Brandon Beane finally got far enough down the road to pick up the can. The question now is whether his Buffalo Bills are actually on the road to Super Bowl 61 given WR DJ Moore’s image was miraculously plastered on said can.

If nothing else, Thursday’s news that the Bills had agreed to acquire Moore from the Chicago Bears, essentially for a second-rounder, solved a major headache for Beane − TBD if he’s cured or will be reaching for more Tylenol − while creating options heading into the NFL free agency market and, ultimately, the 2026 draft.

“At the end of the day, that is on me, all that stuff is on me,” Beane told local reporters in February about the Bills’ ongoing inability to find high-end receiver production and deep-strike capability for 2024 league MVP Josh Allen opposite slot machine Khalil Shakir and TEs Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox.

A year ago, Beane’s frustration was especially apparent during a local radio interview, when he wondered why fans and media members were ‘bitching’ about the team’s wideout challenges.

‘Our job is to score points and win games,’ Beane added.

‘It’s not fantasy football to trot out the best receivers. You got Josh Allen. First thing you got to do is protect him. You can’t have everything. You can’t have Pro Bowl wide receivers and have a Pro Bowl offensive line and an All-Pro quarterback and three great running backs. You’ve got to pick.

‘So, that’s where I’m like, I don’t understand this narrative.’

Maybe Moore can put it to bed after Keon Coleman, Josh Palmer, Elijah Moore, Curtis Samuel, Mack Hollins, Amari Cooper and others couldn’t in the two years since Stefon Diggs’ departure. All were Band-Aid-adjacent alternatives. And no Bills fan will forget that the team was futilely (as it turned out) relying on 32-year-old journeyman Brandin Cooks, a late-season pickup in 2025, to haul in Allen’s final pass of the devastating divisional-round playoff loss at Denver that ultimately cost longtime coach Sean McDermott his job.

Regardless, this transaction should have significant ramifications for the Bills, Bears, Moore and the early part of the draft in general.

Why didn’t Buffalo just draft a receiver?

Beane’s been on the lookout. Coleman, the 33rd overall pick two years ago, has infamously not worked out − just ask Bills owner Terry Pegula.

But Moore’s a proven commodity, one who’s averaged better than 1,000 receiving yards per season over his eight-year NFL career. He’s not exactly Ja’Marr Chase − who is? − but Moore does resemble a running back once the ball is in his hands. And while he might not run routes as crisp as Shakir’s, Moore can also get open deep − look no further than his pair of game-winning TD catches against the Green Bay Packers last season.

Bottom line? He could be the perfect complement for this offense. He’s also ready to go for a squad Pegula expects Beane and rookie head coach Joe Brady to navigate to a Lombardi Trophy sooner than later.

And while the 2026 draft is viewed as rich with receivers, Beane probably wasn’t going to have the chance of taking USC’s Makai Lemon, Washington’s Denzel Boston, Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson or Ohio State’s Carnell Tate (despite Beane’s humorous wishcasting at the combine) with the 26th pick of the first round. And potentially trading up was going to cost him draft capital anyway, so why not just target Moore?

Who will the Bills target in draft now?

TBD of course, especially with free agency yet to unfold − though Buffalo is currently cap-strapped. But with DE Joey Bosa and G David Edwards and C Connor McGovern all unsigned, interior O-line and pass rush help could now be at the top of Beane’s to-do list.

What does the trade mean for DJ Moore?

A fresh start.

He had a career year in 2023 (96 catches for 1,364 yards and 8 TDs). But that’s when Justin Fields was throwing to him in Chicago, and the Bears weren’t very good. Moore seemed to struggle to find a vibe with QB Caleb Williams for much of the past two seasons and was out-produced by rookie TE Colston Loveland in 2025, Year 1 for the Bears under hotshot coach Ben Johnson. Moore, who’s just entering a four-year, $110 million extension, was also a lot more expensive than Loveland and young WRs Rome Odunze and Luther Burden III.

But now Moore will be paired with Allen, one of the league’s most accurate and strongest-armed passers − and one whose legs make it hard for defenses to double-team receivers. They could be a lethal combo.

What does the DJ Moore trade mean for the Bears?

Options.

Odunze and Loveland were first-round picks the past two years and Burden came in Round 2 in 2025. Johnson’s passing attack should be just fine in the hands of that trio − especially given Moore’s 50 receptions and 682 yards last season were career lows.

As important, having one first-round pick and two selections in Round 2 could be key for Johnson and GM Ryan Poles, who are apparently losing C Drew Dalman to retirement and could see most of last season’s starting secondary leave during free agency.

What does the DJ Moore trade mean for the draft?

