Ben SolakApr 1, 2026, 06:25 AM ETCloseBen Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.Multiple Authors
play0:29Jadarian Price muscles in a TD for the IrishJadarian Price scores a 1-yard rushing touchdown for Notre Dame vs. Stanford.
Germie Bernard on Alabama Pro Day: ‘Another day in the office’ (3:10)Following the Alabama Pro Day, former Tide WR Germie Bernard details what NFL teams can expect from his on-field game and explains how he showcased his off-field strengths at the NFL draft combine. (3:10)
Jadarian Price muscles in a TD for the IrishJadarian Price scores a 1-yard rushing touchdown for Notre Dame vs. Stanford.
In this process, the tape sometimes gets easily lost. But I am not an NFL scouting department, and I don’t have access to medical records and projection models and locker room rumors. I have the tape — and the tape tells me which prospects I like.
Last year, I put together my All-Film team for the 2025 NFL draft, and despite the fact I purposely didn’t include a bunch of first-rounders, early returns were good. It had undersized players like Andrew Mukuba, older players like Tyler Shough, positional converts like Carson Schwesinger, tweeners like Ashton Gillotte and less-than-perfect athletic testers like Azareye’h Thomas. Some had exciting rookie seasons to build on, and one even won Rookie of the Year.
This year’s list will have the same: imperfect players who will go later than the tape suggests given the warts on their profiles. But I’m in on each of them because the film details players who, nevertheless, succeed — and will do so again in the league.
For the first time in NFL draft history, an RB2 is the RB2. Price is projected as a Round 2 pick, and if he is indeed the second running back selected after Fighting Irish teammate Jeremiyah Love, it will mark the first time teammates have been the first two running backs taken off the board.
Jadarian Price scores a 1-yard rushing touchdown for Notre Dame vs. Stanford.
Consider the list of ridiculous athletes at wide receiver to graduate from Alabama. Pass over the classics (Julio Jones, Amari Cooper, etc.) and just look at recent history: Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, Jerry Jeudy and Jameson Williams. Bernard is … not in that group.
That isn’t to say Bernard is a bad athlete. He’s solid all across the board, with a 4.48-second 40-yard dash, 10-foot-5 broad jump, 32½-inch vertical jump and 6.71-second three-cone drill, all at 6-1 and 206 pounds. But Bernard’s athleticism does not jump off the film. He isn’t leaving corners in the dust or dropping highlight-reel jukes.
In last year’s edition of the All-Film team, I implored you to take a staggering leap of faith and trust a tight end prospect out of Notre Dame. Mitchell Evans, who went in the fifth round, ended up breaking into the Panthers’ rotation at the position nicely, playing 424 snaps by season’s end.
Prone to falling off blocks with an upright posture earlier in the season, Raridon learned how to use his length, flexibility and core strength to uproot defensive linemen and steer them out of gaps. He became an impactful player on pulls that Notre Dame featured in short-yardage and goal-line situations. The team wanted to run behind the guy.
At 6-6 and 245 pounds, Raridon has enough long speed and length to be a seam runner at the NFL level, but his primary value will come as a movable blocker with the ceiling of a true hand-in-the-dirt Y tight end should he add another 10 pounds. That makes him a developmental prospect — more of an early Day 3 pick than a Day 2 selection in a thick tight end class. But it’s not hard to see a Josh Oliver-esque arc for him at the position.
Casey did have a rough outing against Penn State in the 2024 College Football Playoff, where the athleticism of Abdul Carter and Dani Dennis-Sutton did indeed lead to quick penetration. Casey doesn’t have remarkable length or quickness for a tackle and might end up as a better fit at guard, where he spent some time taking reps at the Senior Bowl this year. He also snapped for teams at his pro day, though I’d be surprised if he ended up at center at 6-6 and 310 pounds.
But Casey is a legit needle mover as a run blocker. He has great hip sink and leg drive for a taller lineman and can really churn double-teams and combo blocks when he hits them with good timing. He’s good on the hoof, too, and teams that like to pull their linemen to get to the boundary will bump him up their board accordingly. It wouldn’t shock me if he sneaks into the end of Round 2, but Round 3 is more likely.
Casey is very reminiscent of Braden Smith, who seemed destined to kick to guard in the league but held his water at tackle for the Colts. He’ll have a long NFL career.
It’s a loaded class for experienced centers. We have Logan Jones out of Iowa, Connor Lew out of Auburn, Pat Coogan out of Indiana and Jake Slaughter from Florida. For my money, the best of the lot is Hecht. He’s not the heaviest center at 303 pounds, but he carries a ton of mass in his lower half and can exchange power for power with nose tackles 30 pounds his superior. He gave more trouble to my interior defensive lineman pick for the All-Film team than anyone else last season. (See below.)
