NFL Insider Ian Rapoport Breaks Down the NFL Draft’s Round 1 Drama & Surprises

The most viral image from the first night of the NFL Draft was wide receiver Mai Lemon staring at his phone in confusion, mid-call with the Pittsburgh Steelers, while the Philadelphia Eagles tried to ring through to tell him he had just been traded for. NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport walked The Rich Eisen Show through how the moment came together, what it signaled about the Eagles' receiver room, and the sliding doors that defined Round 1.

Rapoport said the call that broke the story almost did not get through to him either. "Nobody calls me during the draft. I'm wired in," Rapoport said. "I have my double ear earbuds and it's so freaking loud that nobody calls me. And when they do call me, I'm like, why are you calling me?" The source insisted. "You got to hear this story," Rapoport recalled them saying. "And then this person told to me and I double-checked and it's like, no, this is what happened. I'm like, holy cow."

The trade, Rapoport argued, has implications well beyond the rookie. "I think we know what it means for AJ Brown, which is not expected to be a member of the Eagles very much longer," he said. "I have thought that AJ Brown is gone, and now I really, really think that AJ Brown is gone." Rapoport framed the eventual Brown move as a matter of compensation, not willingness, with Philadelphia angling for a 2027 first and the Patriots pushing back on that price.

The more telling sliding door, Rapoport said, came earlier in the night when Penn State edge Abdul Carter and others reshaped the board. He admitted he had run mock scenarios with most of the league and never landed on Arvell Reese falling to the New York Giants. "I've gone over the top of the top 10 in the draft with probably every team," Rapoport said, "and at least 30 of them, and that has never occurred to me that Arvell Reese could drop. Never occurred to me. And like, that's my failing." He had assumed the Chiefs or Saints would trade up; the Chiefs did move, but for a different player.

Rapoport also flagged the receiver order as the night's quietest surprise, with Ohio State's Carnell Tate going fourth overall ahead of teammates Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka. He pointed to reporting from new colleague Adam Schefter that several teams clocked Tate's 40 time meaningfully faster than the official combine number. "Many, many teams had his 40 times faster than it was at the combine," Rapoport said. "And so if let's say it's .05 faster, which is probably around what it was, well then it's like, this is a fast receiver and now we can take him early."

Rich pressed on what else slipped through the cracks. Rapoport pointed to the run on tackles, none in the first eight picks and a record pace after that, and to the Jets' selection of tight end Sadiq, a player Rapoport said multiple teams had been preparing to trade up for in the late teens.