Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Fun show on tap for you guys today.

Each year we like to talk about the teams that have the most at stake in an upcoming NFL

draft. Which teams have a ton riding on how this thing is going to go? That can mean because they

have a lot of picks. That can mean because the general managers on the hot seat. There's so many

different considerations that drive the stakes in a given draft

in a given year. And so Derek and I wanted to spend a little bit of time today digging into

about 10 or so teams that fit the bill. Those are the teams that because they have a ton of top

100 picks like the dolphins or because it seems like their GM is an inflection point like the Ravens

have a ton riding on this draft specifically. So that's what we dug into today, the teams that have

the most at stake in the 2026 NFL draft. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, you can now watch

video there too. Just update to the latest iOS and head to our show page to start watching.

I've done the show over the last few years, and I think it's just a good table setting exercise as we really dig into draft season

here and just think about who really has the most writing on this draft. And we've typically

focused on teams, Derek, but I think we'll be able to dig into why these teams are in this

conversation and who associated with these teams really does have a lot at play when it comes to the 2026 draft class. Yeah, I'm excited for this one because I think we have, I don't know, a dozen or so, maybe just shy of that teams. And I think there are probably like very different reasons for half of them to be on. They're like half of these teams are good teams, but half of them are very, very bad. And so it's just a wide array of teams that we're going to hit here. Well, I mean, here's an example I'll throw out, right? The Saints, right? Like the Saints have a top 10 pick in this year's draft. The Saints don't have like a ton riding on this draft. They're in the middle of like a, in my opinion, kind of well orchestrated reset.

Like, it would be great if they found a really nice player with the seventh overall pick.

Obviously, as you're trying to accumulate young pieces, as you're starting a new era,

it's really important to hit on some of these drafts.

But if the seventh overall pick in this draft isn't a star for the Saints and they come out of this draft with like one starter, it's not necessarily going to derail who the New Orleans Saints want to be over the next five years. Yeah, if that guy's not a star and they still go like eight and nine and Shuck looks fine again, it's like they'll probably be okay. It's not really a make or break season. Like nobody's going to lose their job over a draft like that and you find this you find a starter in the second round your third round pick is like a rotational

piece on your defensive line like that's acceptable for other teams there is a lot more riding on

this for a whole variety of reasons and so let's start with the first team that was on my list

and it was funny when you and i were going back and forth, you were like, I forget to mention this team, but in reality, they have a ton riding on this draft. How about the Las Vegas Raiders? How about we start there? We should probably start with the team that has the first overall pick. Yes. And when we were going back and forth, I was like, I kind of just forget to talk about them because the first pick is pre-spent.

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