Pick Six: Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding details | 2024 NFL redraft

Hello friends, and welcome to the Monday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!

If you were late for work today — or just didn’t want to get out of bed this morning — I totally understand, because what a weekend we just had: America turned 250, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce finally got married and FIFA might have just started an international incident by allowing Folarin Balogun to play for the USMNT in tonight’s World Cup elimination match against Belgium. I love FIFA. 

The Round of 16 match starts at 8 p.m. ET, and we have a full preview here. If you need to burn some time between now and then, I’ve got the perfect solution: this newsletter. We’ve got a lot to get through, including a 2024 NFL redraft and the guest list from Travis and Taylor’s wedding. 

As always, here’s your reminder to tell your friends to sign up for the newsletter. Let’s get to the rundown. 

1. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce get married: Breaking down the NFL part of the guest list

I’m pretty sure we’ve mentioned this wedding in the newsletter at least once per week for the past six months, so we’re going to mention it one more time by taking a look at all the NFL players who showed up. The nuptials went down Friday at Madison Square Garden, and in what might have been the biggest surprise of the night, Adam Sandler officiated the wedding. 

According to Andy Reid, Sandler offered two words of advice to the couple, “Keep kissing.” You can’t really go wrong with that advice. 

There were plenty of celebrities in attendance, but this isn’t Us Weekly. This is a football newsletter, so we’re going to take a look at all the NFL-related invitees who we know were in attendance, starting with Kelce’s current and former teammates. (This isn’t a complete list because only Swift has the full guest list.)

This was Vrabel’s first public appearance with his wife, and a video that featured the two of them getting into a car went kind of viral over the weekend (you can see it here). 

The best thing about this list is how many tight ends are on it. Kelce is the co-founder of Tight End University, and based on the guest list, it seems like he handed invites to anyone who attended TEU this year. 

According to Vanity Fair, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was also at the wedding, which I’m guessing will be the first thing that every NFL fan mentions when the Chiefs have any questionable calls that go their way this year. 

One final wedding detail you may have missed is the identity of the person who caught the bouquet. 

• Who caught Taylor’s bouquet? Chiefs offensive lineman Trey Smith was at the wedding, and he decided to bring his sister, Ashley. She’ll probably remember Friday night for the rest of her life. Not only did she get to attend the wedding, but SHE CAUGHT THE BOUQUET. “Somehow…I ended up catching Tay Tay’s bouquet,” Ashley wrote on Instagram. “So here’s to believing it’s bringing a lifetime of love, luck, and laughter my way.”

If I was Ashley, I would give the bouquet to the Chiefs so they can put it on display at Arrowhead Stadium next to their Lombardi Trophies. 

2. 2024 NFL redraft: Bears pass on Caleb Williams with first overall pick

Drake Maye was the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, but after leading the Patriots to the Super Bowl, would the Bears take him with the first overall pick if they were given a do-over? That’s a question we debated this week, so Zach Pereles decided to redraft the entire first round from 2024 to see how things would shake out. 

Basically, if every team could do the draft over knowing what they know now, who would they pick? That’s the question Pereles did his best to answer here. 

Let’s check out his top 10: 

1. Bears: QB Drake Maye (Maye’s actual draft slot: third overall to New England)
2. Commanders: QB Caleb Williams (draft slot: first overall to Chicago)
3. Patriots: QB Jayden Daniels (draft slot: second overall to Washington)
4. Cardinals: EDGE Jared Verse (draft slot: 19th overall to the Rams)
5. Chargers: OT Joe Alt (draft slot: fifth overall to the Chargers)
6. Giants: TE Brock Bowers (draft slot: 13th overall to Las Vegas)
7. Titans: WR Malik Nabers (draft slot: sixth overall to the Giants)
8. Falcons: CB Quinyon Mitchell (draft slot: 22nd overall to Philadelphia)
9. Bears: WR Ladd McConkey (draft slot: 34th overall to the Chargers)
10. Vikings: CB Cooper DeJean (draft slot: 40th overall to Philadelphia)

The biggest takeaway here might be the fact that the Eagles found two top 10 talents in Mitchell and DeJean. The quarterback breakdown is also fascinating with Maye, Williams and Daniels all landing with a new team. 

