The 2026 NFL Draft is less than a week away, and prospects from all over are hoping to hear their names called, especially on Thursday night in the first round.

Having the “first-round pick” tag next to your name in the NFL is a rite of passage – teams believed you were worthy enough for their top slot, hoping you can be an immediate impact player for the franchise.

But that pick also comes with high expectations – the player is expected to perform right away and do so with Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods along the way. It can be hard for those rookies, as they’re trying to get acclimated to the speed and physicality the NFL has compared to college football.

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Greg Olsen, the three-time Pro Bowl tight end and FOX Sports NFL analyst, was once in that position being the 31st overall pick of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. And while he knows that each situation is different depending on the franchise the prospect lands with, the expectations are the same – fans want to see you perform.

So, how does one deal with that?

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“Handle your business, be a great teammate,” Olsen told Fox News Digital, while also discussing how he’s taking his analyst duties to the next level with NFL IQ. “Earn the trust of your teammates, earn the trust of your coaches first and foremost. Because, at the end of the day, if you play well and the guys in that locker room believe in you and you continue to get opportunities, the fan support will come. As the team wins and you play well, all of that takes care of itself.”

For Olsen, he recalled thinking perhaps the New York Jets or Carolina Panthers would take him in the first round after a successful career at Miami. But, when the Jets traded up to nab first-ballot Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis, and the Panthers later selected his Hurricanes teammate, linebacker Jon Beason, he didn’t know what was happening.

That’s the beauty of the NFL Draft, though, as the Bears took him despite Olsen not really interacting with their staff during the pre-draft process.

Greg Olsen speaks on radio row prior to Super Bowl LIX at the Ernest Morial Convention Center on February 06, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)

In today’s NFL Draft world, Olsen understands the information these prospects have is much more vast. In turn, fans have the same knowledge given the world of social media, and how reports, mock drafts and expert analysis shapes their understanding of how front offices think during this exciting time of the football season.

With that, comes a challenge Olsen knows he didn’t have to deal with as a rookie, but these first-round picks next week will have to weather that storm.

“In today’s day and age where everyone is so worried about outside opinion, they’re so worried about articles being written and social media and what’s being posted, you could lose track of, ‘Well, while you’re worried about that, you’re not taking care of home base.’ I think it’s more challenging today than 20 years ago when I came into the league, but I think that’s something guys have to hunker down and understand it’s not easy, but you control you and typically things fall into place,” Olsen said.

Olsen added it will be a “very complex, stressful day” for all those involved next week, but first-round pick or not, it’s the fulfillment of a life-long dream. That’s all that matters.

“You hear your name get called and a life-long dream, something you’re excited to embark on, became real. I got drafted by one of the premier franchises in all of football, coming off a Super Bowl appearance a couple months earlier. It was a really great place to start my NFL career,” he said.

Greg Olsen, the Chicago Bears’ first-round draft pick, talks to reporters after a summer training camp practice on July 30, 2007, at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

INSIDE THE FRONT OFFICE MIND

While Olsen enjoyed 14 years in the NFL, his next chapter of the game is providing keen analysis for FOX Sports broadcasts during the year.

To help him do that in the offseason while looking at the NFL Draft and free agency pickups by each franchise, Olsen has been using NFL IQ, the new interactive hub created by the league and AWS (Amazon Web Services), powered by Amazon Quick.

Ahead of the draft, NFL IQ transformed raw data from the NFL Combine, as well as team needs, free agency moves made and more, for this hub that provides fans access to key insights and puts them in the shoes of front office decision makers. Whether it’s the casual fan or a top analyst like Olsen, NFL IQ is an easy-to-use way to deepen football knowledge, especially at a crucial roster-building time like the draft is.

General shot of NFL IQ, the new interactive hub from the league and Amazon Web Services, powered by Amazon Quick. (NFL IQ)

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“This is the most educated fan base in NFL history, and I think that’s a good thing,” Olsen said.

“Fans actually have a way to access the exact same data, the exact same information that the teams and everyone are using for their own interest, whether it’s something casual or for people who really want to dive into the nitty gritty. I think it’s a really fun set of tools for the wide array of people who touch the NFL space. I know firsthand as a fan, and now a professional in the industry, it’s a huge part of my interaction of the game.”

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The New York Knicks and the Atlanta Hawks are set to play in the first round of the NBA playoffs and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was asked why it is so much more expensive to attend Knicks’ playoff games compared to the Hawks.

