Sports

2026 NFL Draft: The Best Scheme Fits in the First Round

By Doug Farrar Athlon Sports

In the NFL, when it comes to player/team success, the fit is the thing.

Even the most scheme-transcendent players need a system in which they can thrive, and for the 98% of players who aren't totally scheme-transcendent at any position, coaching and conceptual assistance is mandatory for optimal success.

Every NFL team goes into the draft believing that the prospects they're looking to pick have what it takes to win in the schemes they prefer, but there's a reason even the first round of the draft is a total crapshoot - there's no guarantee that the people in charge of this matchmaking are being honest with themselves (Hello, 2026 Los Angeles Rams).

But in the following seven instances, it would appear that the teams got it right about the fit, based on tape, metrics, and what the teams themselves have professed regarding their identities in 2026 and beyond.

David Bailey, Edge, New York Jets

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Last season, the Jets ranked 31st in Defensive DVOA - only the Dallas Cowboys were worse - and a primary reason for that was a pass rush that didn't get home nearly as often as new head coach Aaron Glenn would have liked. The 2025 Jets had just 26 sacks - only the San Francisco 49ers had a lower total - and Gang Green's pressure rate of 15.1% was the league's lowest. This despite a blitz rate of 25.8%.

Glenn and the Jets desperately needed a new edge presence, and they certainly got that with the second overall pick in the person of Texas Tech's David Bailey. Let's put this in perspective: In 2025, the entire Jets edge rotation had 15 sacks and 112 total pressures. In2025, Bailey had 15 sacks and 81 total pressures... all by himself.

Moreover, Bailey was the best speed-rusher in the 2026 draft class, and that shows up in how many quick pressures he put together. Perhaps no edge disruptor in the NCAA overall, regardless of draft class, was more effective at getting to the quarterback on short drops. Both the tape and the metrics tell the story. Bailey can kick inside on certain pass defense snaps to add versatility - he did so 44 times last season - but in Glenn's defense, he will be the alpha edge defender every NFL defense needs.

"Well, just first-step quickness, and that's obvious when you watch the tape," Glenn said of Bailey's attributes. "The way he's able to beat tackles around the edge, but don't take him for a guy that can just rush with speed around the edge. There are several long-armed power things that he's done within his game that allow him to be able to show that he can rush for power. We're going to try to unlock everything that he can do. Obviously, we have some really good coaches that are going to be able to help him. Man, we're really excited about that player."

It's pretty easy to see why.

Mansoor Delane, CB, Kansas City Chiefs

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Like every play-caller, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has specific schematic concepts on which he leans, and in Spags' case, the primary idea is press coverage. Spagnuolo became the architect of the Chiefs' defense in 2019, and in every season since, no team has called more snaps in which at least one of their cornerbacks were in press coverage. Last season, for example, Kansas City had no cornerbacks in press on just 13% of their snaps. The Chicago Bears had the NFL's second-lowest rate... at 24%.

Moreover, the Chiefs played man coverage on 172 snaps last season, but the results weren't exactly perfect - in man, they allowed 95 completions on 172 attempts for 1,075 yards, 10 touchdowns, four interceptions, 19 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 83.8.

So, when the Chiefs traded up with the Cleveland Browns from the ninth overall pick to the sixth, and selected LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane with that sixth overall pick, it made all the sense in the world. Kansas City traded Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams this offseason, and then lost cornerback Jaylen Watson to those same Rams in free agency. Spags needed at least one more press cornerback for his roster, and it would help if the guy could play some man as well.

Delane can play press just fine, as the tape and metrics indicate.

And when in man coverage last season, Delane allowed seven completions on 16 targets for 35 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of...

Zero-point-zero.

This is as perfect a scheme fit as you'll find in this draft, and it puts the Chiefs on track for a defensive rebirth in the wake of those cornerback departures.

Sonny Styles, LB/Edge, Washington Commanders

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Had the Chiefs not leapfrogged the Commanders, who had the seventh overall pick, for Mansoor Delane, might Delane have been Washington's selection? We do know that the Commanders' cornerback situation was not great in 2025, and at this point, the team has done precious little to improve it.

But in taking Ohio State's Sonny Styles with that pick, one can only imagine how happy head coach and defensive shot-caller Dan Quinn must be. Not only does the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Styles have a skill set that has him on track to be the next Fred Warner when blowing up run fits and succeeding in coverage, but he also has a ton of under-utilized pass rush juice that can be unleashed at the next level.

Styles told me as much when I asked him at the scouting combine for his favorite plays throughout his collegiate career.

"One of my favorite plays from '24, got a chance to rush the edge against Texas, [and] got a strip sack." Styles said. "I would show that play just to show, despite me not rushing the passer this past year, there is some upside there. Obviously with the way our team was this year, that wasn't my role. But just to be able to show there was some upside there."

You could say that - on just 78 pass-rushing snaps in the 2024 season, Styles had six sacks and 19 pressures. And it took just 64 pass-rushing reps in the 2025 season for Styles to two sacks and 15 pressures.

