Conor Benn could be set for a world title shot against Ryan Garcia, but there is one reigning world champion who claims that the Briton recently pulled out of a shot at his belt, despite ‘the whole deal being set up’.

Benn made his Zuffa Boxing debut earlier this month, outpointing Regis Prograis in a 150lb catchweight bout – his first contest below 154lbs in four years – and now looks poised to challenge for world honours as a welterweight.

Although, whilst his position as the WBC mandatory challenger has lined him up for a clash with Garcia, the WBA champion of the 147lb division, Rolando Romero, has claimed that Benn pulled out of a bid for his title.

Speaking to Fight Hub TV, ‘Rolly’ explained why he doubts whether the Garcia fight will go ahead and revealed that he had been expecting to fight Benn, until ‘The Destroyer’ had a change of heart.

“Conor Benn ducked me, we had the whole deal set up, we were going to fight May 30 in New York for my world title and then he just disappeared out of nowhere.

Conor Benn was over there, begging for the fight with me. We had the whole deal set up, by the way, but he is over there in New York trying to cause all of that commotion and other stuff – he did it for clout. Same thing with this, he might be doing this with Ryan for clout too.

“They are over there trying to make all of this stuff, I don’t do that fake beef. That’s what throws me off, you go and do all of that fake beef and then you come over here, act like a big, tough guy, then you go run off and not fight.

“He might be doing that with Ryan, because Ryan would knock him out cold.”

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Garcia and Benn could collide in Las Vegas this summer as Benn returns to the welterweight division in an immediate world title challenge.

The NFL draft is in full bloom, and we’re here to deliver Minnesota Vikings-themed rumors right in the middle of it. Each weekend, we provided two batches of rumors; this is the first.

The post-draft rumor cycle is already moving.

After the draft, the Vikings will turn their sights to the NFL schedule release, organized team activities (OTAs), and minicamp.

QB Chatter Takes Over Minnesota’s Latest Rumor Roundup

It’s the Purple Rumor Mill for April 25th, 2026.

Rumor: If the Cincinnati Bengals cut ties with Joe Burrow in the 2027 offseason, the Vikings are a likely landing spot, according to Bleacher Report.

BR’s Moe Moton identified several trade landing spots for Burrow in 2027, in the event that the Bengals don’t reach the postseason, and the Vikings were on the list.

He wrote, “Among the possible landing spots, the Vikings would have the best structure in place for Burrow. He would reunite with his former LSU teammate, Justin Jefferson, who’s one of the league’s top receivers, easing the sting of leaving another star wideout, Ja’Marr Chase. Furthermore, as the Vikings’ lead skipper, Kevin O’Connell has won Coach of the Year and fielded a top-six passing offense in three of four seasons.”

“Regardless of Murray’s performance in the upcoming term, the Vikings should monitor Burrow’s situation in Cincinnati. They would need to clear some cap space to offer him a deal comparable to what other teams with more financial flexibility can offer, though. Minnesota is projected to have slightly less than $50 million in cap space next offseason.”

The Burrow rumor will persist as long as Justin Jefferson remains in Minnesota, thanks to their strong LSU connection forged during their 2019 National Championship season. If Burrow is on the trade block, Minnesota will be whispered. Simple as that.

Rumor: Cris Carter believes J.J. McCarthy still has a path to the Vikings’ QB1 job.

Carter chatted with Heavy.com last week, and to the surprise of some, he dropped a flavorful McCarthy take.

“J.J. McCarthy, he’s still going to get an opportunity because most quarterbacks aren’t going to stay healthy for 17 games, so there will be an opportunity for him not only to learn and get better, but also to watch and learn from a guy like Kyler Murray … But I’d expect Kyler to be the starter this season,” Carter said.

He noted on the Vikings’ offense, “Kevin O’Connell has proven with this offense when he’s had a healthy QB, he’s been able to win 12, 13, 14 games during the regular season. If you look at the nucleus of players they do have coming back … you’d have to be looking at the Vikings to be back in the playoffs and competing for the NFC.”

“Their offensive and defensive lines are more fortified than they were 2 years ago; they just need consistent quarterback play and the ability to allow that defense to be able to turn the ball over and get after the quarterback.”

Last year, Carter vocally criticized McCarthy, so when he struck a different chord this offseason, his argument resonated.

