How the coaching carousel could impact the NFL Draft

Hello, hello!

This was a fun week, as announcements have begun to pour in on official commitments for both of the two major college football All-Star Games. With the Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl both unfurling a handful of their initial acceptances, all of the coaching changes, AND conference title games on the docket, my head is in a complete whirlwind right now. 

The newsiest part of this week, draft-wise, is certainly the beginning of the Shrine Bowl and Senior Bowl announcements. I’ll dedicate space in this email every week to go through some of the most notable names committing to the two events. For the sake of space, I’ll provide quick one-liners on five guys from this week, but check out the Draft Guide for the full write-ups on the entire crew!

The highest-graded player (based on my evaluations) announced as of this writing by the Senior Bowl is Georgia Tech G Keylan Rutledge, who I’ve mentioned multiple times in the last couple of weeks here. He’s a powerful run blocker with a mean streak. I have a starting grade on him right now. The earliest I could see him going, at this point, is the middle of Day 2, but we’ve seen players with this profile fall to Day 3 as well. 

Missouri EDGE Zion Young had a huge season this year after being largely unproductive in the three years prior. He’s a really strong run defender, and I’m glad that he was more productive this season, but I do have reservations on his ceiling when moving to the NFL. He relies on being stronger and more violent than the guy across from him to win in college; that won’t be the case when he gets to the league. I do think he sticks, but more as a backup. I’m excited to see him go through one-on-one drills at the Senior Bowl.

Multiple industry sources had asked me recently if I had studied Nebraska S DeShon Singleton, and I hadn’t up until this week. Once the Senior Bowl announced his acceptance, I got to the film quickly. Singleton is big and long; he has really good flashes on tape. I studied three games and felt better about projecting him as a specialty subpackage player as opposed to an every-down guy on defense. I liked what he showed in his ability to match up in man-to-man against tight ends, so for teams that need a matchup piece in ‘Big Nickel’ or ‘Dime’ defenses, he’s a good option in the middle of Day 3.

Pivoting to the Shrine Bowl, another player I hadn’t had a chance to study on tape was Buffalo LB Red Murdock. This guy is ALWAYS around the football and he’s a stout, violent presence playing downhill. The athletic upside is the question and likely dictates his starting potential. I remember studying Colts LB Zaire Franklin when he came out of Syracuse as an undrafted free agent, and Murdock really reminded me of him. 

Lastly, I’ll hit on the first acceptance for the Shrine Bowl, NC State NT Brandon Cleveland. I’ve mentioned before that this class feels rich in the ‘run stuffing nose tackle’ archetype, and Cleveland is another name to add to the list. Love how violent his hands are at the point of attack. How much juice he provides as a rusher will be the big question with him.

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As a quick note, if you want to quickly see the accepted invites for both games in a quick and easy way, just use the DieHard Draft Guide! We have a nifty way for you to sort through it.

When you open the guide, you’ll see the dropdown on the top right corner (the icon with those three lines). Click on that and begin typing in ‘All-Star Game’ in the dropdown. 

After you select it, you’ll see ‘All-Star Game’ appear on the top left as an option to filter out results from the entire list of players. 

When you do that, you’ll only see all of the players that have accepted invitations to the game you select. Once a player is announced by the game, I add them into the guide, even if I haven’t written them up yet. The moment a player is added (or removed), I make the change, so you have all of the information right at your fingertips. Then you can sort by position, round grade, and anything else your heart desires. Simply deselect the ‘All-Star Game’ filter when you’re done to return back to the entire Big Board!

Most of my time on college film study this week was spent on the All-Star Game acceptances, but I did make one exception! I finally got around to studying Texas S Michael Taaffe early on in the week, and he just cracked my Top 80.

