2026 Draft Boards, Position Rankings and Mocks

I'll say it again, I wonder how good the coaching is that some of these guys got, especially at a place like UCF.

If the guy has ability and loves to play and play hard, I suspect he could be taught the nuances he didn't learn in college. Of course he can't be a Mazi or Guyton with questionable heart.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
I'll say it again, I wonder how good the coaching is that some of these guys got, especially at a place like UCF.

If the guy has ability and loves to play and play hard, I suspect he could be taught the nuances he didn't learn in college. Of course he can't be a Mazi or Guyton with questionable heart.
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That's where the risk/reward calculation comes in where you have to gauge a bunch of different factors (many of which are unknown to us in terms of character, work ethic, etc.) and make a decision.

Like Lawrence has potentially elite edge rush ability, which showed up in the Combine testing as well, but can you teach him to deal with the run? Can you scheme around it? Is the edge rush important enough that you aren't worried about it?

Compared to a guy like Faulk who you know will be elite against the run, you've seen flashes of edge rush but you know he doesn't have elite edge rush tools exactly, but then you feel pretty good that he can rush from the interior, he has absolutely elite size/length, so on and so forth.

So what do you prioritize amongst all that?

There's no right answer exactly, and then you have to factor in all the complete unknowns (to us) on their character/work ethic.
 
Damn, C-rock just went nuclear on Faulk...
 
Chocolate Lab said:
Damn, C-rock just went nuclear on Faulk...
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It does highlight the personality factor though. We took the big, stronger DE with the potential. The real problem with Taco is he had a 2 cent head. I'm sure there are other 6'6" 277 pound DEs with potential that work hard and become great NFL players. But they probably have work ethic and a love for the game Taco has never had. But I think at the time we drafted him most of us thought the floor with Taco was at least a good run defending DE.

Taco is sort of the poster child for drafting a big guy with "potential" though.
 
But wasn't Taco pretty spare athletically, though, at least for a first rounder? We took him because he was big enough for 43 end (when Watt wasn't), not because he was actually that great a prospect.

At least that's how I remember it. But I was so disgusted and checked out during the later Garrett years I was barely paying attention.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
But wasn't Taco pretty spare athletically, though, at least for a first rounder? We took him because he was big enough for 43 end (when Watt wasn't), not because he was actually that great a prospect.

At least that's how I remember it. But I was so disgusted and checked out during the later Garrett years I was barely paying attention.
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So he was thought of as athletic for a 277 pound man.

But his athletic testing numbers were not good. Might have been a good indicator that the guy didn't bother much to train for it. Sort of an indicator of that personality concern. Think he ran like a 4.91 forty.

Speaking of which, I do wonder what Faulks numbers will look like. I think Auburns proday is this week. Seems like more guys just don't run at all these days than we saw back in 2017.
 
Yeah, just for the smell of it I looked at his combine page on NFL.com... 4.92 40 and 33 vertical. They have him as a 73 grade on athleticism, which on their scale is at the low end of "good."

But then Zierlein says this about him:

Rare combination of size, length and athletic traits as a rusher. Long-levered frame with athletic, knotted calves. Brings freaky athletic traits to table and is still growing into his body.

Um, what?

They also graded him as a "Pro Bowl talent" despite being 12th in his class athletically and 9th in production.

That's why I take these expert scouting reports (Goof Son air quotes) with a small Siberian salt mine.
 
I don't think Taco was as athletic as Faulk but he definitely had good athleticism for being 270+.

The problem of course was his head, which we have no insight into. If he had Booker's mentality he'd have been a borderline Pro Bowler.
 
Simpleton said:
The problem of course was his head, which we have no insight into.
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Yep, that's the huge piece we fans just don't know about these guys. The pros should, though.
 
Chocolate Lab said:
Yep, that's the huge piece we fans just don't know about these guys. The pros should, though.
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Yea of course, like Faulk could easily be a Pro Bowler if he has the right mentality, or he could be Taco, but we have no idea what the mentality is like.

Just like a hyper athletic, but undersized edge rusher like Lawrence or even Howell could be Brian Burns or Sam Williams.

But jumping to conclusions because a prospect is similar to a bust from 10 years ago is based on nothing basically. The more important conversation is trying to figure out how a guy's skill set fits and could be valuable, and how you mitigate what he can't do currently.
 
Simpleton said:
But jumping to conclusions because a prospect is similar to a bust from 10 years ago is based on nothing basically.
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It's really just a size comparison. Was mostly joking. But it is freaky how similar the builds are. Same height, same arm length, like 1 pound difference in weight. I never really thought of Taco being as big as I think of Faulk.
 
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Cowboysrock55 said:
It's really just a size comparison. Was mostly joking. But it is freak how similar the builds are. Same height, same arm length, like 1 pound difference in weight. I never really thought of Taco being as big as I think of Faulk.
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They are definitely similar in play styles, and if there are concerns about Faulks work ethic I wouldn't take him until the late 2nd to even 3rd area, but if he's strong off the field he's a guy with a high floor and high ceiling.
 
Is this Tuls guy any good? He has some odd rankings. Not saying he's wrong. But for instance RMT above Howell and Lawrence. Plus many others. I like RMT also, so maybe he's right. But I wonder if he's one of those guys trying to stand out by being different. Maybe not. (He does have CJ Allen as the 5th best LB, @Cowboysrock55 )

Here's his board:
 
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