Murray has missed 26% of his career games due to injury. McCarthy, indeed, could get his chance in 2026.

Rumor: Former Vikings quarterback Daniel Jones’s Achilles tendon recovery is on track — or even ahead of schedule.

NFL.com ran a comprehensive round on non-draft storylines, and for Indianapolis, the focus landed on a positive development involving Jones.

NFL.com’s staff collectively wrote, “QB Daniel Jones (Achilles) has begun throwing the football and is performing well on his dropbacks, head coach Shane Steichen told reporters Tuesday. Jones underwent surgery in early December after suffering the season-ending injury.”

The timeline often stretches close to a year for an Achilles recovery, which would put a November injury in jeopardy. Jones looks ahead of that curve based on the April update.

ESPN’s Stephen Holder on Jones’s recovery: “The Colts have said throughout the offseason that they and their doctors believe a return for the start of the 2026 season is well within reason. To ensure that happens, the approach to Jones’ rehab has been an all-hands-on-deck approach for the organization.”

“To that end, Shane Steichen said he has consulted with Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens on how the team oversaw the Achilles recovery of Boston star Jayson Tatum, who sustained a torn Achilles in the 2025 postseason but has returned to the lineup and become a force for the Celtics. Both Tatum and Jones also shared the same surgeon for their Achilles repair.”

The Colts have Super Bowl odds similar to the Vikings’. They’re at +4000, and Minnesota checks in at +4500. Sportsbooks evidently believe Jones will be just fine.

LINCOLN, Ala. – NASCAR’s high-stakes Jack Links 500 race is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama, where 41 drivers will take on the league’s largest track in front of an estimated 100,000 race fans.

The legendary track attracts visitors from “all 50 states and multiple countries,” according to track officials.

“It’s like a vacation for them. There’s people that just see each other twice a year here, and they meet up here at Talladega Superspeedway,” Patrick Barfield, Senior Director of Venue Experience and Guest Services at Talladega Superspeedway, said. “They all have their little parties and groups, and it’s a great site.”

Josh Harris, Regional President at Talladega Superspeedway, credits the charm of the track to its unpredictable pack racing at extreme speeds exceeding 200 mph. The track, at 2.66 miles, is the longest in the NASCAR Cup Series, and drivers must complete 188 laps to finish the 500-mile race.

2026 NASCAR ODDS: JOEY LOGANO, RYAN BLANEY EARLY FAVORITES FOR TALLADEGA

Track officials expect about 100,000 fans to attend the Jack Links 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama. (FOX News)

“Everything’s just a little bit bigger here at Talladega, and that’s how we like it,” Harris said.

The Jack Links 500 is the tenth race in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series, and drivers are already fighting for their spot in the playoff standings. 

“Drivers are positioning themselves. They want to be in that top 16 come Daytona in August and be able to jump themselves into the chase,” Harris said.

Talladega is always challenging for drivers, according to Harris, both physically and mentally. As the NASCAR Cup Series continues into Spring and Summer, he said the inside of a race car can exceed 100 degrees on an 85-degree day. 

Many fans, however, are taking advantage of the warm weather. Thousands of fans started camping outside the track and in the infield over the past week.

Riley Eubanks traveled from Indianapolis, Indiana, with his cousin and friend. The three of them are spending their first Talladega race together in a small tent inside turn one, living on “plenty of food and water” and a constant game of poker.

LONGTIME NASCAR CREW CHIEF TELLS WILD STORY ABOUT ONE OF THE SPORT’S BIGGEST CHARACTERS

Some race fans started camping out in the infield of Talladega Superspeedway in the week leading up to the Jack Links 500.  (FOX News)

“We spent hundreds, if not thousands on meat and plenty of water,” Eubanks said. “We’re able to provide food to others if they want to come by, but we have got plenty to eat here for a few days.”

Many fans said they were excited to see the track’s infamous 33-degree banking in its four turns, the steepest in stock car racing. The turns are engineered to allow drivers to maintain 200 miles per hour without losing traction. 

Talladaga Superspeedway is home to the steepest banking in stock car racing with a 33 degree banking in its four turns.  (FOX News)

“The coolest thing is getting over here and checking out how high up that wall really is. Seeing it for the first time. Just crash after crash over years. After years of watching, I got to see it,” Caleb Eubanks said. 

