NFL Draft 2015: Big board visual aid for Draft weekend, part II

BACKGROUND

I greatly miss Derek Stephens' work the last two years grading over 200 prospects and posting scout grades in a Draft Board format. All I did the last two years was help format his document into the columns and rows -- the process of which I actually find quite educational. This is the one sheet of paper I've kept handy during the draft -- to help spot "hot areas" and the next handful of potential players that are available. Since Derek had other responsibilities this season, I've put together a few matrixes based on prominent analysts' rankings. Tony Pauline's was last week, and this week, I've got Nolan Nawrocki's Big Board. Print them out and follow along during the draft. 

I chatted briefly with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Omar Kelly, who gives draft analyst Nolan Nawrocki a lot of credit for assigning Scout Grades to over 300 players, all by himself (a "One Man Show"). I know Danny Kelly also loves Nawrocki Draft Guide as a reference tool to study up on prospects. Omar says Nawrocki does not really find any sleepers because he is a one-man operation, mostly tracking the "Combine Guys", so the bottom rounds will play out quite different than this sheet. NFL teams have the resources to scout thousands of players, most of whom never attend the Combine. There could be 40 names drafted that don't appear on this sheet, I imagine.

Still, I find this sheet, embedded below, quite useful.

A true NFL team Draft Board will have closer to 120-150 names -- essentially half the names of this sheet -- so this is more a Draft Board for fans to track the actual Draft than a true NFL board custom fit for a specific NFL team. Each team's scouting staff will eliminate certain players for medical, psychological, measurable, and scheme fit reasons.

GRADE SCALE

Nawrocki uses a different grade scale than Derek did the last two years, but they accomplish the same goal. Here is how the Grades Break down for 2015:

ROUND 1: 7.20 to 5.87

If you use the argument that only 6.00 and higher are true 1st Round Grades-  there are 26 "1st Round Grades" on this Board.

ROUND 2: 5.86 to 5.57

ROUND 3: 5.56 to 5.39

There are 34 players that fit into this grouping, and there will be 35 players selected in Round 3 after Compensatory Picks. 

ROUND 4: 5.38 to 5.31

There are 38 players that fit into this grouping, and there will be 37 players selected in Round 4 after Compensatory Picks.

ROUND 5: 5.30 to 5.23

There are 42 players that fit into this grouping, and there will be 39 players selected in Round 5 after Compensatory Picks.

ROUND 6: 5.22 to 5.16

There are 40 players that fit into this grouping, and there will be 42 players selected in Round 6 after Compensatory Picks.

ROUND 7: 5.14 to 5.09

There were more 5.09 grades assigned than I had room, but I handpicked a few randomly just so this board would equal 256 players, there will be 39 players selected in Round 7.

COMMENTS BY POSITION

QB:

A very weak QB class with only 10 players with draftable grades according to this board. There will be other QBs selected not on this board- possibly Chris Bonner or types like that.

RB:

Really pretty strong Rd 1 to 6

WR:

Nawrocki assigns 38 players with Draftable grades, and I doubt more than 30-33 will be drafted when you study history

TE:

A very weak group, I believe some of these TE will go higher than shown on this board due to scarcity. I believe Brian Parker will also be drafted into this group.

OL:

A lot of names packed into that Round 5 area

EDGE:

24 players with draftable grades, and he left out players like Frank Clark, Shaq Riddick and Diontrez Mount on this list.

DL:

29 players on this board- mostly clumped in Rounds 1-2 and Rounds 6-7

LB:

20 names total and he does not put any traditional LBs into Round 1.

Safety:

16 names in a fairly sparse Safety class

CB:

32 names on this list, with some non-combine names missing from this list. When it is all said and done I think about 32 or so CBs are drafted however.

Enjoy!

Nawrocki 2015 7 Round Draft Board

Download the PDF to zoom in (link).