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The Best Scheme Fits in Rounds 2 & 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft

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The Best Scheme Fits in Rounds 2 & 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft

When NFL teams transition from the first day to the second day of the draft, and the second and third rounds are open for business, things tend to get a lot more team- and scheme-specific. When you start with the 33rd overall pick and move down, there aren’t any scheme-transcendent prospects who are thought of as such, or they’d already be off the boards.

Now, teams are looking more for prospects who have a good overall toolbox, but perhaps one or two things aren’t quite at an NFL level just yet. With smaller draft capital involved, you’re more willing to take those risks.

Despite those limitations, teams can still nail draft picks in which they acquire players who are just about perfect for what they want to do. Here are eight such prospects from rounds 2 and 3 of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Related: 2026 NFL Draft: The Best Scheme Fits in the First Round

San Francisco 49ers: De’Zhaun Stribling, WR, Ole Miss

Throughout his time as the 49ers’ head coach and offensive shot-caller, Kyle Shanahan has run his passing games primarily through the middle of the field. He has had a quarterback in Brock Purdy for whom that works, because Purdy is so good when it comes to throwing with anticipation on in-breaking routes, and also because the 49ers like receivers who have no issue going over the middle when they know there will be contact.

Ole Miss receiver De’Zhaun Stribling, who the 49ers took with the first pick on the second day (33rd overall), is a different cat. Last season, the 6-foot-2, 207-pound Stribling, who ran a 4.36 second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine, ran most of his routes nearer to the boundary, whether he was aligned outside or in the slot. Most of Stribling’s route tree consisted of quick hitch passes and vertical go routes, and when Stribling did make explosive plays, they were more often than not vertical routes to the boundary. Five of Stribling’s 10 explosive catches last season came that way.

That could really round out a 49ers passing game that didn’t do much last season with such concepts. On deep throws outside the numbers in 2025, Purdy and Mac Jones (when Purdy was injured) combined to attempt very few go balls outside the numbers for explosive plays. Purdy completed three such passes in 2025 — one to George Kittle, and two to Ricky Pearsall.

So, Stribling is not necessarily a fit for Shanahan’s offense because he adds to what the 49ers already do; he’s more a fit because he will allow the team to amplify their passing concepts to include things that have been struggles before.

Houston Texans: Kayden McDonald, DI, Ohio State

The 2025 Texans ranked second in Defensive DVOA behind only the Seahawks, and they did so with one of the most schematically “vanilla” defenses in the NFL. When you can play defense to this level without a ton of stunts and post-snap coverage switches, you know that the personnel is scary from front to back.

That is true of DeMeco Ryans’ team, but one place that could use some improvement is the interior defensive line. Sheldon Rankins and Tommy Togiai comprised a pretty decent top of the rotation, but they’re not force multipliers per se. Kayden McDonald, on the other hand, will take the middle of that defensive line, with edge killers Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter, and blow it all up more often than not.

Last season for the Buckeyes, the 6-foot-2, 326-pound McDonald had four sacks, 15 total pressures, 43 solo tackles, 43 stops, five tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles. McDonald faced double teams on 240 of his 448 snaps in 2025, and 25 of his tackles, two of his sacks, nine of his pressures, one tackle for loss, and one forced fumble came when he was doubled.

If you thought that the Texans’ front was tough to deal with before, add a guy who’s built like a brick [redacted]house, and has better penetrative and disruptive ability than he’s given credit for, especially when he’s the focus of protection schemes. Good luck to those offensive lines who now have one more major math problem to deal with when it comes to where you slide those protections.

Kansas City Chiefs: R Mason Thomas, Edge, Oklahoma

Well, the Chiefs are on quite the heater when it comes to picking defensive players in this particular draft. They traded up to select LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane with the sixth overall pick on Thursday, and then added Clemson DI Peter Woods with the 29th overall pick in the first round.

