2015 NFL Draft Review – My Big Board

Outside of reviewing how each prospect has done three years down the road, it’s only fair to see how I did evaluating each prospect. For a second year in a row I’ve gone back and looked at my final Top 32 rankings highlighting what I got right and what I got wrong providing my own 2015 NFL Draft Review.

2015 NFL Draft Review – How I did

 

My Top 32 Prospects for the 2015 Draft

1. Leonard Williams DT USC
2. Jameis Winston QB Florida State
3. Randy Gregory OLB Nebraska
4. Dante Fowler DE Florida
5. Kevin White WR West Virginia
6. Amari Cooper WR Alabama
7. Todd Gurley RB Georgia
8. Vic Beasley OLB Clemson
9. Trae Waynes CB Michigan State
10. Dorial Green-Beckham WR Oklahoma
11. Marcus Mariota QB Oregon
12. Alvin Dupree OLB Kentucky
13. Arik Armstead DT Oregon
14. DeVante Parker WR Louisville
15. Brandon Scherff G Iowa
16. Shane Ray DE Missouri
17. DJ Humphries OT Florida
18. Danny Shelton DT Washington
19. Andrus Peat OT Stanford
20. TJ Clemmings OT Pittsburgh
21. Erick Kendricks ILB UCLA
22. Ereck Flowers OT Miami
23. Malcom Brown DT Texas
24. Marcus Peters CB Washington
25. Cameron Erving C Florida State
26. Kevin Johnson CB Wake Forest
27. La’el Collins OT LSU
28. Breshad Perriman WR UCF
29. Preston Smith DE Mississippi State
30. Owamagbe Odighuzuwa DE UCLA
31. Jordan Phillips DT Oklahoma
32. Landon Collins S Alabama

 

Where I was Right

Leonard Williams

While I wouldn’t say that Leonard Williams has turned into an all out super star but having him as the number one player in this class wasn’t far off. Sure in a redraft Todd Gurley, Mariota or a few others may be the guy, Williams has developed into a franchise player and someone you build your defense around.

 

Todd Gurley

Watching Gurley he was the one play that really stood out and I decided to not have him as my top overall player mainly because of the uncertainty of his knee injury. Something that I’ve gone away from. Gurley was explosive, powerful and just always looked like the best player in the game. Other than his second year in the league on a poorly coached offense, he’s shown to be one of the best running backs in the NFL.

 

Vic Beasley

Watching Beasley on tape his ability to get after the quarterback was evident which lead me to having him as my 8th overall prospect. The fact that he lead the NFL in 2016 was clear that his traits in college have translated. Beasley could have been even higher in my rankings but some concerns about his ability to play the run game.

 

Erick Kendricks

From the minute I watched Kendricks I fell in love with him as a prospect. His ability to fly around and make plays really resonated with him and why I had him ranked so high. I felt he was easily one of the 25 best players in this class and he’s gone on to be a stalwart to the Vikings elite defense and shown to be a perfect fit in this new age pass happy NFL.

 

Where I was Wrong

Dorial Green-Beckham

I really liked me some DGB where I fell in love with his size, speed and the ability to win contested catches. I didn’t factor in his off the field issues into his ranking, because I couldn’t quantify on how to do this. This was also coming off the year where I downed Mike Evans because he couldn’t separate and my have over compensated with DGB. I also looked past that all DGB did was run go routes down the field against poor Big 12 corners. It didn’t help that DGB didn’t seem to get his off the field issues in check.

 

Alvin Dupree

Dupree is a classic example of drafting a player based off of pass rushing potential. Sure he had 9 sacks as a senior and 25.5 for his entire career. But most of those sacks were based on his athletic ability. Dupree hasn’t been awful for the Steelers but has failed to live up to his pass rushing ability causing the Steelers to continue to look at the position. Not a bad player, but not worth the 12th overall in my rankings.

 

Offensive Tackles

Boy this was a bad tackle class. Andrus Peat, DJ Humphries, Ereck Flowers and Cedric Ogbuehi all went in the first round and neither of them have made it at tackle (Peat is a solid guard). I had Humphries, Peat, TJ Clemmings and Ereck Flowers all were ranked in my top 22 and neither of them should have been. Humphries and Clemmings were so raw but such good athletes and I thought Flowers could have been a good right tackle. I whiffed bad on these.

 

Marcus Peters

It’s not that I hated Peters but had him as my 24th rated player but also had him behind the three bad tackles and a couple of other busts. And despite liking his ball skills and physicality I was a bit down on his athletic ability. However I have to wonder if the fact that he was kicked off the Washington team with rumors of attacking a coach crept too much into a bias? Regardless Peters has turned into an elite corner, but some attitude issues did get him shipped off to the Rams.