Time to go into the trenches! After talking about skill-positions over the last two weeks, I want to shift my focus on the offensive and defensive lines. In this edition of my positional rankings, we are taking a look at the top interior O-linemen available in the draft.

There is one standout prospect, who I believe is one of the top three overall players available. Behind him, I think there are three more potential first-round picks and even after those, there are up to four guards or centers, who I think are worthy of a second round selection. To me, this class of interior OL is the best we’ve seen in a couple of years now.

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Switching back to the defensive side of the ball, we go from the wide receivers to the guys lining up across from them – the cornerbacks. This list includes outside corners as well as the ones, who I believe will fit better as nickel defenders. With those positions especially, teams will rank them very differently depending on their defensive schemes and needs.

There are five prospects at this position, who will probably end up with first-round grades from me. The odd thing about them is that four of them have very limited starting experience. I like a bunch of players after those headliners and I believe teams might be able to find some diamonds in the rough in the later rounds of this draft.

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After talking about the top running backs and linebackers last week, I want to shift my focus towards the perimeter players. In this episode of positional rankings, we start with the offensive side of the ball – the wide receivers to be more exact. This group of pass-catchers is very diverse and offers a multitude of different bodies, which will lead to major variations in team’s rankings, depending on what they are looking for.

To be honest, I only see one guy in this draft class, who I think could develop into an elite WR1. However, there are a bunch of excellent second and third options available. I believe you can steal some eventual starters on day three. In the end, there might be 15 or 16 receivers, who I’d pick within the first four rounds.

Once again, my rankings are purely based on what I’ve seen on tape and in pre-draft events. However, with this positional group, there was one name with just too many red flags to judge him based on his pure talent and you will find his name at the very end.

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Continuing my series on the top ten prospects at each position, I want to take a look at this year’s class of linebackers. To make this clear – I differentiate between interior defensive linemen, edge rushers and off-the-ball linebackers. So this list won’t include guys like Arden Key or Harold Landry, who most would call 3-4 outside linebacker, because they primarily will still play on the line, despite maybe not putting their hand in the dirt a lot. So these upcoming prospects can be anywhere from true 4-3 middle linebackers to outside guys in a scheme with three down-linemen, if I think they will have a large role off the ball as well.

This linebacker class has a quadruple of headliners and then a bunch of guys, who I have rated very closely together. Of course, these lists deviate strongly depending from team to team, depending on their defensive scheme and what their coaches value. The trend that is clear with these guys though, is the fact, that the NFL is looking for more and more athletic guys at the position.

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Over the next six weeks, I will break down my top ten (plus) prospects at each position heading into the draft in late April. These rankings are solely based on what I’ve seen on tape and in pre-draft events. Neither do I have exclusive medical reports of these players, nor did I have the chance to sit down with each and everyone of them. Today I’m starting with the running backs.

Much like last year, this RB class has a lot of talent at the top and depth throughout the top 20 or so. While there is a clear number one guy for me, from two until fifteen, there will be a multitude of opinions and my rankings may vary heavily from the mainstream media, once we get past the top spots. Here it is:

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After publishing my rankings on all the other positions in the draft, I want to wrap things up with the quarterback class. Overall this is a pretty weak group of signal-callers coming into the league for this upcoming season. There are four of them that could end up being selected in the first round because of how many teams are looking for a QB. After that the other players available all have question marks, whether those are injuries, a lack of size or arm strength, accuracy or decision-making. Personally I would only select two of them in the first round and maybe another five on day two.

I watched tape on a few other guys if you want my opinion on them, but this is a very good and deep draft at many positions. Some teams will reach to find their solution at the most important position, while better prospects stay on the board.

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This year’s linebacker class is pretty interesting. There’s the All-Conference players most college football viewers know, but there are a couple of guys who have helped there stock immensely in the pre-draft process. I include inside- and outside in both 3-4 and 4-3 schemes. Some of the players mentioned could have also been mentioned among the edge rushers, but I decided to list them here because I see the versatility to fit multiple schemes. I think my LBs froms one to ten are all top 100 prospects and there are a bunch of guys I really like, who will probably hear their names called on day three.

I mentioned a number of extra guys at the bottom. If you’re interested in a scouting report on one of them, just let me know. I didn’t want to make this article even longer.

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