The first mock of the season in Campus2Canton leagues is always fascinating because of the unknown. We, as drafters, think it should go a certain way, but in a format where almost no consensus exists, the first draft can truly be all over the place. Campus2Canton startups are 45 rounds and include all FBS-level players in the player pool, including the incoming freshman class. As this is your pipeline to your NFL team (drafted separately), the first few rounds operate similarly to a traditional devy draft, while the later rounds are for filling out your college fantasy team.
Luckily, I was able to take part in the first draft, which kicked off shortly after the January NFL draft declaration deadline. Given the first true draft, I found there were actionable takeaways that give insight into where the off-season might be heading.
Quarterback is Still King
Surprised? Me Neither. Once again, quarterback remains king of the the first few rounds. In this draft, 23 of the first 60 picks (38%) were quarterbacks. There’s no debate about who the 1.01 is (Jeremiah Smith), but there’s little consensus afterward. In this draft, DJ Lagway went second, LaNorris Sellers went third, followed by Ryan WIlliams and Arch Manning. All three are unproven assets, but due to the premium nature of the position, they’re pushed to the top of the draft.
Of the 23 quarterbacks, seven went in round one, only three went in round two, and the final 13 were in rounds three through five. This tells me that the drafters believe there’s somewhat of an upper-tier of quarterbacks compared to the next group, which Overall, I think through the draft, we saw some semi-clear tiers form based on where players were selected.
Campus2Canton Startup Quartrerback Tiers (per Mock No1)
The top tier is largely unproven assets with tremendous upside. Both Lagway and Sellers have room to improve, Dante Moore 2: Oregon edition, Arch Manning, who has limited usage through three years, and incoming freshman Bryce Underwood. However, Dylan Raiola was a freshman starter from day one, and Drew Allar has two seasons starting. Allar is betting on the physical tools (tremendous upside), while Raiola is “on track” with his development. This group will likely be tightly packed all offseason (with the possible exception of Dante Moore).
Tier two is an interesting group for different reasons. Keelon Russell is the QB2 in the 2028 class and a high-upside player. He’s grouped with two other potential impact players, Garrett Nussmeier and Nico Iamaleava. Nussmeier and Iamalaeava each have a year starting with good but ultimately mixed results. However, they also have the best projectable tools to the NFL, which the next two tiers lack in some capacities. Personally, I would swap Keelon Russell and Dante Moore’s tiers.
Tier three is similar to tier two: a top freshman QB in Deuce Knight and a collection of quarterbacks with mixed results. To me, this is a dead zone for quarterbacks. Outside of Knight, you’re asking for a significant leap from the quarterbacks picked here, and if they had put it together, they would be in Tier 2. I am mainly avoiding these three, and I expect them to stay closely grouped throughout the off-season.
The final two tiers are kind of the same but were taken far enough apart in the draft that they get the 0.5 distinction. The freshmen well opens up with Matt Zollers, Tavien St Clair, and Husan Longstreet, all going in this range. This is the tier 2 of freshman quarterbacks, with a slight separation between the grouping. These are round four and players, but it shows where these positions start to decline. The collection of upperclassmen here have their questions about health and rounding out their game as passers but have good legs. Almost every quarterback in this range has rushing upside.
The Future Running Back Landscape is Bleak
Quarterback and wide receiver are strengths of the next few draft classes because it’s certainly not running back. Only 22% of selections were RBs – 8 of 36 through three rounds. Six of these eight are in 2026, with only Nate Frazier and Caden Durham in the 2027 (2) and 2028 (0) classes. Only two were taken in the first round, and I’d argue it should have only been one (Nick Singleton)
Players Selected by Position and Year Through Five Rounds
| Year / Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | Total |
| 2026 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 1 | 35 |
| 2027 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 17 |
| 2028 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Total | 23 | 15 | 1 | 21 | 60 |
In the top sixty, 2026 had 10 selections, 2027 had four, and 2028 had one. Comparatively, the quarterback position had 23 selections, and the wide receiver position represented 21 selections, eight and six more than running backs, respectively.
Naturally, fewer underclassmen are taken every draft because they’re further away from the NFL. However, the recruiting team at Campus2Canton has done work on these players for years and knows which classes are strong at which positions before stepping on the field. This mock reflects our consensus that 2027 and 2028 are weak running-back classes.
