Lance's 2027 Preseason Draft Prospect Rankings: WRs and CBs

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: Career production carries the most weight for the Receivers, but it's not overly weighted like some of the other positions. Smith is all that he's cracked up to be and more. If it wasn't for the value placed on the Quarterback position, Smith would be the unquestioned #1 pick in next year's draft. Becker shined in the opportunities he was provided last year, and with Cooper and Sarratt gone he should really break out this year. After those two it turns into this weird mess. First, the guys who are getting the publicity but missed my top 10: Cam Coleman, Nick Marsh, Ryan Coleman-Williams, TJ Moore and Ryan Wingo. For Coleman and Marsh I could easily make the argument that they were stuck in very bad offenses. Moves to Texas (for Coleman) and Indiana (for Marsh) are ripe opportunities to exceed expectations. Coleman-Williams doesn't have that excuse, he needs to work on his weak spots and finally be the superstar he was thought to be coming out of high school. Moore and Wingo are intriguing. For Moore, it's the fact that Klubnik is gone. If whoever wins the starting job can be all around better, then Moore could breakout. With Wingo I feel like having Coleman to draw away the defense's attention might afford him a true breakout opportunity, but then there's going to be the question of can he be THE guy as a pro, or is he a sidekick? WR2s are still valuable in the league, so there's hope for him regardless. Back to my board. There are a whole lot of "prove its" on there. Wyatt Young and Jackson Harris are moving up to the Power 4 from the Group of 6. Harris chose LSU and then watched them bring in other transfer portal Receivers, but by my numbers he was the most proven talent of the bunch. Young followed his Head Coach to Oklahoma State, which bodes well for him. My primary concern is that he almost exclusively played out of the Slot. He needs to see more work on the outside if he's going to be ready to transition to the pros. Derry, Richardson and Brown are all making the jump from the FCS to the Power 4, obvious go prove me right situations, but my biggest concerns are Derry's smaller frame, and who will be quarterbacking Duke and Stanford for Richardson and Brown. I'll round it out with this, I really like Milligan, good size and good production. His decision to stay at Bucknell means he'll be fighting an uphill battle if he does enter the draft next year.

Analysis: Full college production carries the most weight for their score, with athletic testing carrying the lowest, except in the Slot where it is the exact opposite of that. If Leonard Moore was draft eligible he would've given Mansoor Delane a run for being the first Corner selected back in April. Nestor had a very good first season in Minnesota, but his worst game was against the team he needed to do well against to prove himself (Ohio State). No chance to redeem himself against Ohio State this year, but he does get Washington, Michigan and Indiana, so we will see if he takes that next step. Pollock was one of the more underrated defenders on that loaded Texas Tech defense last season, but with Bailey, Height, Hunter and Rodriguez all gone, he'll be one of the featured names this year. Evan Johnson should be getting more buzz for BYU, we'll see if it picks up as the year progresses. Zachery is my favorite FCS corner out of the draft eligible guys right now, he's still young though, so we'll see if he opts to hit the portal after the season rather than the draft. Speaking of the portal, Chappell, White and Mayo are all portal additions. Chappell and Mayo are jumping up from the FCS and White is moving up from Troy. I'm a big Jaquez White fan, and I really like where he landed. Antonio Watts makes for an interesting study. He's played mostly out of the Slot, his second and third most snaps have come in the box and at the line of scrimmage outside the Tackle. He has the size to be a Safety, but has played minimally in the traditional Safety role. He kind of makes me think of how the Vikings have been using Josh Metellus, but I'm not really sure what to make of him, so for now I'm sticking him at Corner because of his Slot percentage and because he hasn't done anything to warrant not being able to make it there yet. Personally, I feel like Robinson is a bit overrated, and I was surprised to see him make my top ten at all.