Despite not playing a snap this past season as he recovered from an ACL injury, Tennessee football cornerback Jermod McCoy’s 2024 tape was so good that he is unanimously projected to be a first-round pick in the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft.
The question remains: How high will McCoy go?
According to a mock draft published on Monday, Jan. 26, NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah is high on McCoy. He has him going No. 10 to the Cincinnati Bengals in the draft.
“Cincinnati needs help all over the field on defense,” Jeremiah wrote. “McCoy missed the 2025 season due to injury, but his 2024 tape was outstanding. He’s squarely in the mix to be the top CB in the draft.”
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Jeremiah is high on another former Tennessee cornerback, as well. Colton Hood, who stepped in to start in the place of the injured McCoy this past season, played his way into a potential first-round selection. While Hood’s draft stock isn’t a consensus first-round pick like McCoy, he has popped up on numerous mocks.
In this mock draft, Hood is projected to be selected all the way up at No. 12 by the Dallas Cowboys.
“I expect Dallas to draft an edge rusher in Round 1 (SEE: Pick No. 20 in this mock) but I’d like to see the Cowboys upgrade the secondary, too,” Jeremiah wrote. “Hood would be a plug-and-play starter for them.”
Tennessee has a pair of other prospects that may hear their name called in the first-round, though Jeremiah has them slipping to at least the second. Both wide receiver Chris Brazzell and edge rusher Joshua Josephs had productive seasons and are in the conversation to go within the first 32 picks.
With Arion Carter opting to withdraw his name from the draft and return to Tennessee, those are the four sure-fire names that will be drafted out of UT.
