Field Yates and Mel Kiper spent Wednesday’s episode of their First Draft show sorting the 2027 class by position. Their verdict: quarterback, wide receiver, edge rusher, tight end, safety and defensive tackle are stacked, while interior offensive line, running back and offensive tackle are the thin spots.
Yates named Oklahoma State’s Drew Mestemaker and Notre Dame’s CJ Carr as his first quarterback tier, ahead of a second tier of Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss, Miami’s Darian Mensah, Texas’ Arch Manning and Oregon’s Dante Moore. Their third tier is USC’s Jayden Maiava and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, with North Texas’ Tayven Jackson and Northern Arizona’s Ty Pennington as Day 3 options.
Their position verdicts against the 15-board consensus
A consensus top 50 built from 15 public big boards and updated Tuesday shows how much of the class the boards put in the first-round conversation. The count below is how many of those 50 play each position, with the highest-ranked name at each one.
| Position | Yates and Kiper | Names they cited | In consensus top 50 | Highest-ranked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarterback | Stacked | Mestemaker, Carr, Chambliss, Mensah, Manning, Moore | 8 | Dante Moore, 11th |
| Wide receiver | Stacked | Jeremiah Smith, Charlie Becker, Nick Marsh, Jackson Harris, Justin Bowick | 7 | Smith, 1st |
| Edge rusher | Stacked | Not named in the recap | 6 | Colin Simmons, 3rd |
| Defensive line | Defensive tackle stacked | Not named in the recap | 6 | Will Echoles, 12th |
| Tight end | Stacked | Not named in the recap | 2 | Jamari Johnson, 14th |
| Safety | Stacked | Not named in the recap | 3 | KJ Bolden, 16th |
| Offensive tackle | Thin; no top-10 tackle unless Jordan Seaton finishes strong (Kiper) | Seaton | 6 | Seaton, 5th |
| Interior offensive line | Thin | Greg Johnson, Minnesota, leads (Yates) | 2 | Johnson, 19th |
| Running back | Thin behind Jadan Baugh; Kewan Lacy and Ahmad Hardy are hurt (Kiper) | Baugh, Lacy, Hardy | 3 | Baugh, 10th |
The edge, defensive line, tight end and safety rows are the consensus counts only, since the recap does not name individual players there. Iowa’s Trevor Lauck, listed on that board as an offensive lineman, is counted with the tackles, as Kiper does on his own board.
The boards agree with the thin verdicts only loosely. Seaton is fifth on the consensus even though Kiper does not see a top-10 tackle, and Baugh is the lone running back in the top 10, with Lacy 30th and Hardy 40th. That is the shape Kiper described: one first-round back and a drop-off behind him.
Yates’ quarterback tiers against the numbers
The tiers do not line up with where the boards sort the quarterbacks. Mestemaker and Carr are Yates’ top tier, yet the consensus has Moore at 11th and Manning at 13th, ahead of Mestemaker at 15th. Moore, who has not played since September 26 and is expected to miss the rest of the season, is still 11th and in 10 of the 13 first-round mocks we counted.
| Quarterback | Yates’ tier | Consensus rank (Nov. 3) | Kiper’s board (Oct. 30) | Our 13-mock count (Oct. 28-Nov. 1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drew Mestemaker | 1 | 15th | 2nd | 12 of 13, 7.8 average pick |
| CJ Carr | 1 | 23rd, up 8 spots | 10th | 8 of 13, 21.5 average |
| Darian Mensah | 2 | 22nd | 4th | 12 of 13, 9.9 average |
| Trinidad Chambliss | 2 | 31st | 7th | 12 of 13, 19.2 average |
| Arch Manning | 2 | 13th | 24th | 7 of 13, 25.4 average |
| Dante Moore | 2 | 11th | 25th | 10 of 13, 22.8 average |
Kiper’s board is the most aligned with Yates: his top four quarterbacks are Mestemaker, Mensah, Chambliss and Carr, with Manning sixth among the passers. The consensus is the odd one out because it still gives Manning and Moore credit for their preseason status. We broke down Kiper’s full top 25 in our October 30 board post, and our 13-mock consensus has the average picks used above.
Yates also pushed back on the idea that the class is too quarterback-heavy at the top: “We’re not going to have six quarterbacks go in the top 12. I think there’s still a chance we could see four or five go in the first round, and a lot of good depth across the board in this entire class.” A first-round mock published the same day by the Best Pod Available hosts did exactly that, with five quarterbacks and five wide receivers off the board, Mestemaker third to Miami and Chambliss fourth to the Jets.
Wide receiver: the deepest group
Kiper said he could go 25 deep at receiver with players he and Yates feel strongly about. Smith leads it by a distance, and the next four they named are Becker and Marsh of Indiana, LSU’s Jackson Harris and Oklahoma State’s Justin Bowick. On the consensus board, Becker is seventh, Marsh 26th, and Rutgers’ KJ Duff and Arizona State’s Reed Harris are 39th and 36th.
The week-10 receiver tracker above ranks Smith first in expected points added per play, at plus 0.96 over 87 plays, with Texas’ Cam Coleman second and Becker third. A separate tracker post from the same account puts Duff first in age-adjusted usage rate.
Running back and the Baugh question
Kiper called running back relatively weak behind a potential first-round pick in Florida’s Jadan Baugh, in part because Lacy of Ole Miss and Hardy of Missouri are injured. The consensus has Baugh 10th, Lacy slipping three spots to 30th and Hardy two to 40th. Our 13-mock count had Baugh in 12 first rounds at an average of 21.6, with a range from second to 32nd, so his floor is the real debate.
The next data point is the weekend, when Tennessee hosts Kentucky and the Gilliam and Heard matchup from our midseason risers post gets its test. For positions, the question for the boards is whether the thin groups get a late riser the way Gilliam and Heard did.
No published comments yet. Start the conversation.