Raiders take Tennessee corner McCoy as fourth round opens — and Jets roll the dice on Klubnik

The Las Vegas Raiders opened the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft on Saturday by selecting Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy with the 33rd pick of the round. The selection came nearly two hours after the third round had closed in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and McCoy's name was among those flagged by analyst circles in the days leading up to the draft as a prospect whose college tape suggested Day 2 ability — a projection that did not survive into the actual board on Saturday.

The New York Jets, acting shortly after the Raiders' pick, used their own fourth-round selection on Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik, moving up to secure him according to ESPN's reporting. The Jets, a franchise that has cycled through multiple quarterback projects over the past decade, took the Clemson starter after he slid well past where many mock drafts had placed him in the spring.

McCoy's three-season tenure at Tennessee produced 15 career pass breakups and four interceptions across 37 appearances. The cornerback position has been an area of measured investment for the Raiders in recent drafts, and adding a player with that production profile at this stage of the draft — when most of the premium names have already moved — represents a return to a value-oriented board strategy that Las Vegas has employed before in mid-round selections.

A draft board that did not move as projected

Both McCoy and Klubnik entered this draft cycle as prospects whose collegiate performance placed them firmly in the Day 2 conversation. McCoy's tape from Tennessee showed consistent man-coverage ability and an instinct for locating the ball in the air — traits that teams value in a league where coverage ability in the middle of the field often determines postseason outcomes. Klubnik, for his part, spent two seasons as Clemson's primary starter and showed enough poise in high-stakes games that draft analysts had him penciled in as a potential third-round selection as recently as the winter.

That neither player reached the board at the times projected is not unusual — the draft routinely produces these dislocations, where board position does not perfectly track collegiate résumé. The reasons vary: medical flags, position-specific saturation, team-fit questions, or simply a board that fell differently on the day. What matters for the franchises is the outcome, not the cause, and both the Raiders and Jets walked away from the first hour of Saturday's fourth round with players they had ranked higher than where they were selected.

For the Raiders, the question is whether McCoy's evaluation during the pre-draft medical process revealed anything that caused other teams to step back. The sources reviewed do not specify the nature of any concern, but a player of his production profile slipping to the 33rd pick of the fourth round suggests at least one team had a flag it was not willing to clear. Las Vegas cleared it — or found the risk acceptable at that point in the draft.

What this means for two franchises with different needs

The Raiders' roster enters this draft having finished last season with a secondary that required attention. McCoy is not a plug-and-play starter in the short term; cornerbacks drafted in the fourth round typically compete for slot roles and contribute on special teams before earning full-time roles on defense. The ceiling is different — a player with his college metrics can become a starting boundary corner if the developmental arc goes well. The floor is a special-teams contributor in Year 1 and a rotation player in Year 2. For a mid-round pick in a draft that has historically produced starters in the fourth round at a higher rate than the position's draft slot would suggest, that range of outcomes is acceptable.

The Jets' situation with Klubnik carries a different kind of pressure, because the quarterback position in New York carries institutional weight that few other franchises in the league match. The franchise has been searching for a long-term answer at the position for the better part of a decade; drafting a quarterback in the fourth round is not a solution to that problem. It is a bet on a developmental profile — a player with college accuracy and game-management experience who could, in two to three years, be ready to compete. Whether the Jets' decision-makers are still in place to see that arc through is a question the franchise will have to answer separately.

Fourth round as a talent window

The fourth round of an NFL draft occupies a specific place in roster construction. Teams have moved past the premium talent tiers and are working a board of players whose profiles carry either positional value, medical risk, or production that did not translate into top-of-draft grades. The fourth round historically produces starters — players who go on to meaningful NFL careers — at a rate that rewards teams willing to do the medical and character work other franchises decline to do.

McCoy fits that profile. His Tennessee production is documented. His athletic profile, as projected by pre-draft metrics, placed him in a category that teams use to project NFL success. Whether his medical file caused other teams to move him down their boards is, at this point, less relevant than the outcome: Las Vegas selected him in the fourth round and will have the opportunity to develop him. If he stays healthy and the Raiders' defensive staff does the work, this is the kind of pick that looks significantly different in three years than it does on draft night.

Desk note: The wire framed Saturday's fourth round primarily as a sequence of positional picks following the quarterback run at the top of the draft. Monexus led with the Raiders' cornerback selection — a board decision that reflects Las Vegas's continued willingness to draft for the defense in the middle rounds — and placed the Jets' quarterback selection in the context of a franchise that has been searching for stability at the position since before the current management structure arrived. The framing separates the two picks rather than bundling them as a fourth-round snapshot, which better reflects the different competitive situations of each franchise.

Read time: approximately 5 minutes

Wire provenance

This editorial synthesis draws on the following public wire/social posts:

• https://t.me/NFLonFox/1243
• https://t.me/NFLonFox/1242