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Drivers will begin qualifying Saturday morning to secure their starting position for Sunday’s race.  

Modern sport is obsessed with exclusive clubs: take tennis’ much-lauded ‘Big Three’, the all-conquering trio of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Cycling has various permutations that never quite stick: a Big Six, a Big Five, Big Four, and now increasingly – with Primoz Roglic in the somewhat drawn-out twilight of his career – a Big Three of Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel. Cycling’s problem is that Pogacar stands alone; a Big One is a daft idea.

But the last few weeks of ever-ratcheting hype have given rise to the idea that, if not now, certainly in the next couple of years, a new Big Two could dominate. And this weekend’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege is its first litmus test.

27-year-old Pogacar is in his prime, no longer the dazzling young upstart. His potential has been realised. But Paul Seixas? A wholly different story.

Some readers may not be familiar with the young Frenchman, although those numbers will be diminishing as rapidly as he pedals uphill. The 19-year-old only took his first WorldTour victory this month, at Itzulia Basque Country, a stage race in which he joined luminaries including Roglic, Juan Ayuso, and two other young sensations, Isaac del Toro and Florian Lipowitz on the start list. Del Toro was second in last year’s Giro d’Italia, Lipowitz third at the Tour de France; Seixas blew them all out of the water, winning the individual time trial, two gruelling mountain stages, and all four classifications, wearing yellow from stage two until the end.

His command of the race was astonishing, but it only confirmed what we already knew. Last autumn he was one of only 17 riders to finish a nasty edition of the European Championships, with 3,400m of climbing to surmount. He played a patient game then burst away to finish a clear third-best of the field, behind only Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel.

This spring he finished second on the rolling Tuscan hills of Strade Bianche, then warmed up for Liege-Bastogne-Liege by winning this week’s La Fleche Wallonne, surging to victory on the infamous Mur de Huy, eating up its 15 per cent gradients with ease. It made him the youngest-ever winner of the Classic. Other records will inevitably follow. Evenepoel and Pogacar both opted to skip the race to conserve their energy for the weekend – but they will have been watching with interest.

Cycling is full of young prodigies who never quite live up to early hype – Cian Uijtdebroeks, who was the next best thing a couple of years ago before a troubling couple of seasons with illness and injury problems, is one such cautionary tale and another on the startlist in Belgium.

But it’s hard not to get excited about Seixas.

The Decathlon CMA CGM rider has the weight of all of France’s hopes and expectations on his shoulders – and riding for a French team, it seems more and more likely that he will be thrust further into the spotlight with a first Tour start this summer. But he seems a measured and confident character despite the noise. He told The Athletic earlier this year: “I really need to stay calm because I guess there’s a lot of pressure on me. I take it as a positive effect, I manage it well,” and credited the “very wise” team around him for keeping him grounded.

He’ll need to be, because for all the hype, the youngster from Lyon still has a way to go. Pogacar, the three-time champion, remains the five-star favourite. The two-time world champion can so far reflect on a successful spring – a long-awaited Milan-San Remo triumph the highlight – but he was again thwarted in Paris-Roubaix and hasn’t looked quite as imperious as normal.

But after the bone-battering rock slabs of northern France, we are now firmly back in Pogacar’s preferred territory: hills, hills, and more hills. Those of Liege-Bastogne-Liege are punchier than the climbs Seixas distinguished himself on in the Basque Country, but he showed a remarkable aptitude for them on the Mur de Huy. The teenager may not be best suited to this race now, but it offers another chance for him to test himself against the best on this terrain.

Two of the best, in fact: Pogacar and Seixas’ major competition on Sunday is Remco Evenepoel, arguably a better one-day racer than a Grand Tour rider despite his best efforts to get into Tour-winning shape. He has two wins from three starts at Liege-Bastogne-Liege and warmed up for it with a dominant performance at Amstel Gold last week, when he easily got the better of Mattias Skjelmose in a two-up sprint having done much of the heavy lifting until that point.

The Belgian’s positioning in races and his impetuosity sometimes work against him, but he appears to have gone some way recently to correcting these weaknesses, and if he can keep his head screwed on should be best placed to challenge Pogacar.

