First Look: NFL Draft My Top 10 Prospects.
First Draft Top 10.
The Draft Process Of 2021 Had Its Fair Share Of Challenges—several which 2022 inherited by Relation. The 2021 Draft Roll Out numbed This QuickStart Evaluator's Focus. Thankfully That Draft Had A More Scripted Formation At The Top. Like A Newly Crown second Year Experienced Guy, I'm Prepared For The Ride This Time.
Outside Of The COVID impact. The Draft Process
It sprouted Onwards From the Truncated Conference-Only College Schedule That Glare On Teams Outside The SEC And Big Ten. Well, balance Conferences With Shared Talents. The ACC And All Else Had Fewer Competitive matters on The Table.
A Few Notable NFL Prospects Opted Out Of Said Truncated season. Favoring more the Allure Of Outside Training Rather Than On Feild Production; Mostly For Health And Safety Concerns. Many Officials Bemoaned Players For What Could Some Perceived As "Shallowed Resilience" when Face With Obstructions, But That Didn't Dissaide some player From Taking on A Variant Of That Strategy This Year And Still Earn First Round Grades and Selections.
Then Came The Sudden Serdom To The Will Of Pro Day Schedules And Scripted Style catalogs of throws and comfort Zones that belie prospect weaknesses.
At Time There Were Days Filled With Uncertainty. A young blogger is playing through highlights and Absorbing the Cryptic Distinguishing Player marker Of Other Writers. I Mean What Exactly Qualifies as "Feild Tilting Speed ." steadily sifting Reports and anticipating the deluge of 40 times And Broad Range Scouting Measurements To Come Undone and tattoo my notification Bar. The Otherworldliness Critical Portion of drafting Position.
Most Of These Blemishes Were Scrubbed Away By Hype.
Most Of The Prospects Of 2021 Were A Host Of Five Star Prospects With Multiple Years Of Film For Scout Fret and Fawn Over. Number One Pick Trevor Lawrence Spent Three Years At Clemson and In The College Football Playoffs. All In The Shadow of A Self Fulfilling Prophesy.
Zach Wilson Took A Quiet Rise At BYU. Justin Fields Fell Some Despite Little Change In a Measurements Or Status And It All Tied Into one Impressive Draft Class.
Unfortunately, I AM Just One man With a kaleidoscopic range Of Interest. One Man Can Only Breathe, Eat, And Sleep So Much Football.
Draft Mockups Often Demand that I Extend The Scope In Which I Lean On Outside Sources PFF, The Ringer Amongst Others. The Case for Some Regardless.
Still, I Wanted Readers And me To Be Mindful Of The Dependency To Not Allow My Evals To Veers Into some cartoonish caricature of someone else's work whiles noting that These Prospect Have Well Discuss Clear Cut Strengths And Weaknesses. Still, There Are A Few Caveat Even The Well Train Miss At Times.
Why Write an Expert-Only-In-Facade Mock Up On A Subject Widely Discussed In The Coming Months. Well, That Answers The Question Proposed, But All The Fun In Draft Analysis Takes Lift In The Exploration, Unearthing Deeper Concepts In The discovery Stage.
A Good Number Of These Prospects arrive Into the Draft Process With Meteoric Acclaim Tied To their Names. Kayvonn Thibodeaux and Derek Stingley, Two Defensive All-Encompassing Talents, both juniors and Top Ten High School Guys who Suffer No breaks In Transitioning Into College Dominance.
The Quarterbacks Of This Draft Are Mid-level Guys At Bets, But 2022 has a loaded offensive lineman; A Not glamorous Pick That Has A Sneaky Reputation For Misfire Over The Decade In The Top 10.
With The Combine Here, March 1st. Schedule to Run Through March 7th from Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium, The Restrictive upheaval Over COVID Restrictions.
Last Year's Quarterback Prospect Stood Largely Statuesque At One And Two. Beyond The Rest Of The Haul Depended On Trades and Style Preferences. Lawrence and Wilson Preceded Two Quick Riser With The Assorted Both Entwined amongst Receiving Threats and Position guys. With Justin Fields Twirling In The Wind Before Being Selected To The Windy City. In All, It Made For An Auspicious Collision That Made Last Years Top 5 A Delight to Break Open.
