Tag Archives: Draft prospects

College Football, NFL Draft

College all-star game standouts for 2025:

The NFL season has concluded with the Philadelphia Eagles putting on a dominant showing in Super Bowl LIX, when they got revenge on the Chiefs by ending their quest to the first ever three-peat, which started two years ago with a win over the Birds on the big stage. Of course we’ll discuss free agency soon, but we are ready to fully dive into draft season and for people who haven’t paid attention yet – this process has already started.

We’re just over two weeks away from the NFL combine, but the all-star games and preparation for those are in the books. So after watching all of the practice footage and both contests to finish off those events, I want outline the names that stood out the most to me from East-West Shrine and Senior Bowl weeks. I did watch the Hula and Tropical Bowl and we’ve still got the HBCU Bowl on slate, but I want to focus on those two prime showcases of talent.

Therefore, I decided to highlight ten standouts on offense and defense each, also picking the same number from each event. I could’ve easily talked in detail about several other players who caught my eye and am happy to share my notes down in the comment section, but I did at least list a bunch of names at the bottom.


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

Undrafted free agents from 2024 who could make an early impact:

The 2024 NFL Draft has come and gone, as we wrap up our extensive coverage of this stage of the league calendar. Before we sort of transition over into the final stages of discussing how teams have built up their rosters, discussing how the new additions fit in across my divisional draft and roster review series starting next week, I wanted to show some love to a few players who didn’t actually hear their names called over the course of the weekend in Detroit.

Just last year, I called out Bears quarterback Tyson Bagent, who ended up starting four games, Vikings linebacker Ivan Pace Jr., who was a borderline Pro Bowl performer, and Buccaneers defensive back Christian Izien, who was their quasi-starter in the slot. So there’s always still talent to be found once the draft is wrapped up and while opportunity has to be taken into account here, in the right situation there are UDFAs that could play significant roles as early as this season, even if it’s not in a starting capacity necessarily.

Here are some names, who I believe are capable of contributing and are in a situation where they could get a chance to do so:


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 100 prospects of the 2024 NFL Draft:

Over the last six-and-a-half weeks, I’ve analyzed the skill-sets of the top ten draft prospects at each position in detail. Now it’s time to put it all together and present my personal big board – numbers one through 100, plus the next 30 names. The way to look at this is thinking of me as a scout for the generic 33rd NFL team, without taking needs and preferences for the franchise into account.

In retrospect, we already knew wide receiver would be insanely deep, illustrated by 17 guys making the cut, but the counterpart group of the cornerback doesn’t finish too far behind with 13 names on here. Meanwhile, running backs and tight-ends are the least-represented groups, with only five guys each. The quarterbacks have driven the conversation throughout the pre-draft process, but you’ll see here shortly that I’m not as high on the group past the top two names as the general consensus.

Keep in mind, I noted injury or off-field concerns with a star (*) and depending on how well I could actually judge how they should impact rankings, I took them into account. The one prospect I excluded here was Texas interior D-lineman T’Vondre Sweat, who we aren’t sure about exactly what the arrest for DWI means for his draft stock.

This is how the board stacks up for me:


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 quarterbacks of the 2024 NFL Draft:

It’s time! We’ve broken down in detail the best prospects at every single position now and we close that series out with the quarterbacks. Not only are these of course the most important players on the field, but this is the toughest group to evaluate, because of the different offensive systems they operate in, how we don’t fully understand what their decision-making is based on, with different coaching points and paths to arrive at that point, what they mental make-up looks like, the importance of their supporting case and so many other factors. There I don’t claim to be perfect – like nobody is, especially when it comes to this position – but we steadily try to learn, as the requirements for playing under center at a high level continue to change.

Looking at this year’s class, I believe we have a guy at the top who should be the number one overall pick in basically any draft – at least since I started dabbling into scouting about nine years ago. I believe there’s only one other name worthy of being a top-five selection and he’s being completely overthought. Three more quarterbacks have top-50 grades for me, before we get into a couple of mid-day two options. There are two names I look at as high-floor players with the potential to start for a couple in the right situation, before we get into day three flyers with intriguing arm talent and/or athletic skills.