The Chiefs also needed edge help, and they got it with the 40th overall pick in the second round in Oklahoma’s R Mason Thomas. The name comes from his mom, who liked names starting with the letter “R,” but also liked “Mason” for her son, so she went both ways with it. Thomas is also a both-ways player to a certain extent. Last season, the 6-foot-2, 241 Thomas amassed six sacks and 28 total pressures in just 191 pass-rushing snaps in a campaign that was interrupted for three games with a quadriceps injury. In his more full season of 2024, Thomas had nine sacks and 35 pressures in 243 pass-rushing reps.

In 2025, Thomas also had 14 solo tackles, 19 stops, three tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. Where Thomas works as a both-ways player is that he lined up inside the tackles on 9% of his snaps last season, and when he did so, he put up some extremely impressive reps in which he would jump a couple of gaps, read the middle of the offensive line, and scald through to the ballcarrier.

Given Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s creativity with both blitzes and stunts, Thomas would seem to be a perfect fit. Last season, George Karlaftis was the Chiefs’ one consistent edge defender, and Karlaftis is another guy who can kick inside to great effect. Spags should have a ton of fun with this particular pairing.

Philadelphia Eagles: Eli Stowers, TE, Vanderbilt

The Eagles are looking to swerve past a 2025 Kevin Patullo-led offense that was a disaster from start to finish. New offensive coordinator Sean Manion comes to Philly after a two-year stint in Green Bay, where he served as an offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach.

One thing the 2025 Eagles and the 2025 Packers had in common (Eagles fans hope there won’t be too much else) was the use of two-tight end sets. Last season, the Packers put two tight ends on the field for 136 passing attempts, completing 92 passes for 1,082 yards, seven touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of . Meanwhile, the 2025 Eagles had two tight ends on the field for 105 of their passing attempts, completing 68 passes for 691 yards, eight touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 106.0. Basically, 12 personnel was one of the very few things that worked for the Eagles last season.

Which is where Vanderbilt’s Eli Stowers comes in. Before the Eagles selected Stowers with the 54th overall pick in the second round, they had a TE room with Dallas Goedert and Grant Calcaterra as the two main targets. Now, with the 6-foot-4. 269-pound Stowers on board via the 54th overall pick in the second round, that tight end room just got quite a bit more explosive.

Stowers absolutely blew it up at the combine, and based on his tape, there’s a lot of vertical juice that wasn’t really unleashed in Vanderbilt’s offense. Last season, he caught 62 passes on 85 targets for 769 yards and four touchdowns, but only four of those catches on eight targets for 161 yards and a touchdown came on passes of 20 or more air yards.

With A.J. Brown likely gone from the team after June 1, and USC receiver Makai Lemon now on the roster with the 20th overall pick in the first round, the Eagles’ offense will look quite different in 2026. Don’t be surprised if Stowers isn’t a big part of that.

Cleveland Browns: Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, DB, Toledo

James Snook-Imagn Images

The 2026 draft class is filled with the kinds of do-it-all defensive backs that most modern NFL defensive coordinators see as crucial to their schematic success, and it was no surprise that two of them — Ohio State’s Caleb Downs (11th overall to the Dallas Cowboys) and Oregon’s Dillon Thieneman (25th overall to the Chicago Bears) — went in the first round.

I was extremely surprised that another one of those players — Toledo’s Emmanuel McNeil-Warren — waited quite a bit longer to hear his name called. But the Browns got a real bargain here with the 58th overall pick in the second round. Of those three prospects, the 6-foot-3 1/2, 201-pund McNeil-Warren may have the most physical upside over time, and it’s not as if 2025 showed an underdeveloped player.

Last season, McNeil-Warren had a sack, five pressures, 42 solo tackles, 17 stops, four tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and in coverage, he allowed six catches on 15 targets for 116 yards, 50 yards after the catch, one touchdown, two interceptions, five pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 50.3.

Kudos to the Browns for being all over this one.

“I think what’s so special about Emmanuel is the versatility that he brings,” Browns Assistant GM & Vice President of Football Operations Catherine Hickman said after the pick was made. “You’re thinking of a player that can play high, can play low, a player that has excellent ball skills, size, strength, physicality. So really, a player that — the way we want to play defense, [he] just gives our defensive coaches so many options. And I know they’re going to be extremely pleased to work with him.”

