NFL Draft

Top 10 offensive tackles of the 2024 NFL Draft:

We talked about a lot flash with a tremendous wide receiver class last week and then while not as stacked with top-end talent, an incredibly deep cornerback group. Now, let’s transition to the trenches and start with the guys asked to block, so the quarterback can even get the ball out in the first place.

Although I don’t want to hype up all these positions, this is a strong stretch we’ve arrived at, because I would argue while we can discuss the order the two groups we just talked about plus offensive tackle are the top three classes overall. I have six names with legit first-round grades, about ten more who should go day two and then there are some very interesting developmental to take on shot rounds four through seven.

Three players who played tackle in college but will be part of my interior O-line rankings next week – Duke’s Graham Barton, Kansas’ Dominick Puni and TCU’s Brandon Coleman.

Here’s the list and I think we start off with a slight surprise for many people:


Continue reading
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks of the 2024 NFL Draft:

Closing out week two of our positional draft rankings, we talked about the wide receivers on Wednesday, so now it’s time to discuss the guys who are going to cover them in the pros. Personally, I didn’t make the distinction between inside and outside corners, but I did always mention which role and scheme each player would be able to fit (best) into – whether that’s boundary, field-side corner, nickelback or if I believe they can fill multiple spots.

These last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful for me based on the sheer volume of names I had to go through for wide receivers and corners. In this class particularly, I was a good 30 players in and still found guys with draftable grades. There may not quite be a blue-chip prospect among this group, such as Devon Witherspoon or Derek Stingley Jr./Sauce Gardner in recent years, but I think five guys should go in the first round and since I have another tie at number ten, the rest of my top 11 are all worthy of going in the second.

Let’s get into this deep crop:


Continue reading
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 linebackers of the 2024 NFL Draft:

After starting our positional draft rankings series with the running backs a couple of days ago, we look at the guys lining up across from them in the linebackers. Once again, I’ll be going through my top ten along with a couple of names that just missed the cut, discussing individual skill-sets, bringing up relevant measurables and statistics, potential scheme fits and how I personally value them as prospects.

Similarly to the running backs, this group lacks real top-end talent, most likely with no linebacker going in the first round, but it’s a fairly deep class with a good ten names who could be long-term starters in the NFL along with some guys who present intriguing skill-sets to be developed and/or fit in a specific role. Since it’s a relevant topic right off the bat here, let me remind you that I don’t have any access to medical reports or personal backgrounds beyond what’s freely available (which the NCAA doesn’t make a whole lot public). So my evaluations are all based on what the tape tells me, without being able to fully judge ancillary factors.

This is what my list looks like:

Continue reading
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 running backs of the 2024 NFL Draft:

It’s that time of the year! We’re just over six weeks away from the start of the 2024 NFL draft and I will spend that time presenting my top-ten prospects at every single position with in-depth evaluations, alternating between offense and defense with counterparts so to speak. I will talk about individual skill-sets, bring up relevant measurables and statistics, potential scheme fits and about where I personally value those names.

We’re kicking things off – as always – with the running backs (meaning linebackers will follow on Friday). This class lacks big names at the top, but it’s a very deep class, where we could see a run start once the first name comes off the board around the top-50 and we probably see over 20 guys get the call overall.

Let’s get straight into the list:

Continue reading
Standard
College Football, NFL Draft

Biggest risers and fallers from the 2024 NFL combine

The 2024 NFL scouting combine is in the books and I’m here to tell you helped or hurt their draft stock working out in front of decision-makers across the league.

While you have to be cautious about what to do with that new information and what those testing numbers mean, they give us a reason to compare how things match up with the tape and if a couple of prospects are closely graded, this can be the decisive factor for how they ultimately stack up.

I present to you one name at each position that is currently on the rise and fall each:

Standard
NFL Free Agency

One free agent each NFL team should target for 2024:

We’ve arrived at the NFL offseason and while the new league year doesn’t official start until March 13th, the franchise/transition tag period was opened on Tuesday and we can already speculate on where pending free agents could end up.

So I took on the exercise of going through all 32 NFL teams listed by effective cap space, talk about some overarching decisions ahead of them and matched each with one player about to hit the open market!

Standard
College Football, NFL Draft

Biggest standouts from the 2024 college all-star events:

The 2023/24 NFL season has come to a close, but we immediately transition into draft season, as all 32 teams have their eyes set on which young talent they want to bring in as their quest to Super Bowl 59 starts.

Some key events of the calendar have already taken place, when many of the top prospects tried to impress scouts and decision-makers across the league across multiple college all-star events. I did watch the Hula and Tropical Bowl games, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll be focusing on the Shrine and Senior Bowl. For the participants there, I already had done some background work and could contextualize what I saw across three days of practice plus the actual games.

I’ll discuss the ten players on offense and defense each, who impressed me the most and should be moving up draft boards thanks to their performances – I actually ended up going with ten each for both events. At the end, I listed several other players who helped themselves during the early stages of the process.

Continue reading
Standard
NFL Draft, Storylines around the NFL

A look ahead to the top half of the 2024 NFL Draft:

We’ve arrived at the week of Thanksgiving and since I’m in a generous, giving mood, I decided to give something to look forward to for fanbases of the teams that aren’t currently projected to be factors in the playoff picture. And while this includes a couple of teams from the NFC South, that could ultimately still host a playoff game due to the division they’re in, and two .500 teams from the AFC, I think when you look at the list of teams, they all still lack certain elements, which the best way to acquire those is with high draft picks.

I will start by quickly listing the current draft order – if the season ended today – then share my general bird’s-eye view of the upcoming class, before we work our way through each team, shortly discussing their overall state and how they may already look ahead to February through April with their scouting staffs to some degree.

The cut-off for the teams discussed here is pick 16, which makes sense considering the next teams up would be the Bengals and Bills before we get to the current playoff seeds – Cincinnati may have a couple of uncomfortable decisions to make in free agency but were on pace to be one of the most dangerous groups in the AFC, while Buffalo is still very much in the thick of things with the way they looked this past Sunday and being just half a game back from the number seven seed.


Continue reading
Standard