Welcome to the peak of the 2026 Draft Season Stormcloud!
Draft season is my favorite time of the year. There’s something uniquely unifying about it for those of us on the analytical side of the sport as it’s where the ever-raging battle between metrics and film plays out in real time, and honestly, it’s what pulled me from casual fan to someone obsessed with understanding the game as deeply as possible. The draft is that perfect crossroads, partly because the NFL itself is just as humbled by the beautiful chaos of it all as the rest of us. So forgive the brief divergence to kick off my positional rankings series as I indulge in my need to share both my enthusiasm for the process and introduce the new system we’ve been building here at Stormcloud. Two things I genuinely can’t wait to talk about.
If you haven’t already scrolled down to see the positional rankings table then let me talk you through what you’re looking at. This is the new Stormcloud positional ranking board, in this instance it is for Interior Offensive Linemen in the 2026 NFL Draft class. As always I have built this board entirely from my own film study; I do not read a single evaluation nor do I scan PFF grades; it’s always focused on what I see on the All-22.
My system has been tweaked slightly this year so I give a Numeric Grade for the top 20 or so prospects (roughly the top 200 ranked players on the consensus board) and I then write a full profile for the top 10 graded prospects which is linked directly from the table via the arrow icon next to their name. These profiles will also be posted to Stormcloud to access directly through the homepage. Every player in the scouted section has been evaluated across at least one full game of film, with those with full written profiles being studied across multiple games.
Our Numeric Grades map to a projected draft round. This is based on the NFL Standard Scouting Grade used by NFL.com.
7.20-8.00 = Top 10
6.90-7.19 = Round 1
6.60-6.89 = Round 2
6.30-6.59 = Round 3
6.10-6.29 = Round 4
5.90-6.09 = Round 5
5.70-5.89 = Rounds 6-7
5.50-5.69 = Priority UDFA
Alongside the grade you’ll find each player’s Relative Athletic Score (RAS) which is a 0–10 composite metric developed by Kent Lee Platte that contextualizes combine and pro day testing data against historical norms at the position. These will be updated again after the last relevant Pro Day results are published on April 1st where Fernando Mendoza will have the scouting world watching. For all Pro Day dates on these please refer to the schedule posted here.
I have also created a Chargers Fit rating (CF-A through CF-D) assessing how well each prospect’s traits and schematic profile align with what Los Angeles asks of its offensive linemen. The consensus rank column reflects aggregate industry rankings, giving you a quick read on where my evaluation diverges from the wider scouting community. Players in the Watchlist section below are monitored but have not yet received a film evaluation however they remain on the periphery and may be elevated as the pre-draft process continues. Especially if there is interest from the Stormcloud community.
In addition to the CF ratings I have also listed each prospects scheme tendencies; Zone or Gap for run game, Anchor or Athlete for pass block style; a Hybrid tag could apply to the guys who have displayed a mastery of both.
The biggest story in this group is the gap between athletic testing and functional play, and nowhere is that clearer than with the two Centers the industry has ranked highest. Connor Lew and Jake Slaughter sit inside the top 65 on most aggregate boards, which is a reflection of the position scarcity in this class as much as anything either of them has done on film. Lew has had admirers since last spring, but his anchor against quality competition and his hand placement in tight spaces have both let him down when it matters most. Slaughter posts a very high 9.91 RAS and yet the processing and consistency issues that show up on tape are persistent enough to keep him in Round 3 territory on this board. Both will likely go higher than I have them, and if one of them lands on the Chargers I won’t be shocked, but I won’t be happy about the value given their lofty consensus range.
Going the other way, Logan Jones out of Iowa is the player I feel most strongly about in this entire position class. A consensus rank of 113 is puzzling for a center who blocks intelligently in both gap and zone concepts, reads stunts and twists before they develop and arrives with a RAS of 9.66 to silence any athleticism doubts. He is the kind of player who makes everyone around him look better, and a team that drafts him in Round 2 will have found a genuine starter. Keylan Rutledge and Sam Hecht deserve a mention here too. Both grade in Round 2 on this board while sitting at 177 and 228 in the consensus, and the Senior Bowl showed why both are rising. This is where the value in this draft class is hiding.
For the Chargers, the path forward on the interior is more straightforward than it might appear. The talent at tackle is settled, and Hortiz has more than enough cap space and draft capital to address the middle properly rather than patching it. Olaivavega Ioane is the name to watch at 22 if the board falls favorably. He profiles as an immediate starter, fits what the Chargers ask of their guards and grades as the best player in this group on my board. I am also a big fan of Emmanuel Pregnon, his athleticism at his size is something that blends the worlds of Mike McDaniel and Jim Harbaugh so if the Bolts want to trade outside the first round, he’s the man to target in the low 30’s. If that window closes, Rutledge and Logan Jones at 55 represent exactly the kind of picks this front office has built its identity around. Fix the middle and this offense becomes a very different proposition.