Maybe not a ton overall, but with the Bills filling a glaring need, they no longer need to overreach for a wideout. I thought players like Notre Dame’s Malachi Fields, Tennessee’s Chris Brazzell II or Louisville’s Chris Bell might be considerations for Beane at No. 26 pending his desperation level. Any of them might still serve as a big-bodied target for Allen, especially in the red zone, but they’d all now be value propositions … if Beane gets one with the 91st pick. Bell in particular − he’s coming off a torn ACL but compares himself to A.J. Brown − could be a steal, if not someone likely to necessarily contribute immediately.

In March of 1995, as the women’s NCAA Tournament was approaching, ESPN called Debbie Antonelli to offer her a job as a color analyst for the regional round of March Madness. They told her she was going to be partnering with Beth Mowins, who would handle play-by-play duties.

Antonelli’s first response was, “Who?”

“I had no idea,” she recalls now. “I had never heard of her.”

Antonelli declined that gig because she had just had a baby. But in the fall of 1996, she heard Mowins’ name again, this time from a local TV station in Pennsylvania that wanted her to call Penn State women’s basketball games. This time, she accepted.

On Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1996, Antonelli and Mowins were the voices on Penn State’s 76-62 win over Seton Hall. Angie Potthoff scored 21 points in the victory for the Nittany Lions in what would be the first of countless women’s college basketball games Antonelli and Mowins have called together.

This is the 30th season the duo has been telling the story of women’s college basketball. At a time where the sport is growing by leaps and bounds in viewership and attendance, fans know when they see Antonelli and Mowins that they are tuning into an important game.

“They’ve been trailblazers as broadcasters,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips told USA Today Sports. “It’s hard for me to think of a better combination than Debbie and Beth and what they’ve meant. I just think they are the gold standard and it gives me great comfort when I watch a game they’re on. I don’t know if they have any peers that I’m aware of that have quite done what they’ve done.”

Antonelli and Mowins went from not knowing each other to close friends. After traveling the country together for three decades, sketching out ideas on bar napkins after games and vacationing together with their families, they can finish each other’s sentences. They have a routine that’s second nature. Even while sitting in a green room in Colonial Life Arena in South Carolina, Antonelli sat on the left side of the couch while Mowins sat on the right — just as they would be if they were courtside at a broadcast table.

“She’s a part of our family. She’s watched my boys grow up,” Antonelli said of Mowins. “I prep a certain way when I work with Beth, because I don’t have to worry about the other things and that allows me to do what I really am good at, which is taking a deeper dive. We tell you the how and why.”

‘Wild wild west’ of women’s basketball

Antonelli’s path to television began when she was 23-years-old. After playing basketball for the Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow at NC State — she was on a Wolfpack team that won the ACC regular season and tournament championships in 1986 — Antonelli went to work at the University of Kentucky as director of marketing for the athletic department. A local TV station approached the Wildcats with the idea of producing and televising some of their games. Antonelli not only convinced them to do women’s basketball, but persuaded them to let her be on the broadcast as an analyst.

A few years later, Antonelli took a similar job at Ohio State and, again, struck up conversations with the local cable company. Antonelli soon became the voice of Buckeyes women’s basketball games across Ohio.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this is just like everything I thought coaching would be, except you don’t deal with the players,’” Antonelli told USA Today Sports. “It had everything else. Watching film, prep, practice, you know, all the things that I love about the job. It ran parallel with my interest in growing the game.”

Mowins’ path was a bit more traditional. Her dad was a coach and she played college basketball at Lafayette College where she set program records for assists in a single season and career. She then went to Syracuse’s Newhouse School and not long after graduating with her master’s degree, became the play-by-play voice for a Big East women’s basketball game of the week shown on six different cable outlets in the northeast in the early 1990s.

ESPN, which is based in Bristol, Connecticut, is nestled in the heart of the Big East footprint.

“The Big East Network saw me doing Syracuse games, and I started doing the Big East Game of the Week, and those were on in Connecticut, and ESPN saw me doing those. And then it just kind of grew from there,” Mowins told USA Today Sports. “Back in those days, it was the wild wild west.”

Mowins said when she and Antonelli first started working together, they would call several games a week in different time zones for multiple different networks. They were women’s basketball broadcasting mercenaries. They might be at Michigan State working a CBS game on a Saturday, then fly to North Carolina for a Duke game on ESPN on Sunday, then to New York for a St. John’s game for the Big East, then to Texas to do a broadcast for Fox Sports Southwest.

“Shoot, I’d be gone for three weeks at a time,” Antonelli says. “It was a hustle.”

“But we were young, we were hungry, we were working on our craft,” Mowins says. “And probably staying out too late.”