If you want to know how the rest of the redraft played out, be sure to click here. 

3. Ranking the NFL’s best duos: Rams and Texans have dangerous defensive pairings

We ended last week by ranking the best receiving duos, and we’re going to open up this week by doing something that sounds the same but it’s actually not: We’re going to rank the best overall duos. These duos can be on the offensive or defensive side of the ball.  

This list comes to us from Carter Bahns, and here are a few of the top duos that made the cut: 

• Rams: Myles Garrett and Byron Young. The earth-shattering trade that sent Myles Garrett to the Rams was the kind of transaction that can singlehandedly take a team from one tier and place them in the next. Los Angeles already had five Infinity Stones on its defense and picked up the final one with that deal with the Cleveland Browns. The single-season sack record holder and two-time Defensive Player of the Year elevates a pass-rushing unit that was quite fearsome even before his arrival.
• Texans: Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter. The Texans were a top-two defense in the NFL last year by scoring and yardage, and opposing quarterbacks logged an average passer rating of 76.1 against them, good for the second-lowest mark against any team. Anderson and Hunter were the engines of that machine. They play wonderfully off each other and could be even more dangerous in 2026, as an improved run-stopping unit should help force even more obvious passing situations
• Eagles: Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. It had been 21 years since the Eagles produced an All-Pro cornerback before last season. And then they boasted two of them in the same campaign. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean both secured the honor — with the qualifier that DeJean was selected specifically as a slot cornerback. Both of the 2024 draft picks shined in their sophomore seasons and offer the Eagles at least two more years of highly affordable lockdown play downfield.

There were a total of 10 dynamic duos on Bahns’ list, and if you want to see every pair that made it, we’ve got that here.  

4. Caleb Williams sends a Bears jersey to Pope Leo XIV

If the Bears experience a lot of divine luck this season, everyone in Chicago might want to go ahead and thank Caleb Williams. The Bears quarterback sent a gift to Pope Leo XIV over the weekend, and it wasn’t just any gift, it was an autographed jersey. 

Here are three things to know: 

• The Pope actually got the gift. When you send a gift to the Pope, there’s no way to know for sure if he’s ever going to see it, but in this case, we do know that the Pope received the gift and that’s because he took a photo with the jersey. The U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, presented Leo XIV with the gift, and you can see the photo here. 
• What Williams wrote on the jersey. Not only did Williams autograph the jersey, but he also personalized it with a “To: Pope Leo” greeting. Williams also included three hashtags: #DaPope, #DaBears and #Heisman22. There was also a four-letter acronym, AMDG, which stands for  “Ad majorem Dei gloriam.” That’s a Latin phrase that translates to “For the greater glory of God.”
• Did Williams leak a new Bears uniform? If you haven’t checked out the photo of the Pope holding the jersey, now is the time to do it, because we have a mystery to solve. Williams sent the Pope an all-white jersey that has orange numbers and lettering. Several outlets, including ESPN and NFL.com, have suggested that this might be a sneak peek at Chicago’s “Rivalries” uniforms that will be coming out later this year, but I don’t think that’s the case. Instead, this looks like a “Tundra White” alternate jersey that the Bears sell on their website, but it’s not a uniform the team actually wears. It might seem odd to give the Pope a jersey the team doesn’t wear, but it kind of makes sense. The Pope generally only wears white, so you’d want to send him something that matches that aesthetic. This jersey definitely pulls that off. 

The Bears pulled out several improbable wins last season, and with the Pope on their side in 2026, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them once again get some divine help this season. 

5. LeBron James free agency: NFL teams are recruiting the King

If LeBron James is looking for a new challenge after 23 years in the NBA, he might want to think about making a move to the NFL. This might sound crazy, but James was actually one of the top high school players in the state of Ohio in 2001, and he has always said he’d like to play in at least one NFL game at some point. 

