Biggest sleepers and veers from consensus in my updated top-50 big board and why

I dropped my top-50 big board... now let's talk about some of the biggest placements that may have caught your eye.

You may have noticed (maybe you didn’t) that I dropped an updated 2026 NFL Draft top-50 big board last week. It didn’t follow the traditional consensus that you’ve probably seen on mock draft simulators, and more.

I’m going to trust my eyes until the very end. If I am wrong, then I am wrong. I’ll examine where I may have missed, why I missed, and how to course correct in those situations. Some of the players in my top-50 are going to go back to school still as well; that was already the case with South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who is reportedly set to return to the Gamecocks.

Here, I have highlighted players in three different categories: sleepers, players I am higher on than consensus, and players that I am lower on than consensus. So, let’s talk about some of the bigger names in my top-50 that probably stood out to readers.