Former Tennessee Vols cornerback Colton Hood was regularly mocked as a late first round selection in the 2026 NFL Draft for much of the offseason.

But Hood, who played at Auburn and Colorado before landing at Tennessee for his junior season, didn’t hear his name called on night one of the draft.

Instead, Hood was selected by the New York Giants early in the second round (No. 37 overall).

“It kind of feels unreal still,” said Hood after getting drafted. “Like, I’m in the New York Giants facility. It’s kind of crazy. But I’m just happy to be here. I’m ready to go to work. Honestly, if we could practice tomorrow, I’d throw my cleats on right now.”

The biggest reason why Colton Hood fell out of the first round

Hood slipped out of the first round mostly because of the way the draft played out ahead of him.

It wasn’t that teams didn’t think Hood was a first-round talent, it’s simply that the first round ended up featuring a run on offensive linemen.

“Colton Hood was always going to be on the fringe of the first round,” said VolQuest’s Brent Hubbs Tuesday on WNML’s SportsTalk. “It was going to depend on sort of what the run (on a position) was in the draft in the first round. And the run ended up being offensive linemen — not just tackles, but interior offensive lineman as well. So the back half of the first round became a lineman draft, which was a bit unusual. And that caused Colton Hood to fall to early in the second round.”

10 offensive linemen were selected among the top 36 picks compared to only two cornerbacks.

It was really just bad luck for Hood (you never know how the draft will play out, despite the thousands of mock drafts from January to April).

The good news for Hood, though, is that he landed with a head coach in John Harbaugh who’s had a significant amount of success developing defensive backs in the NFL.