NFL Draft power rankings: Mike Mayock reveals second list
By John Buhler
NFL Network draft expert Mike Mayock released his second position-by-position rank gins for the upcoming 2017 NFL Draft. Here are its big takeaways.
Few people know the NFL Draft quite like the NFL Network’s draft expert Mike Mayock. His opinion matters more than most when it comes to evaluating the top talent from the college game to the next level.
On Tuesday, Mayock released his second position-by-position rankings, numbering the top fives players entering the draft. Mayock addresses the risers and the fallers of the respective position groups. Let’s take a look and see what Mayock thinks this time around.
Mayock’s top five quarterbacks haven’t changed with Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer at No. 1, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson at No. 2 and North Carolina’s Mitchell Trubisky at No. 3. Given that Watson probably had the best NFL Scouting Combine of the quarterbacks, this is a little shocking that he isn’t No. 1 yet.
With the running backs, Mayock has Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey as a riser, but Florida State’s Dalvin Cook as a faller. McCaffrey helped himself with a great combine, while the crowd Cook hangs with off the field might be a little troublesome for some general managers to wrangle.
The wide receivers have a consensus top three of Western Michigan’s Corey Davis, Clemson’s Mike Williams, and Washington’s John Ross in some order. Mayock has taken a liking to East Carolina’s Zay Jones, who tore it up at the 2017 Reese’s Senior Bowl.
Tight end is changing every day. Jake Butt’s injury is not helping his cause. O.J. Howard of Alabama is the consensus No. 1 of that position group. A riser up Mayock’s board is Miami tight end David Njoku. He might be the second tight end taken in the first round.
There isn’t much to extract from the offensive linemen other than this is a bad draft across the board for this position group. Front-seven players that are rising are Florida’s Jarrad Davis and Stanford’s Solomon Thomas. Falling from that group includes Vanderbilt’s Zach Cunningham and Alabama’s Tim Williams.
The secondary has a lot of movement in it. Cornerbacks like Washington’s Kevin King and Ohio State’s Gareon Conley are soaring up the rankings. Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers is Mayock’s No. 1 safety despite serious questions about what position he will play at the next level.
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It’s clear that Mayock has a few players he likes more than others like Kizer and Peppers. However, Mayock’s overall assessment of the field is very strong. There are great players to be had at multiple position groups in this draft.