The Draft Rankings Show - Biggest Offensive Risers from the NFL Combine

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1:01I cannot wait. It feels like it's far. It feels like it's six months away, but it's really just about six weeks away. I just released my latest NFL mock draft 3.0 up at rostrawatch.com. It's three rounds, 100 selections. You can go check that out at rostrawatch.com. I'll talk about it later in the week on one of the shows. But today I want to come in just for a quick one and talk about the Combine risers from the offensive side of the football. We talked about defense on Friday and today I want to come in and bring you my thoughts on quarterback, wide receiver running back. I have not finished all watching all the offensive lineback on Sunday. I was driving back home, um, left early Sunday morning from Indianapolis, drove home, got home to Charleston about six p.m. So I haven't got watched back all of the offensive lines to quite yet, but I did grade all of the wide receiver workouts on Saturday, watched the quarterbacks, have notes on the quarterbacks.

2:02Actually, just realized I started without my notepad in front of me, which is amazing. So I have to go off of memory for the quarterbacks and then watch the running backs as well. In the blistering blistering, Mike Washington, 4 3 3 40, I dashed that again. We've talked about Mike Washington on the show plenty, but one of just four players in the history of the SEC conference to weigh over 220 pounds and to run a 4 3 in the 4 3 sub 4 4 so 4 3 9 4 3 4 3 7 on down to 4 3 1 or 4 3 0. Low Jackson from Auburn, Herschel Walker from Georgia, Niles Davis from Arkansas and now Mike Washington from Arkansas all had 1000 yard seasons in the SEC as well. That was maybe one of the biggest takeaways was we knew he was going to run fast. We got some reports. This dude's going to run fast, but 100 percentile speed score. Is that really what we're going to go? That's where we ended up with Mike Washington after a phenomenal Saturday night showing

3:08in prime time. Go to the wide receiver position because that's the most I go so I say prevalent prevalent. We did not get routes from Jordan Tyson. We did not get routes from carnal tape carnal tape ran a 4 5 3 people said in the stands that there was some scouts had like 4 4 7's on him. It doesn't really matter. It's the same thing. 4 4 7 4 5 3. There's been a laundry list of receivers from Dante Adams to DeAndre Hopkins to Puka to Cup to you name it that ran 4 5's. So I'm not worried about carnal tape at all. He's sitting in that number one share for me and you know that's tough for me because I love the alpha profile, which is the new age alpha, which is the 5 11 6 foot 190 to 200 pounds. And that's my kind of lemon. That's that's Casey concept she own and those were the two highest graded route runners on the day that participated, right? I thought that overall this class was fine.

4:11There's a group of dudes that just kind of like there's a couple dudes in each one of the tears. So at roster watch the last four years, we've graded every route from every receiver that's ran a route at the combine. We were graded every route, gone with everything 23 24 25 26 because that's when they started letting us in the stadium for the whole workout. Before that, it was like if you were with the PWA, you'd go in there for like 15 minutes, you would get to see the whole workout, things of this nature. So when they allowed us to start doing that, we started charting everything. And this top group of receivers is a pretty solid hit rate. So there's 14 guys that we agree with 25 points scored or higher in the grade. And again, the grade system, if you get a 31 would almost be is nearly unattainable from this grading perspective, but it is if you have the most elite day of all time, you might get there. The highest possible score I should say is a 42, but that is there's zero percent chance

5:12you would get. I mean, that is nobody would ever get there. So here's the group 25 or higher in on field routes and the goal of it. America leads the world in medicine development. It matters. We get new medicines first, nearly three years faster, five million Americans go to work because we make medicines here at home and not relying on other countries keeps us safe. But China is racing to overtake us. Will we let them or will we choose to stay ahead? When America leads, America cures. Let's tell Washington to keep us in the lead. Learn how at AmericaCures.com, pay for by pharma. My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink, then straight to the gym pre-gift pickup, back home to meal prep, time for my fire session shift. One more Celsius kind of keep the lights on when the three alarm hits, I'm ready. Celsius, live, fit, go, grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate

6:13now at Celsius.com. From 2023, we have Tankdale, Pukin, Nakua, Josh Downs, Charlie Football, Keishan, Lute, Zae Flowers, Tyler Scott. From 2024, we have Roma Dunze, from 2025, we have Jimmy Horn, Luther Burton, Jack Besch, and from 2026, joining that group, which is like a 70% hit rate, Zach, Zach Rye Branch, KC Conception and McCyee Lemon. McCyee Lemon finishes third all time, just a half point ahead of KC Conception from Texas A&M who finishes fourth all time. Again, those aren't going to be big risers, but I just want to like get that out of the way. I know we're five minutes in and I've only given you the biggest conversation points for the biggest players, right? We've talked about Mike Washington being running back too potentially in the class, Tucker Woodjudarian Price just last Thursday in that kind of perspective. I think Mike Washington is going to end up being running back to him and gets a big deal from a riser's perspective. As far as the White receivers go, like, Conception is not going to rise for me because he was

