good touch points with (Bailey) at the combine," Mougey told reporters. "We went to his pro day, had a good dinner with him. We were just kinda juggling our 30 (visits) and how to use them.
"I wouldn't look too much into a cancellation because there were other ones we may have changed as well."
As Mougey pointed out, teams are not required to bring in players on top-30 visits before drafting them, especially after having met with Bailey previously. Nearly every team picking in the top three overall in recent years has brought in the player they eventually would draft for a top-30 visit, but not doing so wouldn't be unprecedented.
The timing of the cancellation is what drew some attention, as the report that the Jets wouldn't bring Bailey in came just prior to the end of prospects' window for pre-draft visits. But Mougey never confirmed when Bailey's meeting was supposed to take place.
The Jets will pick second and 16th in Thursday's first round. They are slated to kick off Day 2 of the NFL Draft with the 33rd-overall selection.
Reese appears to be the odds-on favorite to be the Jets' selection at No. 2, but Mougey did his best on Monday to suggest that Bailey remains a possibility.
-- Eric Edholm
Packers have flexibility to move up
With no first-round selection in the 2026 NFL Draft currently, the Green Bay Packers aren't scheduled to be on the clock until Friday evening when the second round is underway. But Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst isn't closing the door on a possible trade-up.
"I do feel like, if the right player were there, that we would be able to go get him," Gutekunst said at his pre-draft news conference, via Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
The pre-draft plan did not change, Gutekunst said, despite lacking a first-rounder, and Thursday will still be a busy night. He said the Packers plan to "stick with our process and keep our ears open" during the first round.
"What happens on Thursday will affect Friday and Saturday," he added.
The Packers traded this year's first-round pick, as well as their 2027 first-rounder and Kenny Clark to the Cowboys for Micah Parsons last year. Gutekunst isn't unhappy with not having a first-rounder this year, saying: "The player we got with that pick, I'm good with."
But how far can the Packers realistically trade up? Green Bay has eight selections this year, including additional picks in Rounds 5 and 7, and is projected to have as many as 11 picks in 2027, depending on the compensatory formula.
Gutekunst said that the Packers have studied and scouted prospects who are projected to be first-round picks and could use any of their assets this year or next to be aggressive in targeting a player they want.
The Packers have had at least one first-round pick in each of Gutekunst's eight drafts. In two of those drafts, 2019 and 2022, the Packers owned two first-round picks. He admitted that patience is tough to come by on the clock, as quality prospects start flying off.
"It's always hard watching good players come off the board, particularly guys we get to know," Gutekunst said. "If we end up waiting 51 picks before we pick, that'll be a long time. Hopefully I'll have the patience to do that."
The one position Gutekunst appeared to single out as a need on Tuesday was cornerback, but his emphasis was as much on getting volume at the position as it was about targeting the highest-rated player there.
"That's probably the group where we're gonna need to add the most numbers," he said.
-- Eric Edholm
Rams' Snead a fan of USC WR Lemon
When it comes to the 2026 draft's first round on Thursday, perhaps the Rams will shop local.
Los Angeles, which holds the No. 13 overall pick, is set up better than most at wideout with Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, but the team still needs to consider who else to pair Nacua up with in the not-so-distant future as Adams heads into his age-34 season. Perhaps USC's Makai Lemon could help in that regard, seeing that general manager Les Snead was a fan of the Trojans wide receiver even outside of the front office lens.
"I've lived and died some Trojan football," Snead said Tuesday during his pre-draft news conference, per Greg Beacham of the Associated Press. "I can say as a fan, as a father with two kids there, it was fun when you saw the ball go up and it was heading toward Lemon's hands. You always felt like he'd bring it down."
Lemon certainly came down with his fair share of catches, hauling in 79 in 2025 for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns on the way to winning the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's top wide receiver. A crisp route runner with excellent ball skills who is similar to Nacua in his tenacity after the catch, he collected 16 of his receptions last season at a throw depth of 20-plus yards down the field (tied for third in the FBS), according to PFF.
NFL draft analysts Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks notably both connected Lemon to the Rams in their most recent mock drafts, and Jeremiah has Lemon ranked as his No. 12 overall prospect.
It would take the dominoes falling the right way, but there's certainly a possibility Lemon won't have to relocate during his transition from college to the pros.
- Bobby Kownack
