As the 2026 NFL Draft approaches, we’re breaking down position rankings individually based on the big boards of Yahoo Sports NFL Draft experts Nate Tice and Charles McDonald.

More position rankings: QB | WR | DL | Edge | DB | LB

1. Monroe Freeling, Georgia

A left tackle with excellent size and a frame who could add even more weight, Freeling is an easy mover who can get up to the second level in a hurry, with the agility and balance to adjust to a moving target in space or in pass protection against defensive twists. Freeling improved his hand usage and his strength in 2025, which is what has him rocketing up draft boards (including mine) even before the combine happened. His long limbs make him susceptible to defenders getting into his chest, but his improved anchor helped him adjust. Overall, Freeling is a very good athlete with length whose arrow as a player is pointing firmly up. His play over the final two months of the 2025 season can make you excited about what he can become at the next level. If he can keep getting stronger and continue to fill out his frame, while continuing to round out his technique, he projects as a very good blindside protector. — Nate Tice

2. Caleb Lomu, Utah

Lomu hasn’t gotten as much fame and praise as his teammate Spencer Fano, but he might have a more NFL-ready body and game than Fano. Lomu is a big, powerful explosive run blocker with a nasty mean streak. He has upside to continue improving as a pass blocker. — Charles McDonald

3. Francis Mauigoa, Miami

Mauigoa is one of the most highly-touted offensive linemen in this year’s draft class, with an outrageous size at nearly 6-foot-6, 330 pounds. He may have to kick inside to guard in the NFL. He’s a little slow on the edge at times and doesn’t have the greatest technique, but he’s so strong and powerful that he can make up for it in other ways. — CM

4. Blake Miller, Clemson

Clemson’s offense struggled at times this past season, but it wasn’t due to its offensive line play. For the first time in his entire tenure, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has an offensive tackle prospect who is drawing the attention of NFL scouts in the first round of the draft. Miller has primarily played on the right side of the line, but he has the athleticism to cleanly make a move over to the left side if his future team wants that. — CM

5. Spencer Fano, Utah

Yes, both of Utah’s tackles made the big board. Fano played left tackle before moving to right tackle in 2024 but I think he would be best kicking inside at the next level. He has a long and lean build, which he can look to add weight to, but already shows off the consistent ability to get tangible movement in the run game. Fano is a springy athlete (and tested like one in Indianapolis) who can constantly stay on his feet and with pass rushers and any post-snap movement, and he is also a strong finisher in the run game. Fano’s short arms (32 ⅛ inches) has me concerned about how he projects as a tackle at the next level and he would have a unique build for a guard or center, but the pop and drive he can get will help him out on the inside and his easy athleticism and movement ability would make him a weapon out in space as a puller or on screens. — NT

6. Max Iheanachor, Arizona State

A big, long right tackle who came to football late and went to JUCO before joining Arizona State, Iheanachor can easily be labeled as a “project,” but his film indicates more polish and refinement than you’d expect. He has ideal size and is an excellent athlete who can stay balanced and latched onto his blocks. His hand usage got much cleaner and more patient throughout his final season, an indication of the way Iheanachor can adjust and refine his game quickly. I’m bullish on Iheanachor. He has the strength to move defenders in the run game and is comfortable taking on the better athletes in pass protection. He can stay on the right side but has the movement skills to bump over to the left side down the road for a team that continues to develop him. He’s an exciting combination of tools with enough real film that playing right away won’t be too much for him. — NT

7. Olaivavega Ioane, Penn State

Ioane is one of the few high-end interior offensive line prospects in this draft. Even though he struggles at times with consistency, there aren’t many players who project as a Day 1 starting NFL offensive lineman. That alone should get the physical, athletic guard locked in as a top-40 selection. — CM

8. Kadyn Proctor, Alabama

A mountain of a man, Proctor can completely wipe out defenders as soon as he gets his hands on them in the run game. Despite being so large, Proctor has above-average balance and footwork. Like most large players, he can play high at times and can get caught getting slow out of his stance against speedier edge rushers. He can also lack sustainability in pass protection and fall off his blocks in the run game against players he’s unable to fully latch onto. It's something that might get harder at the next level. Proctor still has to work on his consistency, but he’s young, and his weight was encouraging at the scouting combine. His tools probably have NFL offensive line coaches excited to try and take Proctor’s game to the next level. — NT

9. Emmanuel Pregnon, Oregon

A guard-only prospect with good length and big hands (11 inches at the combine). Pregnon has good upper body strength to latch onto defenders and use his length, but can get caught playing high and would preferably add to his lower body mass to help him sustain his blocks once he hits the NFL. His length is an asset in pass protection, but he can still work on bringing his feet with him as late moves can get him to fall off blocks. Overall, he looks like a player who can start at guard early in his career, but there’s a few technique things to refine so he can use his strength and length more consistently. — NT

10. Connor Lew, Auburn

Lew was a tough player for Auburn’s offense and he has a chance to be a high-floor interior starter on an NFL team that needs offensive line help. Lew unfortunately tore his ACL in October, but he did put up enough solid tape beforehand to possibly end up as a Day 2 pick in April. — CM

In a year where teams and analysts feel unsure about the quality of this year’s overall NFL Draft class, there’s one player above all who represents the split feelings: Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks.