7:14White receiver two coming in. He had a great week. I'm going to leave him at two for now. McCyee Lemon is not going to rise. He might jump. Him and Tyson are still neck and neck for me, so it's not going to be a big growth there. Zachariah Branch does come up a couple of spots for me, overall in the 2026, rookie White receiver rankings. I had him at eight. He's now up to six. So for me, it's that big five group and then Branch is right there. I don't think Branch is much far off. I have him ahead of Omar Cooper at that position. Some of the other names that kind of vaulted themselves into tier two, which tier two is between 21 and 25 points. We've seen guys like JSN in this tier. He didn't have the greatest goal in his year. That's why he's down here. You know, a little bit better. He would have been in that top group. He was just missed it. Quentin Johnston, Andre Yosef Oshlad Mcconkey, Michael Wilson, Alec Aeman, or Jordan Addison, among names in this group with Jayden Reed, Jill McMillan. There's also some misses in here like Jiquan Jackson and Bobo and Jaree Jenkins.

8:17But in that group, we saw Ted Hearst, we saw Jimmy Bernard, two names we expected to be higher up. Kevin Coleman and Jacobi Lane. I thought Jacobi Lane from USC had one of the better combines out of any wide receiver at the event. Like from that perspective, I did not see Jacobi Lane being a superstar. I did not see Jacobi Lane being in the top 10. I had him closer to 16. I think that I did have him near the top 10 at six, four, 200 pounds. Ten in chance, ten and a half in chance, 32 in arms, almost 33. One's a four, four, seven at six, four, 200 pounds, a 40 in vertical, almost an 11 foot broad jump. Jacobi Lane had a great week. He vaults himself up the overall wide receiver rankings for me. He gets to 11. I got him at 11. I'm debating him and Ted Hearst. I just mentioned Eliza Serrat. That's kind of the conversation. I have Jacobi Lane. But he graded out very well in the on field workout in the athleticism testing in the interview

9:20portion. He was good. Wasn't great. He was good. Jacobi Lane has to be a little bit of a riser here in that group. He's one of four in that second group. We're not going to talk about guys that fell because this is a riser show. We can talk about movers in the down perspective on a later show. One thing I do want to get to though is the quarterback conversation because while you're watching receivers, right? We're watching receivers closely because we're grading every single row. From a quarterback perspective, you really only notice and I make my notes and I'm not watching these guys from like of overall technique perspective. It's more about ineffectiveness and efficient and efficiency perspective. It's a how consecutive how many consecutive throws are they messing up? Can they can they just do the job? Can you just can you make the deep out? Can you make the 17 yard out? Can you make the deep ball keep it in bounds? Can you give the receiver an opportunity on that crossing route? Can you give them an opportunity to catch the ball and get two feet in bounds?

10:24Can you put the ball in a catchable place when you're literally just no defenders lobbing a football up to a spot so the receiver can come down with it in the corner of the end zone inside the pile on and get two feet down. To be honest, the answer for a lot of these guys was no, like there was a lot of these names. We're talking about it. This is not a fall or show. This is a riser show. A lot of names that just could not consistently get that job done. Names that could very, very, very, very, very clear to me that Ty Simpson was the best quarterback throwing at the event. Now for an Adam and those that did not throw, Ty Simpson did, Ty Simpson is very clearly the next best quarterback. There's a lot of different projections there. The 15 career starts, yada, yada, yada, Ty Simpson is pretty clear, even if you think he's Brock Pretty, Brock Pretty got the job done and has done that so far in the NFL. Other quarterbacks I thought had efficiently solid days, didn't make a lot of mess ups. Baron Morton didn't make a lot of mess ups. Luke Altmeyer.

11:25I'll continue to bang this drum. I think Altmeyer in five years will be a number two somewhere and people are going to say, baby, baby. Do you know what a smartness kid is? You know, a nice kid has to have a dude that can come in and just take the reins like Davis Mills and Case Kingdom and things like this. He was fine. He had a fine day. It was very impressed with Carson Beck and his ability to just overcome being booed on every single snap by the stadium. I don't know. There was like 15,000 fans in there that felt like, and every time Carson Beck touched the football, booze rain down from the ceiling and I was, what is why? Obviously, maybe he played Indiana, the national championship, a lot of Indiana fans there were putting on for their guy Fernando Mendoza. Nussmeyer was middling, not really a riser. Beck is going to be a riser. Beck's going to get up into that top four, probably four or five for me. Cole Payton will talk about it on another show, but I think the biggest ones was Beck rising Altmeyer and Baron Morton to a little bit, to a mild extent, I'm still not completely

