As 2026 NFL Draft boards are being finalized across the league, one position in particular looks like it could come off the board early and often in the first round: offensive tackle.
While there are only two players, Miami’s Francis Mauigoa and Alabama’a Kadyn Proctor, who are expected to go in or around the top-10, there are about a half dozen other players who could follow suit before the final pick comes off the board at 32, be that a selection by the Seattle Seahawks or from another team looking to leapfrog the New York Jets at 33 overall.
Taking to the Fitz & Whit Podcast to talk all things NFL Draft, NFL Network Senior Insider Ian Rapoport noted that this year’s first round could make NFL history, as between the tackle position and guards like Vega Ioane, there might be an all-time run of players in the trenches.
“I think you just have to have them. Is it the deepest class? I don’t know,” Ian Rapoport noted. “I think probably if I had to guess, I think more than six plus. At least one guard, maybe two. It’s just like if you don’t have one you can’t function.”
In NFL history, there have only been three times where nine offensive linemen were selected in the first round: 2013, 2022, and 2024. If five more tackles go in the first round, Utah’s Spencer Fano, Georgia’s Caleb Lomu, Utah’s Caleb Lomu, Max Iheanachor, and Blake Miller, plus two more guards in Ioane and Oregon’s Emmanuel Pregnon then the 2026 NFL Draft would officially tie history, proving that the trenches are being prioratized more than at any other point in history as the quality of talent around the league continues to rise.
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