NFL.com Draft Tracker (Lance Zierline's rankings)

[Rich7sena]

The NFL.com draft tracker is what I consider to be closest to definitive rankings for the draft. Lance Zierline puts a lot of time and effort into his evaluations and he has the bet resources in all of draft media. Perhaps most importantly, nearly every prospect has a "What Sources Tell Us" section.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2018/tracker?icampaign=draft-sub_nav_bar-drafteventpage-tracker#dt-tabs:dt-by-grade/dt-by-position-input:cb

Some highlights:

#3 Overall Prospect: Tremaine Edmunds

#1 Rated QB: Sam Darnold (by far)

#2 Rated Receiver: Deon Cain

#1 Rated Tight End: Mike Gesicki

Lamar Jackson rated ahead of Josh Allen

Luke Falk ahead of Mason Rudolph

Joshua Jackson and Minkah Fitzpatrick ahead of Denzel Ward

Da'Ron Payne ahead of Vita Vea

[VanS]

I personally don't like Lance Zierline (he comes across as overly smug to me) but I do agree with you that his rankings are the best for determining what the actual draft order will look like.

I agree that Sam Darnold should be the top ranked QB in this draft by a wide margin.  IMO he's special. 

I also like that Ronald Jones is rated high.  He deserves to be a 1st round pick.  He's a Jamaal Charles clone.

Good to see Lamar Jackson rated the same as Baker Mayfield.  I personally have Lamar Jackson rated higher.  And I think its criminal how lightly he's being taken.  Lamar Jackson could easily come into the NFL next season and totally wreck it with his incredible athletic ability for the position.  With the right coach and in the right system he could be downright scary in the NFL.

[Rich7sena]

50 minutes ago, VanS said:

I personally don't like Lance Zierline (he comes across as overly smug to me) but I do agree with you that his rankings are the best for determining what the actual draft order will look like

He’s definitely smug — particarly on Twitter — but that has become a defining trait of draft media. I try to separate the “artist” from the “art”.

[khodder]

Interesting to note that Trubisky would be the 2nd best QB in this draft according to these rankings; They would be;

1 - Darnold 

2 - Trubisky 

3 - Rosen

4 - Mayfield 

5 - Jackson 

6 - Watson

7 - Allen

8 - Mahomes

[DreamKid]

1 hour ago, Rich7sena said:

He’s definitely smug — particarly on Twitter — but that has become a defining trait of draft media. I try to separate the “artist” from the “art”.

Any media that covers a niche interest, especially early on, tends to become needlessly self-important. I'm a big MMA fan and nearly every "journalist" in the sport tries to win twitter, and makes extracting analysis from their childhood failings (now manifested as pseudo intellectual babbling and needy attempts at wit), all the more difficult. In time they usually get eroded or muted, by either more talented people taking over their space in the community with increased interest in the subject matter attracting more dynamic personalities or taming themselves out of fear of being replaced.

He had Reuben Foster at 6.33, and has Roquan and Edmunds at 6.56 and 7.28 respectively. With this much hype a big combine performance should entrench Tremaine Edmunds in draft discussions on all the big sport's media outlets. Prepare for a lot of debate regarding he and Smith too, that's got segment producers for all the draft shows salivating. 

[MD4L]

12 hours ago, khodder said:

Interesting to note that Trubisky would be the 2nd best QB in this draft according to these rankings; They would be;

1 - Darnold 

2 - Trubisky 

3 - Rosen

4 - Mayfield 

5 - Jackson 

6 - Watson

7 - Allen

8 - Mahomes

I'd much rather have the guys on the bottom of that list. Trubisky though is probably going to blossom into a solid starter.

[MD4L]

I like Darnold but his decision making and the way he reacted to pressure in certain situations concerns me. There was some Jay Cutler esque things on film that bother me. I think him and Josh Rosen are pretty close.

I may quietly be liking Josh Allen a lot more imo. He is a better prospect than Baker Mayfield imo, and certainly deserves to be mentioned with 2018's top candidates at the position.