12:29sold on him. See him more of like a 10 or more to guy, kind of a long shot, kind of late round, UDFA 7th around time of the situation, but I think he works himself inside that top 10 ahead of some of these other names. So I guess I'll say that the biggest riders, the quarterback position, probably Beck and Altmeyer for me, outside of already Simpson being at number two coming into the week. Tight ends overall from the weekend. I mean, Kenyans to dig right on a 4-3-9, breaking the record, does all the things to, for me, kind of establish my Evan Ingram comp plus is really what he ended up doing. I think him and Eli Stowers both came out with 9-4-7, Razz scores. So neither of them does it in a rise, Sam Rouse would rise. He had a 9-9-3 Razz score at 267 pounds, 10-inch hands, runs a 4-7-0. I had a tweet the other day, immediately after this, about Sam Rouse because it's a very

13:32small group of humans that did what Sam Rouse did on Friday night for Sam Rouse. And it's impressive. So running in the 4-7s, I talked about Mike Washington earlier, running in the 4-7s at either 6-6 or 6-7s, so you've got to be dull, tall, 6-6, 6-7, something like this. Over 260 pounds in the 260s, so there's your range, 6-6, 6-7, 260, running a 4-7, here's the list, ready? Nick Kasa, 6-round pick, Breven Span Ford did not get drafted, and then here's the list, ready? CJ Fedoroets, first pick in the third round, Jason Witten, fifth pick in the third round, Austin Safarian Jenkins, sixth pick in the second round, Rob Grant Kowski, second round. That's your list of guys that perform to the same level as Sam Rouse on Friday night.

14:35Incredibly impressive for the beast, the young tight-end, the combine, the Senior Bull and Combine standout, Sam Rouse from Stanford, rises at the tight-end position for me. I got a bump up Tanner Coswell, I talked to Maddie about this, Tanner Coswell ran a 4-7 at 247 pounds, 6-foot six, that kid's so young, that's a younger me would have loved to bump Tanner Coswell way up the rankings, kind of like I did with 100 long back in the day. Tanner Coswell's going to be just fine, it's just not going to be till 2028, it's going to take a little while, this kid's young, and he's got some growing, he can be 265 by the end of this whole deal in a couple of years, madly impressed with that workout that we saw from Coswell. The whole group ran pretty quick, a lot of 4-6s from this overall group, Jack Endries, a guy that really didn't present as a good athlete, 8-6-5, Razzcore ran a 4-6 to a 245 pounds, I was impressed with him, he's not going to really rise up though because he's

15:39blocked, he's bottlenecked by Sam Rouse and Max Clare had a good day as well. That's where you got it for the quarterback, the wide receiver, the tie ends, and finally the running back position. As far as risers go, it just, Mike Washington has to be the guy, he's number 2 now at the running back position, Nick Singleton also, you have to give him that bump back up. We saw Gideon Price come in a little bit lighter, he came in 7 pounds lighter and expected a 210-203, I expected a mid 4-5, he ran a 4-4-9, big for Gideon Price, interviewed excellent. I think we're getting more clarity on that, number 2 spot, I feel good about the top 4 right now, I feel good about love obviously, I feel really good about Mike Washington, really good. I didn't say great or elite, I just feel really good about him, from the athletic profile perspective, coupled with the last year 1000 yards in the SEC, Nick Singleton, I talked to Nick Singleton, asked him when he was going to be able to work out, if he was going to do anything, when the boot was going to come off, he was wheeling around there, because

16:43he's expected a 4-3 guy, right, people are expecting 4-3, squat 660 pounds, he's a beast from Penn State, he says he's going to try and work out the week before the NFL draft, which tells me he's going to be ready for the NFL season without a doubt, he's a grinder, so I feel much better about Nick Singleton today than I did a week ago, and then Gideon Price, I don't think he really fell, some people think he fell because he came in to light, yada yada, I think he interviewed excellent, he's going to be a great number two somewhere, so honestly, Gideon is probably going to end up being a number four, so technically he's a follower, but we're not really talking about that perspective, Singleton rises, Mike Washington rises, and if you want a guy that's deeper down the list that we have to put the tape back on for, and we have to check out once again, it has to be another guy that came in at north of 220 pounds, this guy ran a 4-4-9, not what I was expecting, Seth McGowan from Kentucky, I got to put the tape back on, I got to check this thing out because I was not a big fan of Seth McGowan coming out of Kentucky this last year by

17:44way in New Mexico State and Oklahoma, I'm Cody Carpenter with the draft fricking show, I appreciate y'all, love y'all, we'll be back tomorrow with a little bit more, maybe a mock draft or something, click that like button, click subscribe, we'll be back, Seth McGowan rises up the board. Shot clocks, big shots, upsets, aces, TGL playoffs are here, first Atlanta Drive starts their repeat run against Los Angeles Golf Club, then Rory's Boston Common Golf and Tigers Jupiter links face-off in their playoff debuts, who will advance, keep up its playoffs. Tune in Tuesday, March 17th at 6.30pm and 9pm only on ESPN and the ESPN app.