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5 SEC players who are getting too much love in way-too-early 2026 mock drafts
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I know that way-too-early mock drafts aren’t meant to be taken as gospel. Despite my knee-jerk reaction to dunk on every single obscure projection that I come across on the internet, I take them with a grain of salt.
At the same time, I still have opinions.
Most of my opinions are about guys who I don’t think will be first-round picks. To be fair, it’s a tough business. I didn’t do a way-too-early mock draft last year, but I did a way-too-early prediction of the 10 SEC players that I thought would be first-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. Here were the 10 I had in that group:
- LSU OT Will Campbell — Correct
- Texas OT Kelvin Banks Jr. — Correct
- Alabama OL Tyler Booker — Correct
- Tennessee Edge James Pearce Jr. — Correct
- Georgia Edge Mykel Williams — Correct
- Mizzou WR Luther Burden III — Incorrect, 2nd Round
- Texas A&M Nic Scourton — Incorrect, 2nd Round
- Kentucky DT Deone Walker — Incorrect, 4th Round
- LSU LB Harold Perkins Jr. — Incorrect, stayed in school
- Georgia QB Carson Beck — Incorrect, transferred to Miami
That’s a 50% hit rate with 70% of those guys coming off the board in the first 2 rounds. Terrible? Eh, I wouldn’t go there. But let’s just say I’m not picking lottery numbers anytime soon.
I am, however, criticizing some of these way-too-early mocks right now with 5 SEC players who are getting too much love a year out from the 2026 NFL Draft:
Nyck Harbor, South Carolina WR
Todd McShay, FOX Sports and Bleacher Report both had Harbor coming off the board in the first 11 picks in their way-too-early mock drafts. Drink every time you see an NFL person compare Harbor to DK Metcalf. It’s true that Harbor has immense potential because he’s got world-class speed at 6-5, 235 pounds. If harnessed correctly, that’ll play at the next level.
But we’re talking about someone who has a long way to go to develop into a solid SEC receiver, which Metcalf was when healthy at Ole Miss. Harbor has yet to have a 400-yard season because he has yet to turn his world-class speed into a game-changing weapon. While Harbor finished the 2024 season on a strong note that showed plenty of signs of promise, he has 2 career catches of 40 yards. Why? Secondaries aren’t playing press coverage on him. They’re daring him to operate in the intermediate passing game, where 45% of his targets came in 2024. Through 2 seasons, he has just 7 career catches on passes that traveled 20 yards, and he’s only forced 3 missed tackles after the catch.
This is his first spring focusing just on football and not on track, so that could yield some positive results, as could the fact that he’s paired with fellow way-too-early mock selection LaNorris Sellers. But while Harbor has earned the right to be considered Bruce Feldman’s No. 1 “Freak” in consecutive years, he hasn’t exactly earned a projection as a borderline top-10 pick.
Kadyn Proctor, Alabama OT
PFF and Sports Illustrated both had Proctor going No. 1 overall because, much like with the aforementioned Harbor, you can’t teach the way that he can move at that size. Unfortunately for Proctor, he also hasn’t shown yet that he’s developed into a consistent player at his position because of missed time in spring ball. He’s getting love because when SEC offensive linemen are starting as 5-star true freshmen, they tend to follow a natural progression, but if you know Proctor’s story, nothing about his progression in Tuscaloosa has been natural.
He went back and forth between Iowa and Alabama last spring, only to have an early-season injury plague the start of his important Year 2 on Alabama’s offensive line. Proctor cut his number of sacks allowed down from 12 to 3, but in Alabama’s final 3 games, he allowed 8 pressures, 4 quarterback hurries and 2 sacks. Then Proctor had offseason shoulder surgery that limited him in spring ball. On top of that, there are questions about whether it makes sense for him to play at 360 pounds, or if he’d be better suited to kick inside at the NFL level.
That’s a lot of unknowns for someone to be projected as the first offensive lineman picked in the top 3 of the NFL Draft since Auburn OT Greg Robinson went No. 2 overall in 2014.
