Tag Archives: Football

NFL Draft

Top 10 tight-ends of the 2026 NFL Draft:

We’ve already discussed running backs and wide receivers. Now it’s time to complete our skill-position group with the tight-ends. This is a position that continuously morphs as the demands of them change over time. Generally, you differentiate between the more traditional “Y”, attached to the hip of the offensive tackle and heavily involved in your run-blocking schemes, and the more movement-based “F”, who often times is more like an oversized wide receiver. I will talk about which roles these guys are capable of filing and where they may not still grow at the next level.

Although we don’t quite have a duo at the top like last year with Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren, who already look like two of the best tight-ends in the NFL, my number one is just one notch down from those guys. After that, I don’t believe there’s another player I’d consider until the middle of day two, but then we get to a pretty strong cluster of names after that, to where my entire top ten is worthy of being selected within the first four rounds, and there’s enough depth to where we should likely beat last year’s total number of guys drafted altogether (16).

This is how they stack up for me:

 

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NFL Draft

My guys of the 2026 NFL Draft:

Less than three weeks away from the NFL Draft, it’s time for the annual “my guys” episodes, where I highlight one prospect for each position group, who I like significantly better than where they’re currently ranked on consensus boards.

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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior defensive linemen of the 2026 NFL Draft:

We’re closing out our two-week venture into the trenches, as part of the annual positional draft breakdown series, with all interior defensive linemen. In this group, I include I include everything from a true zero-technique head-up over the center all the way out to a 4-/5-technique over the center. With how versatile front alignments have become, even though I incorporated what players are best suited to play as, and some as more defined in the roles they’ll be put into, most of them will be asked to wear different hats.

Right off the bat, I was pretty underwhelmed with this group. There’s a player atop the list who could’ve been a top-15 pick if he wasn’t still dealing with a lingering injury, but another name that was discussed in that range last summer has massively fallen off and there are hold-ups I have with most names beyond that point as well. Altogether, eight of the first ten names are all in the 30-to-100 range.

Once again, these grades do not reflect potential injury or off-field concerns, which is particularly important to point out for this crop of prospects. Let’s talk about them:

 

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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior offensive linemen of the 2026 NFL Draft:

We‘re already officially past the mid-way point of our positional draft rankings series, and after discussing offensive tackles and edge defenders last week, we’re moving to the interior, starting with the offensive side of the ball yet again. This is a group that started to grow on me the more I started to watch, although I did find it funny how many undersized centers and big guards with some movement restrictions there were, to cap the ceiling overall.

There’s one legitimate top 15 pick headlining the class. After that, there are more names I’d have be willing to target early in the second round, before the get to an extensive list of names in contention to have their names called some time over the rest of day two. Altogether, I can get to a number in the high 20s that I’d consider potential rotational players with developmental upside.

Let’s get into it:

 

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Uncategorized

Top 10 offensive tackles of the 2026 NFL Draft:

We’ve arrived at the big boy portion of this positional draft breakdown series, where we’ll start with the offensive tackles before transitioning to edge defenders and then moving on to the interior of the trenches next week. For clarity’s sake – you will find names like Iowa’s Gennings Dunker and Duke’s Brian Parker II among the “IOL” list. And I don’t take (current) injury or other concerns into account for these rankings, since I don’t have all the information, while individual teams will alter their boards based on scheme fit/guidelines.

Although we don’t have this one perfectly clean OT prospect in the class, I believe the top seven names are all worthy of going in the first round. After that, I see a steep drop-off, to where I wouldn’t touch anyone else until the third round. In fact, despite there being a few interesting developmental options, with a couple of massive guys that present certain flaws, outside of this top ten, I would only consider an investment either very late on day two or early on day three.

This is what it looks like:

 

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NFL Draft

Top 10 linebackers of the 2026 NFL Draft:

This year’s positional NFL Draft rankings series is underway, and we switch over to the defensive side of the ball for the first time, with a highly intriguing linebacker class. All these rankings are based on my personal evaluations, not taking current injuries or any potential off-field issues into account, considering I don’t have insights into medical reports and other such information. And of course, since I’m not operating for a singular team, I’m trying to be “scheme agnostic” in my projections, while the 32 NFL front offices will study these players through the lens of what they value in their buildings and maybe even non-negotiables they have for size/testing measurables.

You can make a strong case that the breadth of talent within this linebacker class is as good as any other position. There are two names that’ll most likely end up within my personal top five overall prospects, two guys would be worthy of going somewhere else in round one, and then five more linebackers firmly have day two value based on my evaluations. Even beyond that, depending on the role and profile you’re seeking, there are interesting names that could make an impact to some capacity, potentially even with a couple of other true starters.

