Tag Archives: Draft Rankings

NFL Draft

Top 10 edge defenders of the 2023 NFL Draft:

This officially marks the halfway point of our positional draft rankings. We’ve already broken down the top running backs, linebackers, wide receivers, cornerbacks and most recently offensive tackles. So now it’s time to look at this massive group of edge defenders, which is a much better way to classify these prospects, rather than calling them 4-3 defensive ends or 3-4 outside linebackers. Due to how hybrid NFL fronts are these days anyway, I like to lump those together, although I will mention their best schematic fit a few times and talk about how versatile coaches can be in how they deploy these guys.

We have a consensus top-three overall prospect headlining this group, but I don’t believe EDGE2 is too far behind him, especially when you look at what the NFL typically values. After that, I kind of look at the class having three tiers, where the first one consists of four names, who I all have first-round grades on, then the three guys in the next group I think deserve top-50 consideration and after that, there’s at least another four I consider day-two prospect. However, even beyond that point, there are several intriguing players, who I think can have legitimate roles at the next level, with varying degrees of physical upside compared to pro-readiness.

Just to clarify – Northwestern’s Adetomiwa Adebawore, Auburn’s Colby Wooden and Michigan’s Mike Morris I have all labelled as “IDL”. That list will come out next week.

For now, let’s get into this edge class:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 offensive tackles of the 2023 NFL Draft:

We’ve arrived at the big-boy portion of our positional draft rankings! After already breaking down the best running backs, linebackers, wide receivers and cornerbacks of this class, we will spend these next two weeks talking about the guys inside the trenches both inside and out for offense and defense – and we are starting with the offensive tackle position!

I believe there are four small-dunk first-round players among this group, who can all be week-one starters, with varying degrees of technical advancement compared to physical upside. After that, there are five names, who I’d have no problem with all going inside the top-75, including a couple of athletic specimen, who aren’t close to the potential of players they can become one day. At number ten, there’s one more highly talented prospect, who may actually go earlier than a few names I have listed above him, based on the ceiling he presents. After that, you’re looking at more so serviceable players, who will largely be backups, along with a couple of underdeveloped kids you may want to take a flyer on day three, if you have the edges of your O-line secured for now.

Just to clarify – North Dakota State’s Cody Mauch will see his name listed among the interior offensive line.

Here’s how I have this group stacked up:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Switching back over to the defensive side of the ball here in week two of our positional draft rankings, we go from the wide receivers to the guys that will be lining up across from them on Sundays – the cornerbacks. I project most of these names to play outside primarily, but some of them may end up moving inside for their future team. However, I did not include names like Alabama’s Brian Branch or Illinois’ Jartavius Martin, who did line up in the slot for the most part in college and may also do so in the NFL, but project better as safeties, if they did side into another role.

Similar to the wide receivers, this is an incredibly deep group and I had to study more than 30 guys, in order to feel comfortable about my ultimate rankings. However, the difference is that we have two legit top-ten overall prospects and there are at least four other names worthy of being discussed in the first round. Beyond that, I think the rest of my top-ten and even the two names in the “just missed” category should be off the board after round two. And once again, we are far from done, in terms of guys I believe will find their way onto an NFL field.

I don’t want to waste any more time now and discuss this group:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 wide receivers of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Week two of our positional draft rankings is here. After breaking down the top running backs and linebackers in this year’s class, it’s time to talk about these wide receiver prospects. Once again, these are simply my personal rankings, without taking team fits and needs into account. So these boards will look a lot different depending on who you ask and especially with this position, I believe there will be a lot of variance for how teams have guys stacked up.

I believe there’s a pretty clear top tier, which includes four names we’ve all commonly seen get mocked in the first round. I don’t believe there’s a Ja’Marr Chase in this class or that this is as strong a group as we had last year, with Drake London and the two Ohio State guys. However, all four of these names should go on day one. After that, there’s a significant gap to the next group, which is where I have a few names mixed in, who I rarely hear being brought up. The rest of the top ten will all be top-100 prospects for me and at the end, I talk about one more guy, who I really struggled to find a place for. The real strength of this class however is the abundance of day-three targets, where altogether I watched more than 30 prospects with a chance of contributing at the next level.

