7. Washington Commanders: Rueben Bain, EDGE, Miami
The Washington Commanders have needed help off the edge for quite some time. While Dan Quinn’s defense has been able to compensate in terms of sack numbers, the lack of a truly consistent presence off the edge is something this team needs to fix immediately in the 2026 offseason.
And if they are so fortunate as to have Rueben Bain or David Bailey on the board here with the 7th overall pick, I don’t think they’d hesitate to turn in the card as fast as they possibly can. Getting coached up at Miami by Hall of Famer Jason Taylor is a huge help for Bain, who is already going to come to the NFL with an arsenal of pass rush moves from a variety of different alignments. His frame is not exactly the prototype for an NFL edge rusher these days, but he’s going to be an impactful player right away.
8. New Orleans Saints: Carnell Tate, WR, Ohio State
There are no guarantees when it comes to the NFL Draft, but the New Orleans Saints taking a playmaker in this slot feels like somewhat of a safe bet at this point. And the idea of the Saints getting Carnell Tate might be a dream come true for that fan base, and more importantly for Tyler Shough.
The development of Shough over the course of the 2025 season took a giant monkey off of GM Mickey Loomis’s back, especially considering the surprise nature of Derek Carr’s retirement last offseason. The Saints took a shot on Shough in the 2nd round of the draft, and it ended up – at the very least – giving the team some runway and clarity for 2026.
We’ll see how Shough follows up his rookie year performance, but the Saints have every reason to set the table as though they have a franchise QB in place, no matter what. If they can get a long-term deal done with Chris Olave and add Tate to the mix, they’d have a tremendous young duo for the QB to spread the ball around to.