Final SEC Draft buzz 24 hours before Round 1

Credit: Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images

By Chris Marler

The biggest day in 32 people’s lives will happen tomorrow night in Pittsburgh. The NFL Draft will get underway at 7 PM CST and will end just around midnight. With a little over 24 hours left until the first pick is in, here’s the latest that we’re hearing.

Prepare yourself for the narrative

The shifting change across the landscape of college football has been talked about a ton over the last few seasons. The Big Ten’s presumed slide into the top dog for power conferences has been well documented all over and well received in much fewer places – especially in the Southeast. Tomorrow however, will be another learning lesson in humility for SEC fans, as the SEC will almost certainly not have the most first round picks for the first time in a very long time.

As of Wednesday the SEC is projected to only get 8 players called in the first round. That’s nearly half of what they had a season ago when they tied their own record of 15 first round draft picks. The eight is not only second in terms of odds, it’s second by three whole players. The Big Ten is currently favored to have 11 players called in the first round which is significantly more than the SEC. The Big Ten legitimately might have eight players go in the first 16 picks of the first round. Something to keep an eye on.

Names moving up, and names moving down

Wildly enough you could fill out this whole segment with two players from the same position unit and the same team. It’s just that only one of them actually played this season. Tennessee cornerbacks Jermod McCoy and Colton Hood are both projected to go in the first round. One of them, McCoy, has had his name etched in nearly every first round mock draft dating back to last season. That being said, it’s Hood whose name has been skyrocketing up draft boards.

McCoy sat out all last year with an injury, but was weirdly enough on almost every single injury report throughout the season. Since the draft process began, he’s still been slotted as a first round pick, but his medical evaluations have come back with a lot of negative signs. It shouldn’t drop him out of the first round, but there’s real smoke to the rumors that Hood could wind up being CB No. 2 taken off the board.

Pelissero: CB Jermod McCoy may not go in round 1 due to knee injury.

— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) April 20, 2026

A message to NFC South teams

It’s ok to draft players from your home state. I’m talking to you, Atlanta and New Orleans. I’m especially talking to you, New Orleans. Last year the Falcons broke their longtime weird, unspoken rule of not drafting players from UGA. The Falcons have long been a source of misery for Atlantans. Trust me, I am from there. That made it even weirder that they essentially refused to draft players from the best program, not only in the state, but in the country. That ended a season ago when they drafted Jalon Walker from Georgia in the first round. Walker then registered 5.5 sacks for a defense that had ranked last in the three previous seasons combined in sacks.

The lesson here? The Saints should draft Mansoor Delane. I don’t know why they won’t draft LSU players in New Orleans. They’ve only drafted ten all-time and three since 2000. None of those players were drafted in the first round either. Get Delane. Please.

LSU’s Mansoor Delane is the only CB that is a “sure fire top 15 pick”, per @PSchrags pic.twitter.com/sa2gATJf2D

— SleeperNFL (@SleeperNFL) April 21, 2026

What will happen with Ty Simpson?

There are some people that think Ty Simpson can jump all the way to the No. 3 spot with the Cardinals, and there are some that think he will fall out of the first round entirely. Here’s my take on Simpson without weighing in on his talent at all.

He will go in the first round.

Why? Because there is no professional league where decision makers get wrapped up in trivial things more than the NFL Draft. Some GM will, or already has, fallen in love with Ty Simpson. Just like some NFL GM will foolishly fall in love with a wide receiver who runs a sub 4.3 but has D- hands. If that sounds far-fetched, I beg you to look up Derrius Heyward-Bey. Simpson is a really good and physically talented quarterback. He’s the clear cut No. 2 QB in this draft.

There’s no way he falls out of the first in my opinion if for no other reason than we will not see just one quarterback taken in round one. We almost never do.

🚨BREAKING: The Arizona #Cardinals are the FAVORITES to draft Alabama star quarterback Ty Simpson.

There is a 62% chance Arizona selects Simpson, per Polymarket.

Simpson is considered one of the most intriguing QB prospects.

Mike LaFleur is the perfect coach to develop Ty. pic.twitter.com/lXcPJM9sTM

— MLFootball (@MLFootball) April 20, 2026