Red Murdock enjoyed a storied college career at Buffalo but all his accolades and production weren’t appearing especially relevant in the eyes of NFL teams.

But Murdock was finally chosen Sunday by the Denver Broncos with the 257th and last pick of the seven-round 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, earning him the label of “Mr. Irrelevant.”

The second-team All-American is the 51st player to earn the “Mr. Irrelevant” tag since the tradition began in 1976.

Murdock, whose birth name is Khalil, set the FBS record of 17 career forced fumbles during his time at Buffalo. He had four in 2023, seven in 2024 and six in 2025. Ironically, another former Buffalo star, longtime NFL player Khalil Mack, held the previous record of 16.

Murdock ranked third in the nation with 142 tackles in 2025 and also had five sacks among 13.5 tackles for loss. In 2024, he was second nationally with 156 stops. He was a first-team All-Mid-American-Conference choice in both seasons.

Still, Murdock was getting concerned in the latter stages of the three-day draft. He didn’t want to go undrafted.

“I feel extremely grateful and excited to help the Broncos win, above all else,” Murdock told reporters. “I know a little bit about Mr. Irrelevant, but the main thing is I got an opportunity, and I’m trying to make the most of it to help us win.”

The most prominent Mr. Irrelevant is quarterback Brock Purdy, who was the final pick of the 2022 draft by the San Francisco 49ers. Purdy was repeatedly passed over despite a highly decorated college career at Iowa State.

It didn’t take long for the pick to pay dividends as Purdy quarterbacked the 49ers to the 2023 season’s Super Bowl before his club lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The creator of Mr. Irrelevant, former NFL receiver Paul Salata, died at age 94 in 2021.

The last pick receives more attention than any other seventh-round selection and the notoriety reaches its zenith when the player travels to Southern California to be honored during Irrelevant Week. Among the festivities is the awarding of the “Lowsman Trophy.”

–Field Level Media

Two straight stellar rounds gave Nelly Korda a cushion to endure some bumps in the road.

She found those bumps on Saturday, but still shot a 2-under-par 70 to hold a five-shot advantage heading into the final round at the Chevron Championship in Houston.

Back-to-back 65s had given Korda a six-shot advantage, and the start of her third round on Saturday looked like more of the same. Two straight birdies to open got her to 16 under for the tournament, and she quickly added two more on Holes 5-6 to get to 18 under.

But that was it on the birdie front for the World No. 2. Worse still, Korda suffered bogeys on the eighth and 13th holes while battling the wind to settle for 16 under.

That represented a notable shift for Korda after she carded five of her eight birdies Friday on the back nine at Memorial Park Golf Course.

“I played really solid on the front and then just kind of — not may have lost concentration, but the wind started picking up and then I just put myself into — I mean, I put myself into great positions; didn’t kind of execute really well,” Korda said.

Korda is pursuing her third career major title, which would be her first since winning this event at a different course in 2024.

“This is why we do it, right, to be in contention on major championship Sunday?” Korda said. “I’m just going to focus on myself, kind of work on my process, really dial into that, make sure that I have tunnel vision, and not really focus on the exterior noise.”

Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit continues to lurk in second place. She crept closer to Korda with a 3-under 69, making up a shot, and she now sits at 11 under for the tournament.

Tavatanakit’s day featured four birdies on Holes 1, 6, 14 and 16, with a bogey on the par-4 13th.

She admitted an aggressive mindset could serve her well on Sunday.

“Yeah, I have nothing to lose. I have nothing to lose from day one,” Tavatanakit said. “I’m trying to be aggressive but sometimes the ball just doesn’t go there.”

China’s Ruoning Yin (66) and France’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard (67) put themselves in position to contend with low rounds Saturday and are now tied for third at 10 under, six shots behind Korda.

South Korea’s Ina Yoon (71) is alone in fifth at 8 under.

Amateur Farah O’Keefe, who has been the surprise of the tournament to this point, fell off the pace a little with her even-par round, moving her from a tie for third into a tie for sixth.

Yet O’Keefe, a native of nearby Austin and a member of the University of Texas golf team, is maintaining her composure.

“I’m having a great time,” O’Keefe said. “The thing that I do is just play my game. However it stacks up against everybody else is the way that it happens to finish.”

Tied with O’Keefe at 7 under are Mexico’s Gaby Lopez (66), Yealimi Noh (69) and China’s Yan Liu (71).

–Field Level Media

Zach Johnson increased his overnight lead from one to three points on Saturday after two rounds of the Mitsubishi Electric Classic at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Ga.

The tournament is using the Modified Stableford scoring system to encourage aggressive play. Rather than scoring relative to par, points are awarded per hole — minus-1 for a bogey, zero for par and two for birdie. Eagles are worth five points while double bogeys are minus-3.

Johnson finished +13 on the day, and combined with his opening round of +15, sits at +28 heading into Sunday’s final round.

The two-time major champion on the PGA Tour carded seven birdies and made one bogey on Saturday. He birdied four of the last seven holes and has a three-point lead over South African Retief Goosen (+25) and seven-point lead over four others.

“(I) hit it nice. Really hit my driver nice with the exception of 18 and maybe one other one if I’m not mistaken,” said Johnson. “Encouraged, encouraged with the trajectory of my game.”

Johnson, who finished tied for eighth at last week’s Senior PGA Championship, is optimistic about his game.

“I was volatile last week. I know I had a decent week from a finish standpoint, but I had 10 bogeys and three doubles,” said Johnson, who turned 50 in February and won his first title on the senior tour in March. “It was very colorful, if you will. I’m trying to clean that up.”

Goosen improved from +12 on Friday to +13 on Saturday. He picked up 12 points on his last 11 holes, which included birdies on two par-threes.

Asked if his round felt like a score of 66, Goosen said, “I don’t know what it feels like really. You don’t really — you’re just so much more into points and trying to just birdie every hole. It’s funny how it works, you’re not really thinking about a score, you’re just thinking birdie.”

Goosen’s countryman Rory Sabbatini, David Duval, George McNeill and Ben Crane are all at +21, while Alex Cejka of the Czech Republic is at +20.

Canada’s Stephen Ames fired the best round of the tournament on Saturday with a score of +16 and is tied for 10th at +18. He earned five points on his first hole of the day, making an eagle on the par-5 No. 10.

–Field Level Media