“We would meet the coaches after the game for a drink. We’d make them buy,” Antonelli says. “We did all that before the internet, before phone cameras. … When it comes to making postgame arrangements, I make those.”

“After carrying her for two hours, I’m exhausted,” Mowins says with a laugh. “I don’t want to have to make any decisions after that.”

Antonelli was a freelancer for the first 28 years of her television career. These days, she’s mainly calling games for ESPN and its partners on the ACC and SEC networks, typically working one men’s game and two women’s games a week. There are times where her schedule gets stacked up, like when she called nine games in a 14-day span earlier this season.

Mowins stays busy as the college sports seasons cross over. In the fall she calls college football, and in the spring she’s the play-by-play host of the Women’s College World Series. Since joining ESPN in 1994, Mowins has called NCAA Championships in basketball, softball, soccer and volleyball. In 2017, she became the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game when she did a Monday Night Football broadcast between the Chargers and Broncos.

For many young women in broadcasting Mowins isn’t just a role model, she’s the standard.

“She has always been someone to aspire to and learn from, but she’s also someone who has given me hope in the incredibly wild world that is being a woman in sports,” says Mia O’Brien, an ESPN Radio host based in Jacksonville, Florida. “As I’ve strived to grow as a play-by-play announcer, it’s made me respect Beth tenfold. It’s been difficult for me to find reps today in the 2020s, so I can’t even begin to imagine what her road to national prominence entailed.”

‘I know nothing except for hoops’

Antonelli has one of the sharpest minds in basketball. Part of that could be due to the fact that basketball is all Antonelli consumes, which is why Mowins’ pop culture references fly over her head.

“I know nothing except for hoops,” Antonelli says. “I don’t watch any shows. I watch basketball.”

Mowins likens Antonelli’s ability to dissect X’s and O’s to Tony Romo and Dan Orlovsky on NFL broadcasts, in that she can predict what is about to happen on the court.

“Very few people have that ability, to not only have it stored in there, but then to bring it out when it’s appropriate. Debbie is in that group that is just extraordinary because of the way she prepares,” Mowins says. “She has relationships with all of the coaches. One of the most significant things is, if Debbie calls somebody, they’re going to pick up.”

In addition to the thousands of women’s basketball games that she’s called on television, Antonelli has also been the radio analyst for Westwood One’s broadcasts of the Final Four for 30 years. In 2022, Antonelli joined her college coach, Yow, in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Wherever she goes, the folks most proud of what Antonelli has accomplished in growing the game of women’s basketball seem to be at her alma mater, NC State.

“She’s one of the premier announcers, and I’m telling you, she works harder than anybody I know. She’s got irons in a lot of fires,” NC State head coach Wes Moore said of Antonelli. “She does her homework. She knows going into a game what she wants to talk about and cover.”

‘Like an old married couple’

Over three decades, Antonelli and Mowins estimate they’ve called around 30 games per year together. With that many to choose from, it’s difficult for them to pinpoint the most memorable game.

The first that came to mind for Antonelli was during the COVID-impacted season of 2020-21. On Dec. 15, 2020, Antonelli and Mowins were two of the few people in the building when Stanford beat Pacific, pushing Tara VanDerveer ahead of Pat Summitt to become the all-time winningest women’s college basketball coach.

For Mowins, a trip to North Carolina’s Research Triangle sticks out, when on Feb. 1, 2003, No. 2 UConn upset No. 1 Duke in a sold-out Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“We hit the heyday of the ACC in the early 2000s. Every weekend was a top 20 matchup,” Mowins says. “For years, those Triangle schools had tried to build up fanbases, and when UConn came to Cameron Indoor it was like a men’s game. The students all turned out.”

A photo from that game of Diana Taurasi preparing to throw an inbounds pass with Alana Beard defending her appeared in Sports Illustrated the next week. If you look closely at it and spot a woman wearing a red sweater, that’s Mowins’ mother sitting near Antonelli’s parents.

Three decades into broadcasting women’s college basketball, Antonelli and Mowins still have a passion for the games, the players and the coaches.

And they show no signs of slowing down. This weekend they’ll be calling games together in Duluth, Georgia, at the ACC Tournament and will be paired again during March Madness.

The duo has lost count of exactly how many games they’ve done together.

“I would certainly say it feels like it’s been 1,000 games,” Mowins says.

“And I would say one of us deserves a medal,” Antonelli says. “The other one might need therapy.”

“I think that’s something that sort of sets our chemistry apart,” Mowins says. “When we’re working together, we’re not afraid to pick at each other, you know, like an old married couple.”

Japan’s World Baseball Classic title defense got off to a rousing start at the Tokyo Dome, with four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani crushing a second-inning grand slam to open the scoring in a blowout 13-0 win over Chinese Taipei.

