{"id":862697,"date":"2026-04-10T00:15:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/862697\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T00:15:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:15:32","slug":"unpacking-the-best-nfl-draft-preview-plus-a-giants-star-wants-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/862697\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpacking the best NFL Draft preview, plus a Giants star wants out"},"content":{"rendered":"

I couldn\u2019t help but chuckle. I was scrolling\u00a0The Beast<\/a>\u00a0and saw, \u201cExplore all 99 quarterbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dane Brugler knows as well as anyone how many quarterbacks will be taken in April\u2019s draft. It won\u2019t be 99. Not close. The record is 25, set during the 17-round draft of 1976.<\/p>\n

But The Beast can\u2019t be contained, let alone by an arbitrary measurement like number of players drafted. After all, there are only 257 total picks in this year\u2019s draft. The Beast has profiles on 2,700 prospects, hundreds of them exhaustively detailed. The name fits.<\/p>\n

My colleague Chris Branch, who writes our flagship newsletter, The Pulse, shared the\u00a0perfect guide<\/a>\u00a0to using it. What I wanted to do was highlight some of the archetypes you\u2019ll find in The Beast.<\/p>\n

The \u201cOf Course This Guy Will Be an NFL Star.\u201d\u00a0Below are two sentences about athletes. One is me, an avid golfer struggling to break 100. The other is\u00a0Ohio State safety Caleb Downs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Father was an engineer, VP at a steel factory and soccer coach. Mother was an emergency room nurse who played baseball once in elementary school. Brother is an actuary at an insurance startup who played high school football for a year and might not have caught a pass.
\nFather was a running back in the NFL for seven years before retiring to coach. Brother is a receiver for the Colts. Uncle coached at Georgia. Other uncle was a 12-year NFL vet and two-time Pro Bowler (Dre Bly).<\/p>\n

The odds were against me. As for Downs, younger brother of Josh, he became an elite NFL prospect and the No. 5 overall player in The Beast. He\u2019s Dane\u2019s highest-ranking safety of the past five years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Downs seems to be just as sure a thing as Kyle Hamilton, who became a two-time first-team All-Pro before age 25.<\/p>\n

The Former Longshot.\u00a0Then there\u2019s\u00a0Akheem Mesidor<\/a>, the fifth-highest-graded edge rusher. Given his journey, how the heck did he get to a first-\/second-round grade?<\/p>\n

Mesidor, born and raised in Ottawa, Canada (shout out!), was one of eight children raised by a single mother juggling multiple jobs. Bless her.
\nHe was diagnosed with narcolepsy when he was younger and needed medication to stay awake in school. He played for six different teams in high school and almost quit football in 2017.
\nHe transferred to the United States in 2019, where he had 10 sacks, played offense and handled some kicking duties.<\/p>\n

Mesidor is now one of the draft\u2019s oldest players at 25 and has a master\u2019s degree from Miami, where he played his sixth season of college football in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Fastest Receiver.\u00a0Brenen Thompson is a 5-foot-9, 164-pound receiver from Mississippi State with a third-round grade. I\u2019d expect he goes earlier after posting a 4.26-second 40-yard dash time at the combine.<\/p>\n

The Massive Lineman with Question Marks.\u00a0Tackle Kadyn Proctor is 6-foot-7 and 352 pounds, a three-year starter at Alabama and still only 20 years old. He also graduated near the top of his class and was a 2025 first-team Academic All-American.<\/p>\n

The obvious potential is why Dane gave Proctor an early grade. The problem is \u2026 I\u2019m not sure how good he is at football. Weaknesses include poor hands, timing and use of leverage. Pass.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have so much more from The Beast over the next few weeks. Until then, you can find it here:<\/p>\n

Next: Dexter Lawrence demands a trade and Zak Keefer takes us inside Jon Gruden\u2019s disastrous<\/a>\u00a0years with the Raiders.<\/p>\n

This article is from The Athletic\u2019s NFL newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive it directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Giants star wants out<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, nose tackle Dexter Lawrence\u00a0requested a trade<\/a>\u00a0from the Giants. He then skipped the team\u2019s offseason workouts, which began Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Not ideal for new coach John Harbaugh, who called Lawrence \u201ca cornerstone football player.\u201d\u00a0Lawrence has been exactly that since the Giants drafted him in 2019\u2019s first round, becoming New York\u2019s most productive homegrown talent across the past seven years. Since 2019, he is:<\/p>\n