Normally Tom Pidcock would be a contender too, but after falling down a ravine at the Volta a Catalunya and sustaining bone bruising, ligament damage, and stress fractures to his tibia, 260km of flat-out racing may be a step too far. But the Brit – who returned less than four weeks after his crash, having been given an eight-week timeline for recovery – still won a stage at the Tour of the Alps this week and just having him back racing, after initial fears his entire season had been derailed, is promising.

But the focus this weekend will all be on two figures: Pogacar, and the gangly youngster hoping to shadow him. The final Monument of this spring, the coda to this part of the season, offers something of a prologue to cycling’s future. On the one side, Pogacar; on the other, life beyond Pogacar.

It may not arrive this weekend; Seixas has conceded himself he “doesn’t have the level” to beat the Slovenian. But it doesn’t mean we can’t await with bated breath what’s to come.

The stable of Ciaron Maher has dispatched Seraphox to Melbourne targeting a Stakes race which could provide various directions for the young horse.

In the Listed Anzac Day Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on Saturday, Seraphox arrives after two Sydney races, including a triumph at Warwick Farm last time out.

The colt impressed the Maher team sufficiently from the outset to launch him in the Group 2 Todman Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill last month; he placed second last but trailed the winner by a mere four lengths.

Jack Turnbull, National Assistant Trainer at Ciaron Maher Racing, affirmed the high regard the stable has for the colt Seraphox.

“He’s a beautiful horse,” Turnbull said.

“It’s the right trip and it’s the right time to bring him down.

“He debuted in a good race on a Saturday in Sydney and did a few things wrong, and then he won his maiden next time around.

“He’s been down here a couple of weeks, and he’s taken to the left-handed direction without a problem.

“He’s a placid animal and has taken no extra work to settle him in, he’s been very natural and very straight forward.

“He will be a very interesting horse because he will continue to get better as he’s only young and whatever he does over 1400 (metres) you can potentially look to the spring, if he takes that step.”

Saturday’s performance will dictate the next steps for Seraphox, as per Turnbull, who hasn’t excluded a Brisbane trip over winter.

Such a path might involve the Group 2 BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm on May 30 or the Group 1 JJ Atkins (1600m) two weeks subsequently at the same track.

“There are races in Brisbane if we wanted to push on, or we could put him away and go through the pathway of trying to get him to the (Caulfield) Guineas in the spring,” Turnbull said.

From Sydney, two-year-old Nialah enters the Anzac Day Stakes having run third in her maiden debut at Wyong.

Nialah took a while to adapt and become race-ready, Turnbull observed.

“Early in her career she was very fast and fierce, but she’s settled a bit now and we were pleased with how she ran at Wyong,” Turnbull said.

“Joe and the team up there in Sydney were pretty keen to step her up in trip, so she’s come down for an early chance at some Black Type.”

Find competitive racing betting markets for the Anzac Day Stakes among leading sites.

George Russell has backed a comment made by Lewis Hamilton regarding the new Formula 1 regulations, which are set to take effect in 2026.

The FIA has introduced several changes for 2026, including cars that are smaller and lighter, with a greater emphasis on battery power. The aim is to make racing more exciting and improve the overall spectacle.

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But not everyone is convinced. Max Verstappen has been vocal in his criticism, calling the new rules ‘anti-driving’ and suggesting they could harm the sport more than help it.

The Dutchman didn’t hold back, even likening the changes to playing Mario Kart rather than real racing. After Verstappen’s remarks following the Japanese Grand Prix, there were reports he might consider leaving F1 at the end of 2026.

George Russell pushes back against negative feedback on F1’s 2026 rule changes

Russell spoke recently on the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast about the backlash against F1’s new rule changes.

The 28-year-old noted that he doesn’t share the same outlook as some of his fellow drivers, including Verstappen, who compared the new era to ‘Mario Kart’.

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Russell also pointed out a ‘great point’ Hamilton made in favour of the 2026 regulations.

He said: “I definitely don’t share that at all. I’m personally really enjoying the car. The power unit and the engine are definitely different. And it just needs some fine-tuning to really optimise it.

“But it’s given an opportunity to battle harder, and back-and-forth racing. We’re here at a kart track now. And Lewis made a great point – in a kart race, you overtake one corner, he overtakes back. And they overtake again.