This is how they stack up for me:

 

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NFL Draft

Top 10 running backs of the 2026 NFL Draft:

It’s time to kick off this year’s positional rankings series for the NFL Draft, and as always, we’ll start with running backs. For the next six weeks, we’ll alternate between offense and defense, sort of going by who would go up against each other in actual games – meaning linebackers as the contrast to this on Friday, offensive tackles and edge defenders, etc.

These lists are based on my personal evaluations, not taking current injuries or any potential off-field issues into account, since I simply don’t have insights into medical reports and other such information. And of course, this isn’t put together for any specific team or scheme, since all 32 NFL front offices will have these names stacked up differently, with regards to the people in-house.

Although we have a blue-chip prospect at the top, who will end up inside the top five of my own big board, this running back class unfortunately doesn’t have the same quality beyond that as we’ve seen in years past. I only view two other names as worthy of going in the second round and only three additional ones in the third. The rest of the top ten is rounded out by names you can make a case for early on day three, depending on your preferred flavor. Beyond that, there are intriguing rotational players and guys who can fill specific roles, but not the type of diamonds in the rough as I’ve highlighted at different points previously.

Let’s get into these names:

 

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NFL Draft

Biggest risers and fallers coming out of the 2026 NFL Combine

The 2026 NFL Scouting combine is in the books and it’s time to talk about which prospects helped/hurt their draft stock the most! Although the film remains the main piece for their evaluation, having official measurements, comparable testing numbers and seeing them together on the same field, provides helpful context. I’ll give you one riser and faller at each position, along with a few additional relevant names.

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NFL Free Agency, NFL Offseason

One fit for each NFL team in 2026 free agency:

The 2026 NFL offseason is officially here and before we fully dive into draft content, I’m releasing my annual version of a free agency preview, matching all 32 teams with one player about to hit the open market.

We’ll go through each of them, from most to least available effective cap space, quickly discuss their roster make-up, which areas they’re looking to address and then lay out which specific player would make sense, along with a contract projection.

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Game Previews, Super Bowl

Everything to know about Super Bowl LX:

We’ve arrived at the final game of the season, as the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks are set to face off and determine the 2025/26 NFL champions. Although the cast of characters looks completely different, this is a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX eleven years ago, when Pete Carroll’s group infamously decided to not hand the ball to Marshawn Lynch at the goal-line, but instead opened the door for – at the time – little-known Malcolm Butler to become the unlikely hero, as he intercepted the pass on a designed pick-play, and stopped the potential go-ahead touchdown drive. That also put an end to what might’ve become a Seahawks dynasty, while simultaneously starting the second run of three Lombardi Trophies over a five-year period in New England’s franchise history. They will now try to break a tie with the Steelers for the most hardware collected in league history, compared to the Hawks trying to put their names into the history books for the second time.

As it pertains to main figures in this rematch, we have first- and second-year coaches in Mike Vrabel and Mike Macdonald respectively with their teams, who both led their teams to 14-3 records, with the former trying to become the only man in NFL history to win Super Bowls as both a player and a coach for the same franchise. At quarterback, this matchup features two former third overall picks, who had quite different starts to their career. Drake Maye was an MVP frontrunner in just his second season as a pro, and would be the youngest guy at the position to win a ring, only turning 24 years old about a month before next season starts. Sam Darnold, on the other hand, was an outcast heading into 2024/25 for the Vikings, and might’ve lost out the starting battle to then-rookie J.J. McCarthy, had he not gotten hurt in preseason. Now on his fifth team in eight years, he just became the only QB not named Tom Brady to win 14+ games in back-to-back years with different franchises.

For the Patriots, while Vrabel did inject new life in his return to the franchise, he also brought back long-time offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to help guide Maye during his development. Projected with an Over/Under of 8.5 wins, thanks to being more calculated with signing largely mid- to lower-tier free agents to a roster still in transition, there were *some* expectations for growth after just picking fourth overall in the draft, but they vastly exceeded those behind one of the most vertically-oriented passing attacks. And yet, it was their defense stepping up during this playoff run against the Chargers, Texans and Broncos – who all strived for lower-scoring affairs – and their excellent game-planning as well as situational awareness as a coaching staff, that has helped carry them here. The Seahawks, meanwhile, could rely one of the truly elite defenses on their part throughout the year, which already helped them win ten games the previous season, but had their own questions about what the offense would look like, after making huge changes when they swapped out Geno Smith for Darnold at QB, moved on from a pair of veteran receivers and put new OC Klint Kubiak in charge the operation. That decision went about as well as anyone could’ve hoped for, and along with some sparks from their special teams, they’ve looked like the most complete team in football. They destroyed the 49ers in week 18 and the Divisional Round, before deciding the season series with their other division rival Rams in their favor.

I want to dive into both sides of the ball, what the strengths and weaknesses look like, and how they match up against one another. Then I’ll bring up a couple of X-factors for either team, before closing out by predicting the final score and Super Bowl MVP. Let’s get it started!

 

 

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