Noell nods off at 107, robot hands him the league's worst QB1

Peter Noell made six picks in the 2026 draft and let the machine make the other eight, his heaviest autodraft since 2021, the year he skipped the thing entirely and the robot went fifteen for fifteen. The handover came early. His last pick by hand was Chris Godwin Jr. at 107, and everything after that belonged to ESPN.

The part he stayed awake for produced the one genuinely good thing on this roster. Bowers and Trey McBride went back to back at 22 and 23, and Noell took the one he wanted a spot ahead of the market: Brock Bowers, 196.2 points, second of sixteen among this league's TE1s where the best is 201.0. Saquon Barkley at 11 was the pick anybody would have made. Tetairoa McMillan at 43 was fine. That is the whole case for the defense, because Rome Odunze at 54 was four spots early for a receiver listed Questionable with Davante Adams and Tee Higgins still on the board, and both came off it in the next two picks.

Then the robot reached 118 and took the seventeenth quarterback available. Noell starts Kyler Murray at 283.1 points, sixteenth of sixteen among this league's QB1s, in a season where the best QB1 is worth 370.0 points. That is a hole he lines up behind every week, and the galling part is that Matthew Stafford, 297.6 points, sat unclaimed until 110 — three picks after the last decision Noell made with his own hands. He was still in the room. He took Godwin, who is on the bench. Behind Murray the lineup does not recover: McMillan is the 13th-best WR1, Odunze the 11th-best WR2, and the FLEX is TreVeyon Henderson, drafted in the fifth round by a machine that did not notice he was listed Out. It adds to 1504.4 points, fifteenth of sixteen in the league, and a very good tight end.