Hello friends, it's your buddy Lou Pickney with you here with the DKDB update.
April 1st, 2026.
For a little more than 3 weeks away from night one of the 2026 NFL draft taking place this year in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania April 23rd through 25th.
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Want to talk about a few things here today.
First and foremost, not an April Fools' joke, but the NCAA imposing steep penalties for what I quote ghost transfers.
Article here from Brandon Marcello, CBS Sports.
Been a fan of Brandon's work for a long time now.
He does a good job.
What SEC Sports through the years.
Still does, obviously.
But it's interesting and I share Brandon with the skepticism that he's reported on here that some within the coaching ranks actually have.
But it's noteworthy nonetheless, severe penalties for programs trying to get around the transfer portal.
They desperately don't want players to leave outside the portal, but it makes it very difficult because every case and circumstances is different.
You'd think the NCAA would be sick of losing in court by now.
They sure seem to pass rules, enjoy passing rules that end up getting overturned cuz they can't face the scrutiny of law.
And look, the NCAA does some great things.
I love Division III NCAA athletics.
Absolutely love that.
D1 is a different animal.
So, we'll see if anybody really gets pinched on this.
There's a lot of skepticism about it.
I encourage everybody to go through.
I'll have the link in the description of this YouTube video and read Brandon's article about these ghost transfer penalties.
They're not employees.
You can't control them like that.
They don't have collective bargaining.
But they're going to keep trying to pound that square peg into a round hole and keep getting taking L's in court.
Stop doing that, NCAA.
Easy for me to say that.
I feel for the people that organizations they have to work within the rules that are set up.
Try to keep people happy from major huge universities to small private colleges and everything in between.
You have to deal with any of those, you know there's nonsense all over the place you're having to deal with.
So, we'll see what happens with these ghost transfers.
Also want to talk about Also want to talk about with the Tennessee Titans.
Big fan of what Jim Wyatt does there.
Jim, just like me, is a graduate of Father Ryan High School in Nashville.
Jim Wyatt wrote for years sports section, The Tennessean, big newspaper in town.
And for past several years has been working with the Tennessee Titans as an excellent job with the Titans website.
I really like I'm not sure if Jim came up with that image there with Jeffrey Simmons.
I love the new Titans uniforms.
I absolutely love them.
This is what we should have had in 1999.
They should have never gone with the the redesign that they did.
Although, that's the one they took to the Super Bowl, so that's kind of preserved in history.
But I thought the previous incarnation uniforms were absolutely just hideous, but what good does it do me to complain about that?
Even if they suddenly change their mind, they got to wait 5 years to change it anyway.
So, we've got the Houston Oilers throwbacks and these are very similar cuz they should have never gotten away with it or from it to begin with.
I like that Jeffrey Simmons has the gimmick red arm band there.
That was a amusing thing to me late this season for the Titans in 2025 when they were already out of contention.
It was something fun to watch cuz even in a one-sided game, if Jeffrey Simmons is in there, he's makes it interesting on every play.
So, this is what Jim Wyatt wrote This is what Jim Wyatt wrote here on the tennesseetitans.com official Titans website.
I want to point out it's noteworthy.
And you're going to have within an organization several different people giving input.
Of course, that's just the way it works.
But you're going to have people on the same page eventually and it's noteworthy.
Yes, the Titans brought in Jeremiah Love, running back from Notre Dame.
As a Titans fan, I would love to have Jeremiah Love here in Nashville.
I think he'd be a great addition to that Titans offense.
This isn't about what I want or what I think they should or shouldn't do.
With that said, there's hard push from Adam Schefter who really seems to think that Love is going to not go down to either the Titans at four nor the Neither that nor the Giants at five.
The Commanders at seven, question mark.
As for the Titans, so okay, they had the interview with Love.
You know that Fernando Mendoza, we'll talk more about him in a moment.
You know he's going at number one overall to the Las Vegas Raiders barring the biggest surprise in many, many years in the NFL draft.
