It’s that time of year – the annual “my guys” episode, where I break down my favorite draft prospects at every single position! These are the players I generally just enjoyed evaluating and value higher than where they currently sit on consensus boards.
This marks the mid-point of our positional draft rankings and we’re looking at one of the strongest groups yet – edge defenders, meaning defensive ends in a four-down front and 3-4 outside linebackers, although in today’s NFL we see so many hybrid fronts anyway that the distinction isn’t as relevant.
This class is headlined by a player who would be in consideration for the top non-quarterback in most years, but there are six/seven more names who could easily also go in the first round and about the same amount additionally in the second. What’s crazy to me is how many interesting prospects are available beyond that, as I’ll probably end up at 28-30 names with draftable grades.
Here’s how the top ten (plus) looks like for me:
We’ve reached the big-man portion of our positional draft rankings series. This week we’ll be looking at offensive tackles and edge defenders before we move on to the interior. As always, this list is based on the film only and not taking injuries into account, and watching all of these guys who lined up at OT in college, there are several transition candidates to guard or center based on length limitations or simply their skill-set translating better to either one of those spots at the next level. Here are some names you’ll find among the interior blockers – Will Campbell and Emery Jones (LSU), Grey Zabel (North Dakota State), Jonah Savaiinaea (Arizona), Marcus Mbow (Purdue), Wyatt Milum (West Virginia) and others.
So due to that, I believe there’s a pretty steep drop-off from the four tackles I have firm first-round grades on to the seven players I have more so in the mid-to-late day two range personally. Beyond that, there are a couple of developmental prospects with upside but more so quality college performers whose athletic limitations will limit them to potential swing and fringe roster candidates.
This is how they stack up for me:
Finishing up the second week of our positional draft rankings, we’re flipping back over to the defensive side of the ball, going from wide receivers to the guys who will be covering them – the cornerbacks. Once again, I’ll break down my top ten prospects with compact scouting reports for each of them, along with some names who just missed the cut. More than at any other position so far, I feel like I should mention that these rankings don’t reflect injuries but rather purely the talent/film and generally, I don’t love trying to weigh those anyway since we don’t have insight into medical records, like NFL teams do.
This CB class to me is a little misunderstood because it’s highlighted by a player who we don’t have a firm grasp if he’ll primarily play on offense or defense – or potentially both. Three of the next four names for me didn’t finish this past college football season and therefore have kind of been forgotten. And after that, a lot of better prospects are primarily considered nickelbacks. So while this group isn’t as strong as last year’s, I believe if healthy there are five guys worthy of first-round consideration, the other eight listed here will probably find themselves inside my top-100 big board, and even though there are a couple of names that have fallen from grace beyond that, there are also a few with impressive profiles, that’ll be appealing to NFL evaluators.
Here’s my list:
We enter week two of my positional draft rankings and it’s all about the passing game, looking at wide receivers and then cornerbacks on Friday. As always, I’ll lay out my top ten prospects at the position along with some honorable mentions, with compact scouting reports for each of them. Before anything else, here’s a quick disclaimer – Colorado’s Travis Hunter will find himself in the defensive edition, but his value as a two-way standout will be reflected on my big board at the end of this process.
This WR class isn’t up-to-par with some of the great ones we’ve seen in recent years, in particular with a trio of guys going in the top ten in the most recent group. Due to how wide open the college game has become and the amount of talent coming up the ranks, you can find redeeming qualities even as you get 30+ names into the list however. Personally, I value three guys definitely as first-rounders, four more in the second and then you can make a case for about ten different players throughout the rest of day two.
This is how they stack up for me:
Continuing our positional draft rankings series, we switch over to the defensive side of the ball for the first time. After taking a look at the running back class earlier, we’re shifting our focusing to the guys who’ll regularly be involved in collisions with them – the linebackers. And that’s the formula we’re going to follow throughout this project.
This group of off-ball LBs is far less popular among scouting circles than their counterparts previously discussed, but there are two prospect with a pretty wide range in the first round. After that, there are three or four other names who will probably come off the board on day two and several players who should at worst be quality package players with special teams value.
Here’s the list:
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.
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:
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:
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:
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