Ohtani, the reigning WBC MVP, took Hao-Chun Cheng deep with the bases loaded and one out, starting a 10-run Japan inning. Ohtani added an RBI single later in the frame and had already doubled in the first inning.

Japan scored more three runs in the third inning to push their lead to 13-0 en route to a mercy-rule victory (10 runs through seven innings) over Chinese Taipei which, fell to 0-2 in the tournament after losing to Australia in the opener.

‘I thought it might land as an out, so above all, I really wanted to get the first run on the board,’ Ohtani said postgame. ‘I know there will be some tough battles ahead, but if the fans and the team can unite and everyone can help build the excitement together, it will really encourage us.’

Shohei Ohtani stats today

Shohei Ohtani went 3-for-5 with a grand slam and five RBIs in Japan’s World Baseball Classic opener against Chinese Taipei.

The 31-year-old hit a double to lead off the game in the first, hit a grand slam in the second inning to give Japan a 4-0 lead and then added an RBI single as Japan batted around in the second.

Ohtani won his fourth MVP award in 2025 with a career-high 55 home runs and returned to the mound after only hitting in 2024, leading the Dodgers to a second consecutive World Series title.

2025 (LAD): .282 AVG | 55 HR | 102 RBIs | 20 SB | 1.014 OPS
2024 (LAD): .310 AVG | 54 HR | 130 RBIs | 59 SB | 1.036 OPS
2023 (LAA): .304 AVG | 44 HR | 95 RBIs | 20 SB | 1.066 OPS
2022 (LAA): .273 AVG | 34 HR | 95 RBIs | 11 SB | .875 OPS
2021 (LAA): .257 AVG | 46 HR | 100 RBIs | 26 SB | .965 OPS

Japan vs Chinese Taipei WBC highlights

The Los Angeles Chargers have landed a major upgrade at center ahead of 2026 NFL free agency.

The Chargers are signing Tyler Biadasz to a three-year deal worth up to $30 million, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport.

Biadasz is a six-year NFL veteran who spent the last two seasons as the starting center for the Washington Commanders. The 2022 Pro Bowler played 954 snaps across 16 games during the 2025 NFL season, grading as Pro Football Focus’ 12th-best center among 37 qualifiers while allowing three sacks, 21 pressures and committing three penalties.

Despite his performance, the Commanders released Biadasz ahead of 2026 free agency to save $2.85 million in cap space. The maneuver made the 28-year-old center immediately eligible to sign with another NFL team, which is how the Chargers were able to ink him to a contract before free agency began.

Biadasz fills a significant need for the Chargers. Bradley Bozeman – who started at center for the team in 2025 – graded dead-last among PFF’s qualified centers last year while allowing two sacks and 30 pressures on the season.

Bozeman retired following the season while backup Andre James is set to be a free agent. That left Josh Kaltenberger – a 2025 undrafted free agent out of Maryland who signed a futures contract with the team following the season – as the only center on Los Angeles’ 90-man offseason roster before the team signed Biadasz.

With center addressed, the Chargers will now turn their attention to the guard position, where Ben Cleveland and Branson Taylor are their only players under contract. Starting left guard Zion Johnson is set to be a free agent while right guard Mekhi Becton was released by the team.

Tyler Biadasz contract details

Biadasz and the Chargers agreed to a multi-year deal that will make him the sixth highest-paid center in the NFL in terms of average annual value (AAV), per OverTheCap.com. Below are the full terms of the deal:

Term: 3 years
Total contract value: $30 million
AAV: $10 million

Tyler Biadasz career earnings

Biadasz has logged just under $27.1 million in career earnings since being selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, per Spotrac.com.

If the full value of Biadasz’s reported deal is realized, he will more than double his career earnings by the time his new contract expires in 2028.

Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder died in a car accident at age 23, one day before he was set to wear his new jersey number.
Coach Deion Sanders revealed Ponder had earned the No. 7 jersey after previously wearing No. 22.
The team plans to honor Ponder with a jersey patch but is deciding whether to use the number 7 or 22.

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders made his first extensive public comments about the recent death of Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder, revealing that Ponder had recently earned a new jersey number and was going to wear it for the first time on March 2, one day after he died in a car accident at age 23.

Sanders discussed Ponder’s death on his weekly talk show on Tubi which aired March 5. Ponder was a non-scholarship backup quarterback at Colorado who had spent two seasons in Boulder and had previously worn jersey No. 22, which is unusual for a quarterback.

But Sanders said he encouraged Ponder to fight for the right to wear a more coveted jersey number – No. 7. He was going to wear it when his team started spring practice March 2.