But as noted here about some of the talk the Titans with the best player available.
Also talked about what a game changer.
You're going to get a game changer if you get Jeremiah Love.
I think it's noteworthy they didn't really talk too much in depth about the receiver prospects and I don't think that's the I'd be surprised if they went receiver at number four overall.
Then edge rusher between David Bailey, Arvell Reese, and Ruben Bain Jr.
You know you're going to get one of those three because Mendoza is going at one.
If somehow Mendoza falls to four, then I guess you can trade back at that point.
Maybe they can take Jeremiah Love and really throw things for a loop.
But in reality, the likelihood and the way it looks now is that Arvell Reese is going to go at number two overall to the Jets.
Arizona Cardinals at three, they could go with an edge rusher, David Bailey, Ruben Bain Jr.
But they can't take both of them.
And so, even if they don't go with a tackle at four, they instead go with an edge rusher, the Titans would still be in position if they like all these players.
Because you got to think about how difficult it is to get an ultra high-end prospect at one of those premium positions.
The Titans got it last year with Cam Ward at quarterback at number one overall.
And here at number four overall, you believe that you can make a major difference that pass rush all important edge rusher spot.
When you've got Jeffrey Simmons working from the inside, this is a fixable thing as far as really improving that Titans pass rush.
You notice there's not that much talk about linebacker Sunny Styles or safety Caleb Downs in the mix here.
These things are noteworthy.
Anyways, my point in bringing this up along with saying that Jim Wyatt does a great job.
I encourage everybody to read Jim's work tennesseetitans.com.
I think it's noteworthy the Titans are looking in there and they should feel relatively secure that they get that lead They'll know for a fact they'll get at least one of those three.
And a decent chance if Arizona goes with a an offensive tackle at three, they could choose between two of the three.
Anyway, they can get a great edge rusher there if they want it, if that ends up being the move for the Titans.
But Fernando Mendoza, Indiana had its pro day today and as expected, Mendoza went out there and impressed everybody.
What's left for Mendoza to prove at this point?
The answer is really nothing.
He was impressive enough with what he did at Cal.
When he left Cal, he left as the all-time leader in career completion percentage.
Very accurate.
And they took his game to the next level, literally.
Indiana University in 2025, that program, those fans been wait I'm a University of Evansville grad.
Evansville, Indiana, not that far Indiana University.
My Hoosier sports friends, they like to talk basketball a lot, but there wasn't much to talk as far as football until this past year.
It's really remarkable what they pulled off there at IU.
So, Mendoza impressed people as you would expect.
He's not going to say the wrong thing.
If anything, it's going to feel too much like he's doing a Tim Tebow gimmick, but it feels very sincere from him.
It was silly that some people tried to paint Las Vegas as some sort of seedy place that he would be repelled from.
Like, come on.
Have you not been to Vegas?
It's not 2003 anymore.
And even when I was there back then, it was still pretty much a quality place.
I miss old Vegas from being out there years ago.
There's a chance that might be out there.
My buddy Gary's birthday.
Coming up later this summer out in Vegas.
Anyway, that aside, Mendoza, he's going to go at number one to the Raiders barring a massive surprise.
And if he can bring a Super Bowl to Las Vegas, think about he brought a national championship to the Hoosiers at IU.
And now a chance to potentially bring a Super Bowl trophy the city of Las Vegas.
Do that and you'll be a hero forever, Fernando Mendoza.
Hey, no pressure, dude.
He's clearly faced a lot of pressure.
One other note as far as pro days go, Jermod McCoy, he finally went out and did the thing.
We waited and waited.
He didn't work out.
Didn't go through the drills at the NFL combine.
McCoy had a fantastic 2024 season for the University of Tennessee.
Unfortunately, McCoy suffered a torn ACL in one of his knees in January of last year.
And so there was that waiting and there were people like me that got burned last year cuz I believed what a lot of experts, as far as the evaluators were telling me, Will Johnson, Will Johnson, Will Johnson, as far as being a first rounder.
