Hello friends, it's your buddy Lou Pickney with you here.
It's the DKDB update.
May 2nd, 2026.
We've made it through another draft cycle.
And it's on to the next.
Looking ahead to the 2027 NFL draft, it's taking place in Washington, D.C.
for the first time since 1941.
That should be quite the event.
They haven't announced the official dates for it yet.
The anticipation is late April of 2027.
Here in the DKDB, I put the best of the best.
I personally curated 2027 NFL mock draft database.
No AI, no gimmicks, no paywalls, where you click one screen to go to another and we hide the link to the person's site over on the side hoping you won't see it.
None of that here.
Just the best of the best.
Top analysts from independents, or from major publications or broadcasting outlets.
We have some of the quote-unquote way too early mock drafts in here.
There's a whole link, you just click on it, takes you right there.
Where I ran into trouble in this most recent draft, the first half I was doing very well with the live stream, that was fun.
Doing the live reactions.
Where I ran into trouble and I should have known better, I suppose.
but going for players that were more run stoppers or run stuffers.
Run stuffing safety, day two.
Injured corners, day two.
Some of that I got right.
It really surprised me that Jermod McCoy from Tennessee went all the way to the fourth round.
I thought he had a good showing at Tennessee's pro day, but it showed that those injury concerns that lingered beyond his torn ACL had some validity to them as far as those rumors went cuz he did slide.
So, looking ahead now, let's go through with my first look at my first 2027 NFL mock draft.
I've got my mock draft here posted world exclusive on the DKDB.
Been in this business a long time.
This one, my first of the cycle, went up right at midnight Eastern on May 1st.
Some people were quicker to get theirs out.
That's what I went with for this.
I'm going to go through this and again, this is at best a rough outline, an estimate, but it's a look at what you might expect.
The standings are based on Tankathon.
Big fan of Tankathon.
They saw the major need that existed as far as trying to determine the order of the draft.
A lot of the early, when this site started as Draft King in 2003, a lot of the early traction it got was because people would email me to complain about the order.
And I was just doing my best to estimate it.
I said, "Look, I'm not I'm not in Vegas.
I'm not trying to set some sort of a line.
I'm just trying to get an order as best I can." But then, along with that, there was the challenge of trying to use statistics because you can go through and figure out the draft order if you can make the stats work properly.
Now, stats, crunching the stats is not my strong suit, unfortunately.
I didn't trust myself enough to go out and say, "This is determinately, for sure, it." But, the NFL would be very slow and lazy about it.
They've gotten much better now.
They've been forced to because of sites like Tankathon that will give you like very much like right now it's an estimate on their site as far as what the draft order is.
So, they can take the heat and I can say, "Look, that's where I got it from." So, again, over both 2020 to 2024 and from 2021 to 2025, I was tied for the third highest score in the Huddle Report, which tracks accuracy among NFL draft analysts like me.
With that in mind, let's get to it.
Again, this order set based on the order on Tankathon.
At one, Miami Dolphins- Arch Manning, quarterback Texas.
You're going to see a lot of quarterbacks, a lot of different schools in these mock drafts that have come out, but a couple are going to be near the top of most of them, particularly Arch Manning from Texas.
And again, I realize Malik Willis is under contract with Miami.
It doesn't matter.
If you've got the number one overall pick in next year's draft, you're going to have some options at quarterback well beyond what the free agent market had this year.
Some some top talent in there.
At two, Arizona Cardinals Dante Moore from Oregon.
Again, yes, they used the number 65 overall pick on Miami quarterback Carson Beck, but if you end up with the second worst record in the NFL and you're drafting this high, well, you're going to have possibilities to perhaps better bridge the gap at quarterback from Kyler Murray going from Arizona.
At three, New York Jets, Julian Sayin, quarterback, Ohio State.
The Jets have three first round picks in next year's draft, in the 2027 NFL draft.
Logic would dictate they're going to use one of those on a quarterback.
They may have to use multiple as far as trading up.
But here, they stick at three, Sayin from Ohio State.
At four, Cleveland Browns.
There's a thought that Cleveland could go quarterback.
