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AIPROPX ReportCBS Sports · 51m ago
2026 NFL Draft rankings revisited: Ahead of the 2027 ranking reveal, here's how my preseason top 25 fared
Projecting which players will succeed in the NFL and which won't is difficult enough with a full college career of tape and a pre-draft process.
I'm reminded every year when I revisit my past preseason draft rankings, though, that it gets even harder when you try to do that the year before they declare.
While some talents were glaringly obvious -- like Caleb Downs and Jeremiyah Love -- others ... not so much (the nonexistent quarterback class!).
With my preseason top 100 draft board for the 2027 draft dropping tomorrow, I thought it was a good time to review how I saw the 2026 class at this same point a year ago.
Clemson's 2025 season was a modern college football tragedy -- a team littered with top prospects who seemed to have their eyes focused more on the next level than their weekly opponents. Peter Woods was obviously chief among them.
He's still an incredibly gifted defensive tackle, but he did not put his best foot forward last fall. I'd argue his freshman tape was even more impressive than what he was doing down the stretch in 2025. But he landed in a great spot in Kansas City to learn behind Chris Jones.
Arch Manning may not have been an overnight success, but he was still in the running for a top-five pick by the end of the season. He returns as the No. 1 player on my preseason 2027 draft board.
Spencer Fano was very easy to like on both his sophomore and junior tape. He's an easy mover who finds answers even when his technique isn't perfect. His arm length and tweener build caused him to slip a little to the Browns, but he was still the first tackle off the board and a Day 1 starter.
I'll be honest, a good portion of Keldric Faulk's appeal came from faulty info that was in the public sphere last preseason. His reported age was 19 before last season when, in actuality, he was already 20. With how much I weigh early-career production, that swayed me on his potential after a sophomore year in which he was tremendous against the run.
But when that plateaued and he took a step back as a pass rusher his junior year, I became less intrigued.
After an encouraging first season as a starter, Garrett Nussmeier had about as bad a final season as you could have in 2025. He played through a core injury that robbed him of what little arm strength he already had before the LSU staff sat him down at midseason. His Senior Bowl performance redeemed his draft stock in my eyes, but obviously not the NFL's.
Jermod McCoy's draft selection vs. my board highlights the distinct information disadvantage public boards face when it comes to injuries. He was medically off every team's board after a January 2025 ACL tear before the Raiders made him the first pick on Day 3.
If the preseason has been any indication, a lot of teams are going to be kicking themselves for letting Rueben Bain Jr . slip all the way to 15. He was a handful as a freshman and sophomore at Miami but took it to another level his junior season before declaring. I always feel better about being high on players who showed obvious progression throughout their careers like Bain.
T.J. Parker went in the opposite direction of Bain. After racking up 51 pressures as a sophomore, he finished with only 41 as a junior. Pair that with middling testing numbers, and you get his fall from Round 1.
Caleb Downs was always a safe bet to go highly. The question was always how high to draft an undersized player at a low-value position. I don't think the Cowboys have any regrets about where they took him.
Some prospects have wider ranges of outcomes than others. John Mateer's was always going to be all over the map. With high-end physical tools but obvious areas for concern, Mateer showed both high highs and low lows in his first year for the Sooners. We'll see if he can bounce back from the ugly stretch he had while playing through a hand injury last fall.
I thought Kadyn Proctor made an incredible leap last fall from jumbo athlete to refined offensive lineman . His foot speed is never going to look like Lane Johnson's, but now that he's inside at guard, it shouldn't be an issue whatsoever.
Jordyn Tyson's tape warranted the eighth overall pick. His injury history did not. Unfortunately, the latter has already come into play, as he's out a couple of months with a lingering hamstring injury .
Caleb Lomu has always shown the traits I'm willing to go to bat for with offensive linemen -- quick feet, coordinated hands and smooth body control. It's just a matter of whether his play strength and nastiness will come around to the standard needed to play in the league. He landed in a great spot with New England to focus on that.
I'm definitely guilty of seeing quarterbacks through rose-colored glasses before they actually declare. It's easy to rationalize them fixing this one thing and improving that other thing when they still have eligibility left.
That was Cade Klubnik , who was fresh off the game of his life in the playoff against Texas when I ranked him here. "If they all look like that, he's a top-five pick." Well, they didn't all look like that in 2025 or anything close.
Jeremiyah Love was just so obviously different even as a sophomore. His 98-yard run against Indiana in the playoff, as well as his short-yardage score on a bum ankle against Penn State in the semifinal, showed that already.
Francis Mauigoa was prodigiously strong for a true sophomore and, unsurprisingly, yet again as a true junior. I was a little lower on him than where he went because I saw him as more of a guard only, but that's just fine with the Giants at the moment.
I thought Avieon Terrell was the one Clemson prospect who fought until the end last season and gave him credit on my board for it. He looks every bit the cornerback prospect his brother was, but with a distinctly different play style.
Connor Lew's season ended early with a torn ACL, but even so, it wasn't enough for me to really drop him down my board. The NFL disagreed, and the youngest offensive l...
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