Here’s what the list looks like for me:


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 tight-ends of the 2024 NFL Draft:

In our first month of the positional draft breakdown series, we already discussed running backs, linebackers, wide receivers, cornerbacks, offensive tackles, edge defenders, interior offensive and defensive linemen. This week, we’ll be taking a look at the tight-ends and safeties, before we finish up with the long-awaited quarterback rankings.

This group is obviously headlined by a player who has dominated college football the last three years and has been destined to sit atop this list ever since he was a true freshman. After that, there’s another player who should be a top-50 pick. From that point onwards, these rankings can look a lot different depending on what you personally value and which type of player you’re looking for. I personally have three other names that belong inside the top-100, along with one more guy who could easily be up there with a clean medical bill. The depth in this class is certainly underwhelming however and I would think we’re looking at 15 or 16 total TEs drafted.

Since I mentioned it just now, these rankings are solely based on film analysis, without taking any injury or off-field concerns into account. And for the purposes of this exercises, a “Y” tight-end refers to a player playing on the ball next to the offensive tackle, an “F” is your more modern move option – which also includes big slot players – and an “H-back” or wing is someone lining up off the ball, either on the hip or just behind the tackle.

Let’s now get into it:


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft, Uncategorized

Top 10 interior defensive linemen of the 2024 NFL Draft:

Finishing up our first month of positional draft rankings, we close the chapter on trench warriors with the interior D-line. This group includes all players on the defensive side of the ball lining up anywhere from a zero- to a four-/five-technique depending on your labelling, although it’s rare to find such a clearly defined alignment roles these days. Just for clarification on how I will reference them:

0 = head-up on the center, 1 or shade = shoulder of the center, 2i = inside shoulder of the guard, 2 = head-up on the guard, 3 = outside shoulder of the guard, 4i = inside shoulder of the tackle, 4/5 = head-up on the tackle

This is a group that includes two incredible prospects worthy of top-20 selections and between five and seven other names that should go on day two. You can find useful players after that, but there is certainly a drop-off and you’re looking at role players or unrefined projects.

Let’s get into the list now:


Continue reading →
Standard
NFL Draft

My guys for the 2024 NFL Draft

We’re about three weeks away from the 2024 NFL Draft and to complement all my positional rankings, I wanted to highlight some prospects that I haven’t gotten to yet or were outside the top-10/12 in their respective classes, who I believe are being undervalued on consensus boards and I wanted to plant my flag on as “my guys”.

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

My ultimate 2023 NFL Mock Draft (including picks for non-first-round teams):

We have made it! The 2023 NFL Draft is just days away and after grinding away at film of over 300 prospects, I’m once again trying to do the impossible exercise of predicting what will actually happen in the first round, along with showing love to the fanbases of those teams currently without a pick on day one and linking prospects to them.

Standard
NFL Draft

Top 10 quarterbacks of the 2023 NFL Draft:

We have arrived at the end of our positional draft rankings for this year and of course we finish up with the most-discussed group – the quarterbacks. I like to always conclude this series with the signal-callers, because with all the other positions, I can tick boxes and rank them in a more straight-forward manner, while this is the toughest spot to evaluate. So many things have to go right in their development and more than anywhere else, landing spot is a major factor. I try to weigh physical talent, mental fortitude, the knack for being a play-maker and the poise these guys play with, in accordance to ever-changing demands for the position.

To me there’s a big three, that I can see in any order depending on who you ask, and all are worthy of being top-ten picks. Then there’s one prospect more I believe belongs in the first round, before we have a major drop-off to three names I have in the third- to early fourth-round range. The final three names I believe have the potential to develop into sport-starters, but I personally wouldn’t be comfortable with ahead of day three. Beyond that point, there are a few guys I think could turn themselves into quality backups, along a couple of names sprinkled in that have some starter tools, but are far from a point where they can be real-time contributors at the pro level.

Here is my final top ten for 2023:


Continue reading →
Standard