The Cleveland Browns picked another quarterback in the NFL Draft on Saturday, raising questions about what they might do with the quarterbacks they selected in the last draft. The Browns opened the sixth round of the draft Saturday by selecting Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green at No. 182 overall. The selection means the Browns have taken the very unusual step of drafting three quarterbacks in a two-year span. There had been talk that Green might be converted to wide receiver at the NFL level, but Browns GM Andrew Berry made it clear that the team sees him as a quarterback. Speculation immediately shifted to the future of Dillon Gabriel. The Browns picked Gabriel in the third round of last year’s draft, but he was unimpressive as a rookie and eventually wound up behind fellow 2025 draft pick Shedeur Sanders on the depth chart. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported, however, that the Browns have no intention of trading Gabriel despite their suddenly crowded quarterback room. This may just be posturing by the Browns in order to maintain some sort of trade value, because their current quarterback situation is untenable. In addition to Sanders and Gabriel, the team still hopes Deshaun Watson can contribute in 2026, and his contract makes him untradeable anyway. Gabriel would be the logical quarterback to be moved, with Sanders expected to compete for the starting job. While the Browns drafted Gabriel ahead of Sanders, the former Oregon quarterback showed little during game action, and would profile as the odd man out if the Browns had to get rid of one. For now, the plan appears to be to keep all four.
The 2026 NFL Draft began with the first round on Thursday night, and it went as expected at the top with quarterback Fernando Mendoza going to the Las Vegas Raiders. While it usually takes a couple of years to accurately assess a draft class, that is not going to stop us from picking out some winners and losers from Thursday. Winner: Quarterbacks from the 2025 NFL Draft class Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward and New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough got big-time pass-catching targets in Carnell Tate (Titans) and Jordyn Tyson (Saints), while New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart got some serious protection in offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa. Loser: Arizona Cardinals Jeremiyah Love might end up be being a great player. He is an incredible talent and arguably one of the two or three best players in this class. But the Cardinals have so many other needs at so many other positions that a running back just seems like a luxury pick at No. 3 overall. Running backs are the final piece of the puzzle. Not the first piece. Winner: New York Giants With two top-10 picks, the Giants had a chance to really start rebuilding the roster under new head coach John Harbaugh, and they smartly did so by strengthening both lines. The Giants opened their draft by selecting arguably the best non-quarterback in the class in edge-rusher Arvell Reese, and then followed it up at No. 10 with Mauigoa You win championships on the lines. This is a good start. Loser: Los Angeles Rams The Rams, at some point, do need to think about the long-term situation at quarterback. Matthew Stafford is still elite, but his career is inching closer to the end. So in that respect, it does it make some sense that they would take Alabama's Ty Simpson with the No. 13 overall pick. But that's also a big gamble on whether or not Simpson is the right guy. It is also a big gamble to not take some immediate help for Stafford while he is still there and you are theoretically trying to win a Super Bowl this season (with it being played in your home stadium). Winner: That future A.J. Brown trade The writing has been on the wall for a while now, and it seems to be a foregone conclusion that A.J. Brown is going to be, presumably, a New England Patriot at some point over the next couple of months. And even if it is not the Patriots, it seems pretty clear he is not going to be a Philadelphia Eagle. After making multiple free-agency and trade additions at wide receiver, the Eagles moved up on Thursday to select Makai Lemon with the No. 20 overall pick. That is too many wide receivers. Somebody has to go. It is going to be Brown. And that is probably good news for the Patriots offense and quarterback Drake Maye. Loser: Pittsburgh Steelers Speaking of Lemon, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport delivered a stunning report shortly after the pick. According to Rapoport, the Steelers were actually on the phone with Lemon when the Dallas Cowboys were initially on the clock at No. 20, informing him they were going to pick him at No. 21. What they did not account for was somebody moving up ahead of them to take him. Which is exactly what happened. The Steelers then took offensive tackle Max Iheanachor, a talented player, but an extremely raw talent who is still relatively new to football. That's just an awful look for the Steelers front office to make a call to a player when they were not on the clock. Especially when they could have easily secured the pick they initially wanted by moving up one spot given that they have 12 picks in this year's class. Just a brutal miss by the Steelers on a night where they hosted the first round of the draft. Winner: Notre Dame running backs After Jeremiyah Love went No. 3 overall, the Seattle Seahawks took Jadarian Price, making it the first time in the modern draft era that the top two running backs in a draft came from the same school. Loser: Josh Allen At least for the first night of the draft. He needs more playmakers at wide receiver, and not only did the Buffalo Bills neglect to draft one, but they traded out of the first round entirely. They will probably take some on Friday, but will they get the right one?
