Simmons, Stewart headline strong 2027 DE/ER class … Most of the early buzz about the 2027 draft has tended to focus on what looks to be a potentially stellar QB class. However, a pretty good case can be made that THE strongest position for the upcoming year is actually the DE grouping which is lead by a couple of rising SEC stars in Colin Simmons of Texas and South Carolina’s Dylan Stewart. Both are considered to be potential top 5 candidates, although they’ve taken slightly different routes to that ranking. Simmons, for example, is coming off a dominant season in 2025 in which he posted 12 sacks and was unblockable at times. That, in fact, was the kind of season NFL scouts were expecting for Stewart after something of a breakout freshman year the season before, but he never really got into high gear posting just 4.5 sacks, but still appears to have the best pure physical tools of any of this year’s top edge rushers.
The top returning sacker in college football this season, though, is somewhat unheralded Anthony Smith of Minnesota who had 12.5 sacks last fall. And while he hasn’t gotten all that much national pub to date, pro scouts certainly know who Smith is. And what he is a DT-sized 6-5, 285-pounder with prototype length, a nice array of pass-rush moves and a great motor, but still needs to show he has a next-level burst. Meanwhile other top returning DE/ERs include John Henry Daley, who had 11.5 sacks at Utah last fall before transferring to Michigan; Arkansas’s Quincy Rhodes, another full-sized edge (6-6, 275); Damon Wilson, who transferred to Miami from Missouri; Louisville’s Clev Lubin; the Oregon duo of Matayo Uiagalelei and Teitum Tuioto; and Will Heldt of Clemson among others. Here is our current ranking of the top 15 DE prospects for 2027. Aldo note that there are several other very intriguing 3rd year edges out there including Yhonzae Pierre of Alabama, Florida’s LJ McCray, Jordan Ross of Tennessee and Kameryn Crawford of USC who we will include in the rankings if they in fact start seriously contemplating entering the upcoming draft.
