Mark Johnson | Fri, Feb 7th 2020, 8:15am EST

2020 NFL Draft: Top 50 Big Board & Positional Rankings

Welcome to my first Top 50 Big Board of 2020 — also known as every player currently being labeled as a first-round pick on Twitter. All kidding aside, I am super excited to put this first list out into the public. It’s still early, and I have plenty more film to watch to solidify my rankings further, but I am very confident with where I am at in the process. You will see that besides just ranking the 50 players, I have also broken them down into five tiers, and I’ve included a brief writeup about each tier. After the Top 50, I will also have a rundown of the top five players at each position, but before that, let’s get this article started with my current Top 50 rankings!

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Tier One

1. Chase Young (Edge – Ohio State)
2. Joe Burrow (QB – LSU)
3. Jeff Okudah (CB – Ohio State)
4. Isaiah Simmons (LB/S – Clemson)
5. Jerry Jeudy (WR – Alabama)

Tier One consists of my five must-have players. Of course, they aren’t locks, because there is no such thing, but if I had to put my money on five players to thrive at the NFL level, it would be these guys. Burrow just completed the best college football season ever by a quarterback and looks to have the accuracy, especially the short to intermediate throws, and the great leadership traits to lead a franchise. Simmons is a piece that can fit into any defense. He brings great athleticism for his size and has the experience and success at almost every position on defense. When it comes to Simmons, just make sure that he is one of the 11 when the defense is out there.

Tier Two

6. Jedrick Wills Jr. (OT – Alabama)
7. Derrick Brown (DT – Auburn)
8. Tua Tagovailoa (QB – Alabama)
9. CeeDee Lamb (WR – Oklahoma)
10. Henry Ruggs III (WR – Alabama)
11. Javon Kinlaw (DT – South Carolina)
12. K’Lavon Chaisson (Edge – LSU)
13. Kristian Fulton (CB – LSU)

Tier Two is made up of players who I see as great prospects, but they have just enough of a flaw or question mark to make them not quite must-have options. A couple of examples of this would be the questions I have around Derrick Brown and CeeDee Lamb. Derrick Brown is an absolute beast. He translates his size into power and has very good burst off the line of scrimmage. My only serious question is his conditioning at his size — he did fine in college, but he is going to have to go all out every play at the next level, so how many breaks will he need? CeeDee Lamb is the best receiver with the ball in his hands. He runs more like a running back and, at the catch point, is able to adjust his body nicely, but his main question is his play speed. He seems to be a 4.55-type athlete in terms of 40 speed, and there weren’t many times where he illustrated that he could create a lot of separation, and speed seemed to be a major reason for that.

Tier Three

14. A.J. Epenesa (DE – Iowa)
15. Tristan Wirfs (OT – Iowa)
16. Tee Higgins (WR – Clemson)
17. Andrew Thomas (OT – Georgia)
18. Justin Herbert (QB – Oregon)
19. Jordan Love (QB – Utah State)
20. Jonathan Taylor (RB – Wisconsin)
21. CJ Henderson (CB – Florida)
22. D’Andre Swift (RB – Georgia)
23. Justin Jefferson (WR – LSU)
24. Jalen Reagor (WR – TCU)
25. J.K. Dobbins (RB – Ohio State)
26. Mekhi Becton (OT – Louisville)

Tier Three are the players that I classify as very good. They have the traits to be difference-makers at the next level, but they aren’t quite “great” prospects. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as based on the rankings, they are still in the top 14-26 players, so they’ll all have a great chance of being round-one guys. My top three running backs highlight this section. To me, they are very close to each other. They are their own style of player, but they perform their style just as well as the others perform theirs. It will come down to what player fits a team’s style of play. That is what all the players in this section have in common: they are very good, but they would be much better in a specific scheme. They can’t just go to any team and be great.

Tier Four

27. A.J. Terrell (CB – Clemson)
28. Laviska Shenault Jr. (WR – Colorado)
29. Neville Gallimore (DT – Oklahoma)
30. Xavier McKinney (S – Alabama)
31. Kenneth Murray (ILB – Oklahoma)
32. Marlon Davidson (DE – Auburn)
33. Trevon Diggs (CB – Alabama)
34. Ross Blacklock (DT – TCU)
35. Yetur Gross-Matos (Edge – Penn State)
36. Cesar Ruiz (IOL – Michigan)
37. Patrick Queen (ILB – LSU)
38. Josh Jones (OT – Houston)
39. KJ Hamler (WR – Penn State)

Tier Four is made up of good players who are currently more raw than finished products. However, paired with that rawness is an underlying talent that, with work, could lead to very good careers. With great combine showings and pro days, many of these players could easily make the jump to the next tier of players. This is the high-ceiling, low0floor tier. This tier highlights a lot of defensive linemen who will play on the inside or at end with their hand in the dirt for a 4-3 team. Davidson and Blacklock have film showing great traits and natural ability, but they need coaching. Davidson especially had to answer questions about where he would even play. Then he had a great weigh-in at the Senior Bowl and answered that question. The more the players in this tier are allowed to develop, the greater they will be.

Tier Five

40. Grant Delpit (S – LSU)
41. Jeff Gladney (CB – TCU)
42. Kyle Dugger (S – Lenoir-Rhyne)
43. Adam Trautman (TE – Dayton)
44. Curtis Weaver (Edge – Boise State)
45. Davon Hamilton (DT – Ohio State)
46. Bryce Hall (CB – Virginia)
47. Tyler Biadasz (IOL – Wisconsin)
48. Malik Harrison (ILB – Ohio State)
49. Terrell Lewis (Edge – Alabama)
50. Brycen Hopkins (TE – Purdue)

Tier Five consists of players who are very solid but lack the raw potential or ceiling to rise any higher in the rankings. They all have a glaring weakness or a very specific scheme that they fit into. Tyler Biadasz, for example, has to be drafted by a zone blocking team to reach his best. He really struggled this year to win with power, but when he was able to move defenders left and right and get up to the second level, he proved that he could have a consistent, positive impact for years to come. Weaver’s major question is simple: what is he? He plays as an edge rusher, but he doesn’t really have the body type for it. I don’t think he has the length to be successful with his hand in the dirt either, so I believe he will have to really work on changing his body composition to reach his potential.

Now let’s dive into the individual positional rankings. In this section, I will have the top five at each position. A lot of the names will be repeat names from the Top 50 showing the depth of talent at each position. If a position doesn’t have many Top 50 names that obviously translates to that position lacking top-end talent. As we get closer to the draft and I complete more and more film sessions along with scouting reports, I will create longer lists for each position, both in articles and via my twitter, @MJ_NFLDraft. At this point in the process, my top five at each position are as follows:

Top Five Positional Rankings

Quarterbacks

Running Backs

Wide Receivers

Tight Ends

Offensive Tackles

Interior Offensive Line

Edge Rushers

Defensive Ends

Interior Defensive Line

Inside Linebackers

Cornerbacks

Safeties

Combine rankings from 100+ experts into one consensus cheat sheet

Mark Johnson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mark, check out his archive and follow him @MJ_NFLDraft.

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