2027 is a Special WR Class
The top two selections in this draft, Jeremiah Smith and DJ Lagway, are still another two years away from entering the NFL draft. Traditionally, getting players to the NFL is the main goal in these C2C drafts, which speaks to how strong those two are compared to their peers. Even further, four of the top seven are 2027-eligible and just completed their freshman seasons.
The receiver is truly the strength of this class, with Jeremiah Smith, Ryan Williams, Cam Coleman, TJ Moore, Ryan Wingo, and Bryant Wesco all as top 24 selections. Only one receiver from the 2026 class (Evan Stewart) and one from the 2028 class (Dakorien Moore). Of the 2027 class, five the six broke out with > 1.04 Receiving Yards Per Team Pass Attempt, only Wingo fell short as a true freshman.
Comparatively, the top 2026 receivers lagged behind, with four breaking out in some capacity in year one and all but one of those players taking a step back in year two. More data has put 2026 in a more negative light, with only Eric Singleton Jr. hitting the wanting production threshold in 2024.
Although 2027 is quite strong, 2028 is considered a weak class for our graders and the drafters in this mock. Dakorien Moore went 13th overall, and the second receiver taken for 2028 was Kaliq Lockett, who was 53 picks later, with only two selected in the first seven rounds. There will be unexpected breakouts, but we are not projecting this to be a strong receiver class.
…But It’s Poor Everywhere Else
Looking back at historical Campus2Canton drafts can help inform future drafts and tell us how strong drafters feel about upcoming classes. A clear trend emerges by breaking it down into 1 Year, 2 Years, and 3 Years (away from being NFL eligible – fourth-year+ players fall in 1 Year).
According to the first mock of the season, through five rounds, 2027 is a bad class everywhere but receiver. In the chart above, 2027 would be Year 2 in the 2025 Mock column. Compared to Year 2 in 2023 and 2024, three and seven fewer were selected, respectively. There’s likely noise around players continuing to stay in school for an extra year, boosting the number for 2026 compared to the prior two seasons. Nicholas Singleton, Darius Taylor, Evan Stewart, and Drew Allar fit this bill in the top 12.
The depth of this class seems to suffer outside the high end. Through two rounds, nine players in the 2027 class were selected. That’s the same number from Year 2 classes as the previous two first drafts of the season. The high-end players are going in similar spots, which is ultimately promising, but knowing that significant questions are remaining makes this challenging.
We know that 2027 is the lowest-drafted class in the last few years with the same eligibility, but it also represents the highest number of wide receivers in the three-year sample. 47% of 2027 eligible players selected were wide receivers. Meaning the other three positions represented the remaining 53%. In 2023 and 2024, the remaining positions were 65% and 72%, respectively.
Drafters seem to think that 2027 is trending to be a very poor class outside of the wide receivers if depth is a consideration. The high-end assets in these positions are DJ Lagway, Dylan Raiola, and Nate Fraizer. A high-end quarterback, a safe but developing pocket passer, and a sophomore who played a big role at Georgia. I understand and agree with the trend and sentiments of fellow Campus2Canton drafters.
True Freshman Going Late: Fear of the Unkown
This is a semi-personal preference, but I find, for yet another season, that true freshmen are going later than they should. Bryce Underwood is the freshman 1.01, going 10th overall. I think Underwood is a surefire top-five selection draft pick, and because we haven’t “seen” him, he falls. However, I think the “we haven’t seen it yet” is mainly inaccurate as we have seen these players, but they are not at the FBS level. Given the total lack of unproven talent in this year’s supplemental, projection is a key part of every profile.
The rest of the draft follows suit, with Dak Moore at 2.01, Keelon Russell going 2.05, Deuce Knight going 3.02, and the next group of quarterbacks going late rounds four and five. The sacrifice being made here, given ADP, is swapping the unknown of true freshmen for the certainty of proven assets, even if those assets have not shown significant upside. A perfect example of this is Kaidon Salter and Denzel Boston picked directly before RB Bo Jackson. It is a conscious decision to draft players we have seen vs an unknown, despite Salter and Boston’s struggles.
As mentioned above, this is largely a personal preference item, but if you are drafting for the upside, the freshman is usually the way to go in these Campus2Canton drafts.
P.S. – Can you guess which spot I’m drafting from?