Mamdani jokingly cited Knicks’ foe Trae Young, who starred for the Hawks when they beat the Knicks in the first round of the 2021 playoffs, as the reason for the expensive tickets.

“I would say that I blame Trae Young, and I think it’s always important to blame Trae Young,” Mamdani said at a press conference.

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Mamdani put the blame on Young, who was traded to the Washington Wizards in January. Even though Young isn’t with the Hawks, he caught wind of Mamdani’s remarks and fired back at the mayor.

“Remember what happened the last time the Mayor of that City has my name in his mouth during a time like this. #DontBlameMeWhenItHappensAgain,” Young posted to X with a laughing crying emoji and a hand emoji.

Regardless of whether Mamdani knows Young is no longer a member of the Hawks, it is not the first time the mayor of New York City has shaded Young, as Bill de Blasio told Young to stop hunting for fouls during that 2021 playoff series.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers remarks at the Service Employees International Union 32BJ SEIU rally on Park Avenue in Manhattan on April 15, 2026. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu)

The Hawks defeated the Knicks 4-1 in that series. The Knicks lost that series as the No. 4 seed, while the Hawks were the No. 5 seed.

This time around, the Knicks are the No. 3 seed, and the Hawks are the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

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Washington Wizards guard Trae Young (3) meets with the media during his first return to play the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena on Feb. 24, 2026. (Dale Zanine/Imagn Images)

Mamdani said he is “still confident and hopeful” of the Knicks winning a championship this season, and wishes the playoff tickets were more affordably priced.

The Knicks play the first game of the series against the Hawks at Madison Square Garden at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday.

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We’ve reached the point of the Premier League season where things start to look more like a knockout competition. There are only so many games remaining, and things such as systems, cohesion and managerial decisions don’t matter as much as they do over the course of the whole year. From here, individual brilliance — a great save, a perfect pass, a fantastic finish — takes on an outsize role in determining how things will shake out.

That’s true at the top of the table, where the gap might only be three points (and a game in hand) for Manchester City up to Arsenal if Pep Guardiola’s side win their head-to-head this weekend. It’s definitely true in the Champions League race, where eight points separate third from eighth. And it’s clearly true at the bottom, where 18th-place Tottenham trail 17th-place West Ham by two points and 16th-place Nottingham Forest by three.

So, what players will have the biggest say in how things go from now until the end of the season? We’ve got another edition of ESPN’s Premier League Top 50 to answer that exact question.

How we rank, and who isn’t eligible

I say this every time, but ranking players with any degree of confidence is impossible. And if I really just wanted to identify the true talent of every Premier League player, I’d probably defer to the market, which means the majority of the list would be made up of players from all the best teams.

But I’d rather reward a star at Brentford instead of a squad player at Arsenal, so the rankings are intended to be something of a balance between the two: your talent in a vacuum and how much value you’ve actually provided so far this season. The rankings are definitely weighted toward attackers, and attackers are the highest-paid players in the world because they’re the most important players in the world, but I’m using a midfielder who produces like an attacker, or a defender who does things that no one else at his position can do, as they will also grade out highly.

In each edition, anyone who is out with a long-term injury will also be removed from the list. So Hugo Ekitike — who would’ve been pushing toward the top 10 but just ruptured his right Achilles — isn’t on the list. All injuries are awful, but this one was particularly brutal.

All right, enough throat-clearing. Onto the list!

He’s experiencing one of the biggest late-career drop-offs we’ve ever seen from one year to the next. And despite that, among players with at least 1,500 minutes played this season, only Erling Haaland, Hugo Ekitike, Bruno Fernandes and Bukayo Saka are generating more non-penalty expected goals+assists per 90 minutes.

49. Matheus Nunes, fullback, Manchester City

48. Eberechi Eze, attacking midfielder, Arsenal

46. David Raya, goalkeeper, Arsenal

44. Morgan Gibbs-White, attacking midfielder, Nottingham Forest

Goalkeeping performance is a notoriously volatile thing to measure. What Gradient Sports found is that the percentage of mistakes a keeper makes on shots faced is the most stable number from season to season. It measures this through its grading system, and every time a keeper receives a negative grade, it’s considered a mistake.

Verbruggen has only made a mistake on 1.5% of the shots he has faced this season — the second-best mark in the Premier League.

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34. Casemiro, midfielder, Manchester United

33. Bernardo Silva, midfielder, Manchester City

31. Igor Thiago, forward, Brentford

Donnarumma has faced 93 shots this season and made a total of one mistake, according to Gradient. That’s the best mistake-less rate in the league.