Let’s dive into this:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 quarterbacks in the 2022 NFL Draft:

We have reached the point of our final positional draft rankings and of course we’re going to end with the most divisive group – the QBs. The NFL has seen their picture of what those guys should look like change over the last decade, from statuesque pocket passers to more mobile play-makers. However, the kings of the sport right now are the ones capable of making big throws from within the pocket with their special arm talent and add that out-of-structure element when needed.

This group has largely been labelled lackluster and while it’s obviously nowhere close to the same level that we saw a year ago, with four legitimate prospects worthy of going in the top ten and another player with a very high floor, who actually outproduced the rest of the pack, I heavily disagree with the general consensus on these guys and how they are portrayed by the media. I have three names on here that I think are all worthy of going in the first round – although one of those comes in with the caveat of needing a clean medical report – with another guy in that top-50 range, while two names that are typically considered to be part of the top tier I’m significantly lower on. Plus, I have one sleeper on here, that I don’t ever hear discussed.

Let’s dive into these guys:

 

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We have reached the point of our final positional draft rankings and of course we’re going to end with the most divisive group – the QBs. The NFL has seen their picture of what those guys should look like change over the last decade, from statuesque pocket passers to more mobile play-makers. However, the kings of the sport right now are the ones capable of making big throws from within the pocket with their special arm talent and add that out-of-structure element when needed.

This group has largely been labelled lackluster and while it’s obviously nowhere close to the same level that we saw a year ago, with four legitimate prospects worthy of going in the top ten and another player with a very high floor, who actually outproduced the rest of the pack, I heavily disagree with the general consensus on these guys and how they are portrayed by the media. I have three names on here that I think are all worthy of going in the first round – although one of those comes in with the caveat of needing a clean medical report – with another guy in that top-50 range, while two names that are typically considered to be part of the top tier I’m significantly lower on. Plus, I have one sleeper on here, that I don’t ever hear discussed.

Let’s dive into these guys:

 

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NFL Draft

Top 10 tight-ends in the 2022 NFL Draft:

Entering our final week of multiple positions being broken down for the draft, we start with the tight-end spot before transitioning to safety. I did not include fullbacks into this group (like some other pages do), because I simply didn’t have the time to make an adequate list and watch film on guys who played that spot in college, but we have some different body-types, who can fill that type of role, along with true Y’s or move options.

We certainly don’t have a generational prospect like Kyle Pitts in this year’s class or even a Pat Freiermuth, who I personally looked at as worthy of a first-round pick, but there’s several quality contributors that you can pick up – even on day three. That includes plenty of more traditional in-line players, although we have a couple of guys in the top three, who are capable of stressing defenses down the seams.

Here’s my list:

 

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Entering our final week of multiple positions being broken down for the draft, we start with the tight-end spot before transitioning to safety. I did not include fullbacks into this group (like some other pages do), because I simply didn’t have the time to make an adequate list and watch film on guys who played that spot in college, but we have some different body-types, who can fill that type of role, along with true Y’s or move options.

We certainly don’t have a generational prospect like Kyle Pitts in this year’s class or even a Pat Freiermuth, who I personally looked at as worthy of a first-round pick, but there’s several quality contributors that you can pick up – even on day three. That includes plenty of more traditional in-line players, although we have a couple of guys in the top three, who are capable of stressing defenses down the seams.

Here’s my list:

 

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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior defensive linemen in the 2022 NFL Draft:

Concluding our look at the players in the trenches, we are putting the interior D-line under microscope. This group anything from true zero-technique over the center all the way out to four-/five-technique playing head up on the offensive tackle, in terms of base positions. Obviously depending on scheme, alignment and role can vary a lot.

There’s a clear top two from the same school as chance may have it, then a trio of interesting body-types that some NFL teams may refer to as tweeners, a couple of specific fits with narrow skill-sets that they are outstanding at however and then it’s a lot of variety in terms of what people may value. This class is also loaded with two-down nose tackles on the back-end, but overall I think the depth of the group may be a little overstated.

Once again, evaluations are purely based on my film study and done in a vacuum, without taking schematic fits or skill-sets teams are looking for into account, and I have one name up here that I don’t really see anywhere else.