Hickman also spoke to McNeil-Warren’s versatility as it pertains to the Browns’ frequent use of three-safety packages. In that regard, Grant Delpit and Ronnie Hickman have a new best buddy.

“I think it’s huge,” she said. “And again, the defensive coaches will obviously figure out how to best use them in different scenarios. But again, I cannot emphasize the versatility point more just in terms of the options that it gives to our coaches to deploy him and maximize his strengths.”

No doubt, and both McNeil-Warren and his coaches will benefit from his rare combination of athleticism and versatility.

New Orleans Saints: Oscar Delp, TE, Georgia

The 2025 Saints under head coach and offensive mastermind Kellen Moore didn’t run a lot of two-tight end personnel, and when they did, it didn’t go to well. New Orleans’ 91 attempts with two tight ends on the field was the NFL’s 11th-lowest, and just 54 of those attempts were completed for 447 yards, two touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 63.6 — the NFL’s second-lowest ahead of only the Houston Texans’ 57.1.

The 2026 Saints already signed veteran Noah Fant to a two-year, $8.75 million contract with $4.5 million guaranteed, and now, with the 73rd overall pick in the third round, they took Georgia’s Oscar Delp, one of the NCAA’s best-kept secrets last season. Over four seasons in Georgia, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Delp never had more than 30 targets in a season, and in 2025, he caught just 20 passes on 28 targets for 261 yards and a touchdown.

Not numbers that set the world on fire, but this is a guy you can’t just box score-scout. Because the tape shows just enough explosive, NFL-conversant plays to get you excited about Delp’s NFL future.

Minnesota Vikings: Domonique Orange, DI, Iowa State

Speaking of guys you can’t box score-scout, there’s Iowa State’s Domonique “Big Citrus” Orange. In 2025, the 6-foot-2, 322-pound Orange had no sacks, 13 pressures, 20 solo tackles, 16 stops, and one tackles for loss. As is the case with any Iowa State defensive lineman (it’s why edge-rusher Will McDonald IV was a tough evaluation in the 2023 draft), you have to get past the unusual number of three-man fronts that put said linemen in less than ideal positions to succeed.

This was the case for Orange, but in some ways, it showed his full skill set in ways you don’t usually see. Because he so frequently alternated between nose tackle and end deployments, you saw some things you don’t generally observe from a man his size.

And this should work like a charm for the Vikings, and defensive coordinator Brian Flores. In 2025, the Vikings had the NFL’s highest rate of five-man rushes at 34%, and the NFL’s highest rate of six-man rushes at 10%.

Flores has a real love for both five-an base fronts and exotic blitzes, so it’s entirely likely that after years of working at a disadvantage because there weren’t enough people around him on the line of scrimmage, Big Citrus is about to reap the rewards in a major way. Watch out for this guy at the next level, especially when he’s paired with Florida interior defensive lineman Caleb Banks, who the Vikings took with the 18th overall pick.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Ted Hurst, WR, Georgia State

© David Butler II-Imagn Images

The Buccaneers are in a weird place with their receiver group. Mike Evans now resides in San Francisco, and the rest of Tampa Bay’s receiver corps, outside of 2025 rookie Emeka Egbuka, was hit-and-miss for all kinds of reasons. To replace Evans, it behooved general manager Jason Licht to get another big, fast, ball-winner who could come in and help right away.

Licht has never had an issue taking guys from smaller schools, and he may have hit the motherlode with Georgia State’s Ted Hurst. The 6-foot-4, 206-pound Hurst showed at the Senior Bowl that he belonged with all the bigger-school guys, he had a great combine that included a 4.42-second 40-yard dash, and his tape against bigger schools in 2025 also told you that this guy was going to be more NFL-ready than most prospects from the Sun Belt Conference.

Overall in 2025, Hurst caught 71 passes on 124 targets for 999 yards and six touchdowns, and he brings some of Evans’ skills to the table with his vertical juice and contested-catch ability. Exhibit A is the 11 catches he had on passes of 20 or more air yards — a number that could increase pretty easily at the NFL level.

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