Brugler's QBs, WRs, and Sleepers

Dane Brugler's quarterback board tells one story. His sleepers list tells a different one. Both matter eight days before the draft.

Rich starts at the top. Fernando Mendoza at one. Ty Simpson at two. Garrett Nussmeier. Drew Allar. Cole Payton from North Dakota State. Carson Beck after that.

On Mendoza, Brugler doesn't hedge. He had Mendoza as his 19th overall player in August. Indiana's season earned him the top spot. Whenever the Hoosiers needed a play, Mendoza made it. There's no mystery about why he is going to be the number one overall pick.

Simpson is the harder call. The first six games at Alabama looked like an NFL starter. The Georgia tape held up. Then the run game struggled, the offensive line wobbled, and more was put on the quarterback to make plays. He wasn't always able to. The experience factor is the tell. Fifteen career starts. Brugler notes that Simpson graduated from Alabama before he threw his first touchdown pass. That is rare air, and not the good kind. Anthony Richardson, Dwayne Haskins, Mitchell Trubisky are the cautionary comparisons. Light starts, heavy expectations, mixed to poor outcomes.

The second-tier quarterback question is who goes third. Nussmeier has ability, talent, command. His father is an NFL offensive coordinator. Beck probably has a backup ceiling, which might be exactly what a team is looking for. Allar's developmental ceiling is real. The second-half injury hurt his evaluation window.

Brugler calls it a light class. He also notes that history says one or two of these guys will get a chance to play. It will matter who lands where.

Rich shifts to receivers. Deepest position in the draft. Brugler says it's close. He has edge rushers at number one, receivers at number two.

The Dolphins at eleven are a test case. Eleven picks total, a receiver room that feels like it is starting over. Brugler would not be surprised if Miami took an offensive lineman at eleven and came back for a receiver at 29 or in the second round. Denzel Boston from Washington. Chris Bell from Louisville. The position makes sense, but so do ten other positions.

Carnell Tate is his top of the first-receiver conversation. The Browns want a playmaker. The Chiefs have been looking for an outside threat. The Saints rarely turn down an Ohio State pass catcher.

The sleepers are where Brugler earns the name The Beast.

Riley Nowakowski out of Indiana. Part fullback, part H-back, part tight end. Former walk-on, Wisconsin transfer. A few goal-line carries. Special teams contributor day one. Brugler thinks he goes in the fifth round and plays ten years.

Caleb Proctor from Southeastern Louisiana. Former high school linebacker bulked up to 290 at three-technique without losing athleticism. Showed up on the LSU tape against Nussmeier. Early day three pick, probably one of the first FCS players off the board, and Brugler thinks he makes noise.

The Beast isn't the title of a book. It's a working scouting report. Brugler just pulled two names off the back of it.