 

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Concluding our look at the players in the trenches, we are putting the interior D-line under microscope. This group anything from true zero-technique over the center all the way out to four-/five-technique playing head up on the offensive tackle, in terms of base positions. Obviously depending on scheme, alignment and role can vary a lot.

There’s a clear top two from the same school as chance may have it, then a trio of interesting body-types that some NFL teams may refer to as tweeners, a couple of specific fits with narrow skill-sets that they are outstanding at however and then it’s a lot of variety in terms of what people may value. This class is also loaded with two-down nose tackles on the back-end, but overall I think the depth of the group may be a little overstated.

Once again, evaluations are purely based on my film study and done in a vacuum, without taking schematic fits or skill-sets teams are looking for into account, and I have one name up here that I don’t really see anywhere else.

 

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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior offensive linemen in the 2022 NFL Draft:

Finishing up our breakdowns of the best offensive linemen in the draft, after going through the tackles last week, we’ll now shift our focus to the guys in-between those, as always grouping the guards and centers together.

I feel like this year we actually don’t have a lot of prospects with true flexibility between the two spots and many of them rather have experience at tackle and even played there for the majority of their collegiate careers. To me there’s a 1A and 1B at the top of the class, with a number two/three very closely behind them. To me they’re all worthy of being picked in the top 20-25 picks, even if positional value sticklers may disagree. After those there’s a significant drop-off. However, even more impressive to me is the group of second-to-fourth round evaluations I have, particularly at center. Altogether I believe there are 13-14 names among the IOL, who have a legitimate case to go in the top-100, even though I’m sure that depth will push them further down.

Since there are varying skill-sets and offenses these players have played in, I will try to specify where these guys fit most cleanly at, in regards to schemes and exact spots, after outlining the strengths and weaknesses of every prospects. There’s so many players who are of similar quality, that you will find a lot variety in the way people stack them up depending on what exactly they value and even the final player you can find in my “the next names” is somebody I could see be a long-term starter.

 

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Finishing up our breakdowns of the best offensive linemen in the draft, after going through the tackles last week, we’ll now shift our focus to the guys in-between those, as always grouping the guards and centers together.

I feel like this year we actually don’t have a lot of prospects with true flexibility between the two spots and many of them rather have experience at tackle and even played there for the majority of their collegiate careers. To me there’s a 1A and 1B at the top of the class, with a number two/three very closely behind them. To me they’re all worthy of being picked in the top 20-25 picks, even if positional value sticklers may disagree. After those there’s a significant drop-off. However, even more impressive to me is the group of second-to-fourth round evaluations I have, particularly at center. Altogether I believe there are 13-14 names among the IOL, who have a legitimate case to go in the top-100, even though I’m sure that depth will push them further down.

Since there are varying skill-sets and offenses these players have played in, I will try to specify where these guys fit most cleanly at, in regards to schemes and exact spots, after outlining the strengths and weaknesses of every prospects. There’s so many players who are of similar quality, that you will find a lot variety in the way people stack them up depending on what exactly they value and even the final player you can find in my “the next names” is somebody I could see be a long-term starter.

 

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NFL Draft

Top 10 quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft:

We have reached the final version of my positional draft rankings with the long-awaited and much-discussed quarterback class. Check out all my other breakdowns and come back for my top 100 big board later on this week, before I release my one and only mock draft for 2020!

I think a lot of people look at this group completely wrong. I don’t see a top four, but rather two top ten prospects and then a second tier of two QBs that I don’t even have first-round grades on. Then after that there are only four more guys I would even consider on day two, with very little after it. However, there are a few guys I think have a skill-set to be considered developmental prospects and a couple of players I haven’t heard anybody talk about.

You can also check out my video breakdown on Youtube.

Here is the list:

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NFL Draft

Top 10 safeties in the 2020 NFL Draft:

On the final version of my positional rankings for the defensive side of the ball, we are taking a look at the safety class. I already put out my top tight-ends earlier this week and now it’s just the quarterback that are missing – so check out those other articles and my video breakdown is already on Youtube.

Watching this group of safeties was very interesting. I think there is a pretty clear top three, but everyone of them has some obvious question marks. After that there is a lot of disagreement about who is next and I feel like I differentiate myself more so than at any position maybe. You can find a lot of notable mentions at the end, because I really wanted to be thorough and found a bunch of prospects worth considering.

Here is the list:

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