2027 NFL Draft: Top 50 Big Board 1.0
Staff writer Gilberto Manzano breaks down his way-too-early Top 50 Big Board for the 2027 NFL Draft ahead of the 2026 college football season.
Video Transcript
Some might say it's way too early for a top 50 big board in the 2027 NFL draft.
Well, guess what?
I did one anyways.
So here we go.
Top 50 players going into the 2026 college football season by yours truly, uh, check it out at SI.com.
And the first thing I wanna discuss, of course, the quarterbacks.
The quarterbacks, uh, in this draft class could potentially be loaded.
Again, nothing's for sure yet.
You don't know who's gonna come out or who's gonna Enter or who's gonna go back to college.
Uh, Last year, we thought Dante Moore was gonna come out.
He did not.
But yes, Dante Moore is one of my top quarterback prospects, but he's not number one.
You could probably guess it.
Arch Manning out of Texas is going number one for me.
But I will say I was a little hesitant.
I wanted to go Dante Moore.
But Dante Moore's college football playoff game against Indiana.
showed me that he needs to grow or improve just as much as Arch Manning.
Arch Manning was pretty erratic, going away from the pocket.
Uh, but I keep thinking about like, what if like his, you know, his famous relatives like, uh, you know, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning were like, You, we know you're mobile, you could probably run and get a first down and extend plays that way, but you need to learn how to be a pocket passer.
You need to be, uh, an excellent processor, uh, extend plays with your arm at the next level.
Like, let's be real, if you are an excellent pocket passer, you probably extend your NFL career to You know, from 10 years to 15 to 16, or whatever.
So, Arch Manning coming back, I think for him, he wants to be better in the pocket.
I bet you in the pros he'll be more mobile, but again, you don't want to take a lot of hits either.
But if he's more composed, you know, does or takes a less is more approach in 2026, I think he will for sure be a number one pick.
But it does start with Arch Manning and Dante Moore.
After that, it gets a little murky, but I'm gonna bet on Mensah, the Miami transfer or the Duke transfer who's going to Miami and I've checked in on, on Mensa, uh, talking to people around Miami and this guy is very accurate, uh, very composed, minimal mistakes, but when I say minimal mistakes, he's not afraid to push the ball downfield.
So when you're able to do that, push the ball and then not, not turn over the football, that's a great sign for a pocket quarterback.
So I think, I think Menta will be in that conversation for the first tier, not a lot to be uh along those guys like Moore and Manning, but he's up there.
And then I have guys who I'm a little unsure of, uh, CJ Carr from Notre Dame could be in the mix for the first round.
Drew Messmaker, I don't wanna butcher his, butcher his name.
Uh, Jaden Mayava from USC could definitely be up there.
So, uh, we'll see how these players do in the college football season, but I do like Mayava.
I do like Messa Maker.
We'll see what they do.
But let's move on to another big talking point in the college football season.
Who's gonna be the first defensive player taken?
There are two guys that edge rusher.
You got Dylan Stewart from South Carolina, and you have Colin Simmons from Texas.
Don't sleep on Leonard Moore, the cornerback out of Notre Dame.
Leonard Moore could be a surefire top 10 pick.
The, the bona fide number 1, cornerback on this big board for sure, at least, but I'm sure everybody has Leonard Moore, uh, in their top 5, big board.
Uh, but regardless, I think the edge rusher conversation could be intriguing.
Dylan Stewart has more upside, uh, very athletic, uh, sort of a freak of nature.
You could, you could probably say that for Dylan Stewart.
But Colin Simmons is very productive.
He, he sort of reminds me of Will Anderson Junior.
Remember when, uh, Will Anderson Junior came out of Alabama, a lot of people said, oh, safe floor, not much upside.
We'll see and turns out that floor is very, very, very high and people missed out on him.
Well, he still went #3 to Houston.
Uh, Houston traded up to get him and that was a big win for them.
So I'm not saying Colin Simmons is gonna be that, but, uh , yeah, he can, if he does more production like at that level, watch out.
Dylan Stewart, he might get you for the number 1 spot on the edge rush rankings and then Moving over to wide receiver.
Speaking of a Texas product, there are 6 players, by the way, from Texas on my big board.
Uh, Cam Coleman, the wide receiver or the transfer out of Auburn, he's making a lot of headway on my big board or anybody's big board.
I feel like he's out there a lot in the top 12.
He's #2.
He's not catching Jeremiah Smith.
I don't think anybody's catching Jeremiah Smith, but I wanna see Cam Coleman, uh, play well.
I wanna see him shine and it'll be exciting to watch him play at the pros.
But yeah, Jeremiah Smith is for sure, without a doubt.
Doubt, #1 on everybody's big board.
I don't know who has them.
#2, 3, it's Jeremiah Smith.
He reminds me of Julio Jones.
I've seen comparisons to AJ Green.
He is a menace downfield.
Uh, but that could be interesting when it comes to the draft.
If Jeremiah Smith, uh, not playing quarterback, what if the 1st 34 picks are quarterbacks.
Then you have Jeremiah Smith for you at number 4, number 5.
Should be a very exciting uh situation in the NFL draft.
But again, mock drafts could wait.
Uh, actually, not really.
My mock draft comes out on Friday at SI.com.
Check it out, plug, plug, plug.
But today we're talking big boards and Summarize here, uh, again, I have 6 players from Texas.
I also have 6 players coming out of Oregon.
Jeremiah Johnson, the tight ends, a very intriguing prospect, but 6 players coming from Oregon, uh, 6 from Texas, and that's 12, but hey, they have, I have 50.
I have 50 players in my big board, 1.
Point0 because we're gonna do this again.
Again, it's only August, way too early, but so what?
I did a big board anyways and let me know what you think about it.
If you wanna, you know, pick it apart, bash it, feel free because I'm not gonna lie to you , this big board 2.0 in a month or two is gonna look very, very differently, but check it out at SI.com.