“And no one’s ever called that Mario Kart or yo-yo racing or whatever the terminology is. We actually call it pure racing and great racing. It’s easy to highlight things we don’t like and forget about a lot of the goodness of it.”

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George Russell confident that new rule tweaks will benefit F1 drivers

Speaking ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, Russell explained why he believes the changes will make life easier for everyone involved.

“There are some small quirks, which the FIA have done their best to eradicate those quirks. These are details that are sort of so complicated, and honestly, fans don’t really need to understand,” he said.

“From this race forward, with these minor changes the sport are making, it will make our life easier. We’ll be flat out in the straights on a qualifying lap, and we won’t have to lift off to manage any of the energy.”

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With the first test of these tweaks set for Miami, fans and teams alike will be watching closely to see if they deliver as promised.

Read more:

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After unveiling some winners and losers for the first round of the draft on Thursday, we are back with more, and this time, we have two rounds to work with, so it’s going to be twice the fun.  

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman made our winners list on Thursday, and once again, he’s also on the winners list. I wonder if he ever gets tired of winning. Roseman is the only person who made the list two days in a row. 

The second day of the draft was a wild one because we saw one player get free ketchup for life and we also saw the second round go by with zero running backs or quarterbacks getting selected, marking the first time in 23 years that’s happened. 

With that in mind, let’s get to our winners and losers, starting with Howie Roseman. 

2026 NFL Draft essentials

Winners

Eagles GM Howie Roseman

At this point, we might just have to name the “winners” section after Howie Roseman because he always ends up here. We put him here after the first round, we put him here last year and I’m pretty sure we put him here the year before that. I can’t remember a year when we didn’t have him as a winner. 

This time around, he’s a winner because he pulled off a blockbuster trade for Jonathan Greenard in the middle of the second round. To make the deal happen, Roseman just had to send two third-round picks to Minnesota. For the Eagles, this trade makes a lot of sense. The Eagles were in desperate need of some pass-rushing help after losing several key defensive players this offseason, including Jaelan Phillips and Nakobe Dean. Roseman didn’t love his options in the draft, so he went out and got Greenard and then they turned around and signed the linebacker to a four-year, $100 million extension. 

Although Greenard dealt with a shoulder injury in 2025 that caused him to miss several games, the 28-year-old has recorded at least 12 sacks in two of his past three seasons. This is another case of the rich getting richer. 

Offensive weapons

When I say offensive weapons here, I’m specifically referring to wide receivers and tight ends. Both positions have been drafted at a historical pace through three rounds. 

There have been 17 receivers taken so far in the draft, which is tied for the most through three rounds in draft history. Of that total, 12 were taken on Day 2. The Browns led the charge when it comes to drafting receivers: They became the first team since 1996 to use two top 40 picks on the position, taking KC Concepcion (24th overall) and Denzel Boston (39th overall). We handed out an ‘A’ or an ‘A-‘ to seven different teams that drafted a receiver on Day 2, so we were big fans of most of the moves that went down.  

Tight end was also a popular position to draft on Day 2. There were seven tight ends taken through the first 75 picks, which was the most since 1973. Overall, nine tight ends were taken in the first three rounds, tying the most in NFL history (the last time we saw nine came in 2023). At one point on Friday, four tight ends got taken in a span of eight picks. 

All those tight ends can probably thank Sean McVay. The Rams coach started running more 13 personnel last year, which calls for having three tight ends on the field, and he had so much success that other teams started doing it more. The NFL is a copycat league, which might explain why everyone drafted a tight end on Day 2, including McVay’s Rams (Max Klare). Even the Bears drafted a tight end (Sam Roush) and they made the move even though they already have Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland on their roster. 

The belief that defense wins championships

Someone once said that defense wins championships and I’m starting to think that person might have been right. Yes, I did just point out all of the offensive weapons that were taken on Friday, but it was defense that dominated the second round. There were a total of 22 defensive players in the round, which was tied for the most in a second round in draft history. At one point, there was a stretch where 13 defensive players were taken in a 14-pick span. 

The Texans were one team I certainly took note of. Houston traded up from 38th to 36th to draft Ohio State defensive lineman Kayden McDonald. If defense truly does win championships, then we might just want to give the Lombardi Trophy to the Texans. They already had one of the best defenses in the NFL and it just got even better with the addition of McDonald. The run-stuffing defensive tackle fills one of the few weaknesses that the defense still has. 

