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The most intriguing teams and players of the 2026 NFL Draft’s first round
The 2026 NFL Draft begins at 8 p.m. ET with the Las Vegas Raiders picking Fernando Mendoza to be their new franchise quarterback, but the intrigue doesn’t actually start until after that first pick is history.
That’s how this draft will play out. The first pick will go down as the draft’s signature moment, but the fireworks won’t be lit until later.
The maneuvering, complications, and curiosity, all of it, begin beyond the first selection.
The reason is this draft lacks the allure of multiple quarterbacks competing to go higher than the others. Only one QB beyond Mendoza has even a small chance of getting picked in the first round and that would likely require some of that maneuvering you just read about.
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This draft also lacks the draw of polarizing players such as Randy Moss back in 1998 or Shedeur Sanders a year ago, so finding heroes and villians will be difficult.
But this draft does offer touch points of high interest that will keep folks engaged. It offers drama about some teams and some individual prospects.
Let’s begin with the teams:
This draft actually begins when the New York Jets are on the clock at No. 2 and pick a player whose identity only three people in the organization – coach Aaron Glenn, general manager Darren Mougey and owner Woody Johnson — know with certainty.
That’s important, folks. Remember the Jets used to leak like century-old Bronx tenement pipes during the Robert Saleh regime. No more. The Jets are locked up tight, so even insiders aren’t sure if they’re going to pick Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey or Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese.
Or somebody else.
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The Arizona Cardinals are scheduled to pick at No. 3. And they might pick any number of players – running back Jeremiyah Love (if they’re smart), a right tackle, or a pass rusher.
But here’s the truth: The Cardinals want to trade down. Badly.
They want more picks and need more talent and the rumor league-wide is they’ve been leaking interest in Love so that a team that covets the dynamic running back offers them a trade.
Are you getting the drift here? This stuff is kind of interesting.
The fact is the Cardinals, Eagles, Chiefs, Saints, Browns, Bills, Titans Commanders and Seahawks have all been tied to trade-up or trade-down scenarios.
We can only hope for such mass chaos to punctuate this draft.
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And why are teams so willing to move around? Because there are players that come with great ability but also questionable reliability – a combination that makes teams want to trade down to hedge their bets.
Consider:
Miami offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa is probably the draft’s top offensive tackle prospect. He’s big, strong, tough, everything an NFL team wants in a bookend tackle.
He also comes into this draft with a herniated disc in his back.
Mauigoa was reportedly asymptomatic throughout the 2025 season and remains so now, but teams are aware that if his back acts up, he could require surgery. So, yeah, a significant potential risk.
Arizona State receiver Jordyn Tyson is a human injury list. He had a multi-ligament (ACL, MCL, PCL) knee tear in 2022, a broken collarbone in 2024, and hamstring issues much of last season.
Tyson is also a human highlight reel.
And those two traits make teams love him. And hate him. And not sure where to draft him in the first round.
Injury concerns are not the only reason some players will be fascinating to monitor during Thursday’s first round.
You can bet that if ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky gets any air time during the draft he’ll be advocating for Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson to be selected because there’s a bromance going on there.
Simpson is the other quarterback who might go in the first round. But he might not.
The Cardinals, of all teams, could be interested in him later in the first round. Simpson’s not a value pick at No. 3 because he only started 15 college games and even Nick Saban, who recruited him to Alabama, doesn’t think he’s ready for the NFL.
“He needs to go someplace where he has a chance to develop and not play right away,” Saban said on the Pat McAfee Show this week.
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There are rumors the Pittsburgh Steelers initially saw Simpson as player to park on their bench and let him learn behind Aaron Rodgers. It’s unclear where that thinking is now within an organization that doesn’t enjoy 100 percent certainty Rodgers will be playing in 2026.
Call that another chance for intrigue in the first round of this draft.
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ALERT: Trump Set To Make ‘Special Announcement’ From Oval Office
President Donald Trump is set to make an Oval Office announcement Monday afternoon, but the White House is keeping the subject under wraps.
According to the official daily guidance and press schedule released Sunday night, Trump will make the announcement at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, September 28.
The schedule provides just one tantalizing line: “THE PRESIDENT makes an Announcement.”
The event will take place in the Oval Office and will be open to the White House Press Pool. No additional details about what Trump plans to announce were provided.
Trump has a packed schedule leading up to the event.