This Year It's the opposite Position—no clear-cut Number pick. Tons Of Defensive Talent Oozing with Potential and Pitfall. Also, If You Haven't Heard Devoid Of Any Glaring Prospect That Can Be A Number One Quarterback.
Number 1: Derek Stingley, Corner Back LSU.
"In Five Years It Wouldn't Shock Me If Derek Stingley becomes The best Player Of This Draft."
I'm Not Going To Wait Five Years To Make That Beaming Declaration. Stingley Stand And Pivots In Any Posture As The Best Pure Talent Football Player In This Draft. Three Year Ago, As A true Freshman, Stingley Earned The Starting Position At Corner For LSU's National(DBU) Championship Team, Already Flexing Quite a Range Of Depth. That Season 2020 Stingley Earned Pro football Focuses Highest Coverage Grade For Coverage Over Future NFL Pro Bowler Trevon Diggs, All-Pro AJ Terrell, And Former First Rounder Jeff Okudah Of The Lions In The Same Year.
A Top Ten Recruit. Number One Corner Out Of High School.
Derek Stingley Has Had NFL Scouts Fall Over each Other For A Chance To Draft Since, And Though His Stock Has Pinballed Due To Injury, His Abilities To Match receivers Foot For Foot Over In The Open, Like A Predator Matching A Dear, Remained Unmatched...
In The Post 2020 Championship, The College Football Landscape Shifted. LSU Dwarfed From Contender To By Stander. Over That Span, Stingley Failed To Live Up To The Billing Registering Just Ten Games Overall With Nearly Less Than Half The Snaps Played In These Last To Year Combine As In His Freshman Season. His Stock Never cratered As injuries Have Done To Some In The Past. His First Year Alone Carries Enough Weight To Push Him Forward. He Started 15 Games, Finished With Five Interceptions. Targeted 94 But Only Surrender 36 receptions Give Up 624 yards Most Of Which Came Against Elite Competition. Games Against Bama And Florida. Two Programs Who Have Combine To Send six 1st Round Receiving Threats To The League Since That Time. All As A Freshman.
On An Island, Stingley Stalwart His Position. Opening Up The Ranges For The rest Of The Team. He Got Beat Deep On Occasion, But His Talents Screamed Off Of The Screen. It's chucking at Low Hanging Fruit To Throw Physical Dimensions Out There. Angular 6'1 195lbs Graceful 4.4 Speed
As A Corner Stingley More Than Frame, He Has The Stuff.- you name it, he has it"
. The Guy Has Natural Sense For Football And. Positioning. Tracks Ball Mid Way And Making Subtle Adjustments And Acute Sense For When To Turn And Intercept Or Break Up Passes. His Father Groomed Him To Play Corner. Feilding Him To Walk Backwards At A Young Age and It Shows Up On Tape. Stingley Mirrors Receivers with Fluid Range Of Motion. On The Outside Lined Up Man To Man Stingley Can Cloak an Entire Section Of The Field Leaving Scant Room For Quarterbacks To Find open Window. Stingley Enters the NFL with Especially A Unique Timely On Jump Balls and Could Single-Handedly Become A Nightmare For Teams To Challenge.
If Any Negatives. Stingley played sparingly In The Slot. It's Not A Natural Fit And Struggled Particularly Against Kyle Pitts And Florida two Years Ago. There Are Questions About His Durability Some. He Shut it Down For Two Season To Protect His Draft Stock After Missing time with leg and foot injuries Over The Respective two Seasons.
Number 2: Aidan Hutchinson, Edge Defender. Michigan
Aidan Hutchinson had Two Years Of Mostly Meager Unremarkable Production 3.5 Sacks Before Really Taking The Spear By The Head In His Senior Season(14 Sacks). The Michigan Product Stands Mammoth 6'6 265 Wreck Ball Off The Edge. Big Blue Wouldn't Have Secured Their First College Football Bid Without The mailing Reach of Their Prototypical D-Lineman Hutchinson. A True Hands In The Dirt Straight Off The Edge Boulder Mover had Massive Year Highlighted By His Three Sacks against Ohio State. He Had Three Sacks On Two Other Separate Occasions. An Unforgettable Force On A Remarkable Michigan Season Hutchinson Put It All Together This Season.
