Tag Archives: Prospect Rankings

NFL Draft

Top 10 cornerbacks of the 2024 NFL Draft:

Closing out week two of our positional draft rankings, we talked about the wide receivers on Wednesday, so now it’s time to discuss the guys who are going to cover them in the pros. Personally, I didn’t make the distinction between inside and outside corners, but I did always mention which role and scheme each player would be able to fit (best) into – whether that’s boundary, field-side corner, nickelback or if I believe they can fill multiple spots.

These last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful for me based on the sheer volume of names I had to go through for wide receivers and corners. In this class particularly, I was a good 30 players in and still found guys with draftable grades. There may not quite be a blue-chip prospect among this group, such as Devon Witherspoon or Derek Stingley Jr./Sauce Gardner in recent years, but I think five guys should go in the first round and since I have another tie at number ten, the rest of my top 11 are all worthy of going in the second.

Let’s get into this deep crop:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 wide receivers of the 2024 NFL Draft:

We’re kicking off week two of our positional draft rankings. After discussing the top ten running backs and linebackers already, we’re advancing to wide receivers. I’m explaining my reasoning for how I have these names stacked up based on in-depth tape analysis, while using advanced metrics and to some degree testing numbers to aid my arguments.

Similarly to most years recently, we have a massive influx of pass-catching talent due to how much more aerial-centric football has become at the youth levels already. Yet, unlike some other drafts we’ve gone through, this group includes some true blue-chip talent. I have two guys with true top-five grades, another name that’ll probably end up in my top ten on the big board and potentially up to like 20 receivers inside my top-100. So I may have to come back in my annual “my guys” episode to discuss some of these lower-ranked names, since there’s still a lot to like about them.

Now let’s get into the list however:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 linebackers of the 2024 NFL Draft:

After starting our positional draft rankings series with the running backs a couple of days ago, we look at the guys lining up across from them in the linebackers. Once again, I’ll be going through my top ten along with a couple of names that just missed the cut, discussing individual skill-sets, bringing up relevant measurables and statistics, potential scheme fits and how I personally value them as prospects.

Similarly to the running backs, this group lacks real top-end talent, most likely with no linebacker going in the first round, but it’s a fairly deep class with a good ten names who could be long-term starters in the NFL along with some guys who present intriguing skill-sets to be developed and/or fit in a specific role. Since it’s a relevant topic right off the bat here, let me remind you that I don’t have any access to medical reports or personal backgrounds beyond what’s freely available (which the NCAA doesn’t make a whole lot public). So my evaluations are all based on what the tape tells me, without being able to fully judge ancillary factors.

This is what my list looks like:

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College Football, NFL Draft

Biggest risers and fallers from the 2024 NFL combine

The 2024 NFL scouting combine is in the books and I’m here to tell you helped or hurt their draft stock working out in front of decision-makers across the league.

While you have to be cautious about what to do with that new information and what those testing numbers mean, they give us a reason to compare how things match up with the tape and if a couple of prospects are closely graded, this can be the decisive factor for how they ultimately stack up.

I present to you one name at each position that is currently on the rise and fall each:

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NFL Draft

The top 100 overall prospects of the 2023 NFL Draft:

All position rankings for this year’s NFL draft are out. So now it’s time to combine them all into my personal big board! Along with the 100 names here, I added the “next 30”, since I felt bad for leaving them off, considering the difference between them and they last few guys who made the cut is fairly marginal and I would be fine with anybody from that group being picked on day two.

Just to clarify, this isn’t necessarily how I would end up selecting these players, because while I do take positional value into account to a certain extent, I obviously understand what certain draft capital is worth and the investments teams picking up high are in position to / should make.

With 13 prospects respectively, the wide receiver and edge defender groups lead the way, closely followed by 12 cornerbacks. Only five quarterbacks quite made the cut – with a couple slightly outside the top-100 – while interior offensive and defensive line are both only represented with eight names.

Here’s the full list:


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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:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 safeties of the 2023 NFL Draft:

We have arrived at the final defensive segment of our positional draft breakdowns! In this edition, we’ll look at the top safeties available, which is always a somewhat challenging group, just because of where you project guys to play at the next level already. Whether it’s cornerbacks who will make the transition or some guys who could be seen as safeties or pure sub-packagelinebackers.

This class includes three names just in my personal top five, who primarily played nickel at the collegiate level and actually project best to stay there as they move on to the NFL, but otherwise their skill-set lends itself more to safety than outside corner. The rest of the list consists of a bunch of combo safeties, who can fill a multitude of roles and will offer their future defensive coordinators flexibility in terms of how they’re deployed, even though they aren’t necessarily great in one specific area. That’s sort of a sign of the NFL becoming more split-safety centric, where those guys are asked to fill a lot of different shoes.

Here’s what the top-ten looks like for me, along with a couple of guys that just missed the cut:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 tight-ends of the 2023 NFL Draft:

We’re entering our final full week of positional draft rankings, as we’ve gone through an offensive and defensive group for four weeks already – running backs and linebackers, wide receivers and cornerbacks, offensive tackles and edge defenders, interior offensive and defensive linemen. Today we’ll be looking at what I believe is the best tight-end class of the last decade and then on Friday we shift to the safeties, before finishing up with quarterbacks.

Since I just praised the group as a whole, let me say that there are five guys I currently have top-50 grades on, plus another I have in the late second-/early third-round range. There is a certain drop-off after that, but this entire top-ten could potentially make it inside my top-100 big board next week and even beyond that, there are some intriguing options, to a point where we may see a couple TE2s stick on teams as undrafted free agents or at least late day-three selections. This is a class however, where I didn’t really struggle in terms of ordering the top-seven names. After that, there was some more debate for me.

This is what I came up with:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior defensive linemen of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Finishing up our conversations on the top linemen inside and out on both sides of the ball, we end on the best interior defenders. While plenty of these prospects have flexibility in terms of alignment, based on main position, this list includes anything from a true zero-technique nose-tackle all the way out to a base D-end in a 3-4, lining up at five-technique straight across the offensive tackle.

This group includes what many consider the most talented all-around player in this draft. After that, I believe there are two more guys worthy of going in the first round, along with another three names I have second-round grades on and a kid who will go some time on day two I would think, largely dependent on how teams value a fairly narrow role. After that, there are a couple of names I value higher than consensus rankings and I think you can find useful pieces for certain roles way down the line potentially, but in terms of complete players that will play on all three downs, the board drops off pretty dramatically.

Here’s what it looks like to me:


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NFL Draft

Top 10 interior offensive linemen of the 2023 NFL Draft:

Continuing our discussion on the players in the trenches for this draft class, we’re moving on from offensive tackles and edge defenders to interior offensive and defensive linemen this week. As always, we’ll start on the side that has the ball and then transition to the guys lining up across from them on Friday. This group includes offensive guards and centers, which I’ll clarify if I believe the names mentioned fit better at specific spots or if they are capable of filling multiple roles.

This isn’t one of the strongest IOL classes we’ve seen in recent years, but there are two prospects worthy of going in the first round, three other guys in the top-50 range and about four more names who could go on day-two. Where I was surprised as I started digging deeper were some of the guys currently projected to go sixth/seventh round or even undrafted, who I believe could stick on NFL rosters for a while. So they may not come up here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a bunch of guards and centers get picked late.

This is what my top-ten looks like, with a little bit of cheating and one name at the bottom, who I couldn’t really slot in:



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