Offensive positional notes … The updates to our positional rankings are now complete for the offence. See the drop-down menu above. A couple of notes along the way. Among the WRs, for example, the top three guys – Marvin Harrison, Rome Odunze and Malik Nabers – remain the same; in fact, it won’t be a total shock if those three go 4-5-6 this coming April if the QBs go 1-2-3 as expected. The one major change at WR, though, is that it appears the stock of Florida State’s Keon Coleman has dropped much closer to the bottom of the opening round area. No question that Coleman is an outstanding athlete; he’s an imposing 6-4, 215 and actually played for a spell on the Michigan State basketball team. But he just hasn’t been able to translate that physical talent into productivity on the field. Indeed, his 3-year career totals for receptions and yards are actually less than the numbers that a half dozen receivers put up just last year; in particular, struggles to get much separation and ends up with just too many contested ball situations. At the same time, it appears that LSU’s Brian Thomas has filled in that gap between the first and second tiers of receivers that Coleman has voided and moved into the 15-20 range in the opening round. Thomas is the same size as Coleman and is almost as athletic, but was very productive this year. Indeed, we have heard whispers that Thomas, who has really just started to scratch the surface could have as much upside as any player in this draft class.
Meanwhile, among the OTs, it appears that while Penn State’s Olu Fashanu and John Alt of Notre Dame remain 1-2 at the position, Taliese Fuaga of Oregon State, who had a great week at the Senior Bowl practises, may have moved all the way up to the #3 spot at the position, possibly as high as just outside the top 10 in the overall ranking. The other interesting thing about both the WR and OT rankings is that there are quite literally mobs of prospects in the second tiers of those positions in the latter half of the first and early part part of the second rounds with still a top of sorting out to be done. And one thing that could impact the OT grading is that a goodly percentage of the top 10 or so tackles are really more RT guys who may not necessarily be great LT fits. Stay tuned!