Great Thrust Off Of The Line Of Scrimmage Uses His Hands Well To Defeat Blockers and His Relentless Motor To Race Down Runners Escape The Backfield Or Scramblers Escaping The Pocket.
One of the few knocks on Hutchinson Would Be His Lack Of Moves On The Edge. Sweeps, Spin Cross Chops, Etc. But Neither Bosa Brother Whom Hutchinson Compares Well Too Use An Assortment Of Move in Their Storm Raid Take Over Of The League. Where Hutchinson Excels, getting Work Done Early. They were winning against Block and Steamroller opposition. Hutchinson Late Bloom Season Has Left Scouts Wondering If The Wolverine Flashed for A moment, A One Year Wonder, Before Burning Out Completely in The League. We've seen Guys Like Odafeh Oweh Have Production And Win In The NFL Of Guys Like Michael Sam Win SEC Defensive Player Of The Year And Vanish.
Trust The Tape.
Number 3: Kayvon Thibodeaux, Edge. Oregon
At 6’5 260lbs, Kayvon Disguises his Remarkable Bendy ness and Sinewy Frame With Explosive Movement And Field Shuddering Burst To Wisp Around Perimeter Blockers Into Quarterbacks Lap. The Top Ranked Player Out Of High School Three Year Ago. The Oregon Product Oozes The Raw Ability You Have Seen In Guys Like Jadeveon Clowney and Former Duck Arik Armstead. Elite Ability Transfer his Speed to power when finishing defensive Snaps Quarterback Rarely Escape When Track By Thibodeaux In The Backfield.
He’s Not Especially adept at Working with his hands but uses motion, Shimmies, and Shoulder Pivots to squeeze Through Double Teams and cracks In Gaps. Incredible Instinct Of The Line Off Of Ball Snaps. He Punishes Mismatches. Team Will Reconsider deploying Weaker Blockers to Oppose Him.
At Times Thibodeaux Can Be Over Reliant On Speed And Sweep Moves. He can Relents to utilize Power Rather Than Finesse To Get His Way On The Line.
Thibodeaux 22 Sacks In Three Years. But Racked Up 19 pressures in two weeks Against Pac-12 Teams. He Punished Average Competition Back Had Game When He Seemed a Nonfactor.
Thibodeaux Could Go As High As Number 1. No Chance He Last Past five.
Number 4: Ikem Ekwonu, Tackle/ Guard. North Carolina State
Ikem Ekwonu, as Far as Player Movement Up And Down the Draft Boards, this Far 2020 Has Held Still through Most Of The Process. From Top To Bottom Injuries Haven’t Derailed any Prospects Stock And Late Up Ticks In Grading Haven’t Change Other. Except When We Come To North Carolina’s Ikem Ekwonu. Amongst The Bruiser Building The Walls Of This Draft Ekwonu Ek WAHN ew. Consider by some the Best Of Class. At 6’4, He’s A lot More Compact Amongst The Top Offensive Lineman. A Round Chest 320 With Feet That Sweep Across the Field With Spirited Grace. He Gets Up On His Toes and Races Down His assignments. On The Outside Ekwonu Dislodges from Engaged Blocks With Snap Less Ease. Always seeking and Identifying then Next Body To Slam Into As He Motions Up To The Second Level.
Ickey’s Chops All Around The Boards are Sure, But He’s The Best Run Blocker amongst His Peers. Ekwonu Will Slide In For Any Team m And Become a Day One Contributor. Natural Awareness of gap and Cut Back Defenders. At Time he was Achieving His Best Work Away From The Line Of Scrimmage.
He gets to the second level with swiftness. Perfect for the team such as the Patriots And Bills Who Utilize a Good Measure of Block Schemes that put them on the move Or In Zone Schemes. Or the Niners Who Like To Exploit The Complete Frame Of Their Offensive Capabilities as The Did Motion Trent Williams At Fullback Motion out Right.
