Ben SolakMay 6, 2026, 06:10 AM ETCloseBen Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.Multiple Authors
play0:33What Avieon Terrell brings to the FalconsWhat Avieon Terrell brings to the Falcons
play0:39What Anthony Hill brings to the TitansWhat Anthony Hill brings to the Titans
play0:32What Lee Hunter brings to the PanthersWhat Lee Hunter brings to the Panthers
What Max Iheanachor brings to the Steelers (0:56)What Max Iheanachor brings to the Steelers (0:56)
We all watch the NFL draft with bated breath. Prospects with their phones perched on the table, as their dreams are one call away from realization. Fans with group chats firing and highlight reels loaded, ready to fall for the next late-round star who will catapult their favorite team to the Super Bowl. And then there are the NFL veterans who are on tenuous footing, wondering whether their teams will draft their replacements or give them another year.
In no particular order, here is my list of veterans on the hot seat this upcoming season now that the dust has settled on the draft.
This is an obvious one, so it’s a good place to start. Mere days before the draft, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Jones had suffered a setback while recovering from his neck injury, and that his 2026 training camp and Week 1 availability were in question. Then the Steelers selected Arizona State tackle Max Iheanachor in the first round (admittedly after trying and failing to draft a receiver). One week later, the Steelers declined Jones’ fifth-year option.
Outside of metropolitan Charlotte, Legette enjoys some cover from Buffalo’s Keon Coleman among disappointing receivers from the 2024 draft class (Coleman was benched last season and then called out in a news conference by owner Terry Pegula). But Legette’s inability to consistently catch the ball, especially up against the sideline, has frustrated Panthers fans over his first two years in the league.
Legette was a late college breakout drafted largely for his size/speed profile. At first it looked like the Panthers’ receivers room would have plenty of space for his development — Legette was the Panthers’ leading target-getter as a rookie. But the emergence of undrafted free agent Jalen Coker and subsequent drafting of 2025 Offensive Rookie of the Year Tetairoa McMillan pushed Legette down to No. 3 on the depth chart … and now Chris Brazzell II has entered the building.
Pola-Mao played more than 1,000 defensive snaps for the Raiders last season, and while defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has left for Pittsburgh, new coordinator Rob Leonard is an internal promotion. It’s rare to see a player used that heavily get completely benched for a rookie — and to be clear, I don’t think that will happen.
A surprise faller to Day 3 of the draft was Texas CB Malik Muhammad. A multiyear starter and still just 21 years old, Muhammad has the profile of someone who gets drafted on Day 2. That’s especially true when you factor in his combine testing, where Muhammad had a 4.42-second 40-yard dash, 39-inch vertical jump and 10-foot-11 broad jump, all at 6-foot with arms over 32 inches. I still don’t know how that skill set made it to Round 4.
The Bears would much prefer Stevenson to play (and excel) over Muhammad. That’d mean Stevenson could walk in free agency, sign a huge deal elsewhere and give Chicago a nice compensatory pick in return. But if Muhammad shines in camp, the Bears might struggle to keep him off the field while Stevenson gets targeted opposite Johnson.
The Falcons rewarded Hughes’ strong 2024 season with a three-year extension. In the first year of that deal, Hughes underwhelmed. His yards per coverage snap allowed leapt from 1.0 to 1.5, and poor tackling in run support glared on their opponents’ biggest plays. It’s fair to expect a bounce-back season — Hughes dealt with neck and ankle injuries — but it’s also fair to be dubious.
But Terrell was the earliest pick the Falcons had in the 2026 draft, and they had other more pressing needs on the table — that’s difficult to ignore. This isn’t some Round 4 toolsy prospect. This was a top-50 pick with already a ton of internal buy-in given his family name. I won’t be surprised when Terrell and Hughes are rotating first-team snaps in camp.
What Avieon Terrell brings to the FalconsWhat Avieon Terrell brings to the Falcons
Valentine’s starting job was already in question before the draft, as a bad 2025 campaign invited the signing of free agent corner Benjamin St-Juste. The Packers were still live to take a cornerback, and they apparently ranked the need (or the player) so highly that they drafted South Carolina’s Brandon Cisse with the 52nd pick (the team’s first selection of the draft).
The Packers are notoriously patient with rookies, and Cisse is far from a finished product. South Carolina rotated its corners, and Cisse often didn’t play full games, even in his final season. But the most favored outcome in the Packers’ cornerbacks room is certainly Cisse winning the job over Valentine, who surrendered a passer rating of 126.1 when targeted last season. Only five outside cornerbacks were worse.
