by Ali Bhanpuri , Tom Blair & Dan Parr
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The NFL draft is an exercise in projection. But what if it came with an “undo” button? Which picks would be rewritten — and which would be etched in stone again?
That’s what we’re here to explore. Now that all the Round 1 decisions have played out over the course of a season, we’ve decided to revisit the rationale, imagining how the first night of the 2025 NFL Draft would transpire if teams were reaching back from January of 2026 to make their choices.
Here are the ground rules we used:
Our re-draft begins with the order as it was when the event began last April, with all trades that were completed after Round 1 kicked off — which, in last year’s case, was every Round 1 trade — wiped clean. And we’re not allowed to concoct pretend trades in this undertaking.
We are making picks based on what we think each team would do if given the chance to go back, not what we would want them to do.
We presume each team is re-drafting with full knowledge of what actually happened in 2025 and where it currently stands going into 2026. Some events might change thanks to the re-draft, but some remain constant, including decision-makers and roster conditions at the time of the 2025 draft.
Similarly, injuries that took place in 2025 cannot be undone — health situations will proceed as they did in real life.
Let’s get re-drafting:
Original pick: Cam Ward
Growing pains were significant for Ward in Year 1, but they were expected for a rebuilding team. Tennessee went 3-14 and ranked 30th in scoring (16.7 points per game). Yet, there were more than enough glimpses from Ward to believe the Titans would stick with him if they could do it all over again. They won two games in December — something they had not done in four years — and Ward had a TD-INT ratio of 8:1 during that month. Promising! If GM Mike Borgonzi surrounds the young signal-caller with a better offensive line and weaponry, Ward could make a big leap in 2026.