With A Boar-like relentlessness Motor When Finishing Blocks. Ikem Violently Take Down Defenders Planted Them into The Ground when They Lurch Unexpectedly Into Grappler Like Arms. Remarkable Durable. They played three years, Twelve games Each Season With More Than 800 Snap Each Of The Past Two Years.
Critically He Doesn’t Fit Naturally as a Left Tackle. The Wolfpack's Best Player Finished the year with a less than remarkable 78.3 Grade in Pass blocking Compared To 93.8 on the Run. He Might Be Better To Suited to slide Inside. He’s Not a Natural Gifted With His Hands Preferring To Overload and Overextend his Shoulder and Torso to Lawnmower Defenders Or Over-barrel With Shear Power Rather Than Technique. A Great Fit For A Team That Can Utilize His Strengths In Motion. I’m no Expert on Offensive Lineman, But The Fit At Tackle is Never Natural.
Number 5: Kyle Hamilton, Safety, Notre Dame.
Would It Hurt My Creds If I Said I Didn’t Immediately Know Who This Guy Before The Process?
Every Of My Mock Draft Or Feature analysis, One Guy Emerges Who Slid under The Radar Of My Preying Eyes But Who Win The Awards For “You Should Have Been Watching Along The Way.” Last Year, Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoah, Who I Believed Should Have Been the First Round and Ultimately Proved To Be In That Value. This Year His Teammate Kyle Hamilton Now roams As That Guy.
The Junior Out Of Notre Dame By Way Of Georgia Kyle Hamilton Takes To The NFL With all The Skill, Size, Length and All The Instinctual Fortitude That Pro Coaches are Looking For In a Ball Hawking Safety. Ill-Advise Throws turn Into Cautionary Tales When Directed In His Range Which Happens To Be Anywhere In The Stadium That Firmament Does Cover. Hover Out On The Third Level Of The Of field Hamilton Plays Defense Like a QB. Reading Reaction And Alignment Like A Directional Polar Magnetic Field To Astute Ascertain Which Direction Plays And The Ball Are Heading. After that, It's All Physical Tools. Hamilton Covers Ground with The Soaring Depth And Dimension Of Pterodactyl over The Cretaceous plains. Freakish Frame. The Measurement is Not Certified Yet, But By Looks, I would Deduce at Least 6’9 even Seven Foot Wind Span With A Reported 21 Miles Per Hour Speed. Understanding Almost By Ear When To Break Off An Follow or Lead Receivers On Routes Down The Felid. Hamilton Can Get Caught Guessing At Times. Shrewd Quarterback With Intrinsic Misdirection Skills An excellent Timing Could Look Him Off Well Out Of The plays Unfortunately Those Quarterbacks Are few And far In Between.
Number 6: Ahmad Gardner CB, Cincinnati.
What comes to mind when you picture the number Zero. Gilbert Arenas Made The Number Famous As “Agent 0” For The Wizards. The Coding From The Matrix. The anger you feel when you An alerted that you failed to continue your streak. Now you’re back to zero days Of Reading This Week In Kindle. The Number Of Quarterbacks With More Passing Yards Than Tom Brady. Add Ahmad Gardner To That List.
Over Three Season Of Play, Starting for The Bearcats Of Cincinnati As A Freshman, Ahmad Gardner Never once Allowed A Touchdown. What’s more, He Finished His Junior Year Surrendering Just 131 on 40 for a completion percentage of 50 % and A Passer Rating of 26.1.
A pillar For The Bearcats Team The Beat The Odds into The College Football Playoffs
Against A Deft Crimson Tide Offense, “sauce” saw 4 Targets Come His Way Only To Surrender 14 Yards Total. He finished the season Graded 14th overall in coverage With Nearly A Thousand Snaps Of Tape. Freakish Build at 6’3 200 lbs Sauce uses his tremendous length to jam receivers at The Line and For Motion Them Off Their Spot. Not Quite flexible but springy Enough To Respond in Motion Defend On Release in Off Coverage on An Average Depth Of Target Of 9.3 yards Downfield. An Island Kind Of Guy. Gardner can be left one on one to shade any receiving threat outside. We’ve Seen Corner Of This Sort Of Build Like Richard Sherman And Brandon Browner Win In The League.