At first glance, the idea that Banks would be considered a first-round talent seems ridiculous. He played three games last season and finished with two tackles in another disappointing year for the Gators’ football team. Pair that with his incredible performance at the NFL combine and the rough framework of Banks’ profile would suggest that he’s a project player for the NFL, which isn’t fully true.

Banks is one of the most fascinating players in this year’s draft class, showing bonafide top-five traits with a critical flaw: He just can’t tackle right now. It’s such a confusing problem when directly compared to everything else he’s able to do, but the case for Banks and how to value him comes down to one question: Can we teach this dude how to tackle? 

Guys with Caleb Banks’ athletic profile just don’t come around often

There’s long been the idea of “planet theory” ascribed to Bill Parcells in regard to NFL roster construction. Essentially, there are only so many 300-pounders in the world with legitimately elite athletic traits, and it would behoove NFL teams to collect as many of these humans as they feasibly can. Banks certainly fits into that description, as he showed at the NFL combine. At 6-foot-6 and 327 pounds, Banks ran a 5.04-second 40-yard dash, jumped 32 inches in vertical jump and also hit 9 feet, 6 inches in the broad jump. For a defensive tackle prospect, those are all strong numbers, but when considering his size, it puts him into the class of truly elite athleticism.

Simply put, Banks can generate an unusual amount of explosion for someone this heavy. To make it even wilder, he did this on a broken foot — equally impressive and concerning. It’s never good to have feet problems at his size, but the fact he was able to notch those numbers with the injury suggests there’s even more here to tap into. 

Banks’ athleticism immediately shows up on tape too. He is on a different level athletically than the blockers he faced, overwhelming them with explosion paired with sheer size. However, there’s more to him than just that unrefined level of explosion. He’s not like Shemar Stewart last year, for example, who was selected in the first round with 1.5 sacks during his final collegiate season. Where Stewart struggled with reading blocks and diagnosing plays in real time, Banks really excels. He’s almost always technically sound within the structure of Florida’s defense, plays with great technique in terms of leverage and footwork. He’s incredibly disruptive while remaining true to the structure of the defensive play call … but he just can’t finish. 

Missed tackles are an egregious flaw — but also the only one in Caleb Banks’ game

In the three games that Banks played in 2025, he could have put up a season’s worth of tackles for loss. He was incredibly stout and just too much for the opposing offensive line, but the running backs he was trying to get his hands on did not have as difficult of a time. Despite showing incredible balance through the contact and force of opposing 300-pounders, he loses all semblance of that high-end coordination when it’s time to actually finish the player.

Strictly talking on-field, this is really the only egregious flaw in Banks’ game. He has work to do as a pass rusher, but even then, he has a few pass rush moves that he likes to employ and can gain pressure through sheer applied force and athleticism. It’s not even a huge weakness — the fact that a 330-pounder can even be thought of as a pass-rush threat is fairly rare.

However, his tackling struggles actually create a big strain on the defense. It’s great that Banks can be so sound while penetrating into the backfield and beating blocks, but when he doesn’t finish in the backfield, the defense is suddenly down a man in terms of the framework of how they defend the run.

That became even more dangerous when Florida deployed defensive fronts where he was responsible for two gaps. Now a runway is open where Banks was. It’s a frustrating dichotomy to watch because on one hand, it’s just hard to find players who can consistently function as forceful, disciplined actors within a defense, but the inability to get guys on the ground is unacceptable — especially for someone who is just too talented to sit on the bench. 

Caleb Banks needs to be healthy on a more consistent basis too

Even for Banks’ supporters, he undoubtedly comes packaged with a lot of questions regarding what’s next for him. It’s possible he lands with a staff that helps him fix his tackling issues and he becomes one of the truly elite front seven players in the league. That would also require his health struggles from college through the combine to level out so he can stay on the field long enough to be worth a first-round pick. Those are major questions to answer, because they’ve been persistent problems in his career up to this point.

However, Banks has so many traits that are either hard to find or hard to teach at this point. His understanding of where he needs to be and the techniques to execute those assignments is truly elite, and the physical profile is not something that an NFL staff can build. It comes down to whether or not a team thinks they can fix his tackling.

