Now that we’ve wrapped up the major parts of free agency and the draft, I decided to take a look at each NFL roster, to see where every team could still use some help. This can be a need for a starter or some more depth at a specific position. We are starting with the NFC side and I will come back with the AFC version next week.
Notable undrafted free agents, who could make an early impact:
It’s been one-and-a-half weeks since we wrapped up the 2018 NFL Draft and after talking about the top prospects and which teams selected them where, it’s time to look at the guys, who didn’t hear their names called in Dallas. I thought this year we had an enormous amount of talent still left out there among the undrafted players and I want to shed a light on who they are and how I think they could find a role with their respective teams early on.
Recapping the 2018 NFL Draft:
The 2018 NFL Draft is in the books and there’s a lot of things to discuss. All 32 teams improved over the weekend, but there’s always some, who do more so than others, and several players were selected earlier or later than they should have been. Therefore, I want to point out my biggest winners and losers, steals and reaches of the draft.
Of course, there is a load of college prospects, who didn’t receive any call until the event was concluded, but for this article, let’s focus on those players, who actually were drafted. I couldn’t give an analysis on every single prospect mentioned, but you can find pretty much all of them among my positional rankings, if you’re interested.
First Round Mock Draft 2018:
Over the last six weeks, I put in a boatload of work to bring out my rankings and analyses on the top draft prospects at each position, followed by a top 100 big board. So now I’m happy to present my first and only mock draft. In recent years I always stayed with the original draft order, but since the first round usually is crazy and you see all kinds of trades, I decided to include them in this year’s edition.
To make this clear – this is a projection for what I think will happen on day one of the draft, not what should happen. I already disagree with the number one overall pick.
Big Board for the 2018 NFL Draft:
Now that we’ve finished up on the positional rankings, it’s time to put all those names in a hat together and rank them regardless of position. It is kind of hard, comparing a running back to a defensive tackle, but it comes down to this – if both these players were available, who would I pick regardless of my team needs? The top two guys on my list, I consider generational prospects.
If you want to read about any of them, I have in-depth analyses on every single one of them among my positional rankings. So make sure to check that out as well!
Top 10 quarterbacks in the 2018 NFL Draft:
Here we finally are! After spending more than a month on the rankings and analyses of the top prospects at each other position, we are down to the final one – the quarterbacks.
Unlike a lot of scouting pages and grading systems, I don’t weigh accuracy, arm strength, leadership or any of these abilities the same. I look at every factor and grade the total package.
This group of signal-callers includes six potential first rounders and there’s a solid chance four of the top five picks end up being spent on QBs. After that, there’s a lot of different opinions, on who the next guys are. I believe all of my top ten players have a shot at starting for an NFL franchise some day and a few guys at the top could be special players.
I really wanted to go in-depth with these quarterbacks, especially the top guys.
Top 10 safeties in the 2018 NFL Draft:
We are about to wrap this thing up! After we’ve talked about the running backs and linebackers, wide receivers and cornerbacks, offensive and defensive lines and now tight-ends just recently, we are down to the safeties, before finishing up with the QBs.
This safety group includes a bunch of different players and body-types. Some of them might lack the speed for a high-safety role, others might not have the physicality to come down in the box, and then there’s a bunch of them, who have the versatility to take on different tasks. The NFL is looking for matchup pieces and the safety position has never been this diverse.
In my rankings, I have two safeties, who I believe are both top ten prospects. After that, a lot of the evaluations depend strongly on taste and scheme fit. I could see up to ten safeties drafted within the first two days in Dallas.
