The DraftBot is back, just in the nick of time, to provide its final mock draft of the 2026 draft cycle. We were lucky that it made it in time. I had to drive out to Amberly Airforce Base, west of Ipswich, in the wee small hours to unload it from the back of a C-17A. It had been detained on field assignment and had to make alternative travel arrangements.
For readers who are unfamiliar with the backstory, The DraftBot was originally conceived as a joke to demonstrate how it would have been for Dan Snyder’s Redskins to draft a franchise QB by just following a simple set of rules. To make it work, I partnered up with some friends at local tech startup Bris Vegas Systems, who programmed up the original rule set on one of their devices. In the first demo, it successfully redrafted Drew Brees, Ben Roethisberger, Aaron Rodgers, and Lamar Jackson, along with a few notable busts.
The experiment caught the attention of a shadowy Australian government agency, who funded an ambitious upgrade program for use in other data integration and decision-making applications. The partnership was highly successful, and the Bris Vegas team have been happy to allow to let me keep using it for mock drafts when it is not on assignment.
Over the years, it has become more sophisticated. It became self-aware, shortly after the upgrade to a biocybernetic neural network processor, and has been exhibiting increasingly human behaviors ever since. The good news is that, since the start of the 2024 season, it has finally grasped why we enjoy football. In the process, it has become a Commanders fan. So it is more than happy to help, when it’s in town.
A lot has happened since the DraftBot’s Way Too Early Mock Draft during the Week 12 bye, after it was clear that the 2025 season was toast. Despite the upgrades in free agency, the DraftBot still feels the need for an infusion of impact players to the starting roster and youth in the depth ranks.
It is growing increasingly frustrated by missing the draft picks that Adam Peters traded for Laremy Tunsil, although it does appreciate the one he got back for Brian Robinson.
In this mock, it will seek opportunities to add more draft picks. However, it faces a dilemma. It really likes the opportunity it has to add an impact player on defense at the seventh overall pick. Its Scouting Department has assembled a board containing 136 players. It considers four players at the top of the board to have transformative potential on defense:
It is reluctant to trade out of range to pick at least one of those players. That sets its asking price for trades back more than 4 places (or fewer, depending on who is available) at well over trade chart value. It believes that was the message that Adam Peters sent to the league when he told the press at the owners’ meeting that the team was not actively looking to trade down.
Since negotiating a trade for the 7th overall pick will be challenging, it sees the 71st overall pick as its best trade opportunity. That aligns well with its board. The highest concentration of targets is in the 2nd round, which has 26 listed players. After that, there is a second sweet spot from the third through the top of the fifth rounds, where it would like to add another pick, or more, if the opportunity presents.
The DraftBot used the Fanspeak Mock Draft Simulator, using the Consensus Mock Draft Database Consensus Board and CPU strategy set to balanced between drafting for need and BPA.
Consensus Ranks refer to the Mock Draft Database Consensus Big Board, not the DraftBot’s board, which only lists 136 prospects. Player ranks within the text refer to the DraftBot’s board.
2025 Statists: 11 games | 0.46 Y/Cov Snap | 35 targets | 14 rec |165 Yd Allowed | 0 TD
The DraftBot did not receive any trade offers. But it was pleased to find the top player on its board available at this pick. The simulations we ran before the draft raised some concern about the Saints or Chiefs possibly trading up to pick Delane ahead of the Commanders. Fortunately, that did not happen.
What stands out about Delane is what does not show up in the stat line. Delane is a shutdown corner, who can erase a team’s primary receiver in man coverage, and take away a side of the field in zone. The DraftBot’s analysis revealed that lockdown corners are undervalued in the draft, due to the paucity of overt production statistics.
Pairing Delane with second year starter, Trey Amos, who also flashed lockdown ability early in his rookie season, will make things very difficult for opposing QBs, resulting in extended pocket time to feed the pass rush, and poor decision making to generate turnovers. Delane will be a force multiplier for Daronte Jones attacking defense.
The lack of trade offers was a mild surprise, since RB Jeremiyah Love was available at the pick, and had been expected to drive trade interest, if he wasn’t drafted earlier.
The Fanspeak simulator was not as impressed with the pick, which it considered to be a reach. They also assessed CB as an intermediate-level need, which the DraftBot called a crazy take, given the absence of a starting-level outside CB on the current roster to pair with Amos.
The DraftBot selected Delane based on talent level and potential impact. It considered the perfect alignment with the team’s biggest roster need to be an extra bonus.
This is how the rest of the entire first round played out:
The big surprise is that Jeremiyah Love was still available to start Day 2. Arvell Reese and Reuben Bain also fell well past their consensus projections. Reese was not on the DraftBot’s board, since the Scouting Department viewed him as a traits-based projection with high bust risk. The scouts had a “boom or bust” rating on Bain, so his slide was not a surprise, either. The DraftBot would have taken him about where the Ravens got him.