And again, it's a similar line of thought with those first three teams, but at some point, they can't all be quarterbacks.
Leonard Moore, talented corner from Notre Dame.
Again, this is not to put undue pressure or expectations on these players necessarily.
This is just a rough outline of the way the evaluators Those early results from evaluators have got an entire season to play, so much to get through.
So, don't get too high or low on early expectations.
It's just an idea of what it might be.
So, Moore at four to the Browns.
At five, Jeremiah Smith, wide receiver, Ohio State, to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Imagine Fernando Mendoza throwing to Smith.
There are some people that think Smith has a chance to legitimately be the number one overall pick in the 2027 draft.
I think that would be a very tall order given the demand for quarterback and what is expected to be a historically strong class at QB.
Now, again, they're expectations.
We'll see what the reality is by the time we get to the draft.
But, whatever the case with the quarterbacks, Smith has been very impressive at Ohio State.
Keep in mind, some of these players have eligibility beyond the upcoming season.
They may stay in college for the 2027 season.
With the way it works, the industry standard is that you presume that everybody that could possibly be in the draft will be.
and then if and when they back out, I think Arch Manning last year was the exception.
I took out Dante Moore and LaNorris Sellers last year in November because of certain very strong signs and reports and indications, but that made me an outlier.
So, I'm not doing that this year.
absent some sort of a change of heart.
At six, Tennessee Titans, Jordan Seaton, tackle, LSU.
It's all over the place with some of these offensive line evaluations, but again, very early in the process.
Colin Simmons, edge, Texas to the New Orleans Saints.
You're looking at possible And sometimes team needs, you're looking at positions they didn't necessarily target all that heavily, if at all in some cases, in the 2026 draft.
Dylan Stewart, edge, from South Carolina to the Carolina Panthers.
Trevor Goosby, tackle, Texas, Falcons.
Again, all over the place with offensive line, you know, so don't get too caught up on so-and-so seeming, you know, preseason top 10.
Well, we're looking at just what may be a more of a handful of evaluations, just some early indications.
That's the best especially you can do with an early forecast.
It's kind of how it is at this point.
We're in May for a draft that's probably going to be in April of next year.
I hope it's not in May of next year.
Calling the Southern Athletic Association men's lacrosse championship, which luckily is in well, into May, that first week of May.
So, hopefully that won't collide with the draft.
That's what I'm hoping on.
The expectation is last week of April for the draft next year, but it's not official yet.
At 10, city that just hosted the draft set a record.
Was it north of 800,000 people over the course of 3 days?
As I noted here in the DKDB night one live show, it would be very difficult for the NFL to go back to the old way they used to do it at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
I was up there in 2012 for in person VIP pass.
Really good time.
But it's a different event now.
I mean, it's this traveling massive show that draws huge crowds.
But Pittsburgh hosted I hear Pittsburgh gets Darian Mensah, quarterback Miami transfer from Duke.
I'm sure there's still some bad blood with certain people as far as they thought they had Mensah for 2 years, but that's not the way it works, pal.
These are not employees.
Whatever NIL deals are in place aren't necessarily going to hold people in a given spot.
Miami's proven to be an exceptional finishing school for high-end quarterback prospects.
The finishing school for exceptional quarterback prospects in the NIL era.
The Cam Ward quarterback school at Miami.
At 11, A'Mauri Washington, defensive tackle Oregon.
Washington was one of those players that was draft eligible for 2026.
but you can tell that Oregon has its ducks in a row.
Mr.
Phil Knight and others, of course, but particularly Mr.
Phil Knight, and Oregon has put a lot of money in that program.
That includes retaining players that have first-round potential.
12, KJ Bolden, safety from Georgia to the Washington Commanders.
It's tough for safeties to go this high.
People get false expectations based on Caleb Downs.
But even Downs didn't go in the top 10 after all.
He was a phenomenal prospect in the year that was weak overall at quarterback.
So, if there was time for a safety to go top 10, you think that would be it.
Now, Bolden here at 12 is not top 10.
There have been plenty of safeties to go in that 11 plus range.
