Lance's 2027 Preseason Draft Prospect Rankings: O-Line and D-Line

Same little refresher from the QB/Edge article, but in case you didn't read that, here it is again. These articles are for draft eligible players only, obviously. These are not the same as the weekly top ten player rankings articles, though as the year progresses with those I will use them to add players to these boards. I update these specific ones every 4-ish weeks during the season. Also, without the Combine, this is only college production, so for the analysis I include for each position I will be sure to include if the athletic testing weighs into the Score more heavily than their statistical production or vice versa. Alright, let's dive in:

Analysis: All Lineman are added to all three O-Line boards, and then I whittle it down based on snap percentages across the Line, and physical build minimums and maximums at each position. Without the Combine that becomes a little harder, but I did my best. For Tackles, career college production matters the most, and athleticism the least. No Jordan Seaton. You can talk about potential and talent all you want, but I'm going to tell you to prove it, and Seaton has not done that. Not to mention, he's now moving from the Big 12 to the SEC. Maybe it was the coaching? I guess we'll see. Lauck, Smith, Green and Siereveld all had very good years in 2025 by my numbers, so I'm not surprised to find them at the top. What does surprise me is the talk that Ohio State will move Siereveld back to Guard despite how well he played at Tackle. Goosby is the expected #1 Tackle going into next year's draft. He graded out decently well for me, but there's still work for him to do. PJ Williams marks the point where we cross into guys I have a Day 3 grade on. As high as people are on Peak, he'll have to prove them right if he's going to move up my board. Boley got off to a good start last year and then tapered off, we'll see if he can put together a full body of work in 2026.

Analysis: Guard is the opposite of Tackle and Center, with athleticism carrying the most weight for the score, and career production the lowest. Piper and Tengesdahl both received Day 1 grades. They're the only two actual interior Offensive Lineman to do so. Shadre Hurst would be my favorite to make a surprise run at the first round next year, he'll need to do for Houston what he did for Tulane though. Greg Johnson actually grades out a little better at Center, however, his move back to Guard last season resulted in his best year to date, so I left him on this board. Hubbard and Moreno both played for Monmouth last year, both had great seasons, and then they hit the portal and moved up to the Group of 6. They're sleepers, you probably won't see their names elsewhere right now, but I have high hopes they'll keep pushing themselves up.

Analysis: Pretty much identical to Guard in that athleticism carries the most weight with career college production at the bottom. Last year was Evans' first season at Center and he crushed it. Nichols actually moved from Center to Guard for SMU last season. He did well at Center for Arkansas in 2024, he continued to improve with the move to Guard last year, so he could offer major interior position flexibility as a pro. Coleton Price was the big ticket on the interior and Kentucky won the raffle. He's 4th on here, but a Day 3 grade overall, so he needs to go prove he's worth whatever they're paying him. Bobo's injury killed the great season he was having, he should be able to put himself right back in the thick of the race to be the #1 Center as long as he stays healthy. Montgomery hasn't played Center in college, but he graded out well enough to make the top ten here, he was still a ways down at Guard. Reph rounds it out, there are size concerns with him, but without the Combine to weigh in on that, I'm not taking it into account right now. If history is any indication though, he will not receive a Combine invite.

Analysis: As you probably know, I split my Interior Defensive Lineman into two boards, the DL board and the NT board. NT is for the 320+ pound guys and DL is for the 319 and lighter guys. I use their day grades on those boards as well as their probabilities for A, B+ and C+ to combine the boards, but when it comes to their scores they could not be more different. And here's the fun part, it's actually the NT guys where the athletic testing matters the most, for the DL guys it's their full college production. Christensen was granted the extra year of eligibility and now he gets a chance to prove he can dominate against the next level of competition like he did at New Mexico State. Echoles, Holmes, Stone, Washington and Moten are all viewed as potential first round picks right now. Out of that group, only Echoles would have a shot to go in the first on my board as it stands currently. Hopefully some big final seasons are in store because I'm tired of being super down on the Interior D-Lineman. I wasn't really sure what to do with Gardner. By my numbers he should be top 3 in the rankings, but if his listed size is accurate then he'd be a short Edge, or a lightweight D-Tackle. I hope he's able to bulk up some while at Western Michigan, while continuing to dominate opposing O-Lines, that would make my job easier.