ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” provided the “most memorable moment” of all the 2026 NFL Draft coverage “thanks to” ESPN football analyst Dan Orlovsky, according to Jimmy Traina of SI. Orlovsky “all along had been adamant” that QB Ty Simpson is “going to be a legit quarterback in the NFL.” When the Rams on Thursday selected Simpson at No. 13 overall, Orlovsky “celebrated on McAfee’s show by saying, ’FUDGE YEAH,’ and then took a victory lap.” Orlovsky said he was “not supposed to be on” McAfee’s show on Thursday night and “had no plans to be on.” But he added, “Pat FaceTimed me late Thursday afternoon or early evening and said, ‘Where are you, what are you doing for the draft?’ ... He took his phone and he showed me the crowd. I said I have to see if I could get transportation over there because I was planning on laying in my bed.” Orlovsky: “I got there and it was getting to the 13th pick and he called me over to the desk. When he started doing that, I thought, he knows something. And it went from there” (SI, 4/24).
GOOD IMPRESSION: THE ATHLETIC’s Andrew Marchand wrote McAfee’s presentation of the draft is a “strange, new-age mix, but it is funny and can be informative.” Marchand noted his favorite moment was “The Pat McAfee Show” producer Ty Schmit’s “impersonation” of ESPN senior draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. Schmit, one of McAfee’s “sidekicks, hits it just right by actually having information, but then doing the caricature justice by going a little too outlandish.” It is a “funny dynamic” as CBS’ Bill Cowher was on the McAfee set for the program. Hearing Cowher “seriously respond to Schmit’s Kiper impression was an odd dynamic” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/24).
PREFERRED COVERAGE: In Boston, Chad Finn wrote McAfee’s show is a “taste that I’m never going to acquire unless I connect myself to a permanent IV of liquid Advil, but it was a cool scene, if perhaps not entirely organic.” Finn: “I tend to stick with ESPN’s draft coverage over ABC’s college football-focused version or the NFL Network, mostly because of old habit, but also because Mel Kiper Jr.’s odd form of self-assurance remains a source of amusement.” When the Chiefs traded up to No. 6 in the first round, Kiper “confidently whiffed on what they were up to” (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/25).
LOOK AT THE EXPERTS: In L.A., Sam Farmer wrote NFL Network’s lead draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah has been the net’s “go-to expert when it comes to breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of players and how they fit with a given franchise.” Jeremiah is “glib, quick on his feet and meticulously organized.” Reporters “turn to him -- his pre-draft conference calls with NFL writers from coast to coast have sometimes lasted more than two hours -- and super-secretive team scouts trust ‘DJ’ as a peer, an extra set of eyes” (L.A. TIMES, 4/24).
