2024 NFL Draft Tight End top 5 rankings 1.0

2024 NFL Draft Tight End top 5 rankings 1.0 from Draft Wire’s Natalie Miller

The tight end position has seed renewed importance in the last few seasons with the likes of Travis Kelce and Sam LaPorta leading the way. This could mean a higher draft position for future tight ends in the upcoming classes.

This years group of tight ends has a few stars and hidden gems littered throughout the draft. Let’s take a look at the top five players of that group before we get to pre-draft process.

2024 NFL Draft Offensive Tackle top 5 rankings 1.0

2024 NFL Draft Offensive Tackle top 5 rankings 1.0 from Draft Wire’s Natalie Miller

The offensive tackle position has continued to be one of the highest sought after year after year. It’s important for any NFL team to protect their quarterback from ferocious edge rushers and keep them upright.

This years group of tackles is as deep as we have seen it in the last few years. Let’s take a look at the top five players of that group before we get to pre-draft process.

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2024 NFL Draft Quarterback top 5 rankings 1.0

2024 NFL Draft Quarterback top 5 rankings 1.0 from Natalie Miller

The quarterback draft classes continue to to be the most important group of players in the whole draft process and have seemingly getting better and better with each passing year.

This crop of signal callers may be the most talented group we have seen in quite some time with as many as five quarterbacks potentially hearing their names called in day one of the draft. Let’s take a look at the top five players of that group before we get to pre-draft process.

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season DT big board

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season defensive tackle big board from Draft Wire’s Jeff Risdon

It’s time to give the big men up front some love. The defensive tackles are always an interesting group to evaluate and ordinate, in part because they come in different sizes and styles of play.

I just dove into a handful of these players in the last week or so, and the more I watch the group, the more I do like the DT class overall. Still need to watch more of most of these guys, as this is more on first impression and preliminary study for all but the top two, who I’ve watched extensively and really like.

Offensive tackles

Wide receivers (via Brennen Rupp)

Cornerbacks

EDGE rushers

Running backs

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season RB big board

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season RB big board from Draft Wire’s Jeff Risdon

Bowl season keeps chugging along like a reliable running back ripping off first down after first down. Finding running backs who can do that in the NFL is one of the goals of the scouting process.

This year’s class doesn’t appear to have any surefire first-rounders like a year ago when Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs both came off the draft board in the top 12 picks. The early impression is that this is a good group to tailor to individual team fits, and there is a good selection of capable talent, if not any transcendent types of RBs.

Offensive tackles

Wide receivers (via Brennen Rupp)

Cornerbacks

EDGE rushers

 

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season EDGE big board

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season EDGE big board from Draft Wire’s Jeff Risdon

Welcome to winter! For most 2024 NFL draft prospects, it’s now draft prep season. A few still have bowl games on the schedule, but the season to impress NFL talent evaluators on the field is largely complete.

Up next in the positional rankings are the EDGE group. Call them defensive ends or outside linebackers — often changing between the two roles in the same game — these players are primarily pass rushers. It’s a position with one of the highest bust rates but also one where scheme fit matters a ton.

Offensive tackles

Wide receivers (via Brennen Rupp)

Cornerbacks

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season cornerback big board

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season cornerback big board from Draft Wire’s Jeff Risdon

Bowl season is starting to ramp up around the college football landscape. There have even been some interesting prospects for the 2024 NFL draft who have already played out their exhibition finales.

Up next in the positional rankings are the cornerbacks. This tends to be one of the most volatile positions over the course of a draft process, in part because athletic testing plays such a big role in how the NFL views these players as prospects.

Offensive tackles

Wide receivers (via Brennen Rupp)

 

 

 

 

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season offensive tackle big board

2024 NFL draft: Bowl season offensive tackle big board from Draft Wire’s Jeff Risdon

Bowl season just kicked off over the weekend with a trio of exhibitions. It kicks into full force in the coming days. It’s a good time to update some positional rankings.

As of now, this is how I rank the offensive tackles. It’s a very impressive class overall, with a few different flavors that will appeal to certain teams more than they do others. I broke down a little of that with Joe Alt and Olu Fashanu here.

Note: I rank Duke’s Graham Barton as an interior OL. He’d be sixth on this list.

2024 NFL draft: Early top-10 wide receivers for an epic class

2024 NFL draft: Early top-10 wide receivers for an epic class from Brennen Rupp

Over the past four NFL Drafts, there have been 44 wide receivers selected in the first two rounds. In both the 2020 and 2022 drafts, there were six wide receivers taken in the first round and seven selected in the second round.

The 2024 NFL Draft could exceed those numbers, with potentially 17 wide receivers that could be selected in the first two rounds. Let’s take a look at the top end of what could end up being a historic wide receiver class. 

Top 75 prospects at the end of the college regular season

Top 75 prospects for the 2024 NFL draft at the end of the college regular season from Draft Wire’s Jeff Risdon

Thanksgiving weekend brought the 2023 college football regular season to a close. Rivalry weekend was a great end to an interesting season. It also marks a good time to update the 2024 NFL draft prospect rankings.

Some of the prospects here have played their final college football games. With so many underclassmen, it’s possible some will opt to stay in college for 2024, too.

There is still considerable film work and study to be done even before we get to the postseason all-star bowls, pro days and the scouting combine in Indianapolis. Right now, I’ve gone through about one-fifth of the college game film and All-22 that I’ve accumulated through the year. I’ve seen exactly one FCS game and one D-II game (in person).

In short, changes will happen. But right now, this is how I see the prospects overall. Remember, big board rankings are not predictions of when a player will be drafted. That’s what mock drafts are for…