THE 2018 NFL DRAFT POSITION RANKINGS GUIDE
These position rankings are intended as a guide to the players who will be drafted or signed as undrafted free agents and amounts to a statistical biography and background of each palyer.
The Codes or abbreviations in the position rankings are as follows:
AC-C (All Conference-Coaches)
AC-M (All Conference-Media - usually the AP)
AC2 or ACHM (All Conference Second Team or All Conference Honorable Mention)
AC-C&M would be All Conference by both the Coaches and Media, with the media being the AP, except for the ACC, which has its own media group. C/M such as the Mountain West and Sun Belt have is the Coaches and Media jointly selecting the teams.
I didn't deal with the All-American teams as there are too many; with the exception of some DII AA mentions or FCS AA mentions.
After each year that the player played such as: 2017 there might be 7/13 which means he started in 7 games and played in 13. The number of starts and games played gives more relevance to the stats, with an exception being that some teams rotate players more than others.
ST after the 7/13 means the player also contributed on Special Teams.
OPOY would be Offensive Player of the Year;
RS is for Redshirt; JRr would be Junior Redshirt.
ACA-AC if for Academic All Conference or ACA-AC2 or ACA-ACHM; in addition to the SEC which I have SEC-HR for SEC Honor Roll.
(P) is an indication that there was some type of behavioral problem, which could have been a violation of team rules, drinking or arrest or something even more serious.
The forty times under the players names such as: 4.52 - 4.72 (4.62) are the best, worst and average times of the player and were found on CBS Draftscout; which is a huge database for draft-able players; while the forty times in brackets [4.82] were found on Scout.com or HUDL and then the players High School rating were from Rivals where they have a 2*, 3*, 4* or 5* star rating with 5 being the best. Rivals also gives a number rating within each grouping: 5.0 - 5.4 (2*); 5.5-5.7 (3*); and 5.8 -6.0 (4*). All 5 star players have a 6.1 rating. So you might see 3*/5.5 which is pretty good and sometimes 3*/5.5/4.9@280Lbs. with the 4.9 being his forty time in H.S. and the weight at which he ran the forty time. NR would be No Rating by Rivals.
Defensive statistics - all colleges give a Sack figure and than a Tackle for Loss figure which includes the Sacks. I think that it is easier to follow by giving the Sack figure and then just the actual TFL figure, thus 8.0-4.0, as opposed to 8.0-12.0 that the colleges would reflect in their stats.
Dotted lines - - - - - - means there weren't sufficient stats worth reporting. It seems that Georgia, Auburn and Virginia Tech have a different method of tabulating Quarterback Hurries than other teams as their players always have a significantly higher amount.
As for the Quarterbacks, I have a number of statistics but have one change from the norm in that I believe that Yards per Completion (YPC)is a better metric than Yards per Attempt which is normally shown with the reasoning that YPA includes dropped passes and balls thrown away, which is unfair to the QB. ESPN in their QB ratings, adds in RAW QBR and ADJ RAT which are also good metrics but for which I didn't have the space and didn't want to be too heavy with statistics. The green number is the Wunderlic test score that was found for a few of the Quarterbacks.
With a few of the Quarterbacks I have added their Passing Velocity score, which is taken at the Combine. There were only a few of the scores published and is measure in Miles Per Hour (MPH) by a radar gun. This was started many years ago by the Dallas Cowboys as they couldn’t rely on their scouts’ eyes to measure the arm strength of QBs. The pass is the 20 yard out pass measured from the far hash mark and this doesn’t measure arm strength as far as throwing a deep pass. Supposedly the standard is at least 55 MPH, which is revealing in that Deshaun Watson was at 49 MPH and Mike Glennon, who last year signed a huge contract with the Chicago Bears, was also at 49 MPH when he came out of college.
SB is for Senior Bowl, the most coveted of the all-star invitations; EW is for the East/West Shrine Game, the next most coveted all-star game and CB is for the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl which has only been around a few years (founded 2012).
D is for an underclassman who Declared for the draft and, while eligible for the Combine, was not eligible for the Senior Bowl, East/West Shrine Game or other All-Star games.
* Next to their names indicated that they have been invited to the NFL Scouting Combine, which is to take place March 2 thru March 5, 2018.
S is for Sleepers, that is those players who are not highly ranked, but have exhibited certain traits which could land them spots on NFL rosters or Practice Squads and even become starters.
And S is for Sleepers, that is those players who are not highly ranked, but have exhibited certain traits which could land them spots on NFL rosters or Practice Squads and eventually become starters.
C is for players who received an invitation to the NFL Combine, which usually includes 332 players, but remember the draft is for 224 players along with about 32 Compensatory picks so normally there is a total of 256 drafted players, meaning more than 70 players participating at the Combine will not be drafted. Throw in the fact that there will be a number of players who were not included in the Combine who will be drafted so there could be close to 100 players at the Combine who will not be drafted, but very likely will be signed as Undrafted Free Agents.
The code for the numbers after the C (Combine) are for the 1st 40 time - the 2nd forty time and darker blue 4.55 being the official forty time - then the 10 yard splits where I could get them such as 1.55 or where I couldn't get the figure XXX - BP is for Bench Press - VJ Vertical Jump - BJ is Broad Jump - SS is the 20 yard Short Shuttle - #C is the # Cone drill - 60S is the 60 yard Shuttle.
And lastly, at the bottom left hand corner in red 1 or 4 is the round or rounds that each player might be drafted and, if no number, then is a possibility as an Undrafted Free Agent. There might also be 3/4 or 6/U, which means 3rd or 4th Round or 6th to 7th Round or Undrafted Free Agent.
Note that I have some players rated higher but drafted lower than the player rated behind. That is because I believe the one player to be better but won't be drafted higher.
PPF-AA - PPF-AA2 or PFF-AA - PFF-AA2 stands for Pro Football Focus All American or All American Second Team. The red was in 2016 and the purple in 2017.
Below is a sample chart for a player. The 2017 13/14 stands for starting 13 games & playing in 14 games. The 2017 ACHM-C/M means that he received All Conference Honorable Mention as selected by a combination of the Coaches and Media. Many times it will read AC2-C or AC2-C&M, which means he was All Conference Second Team by both the Coaches and the Media (usually AP). The 2*/5.2 was his Rivals rating from Junior College, usually it is the Rivals from high school. SB shows he was at the Senior Bowl and * shows that he will be at the Combine.
5.*CEDRIC WILSON 6017 194 SR. BOISE ST. SB 4.40 - 4.59 (4.49) (KR) 2016 ACHM-C/M 2*/5.2 - JC 2016 post season ankle surgery 2016 15 catches of 30+ yards many on bad ankle. 188 lbs. is up from 183 in 2016 & after surgery.
| 2017 13/14 83-1511-18.2- 7TD-65L 2016 5/13 (ankle) 56-1129-20.2-11TD-75L 2015 JC 2017 AC-C/M PFF-AA2 Hand 9 3/4 Arm 32 1/2 |