Quinn's Commanders have a history with these kinds of two-level players. In 2024, they gave linebacker Frankie Luvu a three-year, $31 million contract with $14,625 million guaranteed to be the 'backer who could also succeed as a disruptor at the line of scrimmage. Last season, Luvu had three sacks and 26 pressures in 228 pass-rushing snaps, and he played off-ball linebacker on 42% of his snaps, with the remainder on the edge.

It's also worth mentioning that from 2021 through 2023, Quinn was the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator, and he benefited quite a bit from the presence of one Micah Parsons, another two-level game-wrecker.

Styles can roll into the nation's capital as a force multiplier linebacker, but don't be surprised if Quinn and defensive coordinator Daronte Jones start to put Styles nearer to the line of scrimmage sooner than later. Styles can tie the first two levels of a defense together as well as anybody in this class - and I would include Arvell Reese, Styles' Ohio State teammate, and a New York Giant with the fifth overall pick.

Caleb Downs, DB, Dallas Cowboys

As we've already mentioned, the Cowboys had the NFL's worst defense last season, and that was the case in terms of metrics both traditional and advanced. In response, Jerry Jones mercifully fired defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, and replaced him with Christian Parker, who served as the Philadelphia Eagles' passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach in 2024 and 2025.

Coming from Vic Fangio's defense has he does, you can expect Parker to implement more light boxes with match coverage principles underneath, and also to put a premium on versatile defensive backs. Parker had Cooper DeJean as his "joker" in that regard, and when Dallas traded up with the Miami Dolphins to go up from the 12th to the 11th overall pick to select Caleb Downs, that became monstrously evident.

Downs played far more deep safety for his team in 2025 than DeJean did - 54% of his snaps to 1% for DeJean - but the traits are similar in that both players can serve as overhang/box/slot enforcers for whom positional versatility is the key to their success.

Downs told me as much when I interviewed him for the Athlon NFL Draft Preview magazine cover story.

"At the end of the day, if I'm in all these different positions, and doing different things at different positions, the quarterback is having to think about that every play," Downs said. "‘Okay, he's the boundary safety this play, close to the line of scrimmage this play. He's in the post this play. He's dropped down 10 yards over the apex in the middle of the field. He could run the alley on this play. He could play the post. He could do all these different things. He's at nickel this play. He could blitz. He could play coverage. He could play zone. What are they?'

"They're having to go through that every play. And I feel like that's something that makes DBs special, but also coaches have to be able to move the chess pieces around and be able to do that at a high level."

Downs has what it takes to bring Parker's defensive visions to life, and this is a huge get for the Cowboys.

Rueben Bain Jr., Edge, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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If it feels like Todd Bowles has been unhappy with his pass-rushers since he became the Buccaneers' head coach in 2022, it's because he has been - and for good reason. In 2025, Tampa Bay's edge defenders totaled 17 sacks, and their prominent guys on the outside, Yaya Diaby and Anthony Nelson, were more good players than complete disruptors.

Enter Miami's Rueben Bain Jr. with the 15th overall pick. Last season for the Hurricanes, Bain had 12 sacks and 83 total pressures, and he just about decapitated Fernando Mendoza in the College Football Playoff National Championship. Not that Bain was given any grace from evaluators following his remarkable season; right after that is when the complaints about his arm length (30 7/8 inches, first percentile among edge defenders since 1999) began.

What the naysayers are missing is that Bain has the ability to get inside a blocker's reach, and from there, he turns into peak Joe Frazier or Mike Tyson in that he will beat you up with his speed-to-power moves to the quarterback.

It was a comparison that Bucs general manager Jason Licht made on his own after the pick was made.

"I think one of his assets is his low center of gravity, and his power, his strength and his urgency," Licht said. "Mike Tyson has short arms too. He tries to win every rep and he usually does."

Licht also believes that Bain's presence will help everybody else on the defensive line.

"Well, I think [when] you add a player like Rueben, and he does what we think he can do, it opens a lot of things up. It makes everyone along the defensive line better when you can have two edge presences. The protections don't slide as much, you have to decide where to slide them, [and] it opens things up. Potentially now [with] David Walker, we have an arsenal [at edge rusher] right now that we feel is a very good rotation. With 'Quan' [free-agent acquisition] Al-Quadin Muhammad, and we still have 'Nelly' [Anthony Nelson], and all that. You can't have too many [edge-rushers]. I say that every year, but then it just doesn't work out that we can draft one at a premium, but now we did. Hopefully, we can reap the rewards here."

Given Bowles' predilection for creative blitzes and deployments, it also matters that Bain kicked inside on 5% of his snaps last year, and you could see that rate increase with his new team.

Bain believes that it's a perfect match.

"I feel like I fit in, just fine because Coach Bowles is an aggressive, defensive, like-minded coach and I'm an aggressive, defensive, like-minded player," he said. So, I feel like it's two-and-two put together. It's going to be [really] simple, and [really] smooth. Now, it's just about me learning plays, earning the trust of my teammates and learning what I can do to help the team."

