25. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Kayden McDonald, DT, Ohio State
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have regressed a bit this year, but part of that might be due to some of the injuries they have gone through. Tampa’s been one of the more consistent teams in the NFL for years now, but something that sticks out to me with this franchise is how much ‘good’ is around.
The QB is good. The head coach is good. The roster is good. There is very little great with Tampa Bay, so it feels like, yet again, this team is going to win nine or 10 games and not win more than a game in the postseason.
The great thing here, though, is GM Jason Licht. He’s excellent at finding talent and should again be able to find some starters in the 2026 NFL Draft. I do believe the Buccaneers could get more stout in the trenches on defense, so at pick 25, I went with Kayden McDonald from Ohio State.
Another great thing for Tampa is that the NFC South is pretty weak, so they should be able to continue winning this division, but major change might need to be made at some point in the future to hit the mountaintop again.
26. Pittsburgh Steelers - LaNorris Sellers, QB, South Carolina
LaNorris Sellers has had a down year, so I guess nothing is certain with his status for the 2026 NFL Draft, but this could be one of the more interesting spots for him. You might think this is an overdraft, but Sellers does have a lot of NFL-caliber tools that might just need to be refined a bit. The Pittsburgh Steelers also have to get serious about the QB position if they hope to contend once again.
They simply cannot keep trotting out over-the-hill veteran passers that maintain the status quo. Sellers, if nothing else, could give Pittsburgh something to try to develop, and they did use a late-round draft pick on Will Howard, so I guess that can’t be ruled out, either.