Number 7: Garret Wilson. WR, Ohio State.
Garret Wilson, “the Freak.” A Coinage that Doesn’t Quite Build On His Repute. It’s Cliched At Best, and He Isn’t Plenty Freakish Enough To Justify The Verbal, To Begin The conversation On Wilson. He’s More Of A Casual-ist. He Blows Up Your Coverage Schemes With Cavalier Efficiency And Never Looks Back At The Cool Explosion. At 6’0 18,6 He’s The Closest Thing To Odell Beckham Jr. Or Isaac Bruce To Come into The NFL Besides Justin Jefferson. Special Release Off The Line With Short Area Burst In Space. At Ohio State, He Worked The Receiving All Over The Board outclassing Most Of The Big Ten. A Clean Motion From Start To Finish. Displaying The Polish He Generated In Columbus In Three Years After Finishing High School In Texas. Porsche Like, F9 Ease In Ease Out Gear Shift On Start and Stop Route. Indefensible In open space, Forcing Miss Tackles At The Expense Of Several Defenders Within One Sequence Of Plays. Natural Hands Catching Receiver, Gaudy Production For A High Octane Buckeyes team. Wilson Played both Slot And outside At An Elite Production Level of 70 for 1058 yards and 102 targets. Gumby bend and body control And Full Length Of The Route Tree At His Disposal. It makes mid-air, Secondary Motion adjustments Look Like The Thing Of Mere Mortal—especially y creative after the catch average Six Per upon Possession.
Critically. Wilson doesn’t possess next-level strength. He prefers to finesse his way off the press and otherwise won’t win one on one Against Stronger, Longer Corners. The scheme Has To Fit His Specialty Until A Range Of Demands is Developed. That aspect of his game—inconsistent Route Runner. Wilson Doesn’t Read Breaks offs In Routes Naturally; he Doesn’t have a great snap tracking his movements backward at angles. Ohio State Now Claims Home To Thrown Of Wide Receiver University. The Buckeyes Were Bless With Gross Riches In Talent Across The Board, Including Jaxson Smith-Njiba, Who Finished Third In Receiving Yards In The Country And Clearly The Best of The Group. As Well Fellow First Round Prospect Chris Olave. In Any Game On Any Given Position, Wilson May Have Been The Defense Third Order Of Focus. His Production and Number Could Be The Reflection of College Teams Dearth Of Coverage Depth.
Overall, Wilson Will Have To Be In Ability Alone, But He Checks Enough Of The Boxes Up And Down. A good Prospect who at times Veers in the range of Gadget Guy and Special Outside threat. Next Level Coaching and Discipline Could Be The Difference In Him Unlocking His Complete ability.
Number 8: Drake London, Wide Receiver. USC
The projected Depth of The NFL Wide Receiver Market Aims To Impress Its Will On the Range This Deep Wide Receiver Draft Class Will land On Teams Reports. No Doubt Some Teams Will Napped Top 10 Talents Thanks To a bevy Of reasons, Injuries Being The Most Obvious. Suppose We Are Speaking in Terms Of Range and Depth All in One Bundle USC’s Drake London Checks All The Boxes.
The 6’5 210 Trojan Had A Breakout Truncated Season Due To An Ankle Injury Ending His Junior Year Mid Way. Through Eight Game London Secure 88 Receptions and 1084 and Seven Touchdown. With a massive scope lined up as the X Receiver London Exemplified the Mold Of Jump ball Receiver. Quarterback Gifted London Opportunities To Seal Defenders Off And or Rise Over Defensive backs To Clip Floated pass away from Danger. Even in a shortened Season, London Still Lead The Nation With 19 Contested catches in splitting ten of those 19 between Washington State and Colorado, According To Pro-football Focus. London Finished The Year With A 67.9% Contested Catch Rate and 87. 4 Grading Against Man To Man. In No Universe Can He Be Defended One On One. Near The End Zone His Unique Balance And Body Control Open Up The Boundaries for Wider throwing Widows.