His calendar includes executive time at 8 a.m., followed by policy meetings at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m. The Oval Office announcement follows at 2 p.m., with a print interview scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
Trump spent Sunday at the President’s Cup in Medinah, Illinois, before returning to Washington.
After arriving, the president briefly spoke with reporters on the tarmac and revealed that his day still wasn’t over, noting that he had a 10 p.m. dinner meeting scheduled with Anthropic founder Dario Amodei.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump hints that his big announcement tomorrow in the Oval Office is related to his meeting with ANTHROPIC
And his meeting is TONIGHT at 10pm
DESPITE the long day today in Chicago. REALLY incredible how he can do it. pic.twitter.com/snEZd99jCE
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 28, 2026
“So that’s a long day, right?! We leave early in the morning, and now I have a dinner with Anthropic,” the president said.
Trump also noted that he had held lengthy discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping and several additional American technology leaders earlier in the week.
For now, exactly what Trump intends to reveal Monday remains unknown.
The White House had not released additional information about the announcement as of this report.
The 2 p.m. Oval Office time slot has previously been used by the administration for policy announcements, including healthcare-related events. In those instances, the White House similarly announced the time and location beforehand while withholding the substance of the announcement until the event.
Monday’s announcement will be available through official White House livestreams and available press pool coverage.
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CEO Charged In Scheme To Infiltrate Secret Service
A U.S. tech CEO and a Russian national have been arrested in a federal case alleging they concealed Russian ownership and software development while securing U.S. government contracts — including work involving the Secret Service.
Federal prosecutors say Lee Reiber, 55, CEO of Virginia-based Oxygen Forensics Inc., and Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, of Moscow, hid the company’s Russian ties while selling digital forensics technology to federal agencies.
Reiber was arrested in Idaho on September 20 and later released on bond. Davydov was arrested the same day at London’s Heathrow Airport while preparing to board a flight to Istanbul. U.S. authorities intend to seek his extradition.
“The CEO of a Virginia-based software company and a Russian national have been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging them with concealing from U.S. government agencies that their company was owned and controlled by Russian nationals and that its software was developed in Russia,” prosecutors said.
Authorities allege Reiber made representations to the federal government that directly contradicted the company’s actual ownership and development structure.
They further stated that “Reiber allegedly represented to the government that the company had no foreign ownership or control and that its software was developed in the United States, when in fact five Russian nationals, including Davydov, owned and controlled the company and its software was developed in Russia.”
Importantly, the criminal complaint does not allege that Oxygen Forensics’ software contained malicious code or that it was used to obtain unauthorized access to customers’ systems or data.
But the alleged concealment becomes particularly significant because of who was buying the company’s technology.
According to an affidavit supporting the complaint, beginning in March 2022, Reiber, Davydov and others allegedly conspired to obtain federal contracts through Oxygen Forensics.
The company’s software is designed to recover, preserve and analyze information extracted from digital devices.
Federal agencies identified in the affidavit include the Department of War as well as Department of Homeland Security components, including the Secret Service and its National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI), Homeland Security Investigations and the DHS Office of Inspector General.
Prosecutors allege the company presented a dramatically different picture of itself to the U.S. government than what existed behind the scenes.
“According to the affidavit, Oxygen Forensics held itself out to the U.S. government as being an independent, U.S.-based company. In fact, Davydov and four other Russian nationals owned and controlled the company through a holding company based in Cyprus,” prosecutors said.
The Russian connections allegedly extended well beyond ownership.
According to the affidavit, the same five individuals owned a Russian company formerly known as Oxygen Software LLC and later renamed MKO Systems LLC. Davydov co-founded that company in 2000, and developers worked in Russia.
MKO reportedly sold similar software inside Russia to customers that included the FSB, the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Davydov served as the Russian company’s chief technology officer and helped establish the Virginia-based firm in 2013.
Then came Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and expanded U.S. sanctions.
According to federal investigators, that is when efforts to conceal the company’s Russian ownership and development structure intensified.
The affidavit alleges that the parties agreed to hide both Russian ownership and the role Russian developers played in producing the software.
Reiber was installed as Oxygen Forensics’ CEO, president and board chairman in March 2022.
Russian owners were removed from public corporate filings, according to the affidavit, but prosecutors allege their actual power over the company remained.
The Russian owners allegedly continued making significant corporate decisions, setting Reiber’s compensation, overruling him on payments and retaining signing authority over company bank accounts.
Federal investigators also pointed to certifications submitted directly to the government.