“He worked his butt off, and this season he was gonna wear No. 7,” Sanders said on the show “We Got Time Today.” “But the teammates love him so much. One of the kids came to my office today and said, `Coach, can I wear 22? You know, for my roommate?’ I said, ‘Yeah, but you know, he was getting ready to wear 7.’ Like, the next day, he would have been in 7 for his first time ever.”

Colorado still deciding which number to use on patch

The number change has presented Sanders’ team with a decision to make. The Buffaloes plan to honor Ponder’s memory with a patch on their jerseys, but is still deciding which number to use in it – the one Ponder was known for (22) or the one he worked hard to get (7).

“Everybody knows he’s 22,” Sanders said. “But I know how much 7 meant to him. So we’re going back and forth with that right now.”

What else did Deion Sanders say about Dominiq Ponder?

Sanders said Ponder was “one of my favorites” and a team leader. He also had a nickname for Ponder: “Black Flutie,” referring to white former quarterback Doug Flutie, who wore No. 22 at Boston College before switching to No. 7 in the NFL.

Sanders spoke with Ponders’ parents after his death.

“It was tough, because I’m like, you send a kid to college to become a man and to get education, and to just soar through life.,” Sanders said. “You don’t send a kid to college to lose him. And that’s the toughest thing for me to digest.”

Colorado held an emergency meeting on March 1 after learning of Ponders’ death and elected to start spring practice as scheduled March 2 instead of taking the day off.

“They said, `Dom would have wanted to practice, coach; He wasn’t missing no practice,’” Sanders said. “I said, `Wow.’ So we went out to work.”

Colorado continues spring practice through April 11 and begins the season at Georgia Tech on Sept. 3.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

The NFL is just days removed from its annual scouting combine − and is still a week away from the official start of free agency − and the landscape is already shifting significantly.

USA TODAY Sports confirmed the Kansas City Chiefs have agreed to deal All-Pro CB Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for a package of draft picks, including the 29th overall this year and a 2027 third-rounder. The deal immediately bolsters an LA secondary set to lose CBs Cobie Durant, Roger McCreary and Ahkello Witherspoon in free agency while giving K.C. valuable draft capital and cap space given McDuffie is owed $13.6 million (the fifth-year option of his rookie deal) in 2026 and will need a lucrative extension, too, if the Rams plan to keep him off the free agent market in 2027.

The trade market continued to cook Thursday, when the Chicago Bears agreed to trade WR DJ Moore and a fifth-round pick to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for a second-rounder.

As for the draft? Those blockbusters will likely create a ripple effect throughout Round 1 given the Chiefs’ added firepower, Rams’ relinquishment of their own − and an apparent alteration of what seemed like an update in Buffalo.

Here’s an updated version of our post-combine mock draft:

1. Las Vegas Raiders – QB Fernando Mendoza, Indiana

He didn’t work out in Indy. Didn’t have to. When you’re 6-foot-5, 236 pounds, paced FBS with 41 TD passes, process like a microchip and just led your school to a magical national championship? Heck, there’s virtually nothing Mendoza can do at this point to help his football résumé – though interactions with reporters and his fellow combine attendees continued to burnish his reputation as an outstanding person and teammate. (And good news − now he doesn’t have to contend with McDuffie twice a year!) The Jets are basically on the clock.

2. New York Jets – OLB/DE David Bailey, Texas Tech

The Stanford grad came into his own with the Big 12 champion Red Raiders in 2025, tying for first in the FBS with 14½ sacks while leading the field with a 20.2% pressure percentage and mixing in 19½ tackles for losses. Bailey is scheme diverse, which could also be a boon for a team switching to a three-man front and one that just offloaded DE Jermaine Johnson II, who was optimal for Tennessee’s 4-3 defense.

3. Arizona Cardinals – OLB/DE Arvell Reese, Ohio State

Arizona is the proverbial team that could be at least a year away from being a year away − and maybe two years away from being a year away after QB Kyler Murray confirmed March 3 that the team will release him. But if there was a quarterback worthy of the No. 3 overall pick … then the Jets would have taken him at No. 2. And that means Arizona GM Monti Ossenfort, who traded out of the opportunity to take future All-Pro DE Will Anderson Jr. in 2023, probably needs to be in the business of accumulating blue-chip players – and Reese projects as one. The Micah Parsons comparisons are obviously premature, but Reese, who turns 21 in August, has plenty of time to develop into a full-time pass rusher and maybe justify the comp one day. And getting to the quarterback is especially important in the NFC West, where the Cards are looking way up at their competition right now.