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29. Anthony Gordon, winger, Newcastle United

26. Ezri Konsa, center back, Aston Villa

25. Marcos Senesi, center back, Bournemouth

You know how there are certain positions under certain managers or clubs that just seem to produce? Strikers at Eintracht Frankfurt, attacking midfielders under Gian Piero Gasperini, every attacker who has ever played for Hansi Flick and now, maybe center backs for Andoni Iraola?

Last year, Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi played well enough to secure moves to Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, respectively, and now Senesi is having a kind of season I’m not sure I’ve really seen before. He’s one of the best attacking passers in the Premier League despite playing as a center back.

Now, ball-playing center backs have always been a thing, and they tend to be cornerstones of all the best teams in the world. But Senesi isn’t just playing line-breaking passes into the feet of his midfielders. No, he is creating opportunities like he is an attacking midfielder. And I don’t mean this hyperbolically.

If we look at the expected possession value created from open-play passes this season — in other words, how much your passes have increased your team’s chances of scoring a goal — then there are seven players who have generated at least five goals worth of value: Jérémy Doku, Adam Wharton, Cody Gakpo, Morgan Rogers, Pedro Neto and Senesi. Five attackers, one incredibly aggressive midfielder and one central defender.

Senesi’s contract expires after the season. It’ll be fascinating to see if someone recognizes this special skill set and figures out a way to use it.

24. Rodri, midfielder, Manchester City

23. Morgan Rogers, attacking midfielder, Aston Villa

22. Florian Wirtz, attacking midfielder, Liverpool

Rogers and Wirtz don’t look that similar in how they move across the field or even stand still. But I think these two are quite similar players.

Below is a plot of what I’m calling “good passes” and “good receptions.” These are passes made or received that increased the team’s expected possession value by somewhere between 1% and 9%. Increasing xPV by 10% or more with a single action is rare, so we can think about what we’re seeing here as players who consistently add marginal value to possessions.

Rogers and Wirtz are alone at the top of both metrics. It’s funny because even though we’re quantifying it, I’d call this a kind of version of hidden value. It’s not goals and assists or even expected goals and assists, but neither player is an under-the-radar prospect. Wirtz is the second-most-expensive player in the history of the Premier League, and Rogers burst into the wider consciousness this season with all the goals he was scoring.

The promise for each player, then — as they’re both still in their pre-prime years — is that they keep doing all these little things and they start to create and score more goals.

21. Marc Guéhi, center back, Manchester City

19. Reece James, fullback/midfielder, Chelsea

18. Nico O’Reilly, fullback/midfielder, Manchester City

16. Elliot Anderson, midfielder, Nottingham Forest

15. Adam Wharton, midfielder, Crystal Palace

Adam Wharton is the Marcos Senesi of midfielders. I know if you throw enough chimpanzees behind a typewriter, you’ll get “War and Peace” or whatever, but I’m pretty sure I’m the first person to say those eight words together.

I mean, look at this!

Crystal Palace play a chaotic style that encourages Wharton to play aggressive passes all game, but those grades wouldn’t be so high if he wasn’t constantly making the big plays. His security under pressure and his defensive ability are the big question marks for whomever signs him, but he’s so good with the ball at his feet — in pretty much any situation — that it might even be worth it for the biggest clubs in the world to build their midfields around his passing and do whatever else they need to do to cover up his deficiencies.

If João Pedro played a different sport with the same name as the one he’s currently paid millions of dollars to play, then we would hear commentators saying the same thing every Sunday: This João Pedro guy? He’s just a FOOTBALL player.

What the heck are they talking about? NFL commentators, yes, will frequently refer to a football player as “a football player” as a means of describing what type of football player that football player is. They are not just citing biographical details, and their brains are not short-circuiting. What they mean — as I’ve gleaned from hearing the phrase hundreds of times now — is that these “football players” don’t necessarily have any flashy attributes to their games, but that they tend to do all of the little things right. Their innate understanding and technical skill sets make it seem like they were almost born to play football.

I feel the same way about João Pedro, who doesn’t stand out in any particular way. He’s not a goal-scoring striker. He’s not a creative midfielder. He’s not a dribbling winger. But he can score goals, he can press, he can defend one-on-one, he can receive passes under pressure, he can make the necessary passes, and he can win headers. He is, quite simply, a football player.