In December 2022 and again in October 2023, Reiber allegedly certified that Oxygen Forensics had no immediate or highest-level owner.
Then, in November 2023, a reporter began asking questions about the company’s ownership.
According to the affidavit, Reiber subsequently wrote to Davydov and two other owners that the resulting public reporting “could destroy this entire opportunity,” referring to a pending NCFI contract.
He also warned that the “current existence of this company hangs in the balance.”
The government’s allegations did not stop there.
In July 2024, prosecutors say that, at Reiber’s direction, the company certified to the Department of War that no foreign person controlled the appointment of directors or company decisions.
Then, in March 2026, Reiber allegedly told DHS personnel that no Russian was involved in software development and that nobody in Russia had access to the company’s build environment.
Federal investigators allege the reality was very different.
According to the affidavit, the software was written and managed by a Russian development team operating under Davydov in a cloud environment administered by one of the Russian owners.
The allegations now place the company’s federal contracting history — and its representations about who actually owned, controlled and developed its technology — at the center of a major federal criminal case.
Reiber and Davydov have been charged by criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The allegations contained in the complaint remain accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
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Trump Torches Supreme Court Over Controversial New Ruling
President Donald Trump unloaded on the U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday after the justices blocked Missouri from using its controversial 2025 congressional map in the upcoming midterm elections — a decision with potentially significant consequences for control of the U.S. House.
The map, which Missouri used during this year’s primary elections, was designed in a way that could have given Republicans an opportunity to pick up another congressional seat. But after months of legal battles and conflicting court rulings, the Supreme Court put an end to its use in the November 3 general election.
Trump wasted little time responding.
“The Supreme Court of the United States will just not let Missouri have an Election Victory. They continuously, three times now, overrule Judges who came to the correct decisions,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
The president then praised Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe and those who fought to keep the new congressional districts in place.
“Thank you to the Governor, and all of the Great People of Missouri, who are fighting so hard for Fairness and Election Security. Such tremendous Spirit and Love of our Country. I won Missouri BIG, all three times, and I couldn’t be more proud of doing so. A great place — I love you all,” the president continued.
The Supreme Court’s Friday order brought another dramatic turn in a redistricting fight that has bounced between state and federal courts.
The order, issued without noted dissents, halted a federal appeals court directive that would have required Missouri to use the 2025 congressional map.
Timing proved critical.
According to the Supreme Court, ballots based on Missouri’s 2022 congressional districts had already been printed and mailed, while absentee, military and overseas voting was already underway.
Changing maps at that point, the justices wrote, “would usher in electoral chaos.”
The court consequently directed lower courts not to prohibit Missouri from using the 2022 map or require the state to implement the 2025 map for the 2026 congressional election.
The dispute traces back to Missouri Republicans’ decision to enact a new congressional map, known as House Bill 1, during a special legislative session.
Governor Mike Kehoe signed the measure on September 28, 2025.
The map significantly reconfigured congressional districts, including the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District represented by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. The redraw was intended to create another Republican-leaning congressional district in a state where Republicans currently control six of eight U.S. House seats.
But opponents quickly launched an effort to stop it.
People Not Politicians gathered signatures seeking a statewide referendum on the new map, relying on a provision of the Missouri Constitution that allows voters to review certain acts passed by the legislature.
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins declined to certify the petition, and the state’s August 4 primary elections proceeded using the 2025 congressional boundaries.
Then came another major reversal.
On September 3, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the referendum petition was legal, sufficient and timely.
That decision meant House Bill 1 had never taken effect and would remain suspended unless Missouri voters ultimately approved it.
What followed was an extraordinary series of conflicting court decisions.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh initially denied an emergency request seeking to block the Missouri Supreme Court ruling.
Minutes later, however, a federal district judge issued an order requiring Missouri to use the 2025 congressional map.
The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently stayed that order.
A federal appeals court then entered the fight, concluding that conducting the primary and general elections under different congressional maps would violate the Constitution. The appeals court directed Missouri to return to the 2025 map.
Once again, the Supreme Court intervened and blocked the ruling.
The result is now clear for November.
Missouri will conduct its November 3 general election using the state’s 2022 congressional districts, despite having conducted its August primary under the newer boundaries.
At the same time, Missouri voters will decide the referendum determining whether the 2025 congressional map should be approved for future use.
Governor Kehoe has said Missouri will comply with the Supreme Court’s order, bringing the immediate legal fight over which map will govern the upcoming general election to a close.
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