4. Tennessee Titans – RB Jeremiyah Love, Notre Dame

What’s the best way to advance the development of QB Cam Ward, last year’s No. 1 overall pick? How about giving him a player perhaps adjacent to Saquon Barkley or Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs in terms of game-breaking ability and versatility? Love is an every-down back, one who’s averaged 6.9 yards per carry and caught 55 passes over the past two seasons. The Titans could keep his usage in check as a rookie with RB Tony Pollard under contract for one more season. But pairing Love and Ward could potentially create an offense primed to surge ticket sales when the Titans move into their new stadium in 2027.

5. New York Giants – LB Sonny Styles, Ohio State

Arguably the star of this year’s combine given the freakish traits (4.46 40-yard dash, 43½-inch vertical leap) he put on display Thursday, the 6-foot-5, 244-pound converted safety could immediately take over the middle of a front-loaded defense – and new Giants coach John Harbaugh is certainly accustomed to having an athletic and cerebral monster orchestrating that side of the ball.

6. Cleveland Browns – OL Francis Mauigoa, Miami (Fla.)

A three-year starter for the Hurricanes at right tackle, the 6-foot-6, 329-pound mauler could be the perfect foundation for a team that needs to rebuild its offensive line – which is the primary offseason priority, whether or not GM Andrew Berry and first-year coach Todd Monken revisit the quarterback position. Monken indicated at the combine that improved blocking was paramount in Cleveland, and the team’s pending acquisition of Tytus Howard − he’s played every O-line position but center in the NFL − doesn’t preclude taking Mauigoa.

7. Washington Commanders – S Caleb Downs, Ohio State

Is he the best defender in this draft? Arguably. Can he play exceptionally in the slot, box or center field? Yep. And Washington could need a leader who can make plays behind the line given the potential departure of LB Bobby Wagner, who will be 36 next season, in free agency.

8. New Orleans Saints – WR Carnell Tate, Ohio State

The latest ready-made wideout product emerging from the Buckeyes’ pipeline, he and fellow Ohio Stater Chris Olave would give second-year QB Tyler Shough quite a tandem – and Olave needs the help given Rashid Shaheed was New Orleans’ second-most productive wideout in 2025 … despite getting traded halfway through the season.

9. Kansas City Chiefs – CB Mansoor Delane, LSU

Almost certainly the premier corner available this year, the 6-foot, 187-pound All-America approximates McDuffie’s size and has lockdown ability that should eventually allow coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to deploy him in multiple schemes and against just about any kind of receiver imaginable. McDuffie was known for his ability to man the slot, an area where Delane was rarely used at Virginia Tech and LSU − but even McDuffie mostly lined up wide the past two seasons.

10. Cincinnati Bengals – DE Rueben Bain Jr., Miami (Fla.)

Much has been made about his short arms, but they didn’t stop him from being extremely productive – often against NFL-caliber offensive tackles – for the ‘Canes. Bain bulled his way to 9½ sacks and 15½ TFLs last season and was a menace during the College Football Playoff. Cincinnati could certainly use pass rush help, especially with DE Trey Hendrickson now officially liberated and able to depart during free agency.

11. Miami Dolphins – OT Spencer Fano, Utah

A rebuilding team could go in any number of directions, and free agency will certainly further shape rookie GM Jon-Eric Sullivan’s roster-altering strategy. But the offensive line is always a logical place to start, particularly given the issues this one has had in recent years. Fano played both tackle spots for the Utes but almost exclusively on the right side the past two years. He’d probably be a significant upgrade over Fins RT Austin Jackson, who’s only under contract for one more year anyway, though Fano is willing to play guard (or center) if needed.

12. Dallas Cowboys – CB Jermod McCoy, Tennessee

A torn ACL cost him the entire 2025 season, but McCoy was practicing by the end of it and will be 20 months removed from the injury by the time Week 1 rolls around. DaRon Bland is the only proven corner on what will be a reimagined Dallas D in 2026, and McCoy would be a welcome addition – especially given how the board falls in this scenario.

13. Los Angeles Rams (from Atlanta Falcons) – WR Denzel Boston, Washington

Obviously zero need now to reach for a corner here with McDuffie inbound. LA had the league’s No. 1 passing game in 2025 – in large part due to Puka Nacua’s heroics. But Davante Adams, 33, was the only other productive wideout and battled injuries late in the season and is only under contract for one more year. Boston (6-4, 212) is the kind of supersized red-zone target (20 TD catches since 2024) and boundary receiver who could provide an easy transition from Adams while perfectly complementing Nacua.

14. Baltimore Ravens – DL Caleb Banks, Florida

Injuries decimated this team’s line in 2025, and the future of Pro Bowler Nnamdi Madubuike very much remains in doubt after he suffered a neck injury early last season. Banks (6-6, 327), who missed much of last fall with a broken foot, is monstrously huge and talented with freaky movement skills but also a bit raw. But he is the kind of player who could help new head coach Jesse Minter re-establish Baltimore’s historical defensive dominance.