There should be a reason to stay optimistic if he can stay healthy. There’s just too much talent and proven ability to stay balanced while defeating blocks that there has to be a way to translate that into more production at the point of finishing a play. 

Banks is not perfect, but there are plenty of defensive line coaches looking at his tape and saying the ever-toxic phrase that has plagued many throughout the course of their lives: “I can fix him.”

As the 2026 NFL Draft approaches, we’re breaking down position rankings individually based on the big boards of Yahoo Sports NFL Draft experts Nate Tice and Charles McDonald.

More position rankings: QB | WR | DL | Edge

1. Caleb Downs, Ohio State

Downs has been arguably the best defensive back in college football since his freshman year at Alabama. He won’t be the first pick in the draft because safeties tend to slide on draft day, but he has all the skills and smarts to immediately be one of the better safeties in the league from Day 1 with real deal upside to be an elite, premier defensive player in the league. — Charles McDonald

2. Mansoor Delane, LSU

A smart player who’s quick to read and react in coverage, Delane has had strong moments as both a zone and man coverage defender this season. He has the twitchiness to stay sticky in man coverage and his high football awareness showed up in zone coverage, where he has a knack for reading quarterbacks and making plays on the football. Delane doesn’t have top-end length and his athleticism might be more good than great, but he just has a feel for playing in zone coverage and timing up his breaks on the football, and that’s going to translate right away at the next level. — Nate Tice

3. Jermod McCoy, Tennessee

McCoy is a quick-twitch athlete who constantly makes plays on the football. He has good size and already shows the footwork and patience to stay sticky with receivers and be consistent in man coverage. McCoy suffered an ACL injury in January of 2025, but he shined at his pro day recently. There are times where he is indifferent against the run, but his skill set and athleticism are just too fun of a package at the cornerback spot to drop too far. — NT

4. Avieon Terrell, Clemson

Like his older brother A.J., a star cornerback for the Falcons, Avieon Terrell has a chance to be a first-round pick and true starting cornerback in the league. He might not be the most athletic corner in this draft, but he has the movement skills that should translate in a big way at the next level. Terrell might not ever be a true lockdown cornerback in the NFL, but he has enough skills to be considered early in the draft. — CM

5. Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, Toledo

A toolsy safety with size and explosiveness, McNeil-Warren plays with an edge on every snap that’s palpable. It’s hard to not notice where the future NFL prospect is located when watching Toledo’s defense. He’s a hard hitter who also has the length and range to play as the deep safety in coverage. His burst and physicality show up when he has to come down and play the run or when jarring the ball loose from pass catchers over the middle. I like McNeil-Warren’s game in any type of modern defense, with his size being an asset against bigger wide receivers and athletic tight ends. — NT

6. Dillon Thieneman, Oregon

Thieneman did a little bit of everything for the Ducks, including being used in a rover position that is becoming increasingly popular. Being centrally located, whether on the back end as a deep safety or playing somewhere in the box, is where Thieneman does his best work. He is perfect for teams that will run quarters-based coverages that allow him to be a true two-way defender against the run and pass and would unlock his play recognition, overall athleticism and burst to close on the football. But I think he can find a role in any type of defense and be a good player for a long time. — NT

7. Colton Hood, Tennessee

The second Volunteers corner on this list has some of the same similarities as teammate Jermod McCoy. Hood has some solid ball skills and ability to play man-on-man coverage that will boost his draft stock as April nears. Hood had an impressive combine workout, running a 4.44 in the 40-yard dash and jumping over 40 inches on the vertical leap. — CM

8. Keionte Scott, Miami

Scott is an older prospect, who will be 25 at the start of his rookie year. He has the playmaking ability to immediately be a weapon in the secondary. Scott really made his presence felt during the Hurricanes’ run through the playoffs en route to the national championship. As an older slot defender, maybe this is a bit high for him, but the ability to win in multiple ways and get his hands on the ball as an aggressor in the secondary will be key for Scott as he enters the pros. — CM

9. Chris Johnson, San Diego State

Smooth. That’s the best way to describe Johnson. An easy mover who can mirror wide receivers without getting too handsy. Johnson has the athleticism and balance to play in man coverage, but he also has the awareness and eyes to be a valid zone corner with real ball skills to take advantage of his positioning. He’s a competitive player who is willing to take on blockers and is more than willing to stick his nose in to make the tackle. Overall, Johnson is a riser and looks like a good outside starting corner at the next level. — NT

10. Brandon Cisse, South Carolina

Like most players who worked out at the scouting combine, Cisse helped himself by having some incredibly explosive jumps that match the tape of a feisty, athletic cornerback who should be able to step in and play in a variety of schemes. He fell underneath the radar playing for an underachieving Gamecocks team, but he has a chance to flourish in the NFL. — CM