Category Archives: NFL Draft

NFL Draft

Top 10 linebackers in the 2020 NFL Draft:

After putting out my top running back prospects on Tuesday, we will follow that up today with the linebackers – as we will jump back and forth between offense and defense until all these rankings are released.

First of all, this to me are primarily off-ball linebackers, meaning no true edge rushers or 3-4 outside linebackers, who I don’t expect to stand up a whole lot.

This group of off-ball backers might not have a big names after the top four, but they are all more athletic than I would have thought before I saw them perform at the combine and they are just absolute freaks at the top as well as a few likely day three selections.

We have one headliner, whose versatility will probably make him a top-ten pick, with two other likely first-round selections and another fringe guy, who played on the edge primarily in college. After that there is a lot of disagreements among the draft community and question marks for pretty much every prospect.

This is the list:

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NFL Draft

Top 10 running backs in the 2020 NFL Draft:

We have reached that time of the year where I reveal my top ten prospects in the draft at every single position and as always, we start with the running backs.

This group of backs to me has one true headliner and two other guys, who I would consider in that late first/early second round range. After that there is a bit of a drop-off and I see a lot of variations of the rankings out there. The next five players are worth a day two selection for me, but I see a lot of value in the later rounds with some small-school prospects I really like. So if that top trio is off the board after the top 50 picks or so, it really depends on if there is a guy you really like beyond that and if not, I would wait some time and see if I can address the position later.

With that being said, here is my list:

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NFL Draft

Biggest standouts from the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine:

Every year we go to the combine with some big question marks – How correct are the measurements given out for prospects by their respective schools? How does a player’s athleticism correlate into real numbers? And how do they fare when put into actual football drills, that can expose weaknesses? While the medical reports and interviews going on behind the scene are obviously a big part of the evaluation as well, I want to focus on the things we saw from these NFL hopefuls during their testing and workouts. Even though it is natural that some prospects fall down boards because of what they do in Indianapolis, I wanted to stay positive and point out the who stood out the most with their combine showings. Here is the list:

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NFL Draft

Best fits between draft prospects and teams:

A little more than a week away from the NFL Scouting Combine, I wanted to take a look at some of the prospects I think would match very well with certain teams. This may be because of certain needs, scheme fits or just the type of players they are looking for. Since picks one and two seem to be set in stone pretty much, unless somebody shakes things up completely by trading up until then, we are starting with the team selecting at number three and work our way down the board, taking stops where I see a certain fit. Obviously this still heavily depends on what’s going to happen in free agency and the positions that will be filled up to that point, but for now these prospect-team pairings would make a lot of sense.

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NFL Draft

College All-Star game standouts 2020:

With the NFL season now in the books, we have officially entered the pre-draft process. While the combine and pro days are still ahead, the evaluation period has already started with the three major all-star games for upcoming NFL prospects – the East-West Shrine game, NFPA Bowl and the Senior Bowl of course. I re-watched all the practices and now I can tell you who stood out to me the most.

With that being said, this list is about who has boosted their draft stock the most so far, instead of simply telling you who the best players were. South Carolina defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw for example looked like the baddest dude on the field down in Mobile, but he only practiced two days and didn’t show anything we hadn’t seen, which validated more what most people already thought of him, instead of really taking him to a different level. Other guys might not have been on some teams’ draft board at all because of where they come from, but now scouts will look more into them because of what they showcased against a different level of competition.

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NFL Draft, NFL Offseason

Undrafted free agents who could make an early impact:

We have spent a lot of time talking about the NFL draft, handing out grades and pointing out steals from that weekend. With that being said, even after 254 picks there still was a lot of talent left out there and some prospects, who I had rated pretty high, never heard their names called on those three days. Instead they are now entering some team’s practice squad, looking to prove themselves and carve out a role. These ten names I think have the talent and/or are in a situation where they could contribute early on and be valuable pieces for their respective franchise. Every year there are some undrafted free agents I see making an early impact, who actually end up doing so – Phillip Lindsay and J.C. Jackson in 2018 for example.

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NFL Draft

Recapping the 2019 NFL Draft:

Another draft is in the books and once again there are all these grades being handed out and experts criticizing what teams did. While I don’t think you can properly evaluate prospects until they turn into actual player on the field and even then it takes some time, I do believe we can look at how these teams stuck with the principle of “best player available”, if they reached to fill needs and how their draft picks could help them out going forward. Not only that, we can also look at specific players or coaches and how these selections will impact them directly. Therefore, I listed my biggest winners, losers, steals and reaches from draft weekend, considering the information we have at this moment and the rankings I had put together.

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NFL Draft

NFL Mock Draft 2019:

I have now done all my positional draft rankings, given in-depth analysis of about 150 prospects and put together my top 100 big board. Now it is time for my one and only mock draft of the year. I don’t like doing more than one since it’s all speculation and listening to reports, rather than actually being able to evaluate talent and where these young men should be selected. It is almost impossible to predict draft day trades and there could still be a major chess piece ruling the first round – where will Josh Rosen end up if the Cardinals do go quarterback at number one? Regardless, I tried to predict So to clear this up – This is what I think will happen, not necessarily what I would do.

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NFL Draft

Top 100 prospects in the 2019 NFL Draft:

After watching hundreds over hundreds of hours of film, putting together positional rankings and comparing them to each other, I have finalized my big board for this upcoming draft. Obviously this will look different for each individual team because of scheme fit, needs, etc., but for me I just went with who I think are the top 100 prospects available. This is clearly a defensive draft with 10 of my first 14 players on that side of the ball, but I also think there are several offensive linemen worth being selected within the first two days, especially since it’s a rather thin group beyond that, and while some might argue there is not a lot of talent at the skill positions, I think there could be a run on wide receivers on Friday, since I have eight of them with a second-round grade.

Just to set the table here, unlike my positional rankings this list takes injuries and other concerns into consideration. That is why a guy like Jeffery Simmons from Mississippi State isn’t somewhere around the top ten.

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NFL Draft

Top 10 quarterbacks in the 2019 NFL Draft:

We have finally reached the last and most discussed position to analyze in this upcoming draft – the quarterbacks. Obviously I have spent several hundreds of hours purely on watching film from all these prospects I have already talked about, but with these signal-callers I had to invest even more time. Every year the quarterbacks are the hardest to fully evaluate because not only do you have to consider athletic ability, arm talent and work within the system, but you also have to understand the offensive play-calling, the opposing defense’s scheme, how these guys have to work through progressions and how all of that will translate to the next level. Moreover, this will be the face of your franchise and there are certain leadership and work ethic qualities that are necessary for somebody to succeed.

This group of quarterbacks certainly doesn’t have the same type of high-end quality at the top as last year’s did with four guys within the first ten picks and another one with the final selection of day one, but I think this group has gotten a bad rep by many. While a couple of guys are receiving way too much hype in my opinion, I think there are two hands-down first rounders, seven guys worth being drafted within the first two days, three talented developmental prospects to round out my top ten and a couple of quality backups beyond that.

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