Morning Coffee: All eyes on the Jets with the second overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft

We’re just over 24 hours away from the start of the 2026 NFL Draft on TSN.

With the first round set for Thursday night in Pittsburgh, all eyes remain locked on the New York Jets with the second overall pick this morning.

If anybody knows what they will actually do with the pick, I’d really appreciate it if you find me @Domenic_Padula on X and let me know.

Also, if you’re here looking for my best bets for tonight’s Stanley Cup Playoff games, you will find my picks there.

In the meantime, I’m one of many football fans locked into how one of the most unpredictable NFL Drafts in recent memory will play out.

Nobody can seem to agree on what the Jets will ultimately do with the second overall pick.

The NFL Insiders don’t agree.

The team reporters don’t agree.

That makes predicting how the top 10 picks will play out that much more difficult.

In many ways, the first round of the NFL Draft is expected to be much different than in recent years.

Fernando Mendoza is -20000 to be the first overall pick to the Las Vegas Raiders.

How the rest of the top 10 plays out is anybody’s guess.

Unlike game markets, the traders setting the odds and the fans betting on the NFL Draft are both making their decisions off the best available intel they can find.

With so much uncertainty around how the first round will play out, bettors need to take a cautious approach with everything they hear over the next 24 hours.

Let’s dive into the latest FanDuel odds for the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft in this Morning Coffee column for Wednesday April 22nd, 2026.

All Eyes On The Jets With The Second Overall Pick In The 2026 NFL Draft

Let’s talk about the top Canadian on the board.

Miami EDGE rusher Akheem Mesidor will be the first Canadian selected in the 2026 NFL Draft.

The 25-year-old is -550 to be a first-round pick at FanDuel this morning – an 84.6 per cent implied probability.

His exact draft position is much more difficult to predict.

FanDuel set Mesidor’s draft position over/under at 25.5.

Mesidor to be selected 15th overall – a pick currently held by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – is +650 at FanDuel.

Mesidor to be selected 20th overall is also +650 – a pick currently held by the Dallas Cowboys.

While I’ve seen Mesidor mocked anywhere from 15 to 31st in recent weeks, nailing down his exact draft position will be difficult until the first round begins to take shape.

Of course, the Jets are the team that will set everything in motion when they step to the podium to announce the second overall pick on Thursday night.

If you believe the latest intel out of New York, they will remain at No. 2 and select either Texas Tech’s David Bailey or Ohio State’s Arvell Reese with the pick.

All the way back on February 23rd, I recommended a play on Bailey to be the second overall pick at +170.

At the time, I made the case that the Jets coaching staff and management team is under pressure to deliver immediate results, so while some believe Reese has the higher long-term upside, Bailey deserves the edge based on his ability to contribute right away.

Over the last two months, insiders, reporters, fans, and podcast hosts have debated who New York should pick with the number two selection.

The FanDuel traders have done their job and flipped between Bailey and Reese as the favourite to go second overall multiple times in recent weeks.

As of this morning, Bailey is the favourite to be the second overall pick at -155.

Reese is the second choice to go No. 2 overall at +105.

No other player has shorter than 125-to-1 odds to be the second overall pick at FanDuel.

Meanwhile, I also speculated that it was worth taking a flyer on Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love to go second overall at 150-to-1 and third overall at +650.

While the long-term value of selecting a running back in the top five has been heavily scrutinized, Love is widely considered one of the top prospects in this year’s NFL Draft, which creates an interesting scenario.

If the teams selecting between 2 and 10 don’t consider their best available option to be a slam dunk at the spot they are set to pick, would they be willing to trade down?

What happens if a team like the Jets at No. 2, Arizona Cardinals at No. 3, or the Tennessee Titans at No. 4 was interested in sliding down a couple of spots in exchange for some additional draft picks?

Interestingly, ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter reported on Monday that the Cardinals could be in that situation.

If the Cardinals ultimately decided to take Love at No. 3, or trade out of the pick with a team that was willing to go up and get the stud running back third overall, it would result in a nice payout at +650.

Of course, there is the problem of what it would cost a team if they selected Love with the third pick.

With FanDuel markets available for the exact player selected with every first-round pick, it doesn’t make sense to place a bet on those markets without a combination of good intel and long odds.

With so many notable NFL Insiders, reporters, and draft analysts speculating and sharing conflicting reports over the past few days, it could create a scenario where we are able to find some value betting on an exact market.

On the flip side, it would be easy for bettors to get burned.

As of this morning, I’ve recommended bets on Bailey to be the second overall pick at +170, Love to be the third overall pick at +650, Love to be the fourth overall pick at +115, Love’s draft position over 4.5 at +150, and Ty Simpson to be a first-round pick at -130.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on those numbers over the next 24 hours.

As for Simpson, he’s now -180 to be a first-round pick.

FanDuel has his draft position over/under at 29.5.

The next 24 hours will be interesting in terms of sorting out intel and figuring out what’s real and what’s not.

All of us expect Mendoza to be selected first overall.

After that, it’s anybody’s guess how the rest of the top 10 will play out.

All eyes are now on the Jets with the No. 2 overall pick.

Have a great day, everyone!