CHICAGO — After months of scouting and preparation, the Chicago Bears drafted seven players over the weekend. It was the culmination of a monthslong process for general manager Ryan Poles and his staff.

Notably, the Bears selected Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman with the No. 25 pick during the first round Thursday. Thieneman should start for ...Read more

San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan are officially trapped in a Groundhog Day of their own design.

The 2026 NFL draft is in the books, and the verdict from Santa Clara is painfully clear: They haven’t learned a single, solitary thing from the draft failures of their past. In short, they still think they...Read more

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — If you want to see passion, conviction and excitement from the Miami Dolphins’ new regime of general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley, include the term “roster construction” or something similar in conversation or a question.

Sullivan and Hafley will light up like a Christmas tree while getting as ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — This was bound to be a strange NFL draft for the Minnesota Vikings.

They assigned oversight of the draft to a longtime executive who might or might not be a candidate for their vacant general manager job.

They were desperate to make up for bad drafts conducted by the previous general manager.

They might be on the cusp of ...Read more

BALTIMORE — As one of the few media members who has covered every Baltimore Ravens draft, it’s amusing to watch or hear the grades that are immediately filed.

It actually takes three to four years to determine final grades, unless a team has an unusually high number of first-round picks.

ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. almost always gives...Read more

MIAMI — There have been few NFL drafts with a larger spotlight on Miami than the one newly minted. It would have to be have been held here on Calle Ocho to be more Miami.

Top down, it started at No. 1 with local kid Fernando Mendoza, the pride of the Miami’s Columbus High, becoming the first player of Cuban heritage ever to grand marshal ...Read more

DENVER — There is logic in mathematics. Beauty lies in numbers.

They provide context. A frame of reference.

After watching the Denver Broncos essentially finish their offseason Saturday with the final day of the draft, it is clear they have identified a new equation to win.

Forget addition by subtraction, they have adopted addition by a ...Read more

CHICAGO — As Dillon Thieneman’s high school coach tells it, Thieneman’s father, Ken, had a saying while Dillon was growing up.

“His dad says all the time: You’ve got to skate to where the puck’s going, not to where the puck is,” said Jake Gilbert, Thieneman’s coach at Westfield (Ind.) High School and now head coach at Division ...Read more

RENTON, Wash. — You can't judge a Seattle Seahawks draft by John Schneider's enthusiasm because it's the same every spring. The team's general manager is always beaming after the three-day process in a manner that suggests another Super Bowl is imminent.

It's doubtful this is exclusive to him. It's PR 101 to put up a strong-as-steel front ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Mike Tomlin has spoken.

For the first time since his final postgame press conference as the Pittsburgh Steelers coach back in January, Tomlin commented publicly on his departure after 19 years, and he did it as his first foray into broadcasting.

Appearing during an intermission in NBC’s coverage of the NBA playoffs Sunday ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — It was after his third year at California — having already graduated with a business degree — when Fernando Mendoza transferred to Indiana.

When the quarterback heeded the advice of his mother, Elsa.

“She always saw more in me than I saw in myself,” Mendoza said. “At the time, she (challenged) me to take a swing at ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Cory DeSanti had a basketball player in his program. That player had a fellow Nigerian friend he brought to practice one day. That kid was a 6-foot-6 monster named Max Iheanachor who had quick feet, a broad frame and not an ounce of knowledge about football.

Unless that “football” was soccer.

“He didn’t even know what a ...Read more

DENVER — The Denver Broncos will go farther with a Waddle than they ever would by hangin’ with Mr. Cooper.

The first-round pick that belonged to the Broncos in February — No. 30, the third-from-last in the pecking order this past Thursday night — wound up going through three teams’ hands before it turned into a good-hands guy in ...Read more

BALTIMORE — The unranked Graham-Kapowsin High School football team had just pulled up to Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas for a marquee matchup against Collins Hill — the No. 12 team in the country, led by future No. 2 overall NFL draft pick Travis Hunter — when fans from the Georgia powerhouse surrounded the bus and began to rock it.

“They ...Read more

For three days this past week, Pittsburgh closed public school classrooms to make way for the National Football League draft.

School buses and carpools gave way to gridlock, fans and security perimeters, pushing students into remote learning. This is becoming routine. Green Bay shuttered classrooms for the 2025 draft; in 2023, Kansas City ...Read more

Before the first round of the NFL draft, Mike Vrabel said he would communicate with the Patriots’ front-office leaders if necessary while he was away with his family during Saturday’s final rounds.

Turns out, the two sides never spoke about the draft.

Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf told reporters Saturday ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs’ draft class began with a surprise trade.

It concluded with a surprise position.

The Chiefs made seven picks over three days in the 2026 NFL Draft, including the highest draft selection they’ve had in more than a decade.

The class:

— No. 6 overall: Mansoor Delane, cornerback, LSU

— No. 29: Peter Woods...Read more

CHICAGO — There was all sorts of hand-wringing going on a year ago when the Chicago Bears waited until the seventh round to choose a running back in a draft that was loaded with options.

What in the world were they thinking? Why not take advantage at a position where there was need?

Kyle Monangai was the 22nd running back selected and went ...Read more

Well, that was educational. Day after day, pick by pick, you learned plenty about this new Miami Dolphins regime over this NFL draft, if you watched closely enough.

So, put down the popcorn with the draft wrapped up and go down a list of what you saw:

1. General manager Jon-Eric Sullivan follows convictions, even unpopular ones. How else to ...Read more