Another team that’s gone all-in on defense is the Chiefs. Apparently, someone forgot to tell them that you’re allowed to draft offensive players, because, through the first two days, Kansas City has spent all three of its picks on defensive players with CB Mansoor Delane (sixth overall), DL Peter Woods (29th) and EDGE R Mason Thomas (40th). With these picks, the Chiefs’ defense better be good this year, because they’ve done absolutely nothing to help Patrick Mahomes through the first three rounds. 

Logan Jones

With the 57th overall pick, the Bears decided to take Iowa center Logan Jones, who might actually end up being the biggest winner of the draft and that’s mainly because he’ll be getting free ketchup for life. In what might go down as the best draft sponsorship of all-time, Heinz decided to give a lifetime supply of ketchup to the 57th player taken in the draft. The company is based in Pittsburgh and with the draft being held in the Steel City, Heinz decided to go all-in. 

Jones had no idea that there would be getting free ketchup for being the 57th pick, but he seems totally on board with the giveaway. 

This is the worst-case scenario for Heinz because an offensive lineman living in Chicago — where hot dogs are one of the main food groups — might eat $7 million worth of ketchup over the course of his lifetime. 

On a non-ketchup note, this is a huge pick for the Bears. With the unexpected retirement of Drew Dalman this offseason, the Bears were definitely in the market for a center and getting Jones at this spot was definitely some solid value. The Bears did make a trade for Garrett Bradbury this offseason, so Jones will be competing with him for the starting job. 

Gennings Dunker

If your name is Gennings Dunker, you’re automatically a winner in my book. The Steelers drafted the Iowa offensive lineman with their final pick of the third round and it’s fitting that he went to Pittsburgh, because based on his looks, he might be more suited than any prospect ever to play for the Steelers. 

I’m now 99% sure that Aaron Rodgers is going to return, if only just so he can see Dunker’s mullet in person. 

Losers

Third round quarterbacks

There were zero quarterbacks drafted in the second round on Friday, but two in the third round. However, that’s not great news for those two, because if there’s one round a quarterback never wants to be drafted in, it’s the third. If you’re a QB taken in the third round, you are essentially doomed to failure and we saw two of them taken in that round on Friday night. 

First, the Cardinals took Carson Beck with the opening pick of the third round (65th overall). Eleven picks later, the Steelers drafted Penn State’s Drew Allar. 

Over the past 13 years, no QB drafted in the third round has made a Pro Bowl. In all of NFL history, only four quarterbacks drafted in the third round have ended up winning a Super Bowl as a starter (Russell Wilson, Nick Foles, Joe Montana, and Jeff Hostetler). 

To give you an idea of how much of a struggle it is to become a successful quarterback after being taken in the third round, here is a list of every QB who has been taken in the third round over the past 10 years: 

2016: Jacoby Brissett, Cody Kessler
2017: Davis Webb, C.J. Beathard
2018: Mason Rudolph
2019: Will Grier
2020: NONE
2021: Kellen Mond, Davis Mills
2022: Desmond Ridder, Malik Willis, Matt Corral
2023: Hendon Hooker
2024: NONE
2025: Jalen Milroe, Dillon Gabriel

Both Wilson and Foles were drafted in 2012 and if you eliminate that draft class, there have only been two third-rounders since 2000 who threw at least 80 touchdown passes in their career (Josh McCown and Matt Schaub). When you’re drafted in the third round, you’re a good quarterback, just not quite good enough to have any sustained success in the NFL. 

In a wild twist, Allar and Beck will both be joining a former third-round QB. Allar will be in a QB room with Rudolph in Pittsburgh, while Beck will be with Brissett in Arizona. 

49ers Day 2 strategy 

The 49ers made one of the most shocking picks of the day on Friday when they opened up the second round by taking Ole Miss WR De’Zhaun Stribling at 33rd overall. 

The pick might have been the biggest reach of the second round. Stribling was the 19th-ranked receiver on our big board here at CBS Sports and the 120th-ranked overall player. At ESPN, he was ranked as the 15th-best receiver and 76th overall. I don’t think there was a single ranking that had him in the top 70 and the 49ers decided to take him at 33rd overall. The bizarre thing is that this pick wasn’t even out of character for the 49ers because they have a track record of making bad picks on Day 2. It’s like they can’t get out of their own way. 

