Jermod McCoy draft slide, explained: Why Tennessee CB slipped to Day 3 after 2025 injury

Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy didn’t play in 2025, but he still entered the NFL Draft process with hopes of being a top-10 pick. Those hopes were dashed on Thursday when he fell out of the first round entirely.

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After Mansoor Delane was selected No. 6 overall by the Chiefs, a run on cornerbacks never came. San Diego State’s Chris Johnson was the only other cornerback taken in the first round.

Despite hopes for a short night on Friday, the slide continued longer than anyone could have imagined. McCoy wasn’t selected in the second or third round, which extended his wait to Saturday.

A wide receiver in high school, McCoy transferred from Oregon State to Tennessee ahead of the 2024 season and emerged as one of the nation’s top defensive backs before injury erased his 2025 campaign.

Here’s what you need to know about McCoy’s slide and how injury concerns might have scared teams off.

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Jermod McCoy draft slide, explained

Injury concerns are giving teams pause as they weigh whether to draft McCoy. Not only did the cornerback miss the entire 2025 season with a torn ACL, but additional knee concerns were reported as something teams flagged ahead of the draft.

Some teams are concerned that bone plug used to address a cartilage issue in McCoy’s knee might need to be replaced, necessitating another knee surgery, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports. While McCoy’s camp insisted before the draft that his knee is good to go and Pelissero reports the ACL is not a current concern, the potential for another knee surgery could be scaring teams away.

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NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport confirmed during the draft that teams have «long-term» concerns about McCoy’s knee unrelated to the ACL injury.

From the NFL Draft: #Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy is still on the board late into the second round. pic.twitter.com/LJAO4yKBrk

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 25, 2026

McCoy is also dealing with the simple reality that he hasn’t played in a game in more than 16 months. His last game at Tennessee was in December of 2024, nearly 500 days ago. The 2021 draft proved that teams aren’t scared off by a player sitting out a season, as Ja’Marr Chase and Micah Parsons were high first-round picks after sitting out the pandemic-impacted 2020 campaign, but neither had any injury concerns.

McCoy did, however, run a sub-4.4 40-yard dash at his pro day, which many thought would alleviate concerns about his knee and put him on track to be a first-round pick.

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When did Jermod McCoy tear his ACL?

McCoy suffered a torn ACL in a home workout in January of 2025, less than a month after Tennessee’s season ended in the College Football Playoff. While he initially hoped to play in 2025, he sat out the entire season and prepared for the NFL Draft. 

Jermod McCoy landing spots

At this stage of the draft, teams are almost exclusively selecting for depth rather than immediate impact. Just about every team could use cornerback depth in a pass-happy league, so McCoy’s possible landing spots amount to any team that isn’t seriously concerned about his knee. 

As Day 3 presses on, teams might be more willing to take a flier on McCoy’s knee and hope he can turn into the player he was in 2024, even if only for a short while.

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