Brad Penner – USA TODAY Sports
Three weeks of college football has passed us by and things are going as planned for the most part. While the nitpickers have been out in full force on the Jadeveon Clowney front – he’s as advertised.
While Clowney is the headliner of this group there’s plenty of top notch talent in this defensive group. UCLA’s Anthony Barr has the look of a future NFL star. Barr’s raw athletic gifts caught the world by surprise last year but added some season to his game in 2013 should secure him as a top five prospect.
Barr isn’t the only linebacker prospect with some serious ability. Alabama’s C.J. Mosley would have been a first round pick had he chose to come out in the 2013 NFL Draft. Mosley opted to stay at Alabama for his senior season and the only question will be what position he’s going to fill at the next level. The underclassmen linebackers feature a handful of impact players highlighted by Florida’s Ronald Powell. Powell has been very good since returning from an ACL injury. Powell has the physical abilities to take over games as a pass rusher.
In the defensive backfield it’s all about Brad Roby. Roby has the makings of being an elite, lockdown corner in the league. With speed to burn, Roby’s ability to close on the ball leave him with few peers.
As we said in the offensive rankings – these will be changing as new names emerge, some take a tumble, and a few take their seats atop this draft class. After the break, we take a look at our defensive position by position rankings for the 2014 NFL Draft.
