Last year’s draft featured one of the deepest, most talented classes of edge defenders we’ve seen in recent memory, from top overall pick Myles Garrett on throughout the top half of the entire weekend.
This class may lack an elite athlete like Garrett or the top-heavy depth of last year’s group, but there’s still plenty to like this time around. There are a handful of prospects likely to be first-round locks, with some small-school sleepers lurking in the middle-round range.
These rankings will be fluid throughout the predraft process, based on film work, all-star performances, workouts numbers and other factors, but here are my current edge defender rankings for the 2018 NFL draft:
1. Bradley Chubb | North Carolina State
2. Harold Landry | Boston College
6. Ogbonnia Okoronkwo | Oklahoma
10. Dorance Armstrong, Jr. | Kansas
15. Hercules Mata’afa | Washington State
16. Ade Aruna | Tulane
17. Tyquan Lewis | Ohio State
18. Ja’Von Rolland-Jones | Arkansas State
19. Olasunkanmi Adeniyi | Toledo
18. Davin Bellamy | Georgia
21. Mike Love | USF
22. Kylie Fitts | Utah
23. Marquis Haynes | Mississippi
24. Leon Jacobs | Wisconsin
25. Peter Kalambayi | Stanford
26. Jalyn Holmes | Ohio State
27. Marcell Frazier | Missouri
28. Joe Ostman | Central Michigan
29. Darius Jackson | Jacksonville State
30. Trevon Young | Louisville
31. Justin Lawler | SMU