Based on that list, the 49ers might want to start thinking about just trading away all of their Day 2 picks, because nothing seems to be working out for them. 

The 33rd pick was a popular one and multiple teams tried to make a trade for it, but the 49ers held on to the pick and selected a player they probably could have gotten in the third or fourth round. 

Jermod McCoy

Last year, it was Shedeur Sanders who inexplicably fell out of the first three rounds of the draft. This year, that unfortunate honor belongs to McCoy. The Tennessee cornerback, who was ranked as the SIXTH-best player on Mike Renner’s big board, is still available as the draft gets ready to head into the fourth round. He was projected by most pundits to go in the first or second round, but so far he hasn’t found a single taker. 

The big reason for McCoy’s fall seems to be injury-related. McCoy suffered a torn ACL at the end of the 2024 college season and he didn’t play a single snap in 2025. He also didn’t participate at the NFL Combine, which didn’t help his cause. To make matters worse, NFL Network is reporting that he might have to get another knee surgery to replace a bone plug that’s used to repair a cartilage defect in his knee.

At this point, his knee just has too many question marks, and because of that, no one is willing to take a chance on him. 

Running backs

The draft got off to a hot start for running backs with Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian both getting taken in the first round. However, things have cooled off considerably since then. There were ZERO running backs taken in the second round, marking the first time in 23 years that there wasn’t a single running back taken in that round. Things didn’t get much better in the third round with just one running back going off the board. That happened when the 49ers selected Kaelon Black with the 90th overall pick. That pick was arguably another Day 2 reach by the 49ers. 

We’re not here to roast the 49ers, though; we’re here to talk about running backs. There were only three taken through the first three rounds, which is the fewest ever through three rounds in the Super Bowl era. 

The three running backs who were drafted all ended up in the NFC West, meaning no other division has drafted a running back yet. 

Although it was an ugly day for running backs, things should improve on Saturday and it won’t be surprising if we see eight to 12 of them go off the board over the final four rounds. 

Brotherly Love

The Falcons pulled off one of the coolest picks of the draft when they decided to take Clemson’s CB Avieon Terrell in the second round at 48th overall. The thing that made the pick so cool is that Terrell’s brother, A.J., already plays for the Falcons. The elder Terrell brother has been in Atlanta since 2020 when the Falcons made him the 16th overall pick in the draft. 

On the surface, this should be a good thing that they’re playing together and we should probably have them in the winners section, but we have them here because A.J. DOES NOT WANT HIS BROTHER ON HIS TEAM. Earlier this month, the older Terrell was asked about the possibility of the Falcons drafting his younger brother and he was totally against it.

“I want to play against him and see him walk on the sideline,” A.J. told ESPN. “I want to see him play and I want him to have his own story somewhere else. I don’t want the narrative to be the Terrell brothers.”

I have some bad news for you, A.J.: the narrative is going to be the Terrell brothers. 

The Terrells are now just the second pair of brothers since 1980 to be drafted by the same team in the first two rounds of separate drafts. The only other time it happened came with Kevin and Andre Dyson. Kevin was the 16th overall pick of the Titans in 1998. Three years later, Tennessee made Andre the 60th overall pick. 

Non-Power Four programs

When it comes to college football, there is no more David vs. Goliath because David has been squashed. Now that we’re in the NIL era, it’s become almost impossible for any players from a non-power conference to make it to the NFL. If a player at a smaller college shows some promise, then he’ll just get recruited by a Power Four school, and that will be that. 

If this year is any indication, we’re just not going to see very many FCS or Group of Six players get drafted going forward. Through the first three rounds, there were only three players drafted who didn’t attend college in a Power Four conference: 

27. Dolphins: CB Chris Johnson (San Diego St.)
58. Browns: S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (Toledo)
84. Buccaneers: WR Ted Hurst (Georgia St.)

This draft also marked the first time in history that zero FCS players were selected in the first three rounds. There were only 24 players drafted last year that came from a non-power conference, and that number will likely shrink this year. Players are going where the money is and the money is in the Power Four and that’s created a situation where smaller schools are no longer producing NFL-caliber talent.