A fifth-year senior, Taaffe (pronounced ‘Taff’) grew up a diehard Longhorns fan in Austin, TX and turned down other D1 scholarship offers to walk on at Texas. He redshirted his first season and, after his second year, he became the first walk-on under coach Steve Sarkisian to earn a scholarship. He’s known as having outstanding football character, and I do think it says a LOT about him that the program tasked him with being the host for QB Arch Manning on his recruiting visits. Those types of things are not done lightly; coaches and staffers put thought into pairing up players with high school recruits, and they thought enough of Taaffe (who was not even on scholarship yet) to be the representative of the team for Manning to help seal the deal. They nailed that one. He’s been a great Longhorn and everyone around that program appears to love him.

On the field, he’s an interesting study. He’s instinctive as a top-down zone defender and he’s looking to jump routes (maybe to his detriment, at times). He takes good angles downhill as a run defender but will miss tackles due to his lack of size and some bad technique at times. I like his floor as a backup and special teams player; I feel really good about his ability to stick. The question will be how much I trust him to become a reliable starter on the back end. It’s not non-zero, but I think it would be a bit of a roller coaster if he got thrown into the fire early on defense.

Literally ⅓ of the schools in the SEC changed coaches this week, with new coaches popping up out west and in the ACC as well. The turnover will only speed up now as the carousel spins. From a draft standpoint, this has huge implications on underclassmen at all of these programs.

Does the new coach value them the same way the old one did? Will they prove that with their wallet?

If not, can they get that dollar amount in the Transfer Portal?

If not, they have about a month until the deadline to declare for the NFL Draft.

One big domino fell this week with Arkansas EDGE Quincy Rhodes.

I’m glad that Rhodes is going back to school. The tools are tantalizing; he has outstanding length and closing speed for a guy that big. He can sink his hips and turn the corner and play low to the ground. He’s not a polished pass rusher right now and his block recognition in the run game certainly needs to improve. I think he would have gotten drafted higher, based on his traits, than what his tape would indicate had he come out in this class. Now we’ll talk about him for 2027.

With that, here is the first thought that comes to my mind when I think of the rest of the coaching hires around College Football:

For the players that have no eligibility left, they begin training ASAP for the pre-draft process. Whether they’re doing it close to campus, close to their hometown, or if they’re being put up at one of the many training facilities around the country, that process begins now for any players that are not on bowl eligible teams. They’ll report to their trainer, go through a medical check (to determine if there are any injuries that have to be taken care of), immediately begin the athletic testing to establish a baseline and areas of improvement, and begin position work and interview prep.

For the players that are on bowl eligible teams, they now have to decide whether or not they plan on playing in the post-season. Some will, and some won’t. Some will remain with their team through the end of the bowl game, and others won’t (whether it’s their decision or the team’s). If they don’t, their draft prep begins now.

For some players that may be on the playoff bubble, such as Miami EDGE Rueben Bain JR, there’s a chance we may never see them suit up again. He netted 5 tackles and 1.5 sacks against Pitt last week in a dominant Canes victory. There’s a chance that was his swan song for the team, but he also could decide to suit up for, say, the Gator Bowl. Or he could be getting ready for the first round of the playoffs a week from now.

For me, personally, I plan on spending the next several weeks continuing to churn through tape of All-Star game acceptances that I have not seen yet, but I’ll also begin putting some finishing touches on some player profiles in the Draft Guide. You may notice that I have a section on each profile titled ‘Numbers That Matter’, where I take a look at some intriguing numbers that stand out about specific prospects. Now that all of the data is accumulated for players who are done playing, I can finally start crunching some of these.

I’ll give you a freebie on this one. Here are a couple of nuggets on intriguing Baylor WR Josh Cameron, who is also headed to the Senior Bowl.

I didn’t have sections like this in last year’s version of the Draft Guide … but you’ll be getting stuff like this for as many prospects as I can muster in this cycle!