15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – TE Kenyon Sadiq, Oregon

The first tight end in combine history to record a sub-4.4 40, Sadiq, who also had a 43½-inch vert, certainly made some money over the past few days. He’d not only give QB Baker Mayfield another downfield weapon, this offense might need a partial reload with WR Mike Evans and TE Cade Otton currently unsigned for 2026.

16. Jets (from Indianapolis Colts) – WR Makai Lemon, USC

With the pick obtained in last year’s trade of CB Sauce Gardner, New York must continue to build out an infrastructure and talent base with which to surround its next potential franchise quarterback – who probably won’t arrive before 2027. The Jets got very little production from the wideout position in 2025 for a variety of reasons, including Garrett Wilson missing 10 games. Lemon, a run-after-catch dynamo who typically works out of the slot, has been widely compared to fellow Trojan Amon-Ra St. Brown, whom the Jets’ Aaron Glenn coached alongside in Detroit.

17. Detroit Lions – OT Monroe Freeling, Georgia

LT Taylor Decker plans to return for his 11th season in Motown, but it’s time to lay the groundwork for a succession plan. Freeling, who’s 21, may be the best pure left tackle prospect in this draft, and his potential was evident in Sunday’s drills. But with only 16 college starts, replacing retired Dan Skipper as the swing tackle while apprenticing behind Decker would make sense. And, don’t forget, the Lions plucked starting RG Tate Ratledge out of Athens a year ago.

18. Minnesota Vikings – S Dillon Thieneman, Oregon

Similar situation in the Twin Cities, where mainstay S Harrison Smith, 37, may or may not return for a 15th NFL campaign. But even if Smith comes back, pairing him with Thieneman in the short term would make sense before ultimately turning control of the defense over to the Ducks All-American. One of the combine’s standouts, Thieneman is a rangy player who can be weaponized all over the field.

19. Carolina Panthers – DT Peter Woods, Clemson

A gifted lineman who has yet to approach his maximum potential, something of a microcosm of the NFC South champions. Woods would certainly upgrade a D-line anchored by Derrick Brown, whose own ability and leadership could also help to fully unlock the All-ACC performer.

20. Cowboys (from Green Bay Packers) – OLB/DE T.J. Parker, Clemson

Dallas is transitioning to a 3-4 front this year under new coordinator Christian Parker but only has two notable edge rushers, 2025 second-rounder Donovan Ezeiruaku and James Houston, under contract going into next season – and no second-round pick in this year’s draft. T.J. Parker’s production dipped from 2024 to ’25, but he’s got more heft than Ezeiruaku and could be a nice complement with plenty of runway to become a really good one.

21. Pittsburgh Steelers – WR Jordyn Tyson, Arizona State

Could the draft’s host team take a young quarterback to build around in the future? Sure. Is it the best move in a seemingly weaker QB class – especially if the Steelers want to give Aaron Rodgers, assuming he returns, the best chance to take this organization further in 2026? Of course not. The lack of receiving depth behind DK Metcalf was apparent last season but especially so during his late-season suspension. Tyson, a two-time All-Big 12 choice, is a complete package – and one who was coached at ASU by Steelers legend Hines Ward.

22. Los Angeles Chargers – G Olaivavega Ioane, Penn State

Arguably the best blocker in this draft, why wouldn’t the 6-foot-4, 320-pound road grader – one with high RPMs who lined up at tight end in some packages – be coveted by a team that so values its offensive line? And that could be particularly true at a time when the Bolts might need three new starters between the tackles.

23. Philadelphia Eagles – DE/OLB Akheem Mesidor, Miami (Fla.)

They didn’t generate nearly the same level of pressure in 2025 as they did during their Super Bowl run the year before. Jalyx Hunt was the only consistent edge rusher last year, which is why GM Howie Roseman rolled the dice on a midseason trade for pending free agent Jaelan Phillips. Mesidor will be 25 by draft night but could provide instant production – for a team that should be an instant contender – after leading the ACC with 12½ sacks in 2025, including 5½ in the CFP.

24. Browns (from Jacksonville Jaguars) – WR Omar Cooper Jr., Indiana

Monken’s offense needs more than an overhauled O-line. If QB Shedeur Sanders is to have any shot at developing into a long-term starter here, he not only needs better protection but also more weaponry in the passing game. Cooper was Mendoza’s leading receiver for the Hoosiers last year, and his ability to give Sanders a reliable target out of the slot would be potentially be quite beneficial to Cleveland.