The only Giants draftee to make multiple Pro Bowls. He leads the team in games played, defensive snaps, sacks, pressures and tackles for a loss.
\nThe team leader in Pro Football Reference\u2019s\u00a0Approximate Value<\/a>\u00a0metric, which measures a player\u2019s impact on his team via a mix of team success and individual statistics.<\/p>\n

Bad news: Losing him would be devastating.\u00a0The star tackle is invaluable on the interior of this line, which is otherwise thin. He\u2019s one of the best run defenders for a defense that allowed the most yards per carry in 2025. Harbaugh rightfully called Lawrence a \u201cneed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good news: Keeping him sounds simple.\u00a0He wants two things: a raise and guarantees. Lawrence has no guaranteed money remaining on the\u00a0four-year, $90 million deal he signed in 2023. That average per year pay (APY) also ranks 12th among interior linemen.<\/p>\n

(Note: Ages listed are how old players will be during the 2026 season.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As Dan Duggan wrote in his\u00a0story on this subject<\/a>,\u00a0one question is at the heart of the Giants\u2019 decision:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcac \u201cWas last season\u2019s underperformance the start of a decline for the 28-year-old or an outlier for a player who had established himself as the best interior defensive lineman in the NFL?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence finished 2025 with just half a sack, 31 tackles and eight quarterback hits \u2014 all career lows. That said, he played through a lingering elbow injury, and was double-teamed at the second-highest rate in the NFL last season, per NextGen Stats.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an easy decision, one that largely depends on how much Lawrence is looking for.\u00a0Dan also noted that the timing of this request \u2014 weeks after other teams handed out pricey contracts in free agency \u2014 hints at Lawrence\u2019s intention to remain in New York.\u00a0Plenty more details here<\/a>. As for some juicy details \u2026<\/p>\n

Gruden\u2019s Raiders: \u2018We got nobody left\u2019<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s Law is usually described as something like: \u201cAnything that can go wrong will go wrong.\u201d That could also be the unofficial motto of the second Jon Gruden era with the Raiders.<\/p>\n

It took Mark Davis six years \u2014 and a 10-year, $100 million contract \u2014to convince Gruden to return in 2018. The coach didn\u2019t make it through his fourth year. By that time:<\/p>\n

Gruden had shipped off the Raiders\u2019 two most promising young stars, a 27-year-old Khalil Mack and a 24-year-old Amari Cooper.
\nThanks to those deals, the Raiders had four picks in top 40 of the 2019 draft and two first-rounders in 2020. Finally! A chance to rebuild the foundation!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Only one of those players \u2014 running back Josh Jacobs \u2014 signed a second contract with the team (and he quickly moved on after that one-year extension).
\nThen there\u2019s the\u00a0Antonio Brown saga<\/a>. Gruden\u2019s rebuild included shipping Pittsburgh multiple picks for Brown, whom they gave a three-year, $50 million contract with $30 million guaranteed. At the time, Gruden even put Brown above Jerry Rice as the hardest-working player he had ever seen practice.<\/p>\n

For any Raiders fans who\u2019d wanted to enjoy their day, sorry. Also, maybe skip the next sentence. My colleague Zak Keefer has\u00a0much more in the full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Extra Points<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc40\u00a0Proper WR rankings.\u00a0Typical pre-draft rankings group receivers together. Our film guru Ted Nguyen took a different approach,\u00a0ranking receivers based on position type<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd0b\u00a0Energy levels are different in Baltimore, where the Ravens are\u00a0embracing new coach Jesse Minter<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re all excited to start over. It\u2019s a new energy,\u201d said receiver Zay Flowers.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc4e\u00a0Replacement refs\u00a0could\u00a0start officiating practices<\/a>\u00a0as soon as June 1, which suggests the league isn\u2019t close to a deal with the referees\u2019 union. Replacement officials would be hired primarily from the NCAA.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\uddf0\u00a0New-look 49ers?\u00a0Vic Tafur explains why San Francisco\u2019s typical approach to the draft \u2014 almost exclusively defensive linemen and receivers in the first round \u2014\u00a0should probably change this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u25b6\ufe0f Monday\u2019s most-clicked:\u00a0Bruce Feldman\u2019s story on the\u00a0draft\u2019s most explosive prospect<\/a>, who is yet to play a snap of live football. You read that right.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Enjoyed this read? Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Athletic\u2019s free NFL newsletter in your inbox.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, check out our\u00a0other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I couldn\u2019t help but chuckle. I was scrolling\u00a0The Beast\u00a0and saw, \u201cExplore all 99 quarterbacks.\u201d Dane Brugler knows as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,2321,2469,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-862697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-giants","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkgiants","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116377535465227193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}