They don't worry about his injury history, whatever.
Well, they were wrong.
And look, Will Johnson had a great freshman campaign rookie year for the Arizona Cardinals.
It worked out.
It'd be a nice pick up there for the Cards.
But it made people like me, I imagine, I I can tell you, it made me, personally, uh hesitant to give too much of a push to an injured corner because you got to be able to go out there and prove that you have that ultra high-end speed.
That's what they want.
No place for slow or mediocre corners in the modern NFL.
Passing game's too important.
McCoy's a solid talent.
He went out there, I mean, he literally looked the part.
Ran a 4.38 second 40-yard dash.
And I think whatever dip that happened within the past week, week and a half, it's going to boomerang right back up and I think there'll be a lot of talk of McCoy as a top 12 overall talent.
[music] He could go top 10.
I mean, there's a risk in waiting to work out.
You want to wait till you're at your optimal level.
But if you get injured, which happens to some guys, you pull a hamstring whatever, then you can't run, and then it's like, then what?
Is that going to wait for you to get healthy to then run at your own pace to get ready?
Is that draft day is coming in April 23rd, like it or not?
Anyway, it worked out for McCoy.
He had a great showing.
And I strongly expect him to be in the first half of the first round, the way it looks now.
One more thing to talk about here.
Latest from Tony Pauline of Essentially Sports.
I'm a big fan of Tony's work.
He's got a lot of legit scoops.
But he was a very good hire by Essentially Sports when he hit the open market earlier in this draft cycle.
But in particular, talking about Spencer Fano and the Cleveland Browns.
I think it's worth following up on this.
I talked about this in a recent DKDB update about how Fano, like, would you really see him as a left tackle?
And the answer is for Cleveland, yes.
So you look at the Cleveland Browns at six.
And again, I felt like there was some pushback when initially I had Fano possibly top five, possibly top three to Arizona at number three.
And it could still happen that way.
Although I get the impression that evaluators and NFL people seem to believe it would be Ma I Ngauamo over Fano for Arizona at number three, the way it looks now.
But at this point, Arizona might not even know.
This evaluation process is a very real thing.
They wouldn't do all this traveling.
I mean, these They don't talk about this very much cuz it's not a glamorous part of the job, having to travel all the time, all these pro days.
You show up and the guy you want to see doesn't work out.
I've noticed that in some draft reports >> [music] >> and scouting reports, etc.
You can definitely tell that scouts get miffed when they're led to believe or want to believe that a particular star prospect's going to work out, and then that player doesn't do so.
Anyway, but it's noteworthy with Fano's, like, when you think about what is Cleveland going to do?
They got the six and the 24.
You need an offensive lineman, preferably somebody to play tackle.
A versatility doesn't hurt either.
And Fano checks all those boxes.
His arm measurement was larger.
Somehow, Utah's pro day, he measured long longer arms than he did at the combine in Indianapolis.
I thought it was noteworthy about Fano.
I'll have the link to this article here from Tony Pauline of Essentially Sports in the description of this YouTube video.
I encourage you to go read it.
Leaving open a trading down according to what Tony is saying.
Giants also showing interest.
Fano could go to the Giants at five.
I think that's noteworthy.
Chiefs also said to be high on Fano.
Tony's got legit info.
This isn't just him throwing out stuff out there.
He's one of those people I trust.
Reporting's on point.
I think it's worth pointing out here.
So, I'll have this linked, but it's noteworthy though with Fano.
At this point, it looks more and more like he's going to be a top 10 pick and maybe even a top five, uh depending on what the Giants do at five.
But you try to figure out what the Browns with the six and the 24, if they're not so enamored with a receiver that they think they have to take that player at six.
If Fano at six, you know there's going to be talent at receiver on the board at 24.
But that's at least the way that things look at this point.
That's the latest from Tony Pauline of Essentially Sports.
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A human curated, expert curated 2026 NFL mock draft database.