• James’ football career. During his junior year at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, James was named first-team All-State after a season during which he caught 57 passes for 1,160 yards, and 16 touchdowns while leading his team to the state semifinals. James didn’t end up playing football his senior year, but despite that, he still finished his high school career with 108 catches for 2,065 yards and 28 touchdowns. 
• James seems to slightly regret not playing in the NFL when he had the chance. In 2011, the Cowboys and Seahawks both offered to let James try out with them during the NBA lockout, but he decided to stick to basketball. However, it seems like there’s some mild regret there. “I always think about it,” James said in 2021 of a potential football career.

Would James actually leave the NBA to give it a go in the NFL? Probably not, but the four-time NBA champion is being recruited by several teams on social media, so I decided to come up with some possible landing spots for him.  

If James retires from the NBA so he can play one year in the NFL, I think it’s safe to say he would only sign with a contender. The man isn’t going to switch sports to play for a bad team. Yes, he grew up near Cleveland, and yes, he likes the Browns, but the Browns are bad, so they will not make the cut on this list of potential landing spots. 

Let’s check out three teams that did make the cut: 

• Rams. Sean McVay is one of the smartest offensive minds in the NFL, and you know he’d have a special part of the playbook designed just for James. The Rams have already proven they’ll do whatever it takes to win a Super Bowl, so adding James would certainly make sense for them. 
• Bengals. James is an Ohio native, and if he wants to play football for a Super Bowl contender in the Buckeye State, the Bengals would certainly make some sense for him. The Bengals already have Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, and adding James would almost be unfair. With opposing offenses worried about the Bengals’ top two receivers, that could certainly open things up for James to put up big numbers in Cincinnati. 
• Ravens. The Ravens have one of the most electrifying quarterbacks in the NFL in Lamar Jackson, but even with Jackson, this team couldn’t score in the red zone last year. The Ravens scored a touchdown on just 47.46% of their red zone trips, which was tied with the Giants for the fifth-worst number in the NFL last year. With the loss of Isaiah Likely, the Ravens could stand to add another big target, and James would fit that bill.

I came up with a total of six landing spots, and you can check out all of them here. 

6. Extra points: Aaron Donald continues to hint at a possible return

It’s been a busy few days in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything, I put together a quick roundup for you.

• Aaron Donald still teasing a possible comeback. At this point, I’m starting to think Aaron Donald will definitely be making a return to the NFL. The latest hint came over the weekend when Clutch Points shared a photo of Donald on Instagram that had the defensive tackle wearing TWO Super Bowl rings. Donald responded to the photo with the double eyes emoji, and that’s not something you do unless you’re trying to draw attention to the picture. In June, Donald said a return was a “possibility”, and it’s starting to feel more and more likely that it actually happens. 
• Former NFL GM says Ty Simpson will be a career backup. The Rams’ decision to take Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick was the most shocking selection of the 2026 NFL Draft, and at least one former general manager thinks it was a waste of a pick. Scot McCloughan, who served stints as a GM in both San Francisco and Washington, didn’t like the pick at all. “I think the quarterback from Alabama is overdrafted,” McCloughan said, via the New York Post. “But it’s the position alone, you know. I think, not being a guru, but he’s like J.J. McCarthy. He’s like Mac Jones. He’s a career backup.” The Rams are hoping Simpson will eventually take over for Matthew Stafford, but it remains to be seen if that will actually ever happen. 
• Brandon Aiyuk makes another video. After spending the month of June taking shots at the 49ers, Aiyuk decided to take aim at someone else over the weekend: Jayden Daniels. Aiyuk went to college with Daniels, so it was a bit bizarre to hear him call out the Commanders quarterback. “[Daniels] gonna text me talking about some, ‘You’re on my team now. You follow my rules.’ Boy, I’m a grown ass man, boy,” Aiyuk said. “You gonna have to start running behind your momma and I might believe what you talking about.” Aiyuk wants to play for the Commanders, but he may have just burned that bridge. z