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12. Bryan Mbeumo, forward, Manchester United

10. Gabriel, center back, Arsenal

Earlier this week I wrote about how Tottenham’s obsession with acquiring athletic players created a massive blind spot in their team-building approach. The immediate result: a team where no one can pass. The longer-term result: a team that’s incredibly expensive and would be relegated if the season ended today.

Part of the issue, and something I didn’t touch on much in the piece, is that being fast and being good at passing have something of a negative relationship. Perhaps when you’re younger and fast, you don’t need to worry about being a good passer since you’re always running by everyone. And maybe great passers at a young age never really need to develop speed because, well, the ball moves faster than the man. Or maybe the power needed for high-speed running actively works against the subtle movements needed to place a pass.

Anyway, all this is to say that players such as Dominik Szoboszlai are incredibly rare. He’s the only player in the Premier League who ranks in the top 30 both for the maximum speed he has reached in a match this season and for his passing grade.

7. Jérémy Doku, attacking midfielder, Manchester City

6. Rayan Cherki, attacking midfielder, Manchester City

Here’s how everyone in the Premier League stacks up, according to open-play expected assists. In other words, who is creating the greatest combined quantity and quality of shots for their teammates:

The main piece of context you need to better understand this chart is that eight of these 10 players have played at least 2,000 minutes in the Premier League this season. The other two haven’t even reached the 1,400-minute mark, and those two players play for the same time: Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki and Jérémy Doku.

5. Bukayo Saka, winger, Arsenal

You could probably say this is the first season of stagnation or regression in a career that has pretty much been on an upward trajectory from the moment Unai Emery started playing Bukayo Saka at left back. He made a leap two seasons ago up into the star level of goal creation, averaging around 0.7 non-penalty expected goals+assists per 90 minutes across 2023-24 and 2025-26.

This season, he has dropped back down 0.54, though some of that can be attributed to the league-wide trend where almost all individual attacking performance is down. And some of it is because of the issues with how Arsenal were built: There’s very little creative passing to get him the ball, especially when Martin Ødegaard is injured, and then their new starting striker, Viktor Gyökeres, just isn’t very good.

There was a world where Saka developed into the kind of attacker who would thrive despite unfavorable context, but he’s still the best attacker on the team that is still favored to win the Premier League. And even if he’s not scoring and creating, he’s always doing a little bit of everything else, too.

3. Declan Rice, midfielder, Arsenal

Last week, Gradient released what it is calling “overall grades.” It looks at each position, determines what the main requirements for that position are, weighs its various grades for each player across those facets and then puts it all together to come up with a single metric to assess player performance. Obviously, there is no one true number to assess player performance (and it knows this), but it’s still a useful exercise.

If you’ve read this specific column before, you know that I write the same thing about Declan Rice every time. Mainly: He’s good at everything. Well, now I have another number to back up that claim. He’s currently Gradient’s highest-graded player in the Premier League, at an 89.8 out of 100.

Across Europe’s Big Five leagues, only four players have grades of 90 or better: Bayern Munich‘s Harry Kane and Michael Olise, RB Leipzig‘s Yan Diomande and humanity’s version of cheese and/or wine, AC Milan‘s 40-year-old Luka Modric.

2. Erling Haaland, forward, Manchester City

If you want to be bullish on Arsenal holding off City’s looming title challenge, then take a look at this chart:

That’s how it looks when you compare the non-penalty xG for each five-game bucket of his season: Games One to Five, Two to Six and on and on. He has been a below 0.5 xG player for all of 2026. He’s averaging 0.72 xG per game for his City career.

If you want to be bullish on City catching Arsenal, then, well, Manchester City have rounded into form and started to close the gap despite the best per-game goal scorer in Premier League history going through his least-productive stretch since he came to England. This City team simply hasn’t been as good as the other City teams that have caught Arsenal, but if Erling Haaland starts playing like Erling Haaland again, then they could easily win their last seven matches.

1. Bruno Fernandes, attacking midfielder, Manchester United

He might set the assist record. He leads the league in expected assists. He leads the league — by a massive margin — in through balls completed. He’s second behind Haaland in combined non-penalty goals+assists, and among players with at least 20 starts, he’s also second behind Haaland in non-penalty goals+assists per 90 minutes.

The difference between Haaland and Bruno is twofold: 1) Haaland plays on a better team, and 2) Bruno spent half of the season playing as part of a two-man midfield.

Perhaps you could argue with the idea that he’s the best player in the Premier League, but I don’t think there’s really any argument to this: Bruno Fernandes is the most important player in the Premier League.