While there hasn’t been a Shedeur Sanders slide in this year’s NFL Draft that has captivated the nation, the shocking fall belongs to Tennessee Volunteers cornerback Jermod McCoy.
McCoy was highly touted as a projected first round draft pick and ranked as the 29th best overall prospect and second cornerback on Mel Kiper Jr.’s big board heading into this week’s festivities. However, not only did McCoy not hear his name called on Thursday night during the first round, he also went undrafted on Friday night for Rounds 2 and 3.
And as McCoy fell, the reasoning became clear. There are very real injury concerns about McCoy’s knee and a cartilage issue that could require surgery.
Veteran Yahoo Sports NFL reporter Charles Robinson joined the platform’s ’26 Draft Live show to share the extent of McCoy’s knee issues. And he went into the real possibility that it could be a career-threatening issue because of the bone and cartilage that could need to be moved from a healthy part of his knee to repair the current issue.
Understanding Jermod McCoy’s slide into the third day of the draft… pic.twitter.com/8zgQPb0Jm9
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) April 25, 2026
Unfortunately, the response from the Yahoo studio team of Jason Fitz, Nate Tice, Charles McDonald, and Matt Harmon did not meet the moment.
The studio set burst into laughter upon hearing the news because of how awful it sounded and the painstaking detail that Robinson gave about Jermod McCoy.
Late into the evening, both Harmon and Fitz took to social media to apologize for their reactions.
Great reporting from Charles of course and very honestly I wish I had reacted better to hearing it in the moment. It wasn’t funny. It’s a long show and I was just so taken aback by the details that I reacted in a stupid way by awkwardly laughing. I apologize, regret it and will… https://t.co/3xObWOCXyn
— Matt Harmon (@MattHarmon_BYB) April 25, 2026
Charles crushed this reporting. Clearly we weren’t laughing at the report or the player – we were laughing at ourselves & our own visceral reactions to the details
For people to see it differently means I didn’t do my job well. I apologize. I’ll do better / be better next time https://t.co/f1CP8LD3Y5
— jason fitz (@jasonfitz) April 25, 2026
“Great reporting from Charles of course and very honestly I wish I had reacted better to hearing it in the moment. It wasn’t funny. It’s a long show and I was just so taken aback by the details that I reacted in a stupid way by awkwardly laughing. I apologize, regret it and will do better in the future,” Harmon said.
“Charles crushed this reporting. Clearly we weren’t laughing at the report or the player – we were laughing at ourselves & our own visceral reactions to the details For people to see it differently means I didn’t do my job well. I apologize. I’ll do better / be better next time,” Fitz added.
Obviously a serious injury issue causing a first round talent to drop this far is no laughing matter because of the money McCoy has already lost and the very real threat to his NFL dreams. You can understand the Yahoo reaction from a human perspective, though. This was part of a very long broadcast and everyone has had moments where they become a little slaphappy if they hear something they may not expect. Good for Harmon and Fitz to publicly apologize and recognize the true gravity of the situation.
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