I’ve been working through this 2027 class for a while now, and the more I dig into it, the more I like what we have. I’ve already talked about a lot of these names with Luigi and Papi on Devy Degens, including several players we grabbed during our 2027 prospect draft. Now that I’ve had more time to work through the class, I wanted to put my own top 15 together and show where I’m at today. I’ll also be getting into this class again soon on Always Be Scouting with Griddy and Cuse.
If you’ve followed my scouting work before, you already know how I approach this. I’m not taking somebody else’s rankings, moving a few names around, and calling it scouting. I want to know what a player actually does well, whether those traits are going to translate when everybody on the field gets bigger and faster, and what still needs to develop before I’m comfortable projecting him forward.
For me, it always comes back to traits over hype, translation over production, and tape first. Production matters, size matters, and testing matters, but those things are there to support what I’m seeing on the field, not tell me what I’m supposed to think.
One thing to understand with the grades is that they are not always going to match the exact order of the board. The grade is my evaluation of the overall prospect today. The ranking is where I personally want that player on my board. Sometimes preference, fantasy translation, or what I think the player can become is going to move somebody ahead of a player with a slightly higher grade.
My S tier is my own five-star grading tier, and that starts at 9.0. I’m not handing that out just because somebody is a great high school player. If I’m putting five stars next to a prospect, I want to feel like there are very few major translation questions left. Nobody is there yet, but two players are getting pretty damn close.
1. Kemon Spell (RB – Georgia)
Grade: 8.9/9
Spell is still my No. 1 player in this class, and the more I watch him, the easier it is for me to keep him there. At 5’10” and around 205 pounds, he already has almost exactly the kind of build I want at running back. He’s compact, thick, and low to the ground, but what really separates him for me is that he actually knows how to play the position.
He sees the hole, stays square, lets blocks develop, and gets north without wasting movement. He isn’t bouncing everything outside looking for a highlight because he knows he can outrun most of the defense. He rushed for 1,755 yards and 28 touchdowns in 2025 despite missing five games, but the numbers just confirm what I already see.
The vision is high-level, the feet are really good, and he has the burst and contact balance to create more than what is blocked for him. I also think he has enough natural receiving ability to eventually get a real three-down role. I still want to see more route development and better pass protection, but those are developmental questions, not reasons for me to move him down.
Spell is the closest player on this board to my five-star tier. If the rest of the game develops the way I think it can, I’m looking at a three-down NFL starter with early-round upside.
2. Trae Taylor (QB – Nebraska)
Grade: 8.9//9
Taylor is still my QB1 because he already does the quarterback things I care about most. Accuracy comes first for me, then ball placement, processing, pocket awareness, and the ability to deliver the football on time. He checks those boxes better than anybody else in this quarterback group right now.
He threw for 3,571 yards, 38 touchdowns, and only three interceptions in 2025 while adding 633 rushing yards and another 12 touchdowns. The production is impressive, but I’m more interested in how he gets there. He anticipates throws, understands where the window is going to be, and doesn’t need every receiver to be completely uncovered before letting the football go.
Taylor also moves well enough inside the pocket without immediately turning every broken play into backyard football. At around 6’3” and 200 pounds, I still want another 15 to 20 pounds on him, and his reported 9.25-inch hands come in a little below the 9.5-inch mark I prefer.
Those are things I’m tracking, but they aren’t enough to move him off QB1. Taylor already plays quarterback instead of just showing quarterback tools, and there is a big difference between the two.