It wasn’t a great night for the Tennessee Volunteers on Thursday night in Pittsburgh. With all 32 picks of the first round in the books, both Jermod McCoy and Colton Hood have officially fallen out of the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Neither McCoy nor Hood was a first-round lock, but it is somewhat surprising to see neither player selected in the first round. There were two cornerbacks selected in the first 32 picks, with LSU’s Mansoor Delane going sixth overall to the Kansas City Chiefs and San Diego State’s Chris Johnson going 27th overall to the Miami Dolphins.
Rocky Top Insider looked at six high-profile mock drafts before the NFL Draft on Thursday. McCoy was a first-round projection in three of the six mocks, while Hood was a first-round projection in four of the six.
McCoy has been one of the most talked-about players in the entire draft class over the last week. While McCoy has as much talent as nearly anyone in the class, the reported medical red flags have seemingly been concerning for teams around the league. McCoy missed the entire 2025 season due to a torn ACL in January 2025, but the NFL’s Tom Pelissero reported this week that some teams are concerned that McCoy may need a second surgery down the road to address a bone plug issue. McCoy will likely hear his name called in the second round on Friday, but it clearly wasn’t in the cards on Thursday night.
Hood, meanwhile, was one of the players who was expected to potentially benefit from McCoy’s concerns. With McCoy’s questionable injury status, Hood was talked about as one of the cornerbacks who could go to a secondary-needy team in the first round. He was widely looked at as a fringe first-round player in mock drafts leading into the event.
More From RTI: Tennessee Football’s NFL Draft History In The Josh Heupel Era
Two cornerbacks were drafted during the first round on Thursday night. LSU’s Mansoor Delane went to the Kansas City Chiefs with the sixth overall pick, while San Diego State’s Chris Johnson went 27th overall to the Miami Dolphins.
ESPN’s NFL Draft station has McCoy as the best available player left on the board, while Hood is the 8th-best player still available.
Tennessee has seen 17 players selected in the NFL Draft during the Josh Heupel era in Knoxville, with two of those players being cornerbacks. The Vols saw Alontae Taylor selected in 2022 and Kamal Kadden taken in 2024. McCoy and Hood will be the 18th and 19th players drafted in the Heupel era, depending on which one goes first. Other notable Vols still on the board include wide receiver Chris Brazzell and EDGE rusher Joshua Josephs.
Tennessee fans will now have to wait until Friday night to see where former Vols Jermod McCoy and Colton Hood land in the NFL.