And that's what it looks like early on here with Bolden.
Just again, rough outline with a lot of this.
A preview more than anything what you might see.
At 13, Ellis Robinson IV, cornerback, Georgia.
Didn't play in the Bulldogs spring game.
I received what I had this procedure like this new procedure they had for high ankle sprains.
Wish they would have had that one for my junior of high school.
Back in 1993, there was no internet for looking stuff up.
So, I couldn't look up that a high ankle sprain meant actually a partial tear.
I didn't realize that.
Remember trying to play through it and being yelled at.
All right.
>> [laughter] >> Now, they've got special surgeries.
So, hopefully for Robinson, the surgery, this little micro surgery, whatever they call it, it'll go well or has gone well and that helped.
The expectation is he'll be ready to go for the fall for the Georgia Bulldogs.
Here I've got him going at 13 to the Vikings.
At 14, another corner, Zabien Brown, corner from Alabama.
I've noticed the Jets have it number Or is that number three?
And then the 14 and the 15.
This is the list from Tankathon.
So, here are the pick the Jets got from the Colts.
Zabien Brown, corner from Alabama.
Remember the Jets had zero interceptions for the entire season in 2025.
Zero interceptions total in 17 games.
Yeah, if you I've talked about this before, but if that happened in a video game, you would say the game is glitched.
Well, you could say the 2025 Jets are a bit glitched.
They're trying to turn it back around.
And again, part of the reason that happens was they traded Quinnen Williams, they traded Sauce Gardner.
That's how you get these picks and there are sometimes short-term sacrifices to be made when it comes to rebuilding in the NFL.
At 15, New York Jets, Ryan Coleman-Williams, wide receiver, Alabama.
Well, he's officially changed his listed name to Coleman Williams as was just Williams.
but he gained national fame as Ryan Williams in 2024 as a freshman at Alabama.
So, we'll see he's got eligibility beyond the season.
That's an important caveat with a lot of these players.
I mean, many of them will choose to go pro, but it's a different game now.
NIL has changed things.
At 16, Cayden Green, offensive lineman, Missouri to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Hard to get a read on what the Bengals might do at this point and it's very early in the process, obviously, but I've got Green to the Bengals at 17.
Matayo Uiagalelei, edge, Oregon, another player that had first-round potential that Oregon convinced to come back for this upcoming season.
Here he goes to the Jags at 17.
At 18, David Stone, defensive tackle, Oklahoma.
The Bears had trouble stopping the run last season.
I thought they would have done more to try and boost up that interior defensive line, but apparently they feel pretty good about it considering they didn't use a pick on a tackle until the sixth round.
So, we'll see how it goes for the Bears, but here David Stone, one of the top defensive tackle prospects as it looks now for next year's draft.
At 19, Jamari Johnson, tight end, Oregon.
Bucks waited to go with a tight end.
Yes, they resigned Cade Otton.
It was a pending free agent.
But there'd been all this talk about the Bucks using a lot of 12 personnel formations, double tight end.
And maybe they would have gone with Kenyon Sadiq if Rueben Bain Jr. hadn't fallen.
But he did.
Bain was there at 15 for the Bucks.
But regardless, here at 19, Jamari Johnson.
Quite the combo with Sadiq.
Talking about Sadiq, he and Sadiq teammates last year at Oregon.
So Bucks didn't get Sadiq, perhaps they'll get Jamari Johnson at 19.
At 20, Ahmad Hardy, Running back, Missouri.
Houston Texans.
Hardy know with running backs, you don't want to presume anything.
I mean, there were two running backs going in the first round of this most recent draft.
But as far as teams that might need a running back in a reasonable range, if Hardy's able to replicate his very strong 2025 campaign this upcoming season, it's a distinct possibility.
At 21, Austin Siereveld.
Offensive tackle, Ohio State.
For the Denver Broncos.
Particularly in an early mock like this, the further you get from the top, it really gets tough.
Cuz most of these teams drafting near the bottom are projected to be pretty strong.
So less glaring needs, and so some of this gets to be best player available.
22, Charlie Becker.
Wide receiver, Indiana.
