On the Clock: Why picks 13-18 are a run on pass-catchers, and the guys who try to stop them
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
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Summary
Picks 13 through 18 will be an interesting stretch in the draft. You've got consistent contenders, such as the Rams and Ravens, as well as obvious playoff contenders, to varying degrees, in the Buccaneers, Lions and Vikings. Oh, and also the Jets. Lance Zierlein from NFL Media joins Robert Mays to make draft selections for those teams on this episode of The Athletic Football Show's On the Clock.
Host: Robert Mays
Guest: Lance Zierlein
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Senior Producer: Katy Duffy
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social
Follow Robert on X: @RobertMays
Theme song: Haunted
Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs
Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. |
| 0:02.1 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:02.9 | Our on the clock series rolls on today. |
| 0:06.1 | We're doing picks 13 through 18 with our friend Lance Zerline from NFL media and NFL.com. |
| 0:14.5 | Just so if you've never watched these or not familiar with the exercise, just laying out what this exercise is and how it ends up |
| 0:21.9 | playing out. I give the guest three options for whichever team is on the clock with that pick. |
| 0:28.6 | They make the selection they would make if they were the ones sitting in that chair. |
| 0:33.5 | The goal of this is just to have one big mock draft for the first round by the time we get to the end of it. |
| 0:40.4 | I gave Lance the players that have already been drafted early in our conversation. |
| 0:44.4 | So just be on the lookout for that. |
| 0:46.1 | That'll be coming here in about 30 to 45 seconds. |
| 0:48.4 | So let's get to this conversation with Lance Zerline about picks 13 through 18 in the first round right now. |
| 1:01.5 | Joining us now to dig into the middle meaty part of the first round of the 2026 NFL draft, it is our buddy from NFL media and NFL.com. |
| 1:17.4 | Lance Zerline, that's how you doing, man? |
| 1:19.0 | I'm doing good, Robert, how are we doing? |
| 1:20.6 | I'm doing great. |
| 1:21.5 | I'm very excited to dig into this group of teams. |
| 1:23.9 | There are a lot of wrinkles here. |
| 1:26.5 | We have some teams that are picking higher than |
| 1:28.7 | they typically would, right? Teams like Baltimore, Detroit that you normally expect to be picking |
| 1:33.0 | at the middle of 20s are picking at the middle of the first round. The Rams are picking at 13 because |
| 1:37.2 | they have the Falcons pick. The Jets are picking at 16 because they have the Colts pick. And we |
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