When Bowles was the Buccaneers' defensive coordinator in 2020, and the franchise won its second Super Bowl at the end of that season, the pass-rushing alpha dog was Shaquil Barrett, the 6-foot-1, 251-pound edge man who measured in at the 2014 scouting combine with 32 1/4-inch arms, which was 36th percentile for edge defenders. Not quite as short as Bain's, but the point is that Barrett had 12 sacks and 98 total pressures in that season (including a sack and 10 pressures in the Bucs' 31-9 demolition of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV), so Bowles already has a history of bringing out the best in a particular kind of player.

The Bucs just had to wait for the right guy to come around again, and they got him.

Keylan Rutledge, OG, Houston Texans

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Just as Todd Bowles has been trying to put together his ideal pass-rush plan for years, the Houston Texans have struggled to put a functional offensive line on the field for a while now. Offseason moves gave the Texans guard Wyatt Teller and right tackle Braden Smith to work with left tackle Aireontae Ersery, center Jake Andrews, and right guard Ed Ingram, but the team obviously felt that there was a final tough of whoop-ass needed in the front five, which is why they took Georgia Tech guard Keylan Rutledge with the 26th overall pick after trading up with the Buffalo Bills from their original 28th slot.

It's unknown where Rutledge will line up at this point, but as far as the whoop-ass quotient, it's all over his tape. In 2025 for the Yellow Jackets, Rutledge allowed no sacks and six pressures in 440 pass-blocking reps, and his run-blocking at multiple levels was something to behold. At 6-foot-4 and 316 pounds, Rutledge has a combination of agility and finishing power that any offensive line coach would love.

Texans offensive line coach Cole Popovich should be especially happy that Rutledge did so much of his work in man/gap schemes - he did so on 312 of his run blocks, as opposed to 41 in inside zone, and 67 in outside zone. In 2025, only the Los Angeles Rams had more gap-scheme runs (224) than the Texans' 191.

General manager Nick Caserio wasn't ready to commit to where Rutledge might play; any of the three interior spots could be up for grabs. Caserio was just enthusiastic to get the guy everybody in the building wanted.

"I would say the things that stand out about him - toughness, violence, physicality, his playing style, his intelligence," Caserio said. "Basically, the guy wants to step on your throat on every play, which I would say sort of embodies what our football team is about, and the way we play. Intense, violent, physical. We're going to run the football this year. It was an area that we felt like we wanted to and needed to improve on during the offseason. Hopefully we've done that. I would say ‘Big Red' [Rutledge] is hopefully a part of that. Where is he going to play? Who the hell knows? We'll figure out who the best five guys are, and put the group out there that we think is going to help us the most, understanding that we'll probably need eight to ten guys on the offensive line here at some point."

Well, the one they just got should quickly multiply the success rate.

Jadarian Price, RB, Seattle Seahawks

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The defending champs had their own primary need coming into the draft, and that was for a tone-setting running back following Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker's departure to Kansas City in free agency. Seahawks general manager John Schneider, who said pre-draft that he had no issue trading out of the first round and the 32nd overall pick to get more than the four selections his team has, changed his mind when Notre Dame back Jadarian Price was on the board.

"Man... instant acceleration, vision, cutback ability, but his ability to work it back, not just completely bouncing all the time. Just kind of kick it back inside. And then, his contact balance... He has home run speed. He has a lot of explosive runs. He'd returned three kickoffs for touchdowns in his career. Two this [past] year. That's such a unique feel; that instant acceleration.

Head coach Mike Macdonald got a bit more specific when asked how Price would fit in new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury's offense, which will be influenced to a point by Fleury's time with Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers from .

"Well, we're going to run wide zone, and he's going to run wide zone, and we're going to run some gap scheme," Macdonald said. "He's going to run some of that too, and then the pass game he can come alive, too. I think that's part of our offense in general, that we can take another step in including our halfbacks in the pass game. Then, he's a great special teams player as well. The kick return stuff, we'll see how it shakes out in other phases, but he's going to come in and compete with the rest of the guys. Let's go rock and roll."

Schneider and Macdonald are credible enough, but when I recently spoke with another Notre Dame running back by the name of Jeremiyah Love (who went third overall to the Arizona Cardinals), Love wouldn't stop talking about how good Price is, and how great he can be.

"I tell everybody that JD can do everything I can do," Love said. "I think the reason that JD isn't viewed in the light I am is because, you know, I've had the spotlight at Notre Dame. I've been the main premier back, and I feel like JD could have gone anywhere else in the country and been the main premier back. He's a great running back. And he has some tools in his bag that I don't have.

"I think JD's feet are faster than mine. He's a little bit more explosive than me from his first step. He can break more tackles than me, too. So, JD has a lot that he'll be able to use at the next level, and bring to a team so that they can have success. JD's got the same work ethic, you know? I've been in a room with JD for three years. So I know him outside the game and inside the game.

"He's a great person, and he's also a good football player. Whichever team is blessed to get JD, I mean, they'll basically get me in another form. Because if you put him in the right positions, and you allow him to be himself, he's going to be great. That's what I would say to NFL teams. And that's what I've told them every time they ask me about JD. Because it's the truth. I've been around him. I got to see him work. And then we've also been coached by some great coaches."

The Seahawks may be strapped with just three remaining picks, but based on unanimous evaluation, they seem to have nailed the first one.

Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 11:18 PM.

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