Even if Cisse doesn’t win the starting job outright, I would not be surprised to see him enter a rotation with Valentine (and St-Juste). Valentine struggles more with larger receivers, and Cisse and St-Juste should match up better.
Barton played 1,061 snaps last season for the Titans — every single possible snap available to him. And now, he might be out of a job.
He wasn’t terrible for Tennessee last season. His coverage metrics were actually quite good: 53.0 passer rating allowed and only 4.8 yards against per target. But Barton has always been more wily and assignment sound than he is athletically talented, and the lack of speed impacted his ability to beat blockers to the point of attack and get involved in plays at the sidelines. For new coach Robert Saleh, who needs his linebackers to flow fast, Barton’s current legs might be disqualifying.
Second-round linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. has that sort of speed, but critically, he was a multiyear signal-caller at the heart of the Texas defense. He seems better suited to slide into Barton’s shoes at mike linebacker than Cedric Gray’s spot at will linebacker, but I would wager both jobs are up for grabs in different combinations as Saleh explores the best version of his roster in 2026. If Barton is indeed shelved for Hill, expect trade calls.
What Anthony Hill brings to the TitansWhat Anthony Hill brings to the Titans
Conner simply does not make enough plays at the catch point to play a permanent coverage role. Enter Jadon Canady. Like Conner, Canady is a fourth-round pick who spent time at safety in the college ranks. But his best play was in the slot, where he finished his career at Oregon. Canady had 19 passes defensed combined over his last two years and will — along with free agent signing Kader Kohou — immediately challenge for the slot job.
Conner might not lose snaps so much as he could end up displaced into more traditional safety alignments — the Chiefs already started to do that last season. But with incumbent youngster Jaden Hicks and free agent acquisition Alohi Gilman, safety is also a crowded room. Conner’s 1,021 snaps from last season are unlikely to be repeated.
The Seahawks got by with Bradford last season and did not invest early or aggressively in the position during the draft. But eventually they did make a move, with Iowa guard Beau Stephens in the fifth round. That draft capital is insufficient for Stephens to immediately see first-team reps during training camp, so Bradford’s job is likely safe for Week 1. But if he continues to be the weak chain in an otherwise solid O-line, the Seahawks will look into playing the rookie.
Like most Day 3 picks, Stephens has unspectacular measureables. But like 2024 UDFA Jalen Sundell, who won a starting job at center in 2025, Stephens is a strainer with good hands and the upper-body power to survive just long enough against physically superior opponents. The issue with Bradford is the quick losses; Stephens’ losses tend to be much more laborious.
Brown technically does not hit our 400-snap cutoff — he played only 370 last season. But the Panthers signed him to a three-year, $21 million contract in 2024 free agency, clearly with the intention of him stepping into a sizable defensive role. A’Shawn Robinson kept him stuck in the rotation, but then the Panthers released Robinson this offseason, so it seemed like Brown’s role would grow.
Then the Panthers drafted the mountainous Lee Hunter out of Texas Tech with the 49th pick. And there goes Brown’s role again.
Brown just does not have the range that modern defensive tackles need to create plays. He’s late getting off blocks and struggles mightily when tasked with beating reach blocks laterally. He doesn’t eat up the space a nose tackle needs to occupy to survive.
Hunter has moments of remarkable first-step quickness and upfield disruption for a player carrying 320 pounds, and he still has plenty of room to grow in his frame. Hunter, Derrick Brown and Tershawn Wharton will almost certainly be the primary rotation of defensive tackles this season, with Brown once again struggling to see more than 40% of the snaps in a given game.
What Lee Hunter brings to the PanthersWhat Lee Hunter brings to the Panthers
I hate to do it to Jefferson, everyone’s favorite veteran at the heart of the Chargers’ defense. He stepped up tremendously in 2024 (when injuries hit the safety room) and 2025 (when the midseason trade of Alohi Gilman left a big void). But he actually retired in 2023 before returning! He’s 34 years old and returned on a one-year, $2 million deal. That isn’t starter money.
Then Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald started to fall in Round 2. The Texans traded up, leapfrogging the Giants (who had just traded Dexter Lawrence II) to secure McDonald.
The Saints’ offensive line has been reloaded into an ascending unit. With the addition of free agent guard David Edwards, this might be a top-five line should center Erik McCoy stay healthy (he has failed to finish the past two seasons) and right tackle Taliese Fuaga take the next step.