I was higher than most last spring on former Alabama G Tyler Booker, who went to the Dallas Cowboys at 12th overall (which matched his exact slot on my Big Board). This was despite the fact that, by most standards, Booker had a poor showing at the Scouting Combine in the athletic testing portion of the event. Booker ran 5.38 in the 40-yard dash with a tortoise-esque 1.96 10-yard split, along with poor shuttle times (7.96 in the 3-cone and 4.84 in the short shuttle) and just a 94-inch broad jump. Yes, face value, those numbers are bad. But did that ‘bad’ athleticism show up on tape? I did not think so, and it has not proven to be an issue for him in the NFL either.

As our friend Brandon Thorn pointed out, Booker was outstanding on Thanksgiving Day against the Chiefs and Chris Jones, one week after pitching a shutout against Eagles DT Jalen Carter. He’s going to be a force for a long time. Athletic testing is absolutely important, but it’s also important to try and contextualize it. For some players and positions, the athletic profile may matter more than others. Some players test better than their ‘play speed’ may indicate, and vice versa. There are also facets of athleticism that are NOT tested at the Combine. These are all important themes to remember for a couple of months from now.

By the way - keep an eye out NEXT week for Brandon on the All NFL Draft Podcast! Speaking of which … 

We have a host of big games this weekend with Conference Titles up for grabs around the country. On this week’s episode I invited Cory Kinnan on to break down the Big 12, Big 10 and SEC Championship Games with the biggest names that could be available for the 2026 Draft. Which matchups should have the closest eye on? Cory and I break them down before I take a longer look at Dane Brugler’s latest Mock Draft over at the Athletic. Who did each of the ALLCITY teams select and which team/player fits did I like most around the league? I bounce around that mock draft to close the episode.

For a full in-depth look at the key matchups for Saturday’s three biggest games, be sure to listen to the podcast above, but I’ll give some extra thoughts on a few more here!

Let’s start with the Big 12 Title Game, which starts at 12pm ET. BYU RB LJ Martin was not fully healthy in the first battle between these two teams earlier this season, and I think he can be the great equalizer in this game. The junior’s physical playstyle can be a tone setter for this offense, and if they can stay ahead of the sticks I think it can go a long way towards trying to neutralize that Red Raider defensive front. Texas Tech LB Jacob Rodriguez will be at the forefront of trying to keep Martin bottled up. Rodriguez is what I call a ‘fast-flow’ player, meaning he reacts quickly at the snap to the first thing he sees. Can BYU give him a little bit of eye candy to keep him off Martin’s initial path? 

The SEC Title kicks off at 4pm ET in another rematch between Georgia and Alabama. The two teams have met four times on this stage, and the Tide have won each of them. To me, this comes down to the Crimson Tide passing game, led by QB Ty Simpson. Can he take advantage of some potential mismatches in space against this Bulldog secondary? WR Germie Bernard is a linear, high-cut athlete with good body control and reliable hands. He’s been very dependable all season long. I’m more willing to bet on his floor than his ceiling when it comes to his NFL prospects, but this is a big spot for him to come through for Simpson. Senior CB Daylen Everette has questionable speed and recovery ability, and plays smaller than his 6-foot-1, 190 pound frame would indicate. I like his route instincts when he’s in single coverage, but he can get a bit grabby downfield. Whether it’s Bernard, streaky sophomore WR Ryan Williams, or WR Isaiah Horton (who scored a hat trick last week in the Iron Bowl), Everette will have his hands full. 

Last, but certainly not least, is the Big 10 Championship between Ohio State and Indiana. The two top teams in the playoff rankings square off for the first time this year, and I’m excited to sit back and let this one wash over me. This is obviously a huge opportunity for Hoosiers QB Fernando Mendoza, who I still grade as more of a high-end backup or low-end starter as opposed to the type of quality starter you select at the top of the draft. We know the Buckeyes have an embarrassment of riches on defense, so a big performance here will carry a lot of weight in the evaluation. As far as one-on-ones, however, I’m excited to see these Indiana wideouts against the OSU secondary. I dove into that with Cory on the podcast.

We get the final playoff bracket next week. I’m sure we’ll be level-headed with whatever the committee decides to do there! 

Best,

Fran Duffy

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