Even though the 2025 NFL Season hasn't begun yet, these teams are in a position to pick first overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Let's continue to get way ahead of ourselves and look toward the 2026 NFL Draft. Next year's draft does appear to be a lot deeper at quarterback than 2025, so that could be a blessing in disguise for the teams projected to be bad this year.
In fact, we could see a run on quarterbacks in 2026 like we saw in the 2024 NFL Draft. These three teams feel like the most likely to pick first overall in 2026. Let's talk about them here.
2026 NFL Mock Draft: These 3 teams are most likely to pick first overall
New Orleans Saints
Taking Tyler Shough in the second round, the New Orleans Saints did at least take a chance on this QB class. It wasn't a great one, but the Saints did hire a new head coach and could have a path toward a much-needed rebuild in 2025. The roster itself is bad, and the QB situation is just not good.
This could easily be a team that struggles to win more than a few games in 2025. A bad GM, bad roster, no franchise QB, and a first-year head coach is a formula for disaster in today's NFL. No one would be shocked if the Saints picked first overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.
New York Giants
The New York Giants are another team with no franchise QB at the moment and an overall bad roster. Not only that, but they somehow got stuck with the hardest schedule in the NFL for 2025. Seeing as Brian Daboll doesn't appear to be a good head coach coupled with Russell Wilson as their starter, the wheels could truly fall off in 2025.
New York did take Jaxson Dart in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, so I guess they have that to lean on, but if the Giants are struggling to win games, it would not be a surprise to see both Daboll and GM Joe Schoen get the axe during the season.
And if the Giants are picking quite high in the 2026 NFL Draft, a new regime really wouldn't have to go forward with Jaxson Dart.
Cleveland Browns
Oh boy, where do we even begin? The Cleveland Browns saw the Deshaun Watson trade blow up in their faces, and it's really thrown this team a massive curveball. All of Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, and Shedeur Sanders were brought to the team this offseason.
And there just isn't any indication as to who is in the lead for the job. It honestly would not shock me to see all four passers getting starts this year. Furthermore, the Browns did acquire an additional first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, so that tells me, at least, they are building for 2026 and beyond.
It's hard to say if Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry would keep their jobs in the event that the Browns earn the top pick. Both are capable at what they do, as it was really tough to envision the Watson trade going as poorly as it did.