Critically, One Of The Major Knocks On London Would Be His Speed. Those Glorified Contested Catch Highlights Are Telling of Build That Lacks The Capacity For Short Burst Up Field. He played A lot Of Snaps At Slot Early In His Career But Did His Best Work Out Wide When The Opportunity Opened. London’s Route tree Becomes Refined He’s Bound To Operate exclusively Along The Boundary.
Ultimately London Will Be a Gem For Any Team Looking To Open Up Their Offense To A Greater Degree.
Number 9: Evan Neal, Offensive Tackle, Alabama.
At 6’7 350 lbs, Evan Neal Has The Size And The Extinct To Hammer Down an O-Line On Either Side And Collapse In Defense Fronts. The Obvious Measure of His Potential Impact Would be His Frame, A Monolith Charge To Bracket Protection at Left Tackle For Bryce And The Runner Up Crimson Tide. With Thanoian Like Impact, Neal Can Sweep Away Enter Void In Pass Protection. A Three-Year Starter, With Snaps And Effectiveness Across Offensive Line At Guard, Right Tackle And Left Tackle. Starting As A Freshman At Left Guard, Moving Over To Right Tackle, Then Finishing His Career With The Crimson Tide On The Island Out Left. Playing 700 Plus Snaps At Each Spot Before Moving Over To The Left And Playing 1000 Plus Offensive Snaps Relinquishing 24 Pressures. I wonder how great his feet are. How well does he move when forced to move up into the second level
When it Comes To The draft, The SEC Talents Are Natural; Given an Edge On the Strength Of Competition, Their tackle Production has Been A Weak Point. Chance Warmack, Andrew Thomas, Who Has Come Along Some In recent Weeks, and Alex Leatherwood are Great Examples.
Expect Neal To Use His Garth To Envelope Guys As He Learns To Refine His Technique. It could Serve To Spend Some Time On The right Side, And He Adjusts To The Night In Night Out Onslaught of A NFL Regular Season Pass Rushed. Neal Never Earned The Pedigree as The Best Offensive Tackle In The Country Matter Fact, He’s Never Been Greater Than 21st At Station, According To Profootballfocus. Furthermore, as per Pro-football Focus, His Blocking Grade Rose And Fell With Cruising Volatility, Showing Inconsistency in Play.
Number 10: Jermaine Johnson, Edge Rusher Florida State University
At 6’5 250, Jermaine Johnson Looks The Part Of a Jaw Gaping Physical Specimen Off The Edge Ready For Day One Contribution. With shear Relentless off the line. Jermaine Doesn’t Share Location When On The Fields. You Have To Try To Locate He’s Always Scenic Backfield Disrupting Offensive Progression Or Around The Ball. Johnson Finished His Only Year At Florida State After Transferring From A Stacked Georgia Defense With 17 Tackles For Loss and Twelve Sacks 70 tackles from an End Position. Johnson doesn’t win with bendy or dense power. He raves His motor and follows his momentum downhill on quarterbacks.
Second and Third Efforts Come With The Patent. Well Balanced. Reads offensive line position and Play formation With Instinctual Recognition For When To Play The Edge and When To Nose Dive Down.
It gets Washed Away On Blocks. Johnson Has Elite Hands But Slow Rising Kinetic With Low Power. He Doesn’t Have a Bull Rush Through Offense Lineman And Counters when Initial Deter. The Group Thinks On Johnson Placing The Seminole As a Late First, Early Second Day Guy Whose Stock Could Raise as His Name Circles The Draft Cycle.
The Edge And Defensive Line Will Be A Riddle Foe Debating After the Clear Two Top Guys fall Off The Board. Teams haven’t shown a willingness to reach off the edge—Johnson teammate Azeri Ojalari Slipped To Round 2 Before Immediately Transforming Into One Of The Giant's Best Rusher.
With George Karlakiftis and Travon Walker, All Ranked Higher Than He, Johnson Will Win For Team Where The Football Isn’t Celebrated But Understood. In run Fit and edge Setting.