With their 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, the Ottawa Senators were eliminated from the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs in a four-game sweep that turned out to be an absolutely disastrous showing by the team's best players. That includes team captain Brady Tkachuk, who did not score a single goal or record a single point in the entire series. Not only was Tkachuk a complete non-factor offensively, but he seemed more focused on trying to be a pest and cage-rattler than an effective hockey player, and on more than one occasion, it ended up becoming a detriment to the Senators' chances. Now that the Senators are done, and with Tkachuk putting a giant goose egg on the board in the series, the focus is going to turn to his future in Ottawa. If he has one. Will first-round sweep be the end of Brady Tkachuk's tenure in Ottawa? It's not a contract situation, as Tkachuk is signed long-term on a seven-year deal that carries an $8.23 million salary cap hit per season. It's not even a talent question, because if you look beyond the small sample size of a four-game playoff series, Tkachuk is objectively a very talented, very productive first-line player. He is also the type of player a lot of general managers around the league would crawl over miles of rusty nails to acquire. Teams love players like this. They crave them. It's a question of whether or not he actually wants to remain there, and there is plenty of smoke to suggest that maybe he doesn't. The smoke first started to rise a little over a month ago when his brother, Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, and his dad, former NHL player Keith Tkachuk, spoke on their podcast and absolutely ripped the coaching staff for Brady's ice time and role with the team. While Brady attempted to stop them, it was still a weird thing to watch unfold. And it doesn't take a massive leap to suggest that if the brother and dad are willing to publicly say it, Brady might have privately been thinking it. There's also been a sense that Tkachuk is just unhappy in Ottawa, a theory that was floated this past week again by NHL insider Frank Seravalli. Given his age (26), the fact that he has term remaining on his contract, and is an enticing combination of talent, production and physicality, there would be no shortage of teams lining up to trade for him. As such, the Senators would be able to get a pretty significant return, and still allow them to move forward with Tim Stutzle as their franchise cornerstone. It would likely require Tkachuk forcing the issue and asking his way out, but all options should be on the table after another dismal playoff showing for him and the Senators. He might need a change. The Senators might need a change. This might be the offseason for everybody to get it.
The New York Jets took a swing at finding a future quarterback during Day 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft, and they traded up for the honor. During Saturday's fourth round, the Jets sent two 2026 fourths (Nos. 128, 140) to the Cincinnati Bengals for No. 110 and a 2026 sixth (No. 199), using the first pick to take former Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik. Sports Info Solutions ranked Klubnik (6-foot-2, 207 pounds) as the fourth-ranked quarterback and No. 104 overall prospect in the 2026 class. The three year college starter's best year came in 2024, when he led Clemson to the College Football Playoff, finishing the season 308-of-486 (63.4 percent) for 3,639 yards, 36 touchdowns and six interceptions. Amid a disappointing 7-6 2025 season, Klubnik was 257-of-392 (65.6 percent) for 2,943 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. Jets trade up to draft Cade Klubnik as first quarterback of Day 3 Klubnik joins a quarterback room led by veteran Geno Smith, whom the team acquired in a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders during the offseason. The Jets' 2013 second-round pick resurrected his career in 2022 with the Seattle Seahawks but is coming off a disastrous 2025 in Las Vegas, where he led the league in interceptions. Second-year quarterback Brady Cook, a 2025 undrafted free agent, returns after four dismal starts as a rookie, throwing two touchdowns and five interceptions while averaging 144 yards per game during the 0-4 stretch. In January, New York signed former New England Patriots quarterback Bailey Zappe to a futures deal. With 64 starts over the past four seasons, Smith is the logical choice to enter Week 1 as Jets starting quarterback. But unless we once again prematurely wrote off the 2022 Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year, Klubnik should get a look with the first-team offense at some point during his rookie season. After posting a 3-14 record in head coach Aaron Glenn's first season, New York could easily once again be among the league's worst teams, which would pave the way for a quarterback change as the Jets evaluate their options before the 2027 draft. If Klubnik gets in the starting lineup, New York should get an accurate gauge of his abilities after spending significant draft capital improving at the skill positions. The Jets used two of their three first-round picks on offense, selecting tight end Kenyon Sadiq and wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. to add to a core that already includes wide receiver Garrett Wilson and running back Breece Hall. As a fourth-round pick, Klubnik won't be expected to come in and earn the starting job out of training camp. And if he does start, it will likely be a temporary gig before the Jets spend a 2027 first on a replacement. But New York's decision to trade up for Klubnik, particularly when no other quarterback went in Round 4, reveals the team sees something there. He has a whole training camp and preseason to show its enough to win the starting job.
