NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks in the 2021 NFL Draft:

After talking about the top wide receivers available earlier this week, we are looking at the guys, who will be covering them at the next level. We are including slot and outside corners, which I will differentiate or tell you what I see them as at the end of my individual write-ups.

The top 15 or so all deserve top 100 overall prospect consideration and there will be double-digits in my personal big board most likely. My top three is very much in line with what the consensus rankings seem to be, but from that point on, I differentiate myself to most people out there.

Please remember that these rankings are purely based on the tape and not considering any injury or personal concerns. Washington’s Elijah Molden and Oregon’s Jevon Holland almost exclusively played nickel in college, but will find their names on the safety list next week, since I project them to be classified that way, when they don’t line up in the slot.

Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 wide receivers in the 2021 NFL Draft:

Continuing our series of positional draft breakdowns, we have finished up all members of the box on either side of the ball and now move to the guys further away from the ball, catching and defending passes. Today, we are starting with an impressive group of wide receivers.

As we move more and more to wide-open passing attacks at the collegiate game, the quality of players on the receiving end continues to improve. This year, we once again have some tremendous talent at the top and depth throughout the class. My WR20 could be a day two pick in most other years. And it really depends on flavor and scheme fit, where some of these names ultimately go.

Make sure to check out all my other positional breakdowns here and on my Youtube channel!

Now let’s talk about this crop of receivers:


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 interior defensive linemen in the 2021 NFL Draft:

Finishing with these players in the trenches, we are looking at the interior defensive line. This group includes everything from players, who will primarily line up head-up on the offensive tackle to straight over the center. I will always mention with specific alignment I believe fits the individual players best, although with many hybrid fronts we see in the NFL, most guys will be moving around – especially on passing downs.

This group has been called one of the weakest ones throughout the draft process and when I compare it to some of the classes we have seen these last several years, I certainly don’t think it matches up with them. At best, I believe two of them will be drafted in the first round and I wouldn’t be totally shocked the first one comes off in the late twenties. However, I think there could be some valuable players on day two and even beyond that. Four of my top five prospects I would classify as three-techniques (so shaded to the outside shoulder of the guard), but after that there are several names, who will play head-up or shaded to one side of the center.

Make sure to check out my video breakdown of the top interior offensive linemen!

But now let’s get into this list:


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 interior offensive linemen in the 2021 NFL Draft:

After breaking down the top offensive tackles and edge rushers last week, we are now moving on to the interior, once again starting with the offensive side of the ball. As always, I threw guards and centers together, since many of them have the flexibility to play both and those positions demand very similar skill-sets, while I explain in the hand what I think the individual prospects project best as.

Once again, I solely evaluate the players I see on tape here, regardless of any medical conditions or off-field concerns. My number two for example might be ready for training camp, since he suffered a rather severe injury in December only. Of course versatility is a big plus, but I’m basically putting together a general big board here, which doesn’t consider specific team needs.

This class to me is actually one that isn’t talked about enough. While we may only see a couple taken in the first round, I think day two will be loaded with talented players from this group and I have identified a few potential starters, who could go on the third day of the draft as well.

Here’s my list:


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 edge rushers in the 2021 NFL Draft:

After looking at the offensive tackle class earlier in the week, we shift back to the defensive side of the ball, to the guys trying to give them trouble off the edge. Once again, this group includes 4-3 defensive and 3-4 outside linebackers, while some of them may offer versatility to slide inside on passing downs. I already broke the edge rushers down a couple of days on my Youtube channel, to give a more comprehensive overall view.

This may not be perceived as a great class by the general public, because it doesn’t have that clear front-runner like Chase Young, Nick Bosa or Myles Garrett, as we have seen in recent years, but I think the top name for me should absolutely get more hype and this is actually a really deep class, even if it may include plenty of developmental edge rushers.  I expect multiple starters to be drafted on day three. To me the top three prospects absolutely deserve to go in the first round and the three names after will also probably end up with top 50 grades. However, altogether there’s up to 20 guys I feel comfortable with picking within the first four rounds.

Just for clarification – I didn’t include Vanderbilt’s Dayo Odeyingbo or Tulane’s Cameron Sample, because I believe they fit better inside and will find themselves in my breakdown of the top interior defensive linemen a week from when this comes out. So stay tuned for that!

Here’s my list:

Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

(Youtube) Top 10 edge rushers in the 2021 NFL Draft

After looking at the offensive tackle class earlier in the week, we shift back to the defensive side of the ball, to the guys trying to give them trouble off the edge. This may not perceived as a great class by the general public, because it doesn’t have that clear front-runner, as we have seen in recent years, but I think the top name for me should absolutely get more hype and this is actually a really deep class, even if it may include plenty of developmental edge rushers.

Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 offensive tackles in the 2021 NFL Draft:

We are starting our second week of positional breakdowns, where we’ll once again go over an offensive and a defensive group. Last week we talked about running backs and linebackers. This week we’re looking at the offensive tackle class and then later on at edge rushers, which there will also once again be a Youtube video on.

As far as this offensive tackle group goes, the top three I believe stacks up favorably even to what we had last year and this top seven or eight is probably as good as I have seen. I will talk about the individual prospects in detail here, but as a general overview – right now I have numbers one to three as top 15 overall prospects and there is a chance the top eight names will all land in my top 40. However, the talent level drops off dramatically once you get past the first 13-14 names or so. So there could be massive run on the position from the latter half of the first round through the second.

 

Let’s get into it:

Continue reading →

Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 linebackers in the 2021 NFL Draft:

Continuing our series of the top ten prospects at each position in the draft – we already broke down the best available running backs earlier this week, so now it’s time look at their defensive counterparts. Once again, I evaluated the talent on the field and how I think these players project to the next level, without consideration of injuries and off-the-field concerns that may be hurt these names when NFL front offices make their decisions come late April.

In this edition, we are looking at the linebacker position, which I categorize as all off-ball second level defenders. So this won’t include edge rushers, like 3-4 outside backers, even though some of them may have been used as that to some degree. This class might not be very deep necessarily, but in terms of this top ten in particular, it might actually be an underrated one.

Here is how I have these names stacked up:

Continue reading →

Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 running backs in the 2021 NFL Draft:

We have finally reached the point, where I’m ready to put out my final positional rankings and break down the top ten (plus) prospects at each spot. For all these analyses, I purely evaluated what I saw on tape, in terms of requirements for the position, how their skill-set will translate to the next level and then explain what kind of scheme they would fit best, as well as how diverse they are.

We’ll start with the running backs today and then talk about linebackers later on in the week. And that’s how we’ll kind of go position by position, switching between offense and their defensive counterparts (so offensive tackles and edge rushers one week, then wide receivers and cornerbacks, etc.). I studied between 20 and 30 players of every group, depending on deep that class was and if you want to hear my thoughts on any of the players not mentioned, just comment down below or contact me on my social media outlets (links up in the top bar) and I will share my notes with you.

I will also have at least one video per week coming out, where I talk about one of these position groups and will likely do either side of the ball on an alternate basis, like I did last year. So make sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel!

 

Now let’s get into our first list:

Continue reading →

Standard