Trying to prevent a repeat of last year.
The 2026 NFL Draft begins on Thursday, April 23, and hundreds of players will be waiting with their phones to get the call from their next time.
But over the past few years, a number of players have also gotten prank calls claiming to be from NFL teams on draft night.
The most high-profile incident, obviously, came last year when Shedeur Sanders got a call pretending to be from New Orleans Saints GM Mickey Loomis during the third round. When Sanders said he had been waiting on the call, the pranksters told him that he was “gonna have to wait a little longer” and hung up, obviously creating some confusion in a moment that quickly spread after it was livestreamed by Sanders and his brothers.
Sanders ultimately fell to the fifth round before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns.
After an investigation, the NFL determined that Jax Ulbrich, a sophomore running back for the Division III Berry College Vikings and the son of Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, was responsible for the call, after getting Sanders’ number from an open iPad while visiting his father. The NFL ultimately fined the Atlanta Falcons $250,000, as well as a $100,000 fine to Jeff Ulbrich.
But Sanders wasn’t the only future NFL player to receive a prank call on draft night. Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham, who was ultimately drafted #5 overall by the Browns, received a call from pranksters who leaked his number on TikTok, resulting in a flood of prank calls the entire evening. Penn State linebacker Abdul Carter received a call while the Jacksonville Jaguars were on the clock with the #2 pick, letting him know that the Jags would be drafting him. Ultimately though, the Jaguars took Travis Hunter and Carter was drafted #3 by the New York Giants. And there were several others, including Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty, former Syracuse QB Kyle McCord, and Indianapolis Colts tight end Tyler Warren who ended up receiving prank calls throughout the draft.
And to be clear, this isn’t a trend that started last year: Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean has said that he received over 30 prank calls before being drafted in 2024, and Tennessee Titans QB Will Levis was pranked called before being drafted in 2023.
This year though, the NFL is hoping to put a stop to it.
According to Pro Football Talk, the league has previously sent the list of prospect phone numbers to a commonly-used distribution list within the league that contains nearly 2,000 people – around 60 people per team. But this year, the NFL will be sending the phone numbers to one single person with each team, and making it their responsibility to keep the numbers private.
Now, will this actually work? Or will that person with each team just send the list to the same 60 people that it used to go to?
Personally I would love to see teams stop calling players ahead of time to tell them they’re being drafted, and let the players find out when the pick is announced. I mean, you see how fans react to their team’s draft picks, imagine a player hearing his name called along with the rest of the world. It would give us some great moments, and the phone calls with the team afterwards would still be just as emotional.
Either way, I love the NFL Draft because it’s nice to be able to talk football for a little while during the offseason, and it allows me to get my hopes up before they’re dashed in the fall.
Indiana University QB Fernando Mendoza is the heavy favorite to go to the Las Vegas Raiders with the #1 draft pick, with DraftKings currently setting the odds for Mendoza to the Raiders at -20000.
(Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson is the favorite for my New Orleans Saints at +220 on DraftKings, which would be great news and finally give Tyler Shough somebody to throw to other than Chris Olave).
The draft kicks off this Thursday at 8 PM eastern live from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And maybe this year when an unknown number shows up on a player’s phone, they can feel a little more confident that it’s a real team.
