Updated Positional Rankings: The race for OT1 runs through Salt Lake City

From Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu to the rest of the class, let's reset the stage of the 2026 NFL Draft offensive tackle group

We have entered Week 11 of the College Football season, so the 2026 NFL Draft cycle will be upon us before we know it, with the East-West Shrine Game less than three months away.

And I haven’t rewritten the offensive tackle class since the summer. This feels like the time to get that done, as there are a ton of names who have not quite lived up to the hype.

I’ll be working off of my summer scouting rankings. That article can be found here. The class looks much different from what it did over the summer. And that has been reflected thanks to 10 weeks of new tape.

So, less talking and more analysis. I’ve ranked 13 of the offensive tackles in this class with detailed analysis on the top nine names.

Disclaimer before we dive in here: Miami’s Francis Mauigoa (a very good football player) will be listed as a guard. He will not make an appearance in these rankings, but he is the highest-graded offensive linemen in the class for me at this point.

A massive riser from my summer rankings, Lomu has jumped up four spots to the top. I even recorded some video content where I broke down all the reasons I was lower on him (here). This is one of those self-auditing moments for me to look back and try to figure out why I was lower on Lomu than the consensus coming into the season.

And I think I was probably too low on the development of a player whose Redshirt Freshman tape was being watched. From both an on-field and body development perspective. I would love to see a side-by-side of Redshirt Freshman Lomu and Redshirt Sophomore Lomu because he looks a great deal larger and stronger on tape this season.

And he’s added that good weight without compromising the tools on his 2024 tape that made him an intriguing prospect. He’s eliminated the oversets and spacing issues that plagued him a year ago, and is generating a ton of more movement in the run game as well.

Given his age and development, Lomu’s best football may be ahead of him still.

Just because I elevated Lomu to OT1 in the class, it does not make me much lower on Fano. The biggest knock on Fano is that he is undersized, listed at 6-foot-5 and 302 pounds. And it shows up in his anchor at times.

Overall, however, Fano is a tremendous athlete whose core is strong when he can jump set that man across from him and dig in. His hands are immensely strong for his size as well, and it helps when he has to redirect back inside to have an inside hand that can stonewall countering defenders.

There is some buzz that he may be getting guard feedback from those in the league, but he’s got adequate length and plus athleticism to hang at tackle at the next level.

Lomu and Fano are the only two tackles in the class that I would deem as worthy of using a top-32 pick on in the 2026 NFL Draft class.