WAFER-THIN DRAFT BOARD LIES AHEAD
The 2031 EFL Draft will get started tomorrow with Las Vegas, Milwaukee, newly-relocated Atlantic City, Fort Drum and Brooklyn drooling over the first five selections. Chances are they'll be able to find players worthy of a first-round label. For everyone else...well...we might be paying above-market-rate for the quality of players we'll be grabbing. This draft class is anorexic in both depth and secure top-end talent. Here’s a positional breakdown of the draft…for those new to the scene, players are only evaluated at their listed positions, regardless of where their ratings say they would be best suited. All opinions are strictly those of yours truly, slowly going stir crazy trapped inside the league headquarters in Corona Castle.
QB – Position Grade: D-It is a very bad year to need a signal-caller in the draft. Three of the top six selections don’t even project to have accuracy ratings above 70 in a best-case scenario. In my opinion, that’s the line of death, meaning I won’t even look at Oklahoma’s Michael Benavidez. Georgia’s Terry Westbrook looks to be the best in the draft, but carries an upper midrange volatility score. Auburn’s Trent Townsend won’t be mistaken for an all-star, but could find himself in a starter/franchise back-up role in the league.
RB – Position Grade: DThe RB pool in the draft isn’t much better than the QB position. None of them default in the 80s and my rankings similarly don’t see any 80 scores to be found. Two of the backs in the 70s are carting around sub-70 speeds. Worse, the two best prospects – Ga. Tech’s Jonathan Canon and USC’s Robert Guerrero – each carry upper-90 volatility scores, but someone is sure to pull the trigger, especially considering that Guerrero comes equipped with a mid-80s ACC, a mid-90s SPD and the potential to hit 99 in break tackles with a good training camp roll. Too bad he’s only a modest threat to catch it out of the backfield.
FB – Positional Grade: FThere’s nothing here. Washington’s James Shepherd is as good as it gets and that’s not very good. Maybe there will be some tight ends capable of converting or some strong RB’s that can flex over to this position, but anything explicitly listed as an FB looks weak sauce.
TE – Positional Grade: BIt took us a while, but we finally arrive at the first position to feature strong first-round talent. Washington’s James Robards is the real deal at tight end and can easily flex to other positions if a person wanted. But who would really want to move a low-80s ACC/SPD tight end with 95+ strength, low volatility and the ability to hit 95 or better in run blocking, pass catching and B&R avoidance? While Robards is the obvious catch at the position, there’s functional depth here as well with multiple 70+ SPD players available for those looking at pass-catching TE’s.
WR – Positional Grade: CThere are maybe 8 names here that stand a legit chance pre-training camp at landing on rosters and 4 of the top 5 names weigh in with volatility scores of 20 or less making this a fairly safe location to come shopping in round 1, even if not all of those names are necessarily WR #1 caliber of talent. Which name belongs at the top of the list here probably depends on your personal preferences for ACC/SPD as well as how you personally treat courage, route running, B&R avoidance, etc. The C grade is for lack of elite standouts and sub-standard overall depth at the position.
OL – Positional Grade: A-This is the one position that I don’t break down by listed position simply because it is so easy to flip O-Line positions that there’s just not much point to it. Deron Brown, Frank Hamilton, Joshua Tate , Donald Cary, Leo Dixon should be among the first names to vanish and the order will depend based on need as all feature mid-range volatility scores. The depth on the O-line looks to be good as well for those wanting to supplement depth or find a surprise starter in the middle draft rounds.
P/K – Positional Grade: B+I know, I know…some folks don’t think punters or kickers are worth draft spots. But just in case you don’t fall into this category, know that the pool this season looks to be about 3-deep for quality at both positions, with some “in case of emergency” depth or “maybe he’ll boom in camp” free agency signing potential as well. Considering there are some years I’m writing that there are no kickers or punters to be found, that seems a pretty good deal!
DE – Positional Grade: C-Notre Dame’s Neil Germain is the clear cream of the crop here, defaulting into the mid-80s at both LDE and RDE with a mid-level volatility score. Whoever gets him, barring training camp disaster, will have a solid starting DE for seasons ahead. Behind that, depending on which end you need, there are 2-3 names that make the cut as useful likely starters for many teams in the league. And then there’s a cliff.
DT – Positional Grade: D+Ralph Schubert is the man, but comes with a 90+ volatility score. Robert Peoples is slightly safer, and slightly less-talented, but still not a sure thing with a mid-range volatility. From there the depth at the position vaults off a cliff while the volatility risk remains high.
OLB – Positional Grade: D+On the strong side, Baylor’s Craig Ortiz is the man to grab at a position that only generated six players. On the weak side, Rocky Bloom is the clear best, but carries the 100 volatility rating to indicate the BYU prospect might opt to head off on a mission and forget all about football. Overall, OLB is a position that features little guaranteed starting impact and only minimal depth.
MLB – Positional Grade: CI feel like I’m a hard grader, but I really can’t bring myself to rate positions high when the talent drop off is so severe or the top end seems lacking. Paul Hubbard has the best raw talent of those at the position. He also has a 90 volatility. Patrick Vasquez is probably the safer pick with low-40s volatility and 89/89/70 ACC/SPD/STR and a potential to peg 98 in tackling ability. As with so many positions in this draft though, there just aren’t a lot of deep options at the position that I see holding down starting slots in the league come 5 years from now.
CB – Positional Grade: FDear lord, it just keeps getting worse. Of the top five at the position, only two have speed ratings even worthy of consideration. This is the thinnest draft class I can recall in some time…either that or I know so little about this game that I’m blind to what’s before my eyes. What I do believe in though is that David Hunt is the best of the class at the corner position.
SS – Positional Grade: C-Depth is again an issue here, but Georgia Tech grad Andrew Howell at least gives it one first-round caliber talent with a low-risk volatility rating.
FS – Positional Grade: DOAThere weren’t many players generated at free safety. None of the ones that were generated default to a rating above 60. Complete rubbish across the board.