25. Chicago Bears – S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, Toledo

Need a Monster of the Midway? How about a 6-foot-4, 200-pound DB with a penchant for big hits and finding the ball? And it certainly seems like the Bears might be in dire need of safety help with All-Pro Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker headed for the open market.

As for Moore’s departure, it probably shouldn’t come as a huge surprise − even though he caught two epic touchdown passes to beat the Packers at Soldier Field twice last season. But, overall, Moore wasn’t necessarily a hand-in-glove fit in Ben Johnson’s offense. And given the presence of 2024 first-round WR Rome Odunze plus Luther Burden’s encouraging rookie year last season, Chicago doesn’t need to reach or prioritize backfilling Moore with a premium pick in a deep receiver draft − especially given the holes developing elsewhere on the roster (including center).

26. Buffalo Bills – DE Keldric Faulk, Auburn

The arrival of Moore means GM Brandon Beane doesn’t have to overdraft a wideout here − which is probably what he would have had to do, in a stick-and-pick situation, given none of the best ones were likely to fall this far (despite his Carnell Tate musings at the combine). But the intriguing Faulk, a gem in need of some polish, can fill another area of concern. He should be a three-down player who can kick inside on passing downs. He has a reputation as being an excellent locker-room presence, always a huge plus, and would soften the blow given the likelihood DE Joey Bosa won’t be back in 2026.

27. San Francisco 49ers – OT Caleb Lomu, Utah

GM John Lynch admitted last week that he and Trent Williams, 37, are trying to find a financial compromise that keeps the legendary left tackle on the roster in 2026. But even if Williams plays another season, the Niners might be wise to get a replacement in house and – in Lomu’s case – a year to strengthen his 6-foot-6, 313-pound frame might be helpful.

28. Houston Texans – OT Blake Miller, Clemson

The All-ACC right tackle could solidify the protection in front of QB C.J. Stroud by becoming a long-term answer on an O-line that’s been in a state of flux for some time − and is now exporting Howard and Juice Scruggs. Durable, Miller averaged better than 900 snaps during three seasons for the Tigers and can play on the left side in a pinch.

29. Chiefs (from Rams) – OT Max Iheanachor, Arizona State

This had seemed like a perfect landing spot for Alabama QB Ty Simpson, who might have apprenticed for a year or two – or three – under league MVP Matthew Stafford before potentially taking the reins. Now, maybe Simpson could fill in early for Patrick Mahomes … nope. Nope. Maybe Simpson lands elsewhere in the first round, but it certainly won’t be in K.C.

Yet Mahomes has suffered the highest sack percentage of his nine-year career over the past two seasons and went down a career-worst six times in K.C.’s Super Bowl 59 loss. As he tries to return in time for this year’s regular-season opener, despite rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered last December, upgrading his protection seems imperative – especially given the pending release of RT Jawaan Taylor for performance and compensation reasons, plus the fact that Jaylon Moore didn’t wrest a starting OT job in 2025. Iheanachor isn’t a finished product but is a gifted athlete − one who might only need a bit of time (and ace tutelage from Chiefs offensive line coach Andy Heck) to displace Moore for the primary right tackle job opposite 2025 first-rounder Josh Simmons while vastly improving the odds Mahomes won’t continue running for his life in 2026.

30. Denver Broncos – WR KC Concepcion, Texas A&M

He has average size (6-0, 196) but elite short-area burst and quickness that could make him an ideal complement to Courtland Sutton in Denver’s passing game.

31. New England Patriots – OT Kadyn Proctor, Alabama

The Pats have several needs and options − and don’t be surprised if they’re on the move, up or down − though it sure seems likely they fill their newly formed Stefon Diggs void somehow during free agency. But the obvious issue for the AFC champs during the playoffs was protecting QB Drake Maye, who was sacked 21 times in four postseason games, including six times by the Seahawks in Super Bowl 60. RT Morgan Moses is under contract for two more years but also just turned 35. Proctor can block out the sun yet is an impressively nimble athlete at 6-foot-7 and 352 pounds. He might remind Patriots fans of former Tom Brady bouncer Trent Brown and could also help launch an already strong ground game to a stratospheric level.

32. Seattle Seahawks – RB Jadarian Price, Notre Dame

While they’d certainly like to keep Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III, it also didn’t sound at the combine like the reigning champs were going to pull out all the financial stops in order to keep him at the expense of other priorities − and Walker wasn’t tagged by the Seahawks on Tuesday. But Seattle doesn’t have the luxury of standing pat in the run game, either, given RB2 Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL in January. Price is a slasher who starred in a timeshare with Love at Notre Dame and could nicely fill Walker’s role – maybe Shaheed’s, too, if the Seahawks’ can’t re-sign their pivotal return ace, either.