Caleb Banks, Florida DT
CBSSports had Banks going No. 4 overall and FOX Sports had him at No. 9, which is wild if you consider the context. How many Year 5 defensive tackles who have never earned an all-conference nod get mocked as a way-too-early top-10 pick? That list isn’t long, but Banks is now on it. Plus, look at the list of interior defensive linemen who have been top-10 picks in the last decade:
- Houston DT Ed Oliver
- Alabama DT Quinnen Williams
- Auburn DT Derrick Brown
- Georgia DT Jalen Carter
- Michigan DT Mason Graham
With all due respect to Banks, who should have a solid impact for an emerging Florida defense, he’s not landing in that group. That’s a group of game-wreckers, which Banks really hadn’t been until he finished the regular season on a tear. He’s got next-level pass-rushing skills, but being a first-round pick as an interior defensive lineman implies that you’re at least reliable in the run game. Banks isn’t there yet.
Daylen Everette, Georgia CB
I’ll never dismiss Kirby Smart‘s ability to develop a first-round prospect on defense, so this is by no means a declaration that Everette is destined to miss out on coming off the board on Night 1. But I wonder if the Georgia association is playing a part in the early love for Everette, who opted not to leave for the NFL after his SEC Championship Game MVP honor. Everette was unstoppable in both meetings against Texas. He recorded all 3 of his interceptions against the Longhorns, but UGA fans know that he was picked on a good amount in other games.
He allowed 547 yards in coverage, and quarterbacks completed 68.2% of their passes with an 89.6 NFL quarterback rating when he was targeted last year. Only 3 SEC corners allowed more yards in coverage than Everette, and only 1 SEC corner had more missed tackles on pass plays (8). That’s not “lockdown corner” numbers. At least not yet.
The 6-1 senior will be a household name in the SEC, but it’s possible that those dynamic Texas performances are skewing things a bit too much with Everette’s NFL Draft stock.
Harold Perkins Jr., LSU LB
FOX Sports had Perkins coming off the board at No. 8 overall, and CBSSports had the LSU linebacker at No. 22. If this were 2 years ago, you could’ve argued that wasn’t nearly enough love for a guy that was expected to set the sport ablaze. Instead, Perkins’ true freshman season in 2022 has easily been his best. Since then, LSU has struggled to find the right position for him, and he suffered a season-ending torn ACL in 2024.
To recap, a guy coming off a torn ACL who is still trying to find his ideal position in college — LSU is playing him at the STAR position in 2025 because that’s where he feels the most comfortable — is being mocked as a 1st-Round pick. It’d be one thing if Perkins were 235 pounds. He’s not, though. At 220-225 pounds, he’s considered too light to be an NFL linebacker, and while his coverage skills have improved from his freshman season, he’s not proven enough in that area to be a first-round pick if that’s the main thing he’ll be asked to do in the NFL.
Perkins has shown a relentless ability to pursue ball-carriers, and there’s no doubt that his NFL Draft film will include plenty of those instances. But on the heels of a lost 2024 season, he’s now tasked with both rehabbing and mastering the STAR position. Even if he checks both of those boxes and has an All-SEC season, there’ll still be questions about where he fits into an NFL defense.
And I’ll continue to say that I don’t think Arch Manning goes pro
Credit to McShay and Reid for being bold enough to leave Manning out of their way-too-early mocks.
It’s not that I’m down on Manning. I’d bet on him being a star who’ll eventually go No. 1 overall, but NFL people who are assuming that he’ll leave when he’s first eligible haven’t been paying attention to the Mannings’ approach. It’s not just that Arch, Peyton and Eli were all starters for at least 3 years in college. It’s that Manning could’ve picked his destination and started immediately elsewhere if he had left after his true freshman season once Quinn Ewers announced he’d return in 2024. He didn’t. Manning has been playing the long game, which dates back to committing to a coach who was fresh off a 5-7 first season at Texas.
Manning is a 1-of-1 case in every way. He’s in the NIL era, so he doesn’t need to chase NFL money, but he also comes from one of the wealthiest football families in existence. That’s just 1 more reason why you don’t have to put him in these way-too-early mocks ahead of his first season as a college starter.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