I'm a graduate of Father Ryan High School.
There's never been a first round pick in the NFL draft as a graduate of Father Ryan High School.
Becker has a chance to be the first whether it's in this upcoming draft in 2027 or the following year in 2028.
He's had a great run thus far at Indiana.
We'll see what happens with Charlie Becker.
23 It's back-to-back Indiana wide receivers, Nick Marsh one of the Packers.
Kelley Jones, corner from Mississippi State the 49ers at number 24.
Again, you can't get too caught up on team needs and perceptions.
They just had the draft.
Mostly they think this is the happy this is the hopeful season where the NFL does not sell football.
The NFL sells hope.
25, C.J. Carr, quarterback, Notre Dame. Again, a lot of quarterbacks some that aren't in this mock including Leonora Sellers but a lot of quality quarterbacks that could be in the mix with Carr.
If some people think he may go top 10.
If that's the projection perhaps it'll be different, but it's important to note that Carr has eligibility beyond this upcoming season.
And that's something you have to be cognizant of that.
But the way it works is I explained, you have to presume everybody that's going to be that could be and will be and parse it from there and then if and when they decide to return to college, well you worry about that when January rolls around.
26, LA Chargers Ahmad Moten Sr. senior defensive tackle, Miami.
The Chargers drafted Akheem Mesidor.
25 years old but it didn't surprise me the end that Mesidor went to the Chargers because when you've got a quarterback that's a solid starting quarterback as the Chargers do.
You guys get a team together that's going to give it a run while you've got the chances.
You're going to only get so many shots at it.
The question would be, would you go back-to-back defensive lineman in the first round?
Well, potentially.
See how Moten does this season for the Hurricanes.
27, Kade Pieper, offensive lineman, Iowa.
Kansas City, there was the a brief time there were whispers that the Chiefs were thinking offensive line, offensive tackle even, at number nine overall.
So, it didn't play out that way.
Of course, the Chiefs traded up for LSU corner, Mansoor Delane.
But here, but here, Kade Pieper, Iowa, 27.
At 28, Seattle Seahawks, Will Eckols, defensive tackle, Ole Miss.
It's hard to know for sure with the Seahawks, although it is interesting the past 2 years it's leaked out who they're going to be going with in the first round.
Even though I I I'd say though I didn't say they were going to go with running back Jahmyr Gibbs at 32.
I thought corner, or I thought trade back was actually the most likely.
but they didn't trade back and kept it.
Went with running back.
And here, defensive tackle for Seattle.
29, Philadelphia Eagles, Quincy Rhodes Jr., edge, Arkansas.
I've been some thought the Eagles could use possibly a first-round pick on an edge rusher.
It didn't happen.
But here they go with Rhodes.
Arkansas at 30.
Baltimore Ravens, Kewan Lacy, running back, Ole Miss.
This is the second of two first-round picks that the Ravens were slated to trade to the Las Vegas Raiders for Max Crosby.
Only for Crosby they then failed the physical per Baltimore.
The deal got called off.
Baltimore kept the picks.
Here they get a running back, Kewan Lacy at 30.
31, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, LB, Notre Dame.
Now, I realize the Bills were able to fill their linebacker need with Kaleb Elarms-Orr.
But, if you're talking best player available, that would be the best fit the way I saw it there at 31.
And then, 32, Mario Craver, wide receiver, Texas A&M to the Los Angeles Rams.
Again, this list is per Tankathon as of this recording.
And the Rams went big-time on offense in the 2026 draft.
But, that won't necessarily stop them from going with a receiver here at 32.
That's the way it plays out.
But, you win the Super Bowl, I going to have a bit of latitude in what you do.
Oh, but it would be It would make sense for the Rams to go receiver early in the 2027 draft, the way it looks now.
So, that's a look at my first 2027 NFL mock draft.
Or, that's a DKDB world exclusive.
Be sure to bookmark the DKDB.
This updated a little less frequently during the summer when most of the top analysts that put out one of those early mocks will get one out there and then kind of wait it out.
Some will be more frequent with updates.
I got a bunch in here.
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