In build and in play style, Hecht is cut from the cloth of Creed Humphrey. But he lacks Humphrey’s raw power and ridiculous explosiveness, so he takes a lot of plays to stalemates instead of emphatic wins. Still, on a shotgun- or RPO-heavy team that asks its center to wear a lot of hats, Hecht can be a plus starter, especially if he’s insulated by supersize guards.
Hecht is a fringe Day 2 prospect probably more likely to go on Day 3, but I’d take him comfortably in the third round, and I’d place a lot of marbles on him outplaying a few centers who ultimately get selected above him.
Orange — affectionately called “Big Citrus” for his name and, well, bigness — had an interesting path to and through Iowa State. As Orange himself recalled: “I got up over 400 pounds in high school. … I had top-10 teams in the country knocking at my door, but when they found out I had got to 400 pounds, I lost those.”
Orange got down to 325 pounds with the Cyclones (he was 322 at the combine), and at that lower weight, his agility began to shine. As a two-gapping nose tackle, Orange isn’t often asked to play with upfield quickness, but his ability to cross face and win the corner on much smaller centers is eye-popping.
More frequently, Orange simply walks opposing centers back into the quarterback’s lap. He has that great blend of explosive upper-body power to shock an opponent off his base and rolling lower-body power to prevent the blocker from recovering. Like all big players, Orange’s leverage will wane, but in a rotational role that keeps his legs fresh and his pads low, he will create splash plays at the NFL level.
If you can watch Barham film without getting up out of your seat and whooping, you and I are made of different stuff (probably good news for you).
Barham is one of the most physical players in this class, bar none. At only 240 pounds, he is one of the lightest edge rushers in the class. But he’s the scariest 240 pounds I’ve ever seen. At his best moments (go watch the Wisconsin game), Barham is a game-wrecking upfield force with a wicked first step, excellent strain and balance through blocks, violent pop in his hands and a motor that never runs cold.
Because Barham is an off-ball linebacker for some teams and an on-ball rush linebacker for others, it’s hard to figure out where he’ll get drafted. My guess is somewhere in the 90s, but don’t take that to the bank.
You have to trust the tape on Louis, who tipped the scales in Indianapolis at 220 pounds. Only 11 linebackers have been lighter at the NFL combine since 1999.
Louis looks and plays and moves and acts like a supersize box safety. I think he can be a Joshua Metellus-like player — a “safety” who spends most of his time lined up on the edge, taking on tight ends in both the running and passing game. But that’s only if he lands in a Brian Flores-esque defense, which has that critical third safety role for him. In a Jim Schwartz-style system, he’d have to become Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, the speedy pursuit ‘backer whose game is built on penetration.
Louis is a true tweener, and his landing spot will determine what position he plays in the NFL. He has the speed, open-field tackling and disposition to stick on special teams for a long time, which will help him grow into whatever unique NFL job awaits him. I’m willing to bet on the honed instincts and truly elite change-of-direction skills in the middle rounds, and figure out the rest once I get him in the building.
The top of the 2026 cornerback class is well established: Mansoor Delane, Jermod McCoy, Colton Hood, Avieon Terrell. But there’s a little intrusive voice in the back of my head that tells me Johnson should be squarely in that group of names.
Drafting Johnson early will take some belief in his ability to ratchet up his play speed and intensity at the NFL level — he cannot be as patient in the league as he was at a lower level. But I’d lie if I said he didn’t remind me, at times, of watching Quinyon Mitchell at Toledo. The payoff was enormous for the Eagles, and Johnson will likely come at a round’s discount. Of all the players I have listed here, Johnson has the highest ceiling.
The red flags on Stukes’ profile are the familiar ones: age and injury history. Stukes is 24 years old and will turn 25 during his rookie season, making him older than current and established NFL defensive backs like Nate Wiggins, Calen Bullock, Kamari Lassiter, Christian Gonzalez and Cooper DeJean. Stukes is leaving college so late in large part because of a 2024 ACL tear that shortened his would-be senior season and kept him out of the first few games of the 2025 season to boot.
That’s the bad news. Here’s the good: Stukes had a career year off that ACL tear. He snagged four picks in 10 games in 2025, exceeding his career total (three) up to that point. He dominated the combine as well, with a 38-inch vertical jump, a 10-foot-10 broad jump and a 4.33-second 40-yard dash before he called it a day. While the knee warrants long-term concern, there’s no doubt that Stukes worked his way back into form off that injury.