If Woods is on the board at 22, you take him and you do not think twice. Ryan Watkins graded him at 7.25 on our scale and ranked him as the top defensive lineman in the entire class. That is not a marginal call. It is a conviction-level evaluation built on film that shows a player who disrupts both the run and the pass at an elite level from the three-technique alignment.

The fit here is precise. Chris O’Leary’s defense is built on winning with a four-man rush, and his scheme relies on interior stunts and twists as the primary pressure generators rather than constant blitzing. Woods is the exact type of interior disruptor that architecture needs to function. His ability to play the 3-tech primary, reduce to 1-tech in match fronts, and even stand up as a 5-tech pass rusher on obvious passing downs gives O’Leary the kind of alignment versatility that makes an entire front more dangerous.

The roster context matters here too. Jamaree Caldwell has earned the starting defensive end spot alongside Teair Tart at DT and Dalvin Tomlinson at nose. But Tomlinson is on a short deal and is expected to leave after this season. When he does, the plan is for Caldwell to slide to nose, and Woods steps into the three-technique role full time. That is not a projection. That is the succession plan O’Leary is building around, and Woods is the centerpiece of it. The interior pass-rush upside he brings is something nobody else currently on the roster provides.

Watkins flagged the gap discipline as the primary refinement area, noting that Woods occasionally vacated his fit to freelance. That is a real concern in a system that demands tighter gap accountability than what Clemson asked of him. But the profile earned a CF-A rating from our board, meaning the traits, the scheme fit, and the floor are all aligned. Read the full scouting report here.

Pass RushPower

Lawrence is the kind of prospect who looks like a second-round pick on paper and a first-round pick on tape. Watkins graded him at 6.75 with a 9.9 RAS (elite athletic profile) and gave him the CF-A tag, making him one of the strongest scheme fits at edge rusher on our entire board.

What stands out is the technical sophistication. This is not a raw athlete who wins on physical gifts alone. Lawrence rushes with a plan and the sequencing to carry it through, deploying dip/rip with chop/swim combinations that force the blocker into a binary problem with no clean answer. His grip-breaking technique creates separation without overcommitting, and his arm length usage at the point of contact reflects a player who has invested deliberate off-field work into his craft.

O’Leary wants true edge rushers who can win with speed-to-power. Lawrence checks both boxes. The hidden power on his tape is real. He bullrushed Baylor’s right tackle into the turf from a counter adjustment, converting an oversetting tackle’s move against him into a violent finish. That kind of counter-ability translates directly to a scheme that relies on four-man pressure and wants its edge players to win their individual matchups without help.

Lawrence has fallen to the Chargers at this spot in multiple mock drafts, partially due to the sheer depth of edge rushers in this class. As Ryan detailed in his Positional Big Board, he has second-round and higher grades on nine different EDGEs. If another player like Romello Height or Zion Young is there instead of Lawrence, the selection still works wonderfully. The depth at the position means the Chargers are likely to land a high-caliber edge at 55 regardless of how the first round shakes out.

The edge need is more urgent than it might appear on the surface. Khalil Mack is 35 and on a one-year deal. The Chargers are treating him as year-to-year at this point. They would love to have him back as long as possible, but the succession plan has to be in place now. Odafe Oweh’s impact in 2025 demonstrated that this defense needs three productive edge rushers in rotation, not just two. Tuli Tuipulotu is the long-term starter on one side. Lawrence gives O’Leary the developmental piece on the other side who can learn behind Mack this year, step into the rotation immediately, and ideally anchor the bookend opposite Tuli when Mack retires.

The concerns are coachable. His footwork on interior twists needs work and he overflowed on pin-and-pull schemes. These are refinement items on an advanced foundation, not structural limitations. At 55, this is a strong value play. Full scouting report here.

Pass RushSpeed-to-Power

PFF gave this pick a C-, and frankly that grade says more about PFF’s board position than it does about the player. Watkins graded Jones at 6.72 with a 9.66 RAS and gave him the CF-A rating. He is our third-ranked interior offensive lineman and the best zone-scheme center in this class.

The speed is the headliner. Jones generates ground faster than any interior prospect in the 2026 draft, and he does it without sacrificing balance or control through his transitions between levels. On climb blocks, he consistently arrives at linebackers early, sometimes having to throttle down and wait for the play to catch up to him.

This is a McDaniel player through and through. The Shanahan-derived system is built on outside zone as the base run scheme. The offensive line works laterally in unison, and the running back reads the backside cutback. That entire structure demands a center who can move. Jones does not just move. He flies. Iowa ran a Shanahan-inspired system, which means the schematic translation is nearly seamless.

The concern is the frame. At 293 pounds, he will face heavier interior defenders at the NFL level, and his anchor against true nose tackles who generate momentum through the snap is the genuine ceiling question on this profile. Watkins was honest about that. But with Tyler Biadasz holding down the center position for the near term, Jones could develop behind a veteran and add the mass needed to answer the question. Full scouting report here.

ZoneAthlete

We had Stephens at a 6.20 grade with a CF-B rating, a zone/power dual-scheme fit, and a “Rise” stock indicator on our Big Board. This is the pick in the draft where the Iowa pipeline starts compounding.

Stephens is an experienced, physical guard who fires off the ball with real violence on combination blocks and consistently climbs to the second level to finish. He posted an elite 99.3 pass blocking efficiency rating from PFF in 2025 and gave up only four pressures across the entire season. He was named a First Team AP All-American and helped Iowa’s offensive line win the Joe Moore Award alongside Jones.

The Iowa connection between Stephens and Jones is worth emphasizing beyond just chemistry. Butch Barry, the Chargers’ new offensive line coach, followed McDaniel from Miami and runs the same Shanahan-derived blocking concepts Iowa employs. The coaching translation is not just player-to-scheme. It is player-to-coach. Barry will be teaching them techniques they have already been executing for years. That kind of continuity at the interior line is not something most teams get to manufacture through the draft.

Stephens also worked out at center during the Senior Bowl and performed well, which gives the coaching staff additional flexibility. He has experience at both guard spots. He is not going to test like a freak athlete, and the stiffness concerns are real against explosive pass rushers, but in a zone-heavy system that moves the point of attack and limits the number of isolated pass protection reps he has to win, those limitations are schematically mitigated.

Pairing Stephens and Jones together is not just a coincidence of the board. These are two players who already have years of chemistry working in concert, blocking the same schemes the Chargers want to run. That kind of built-in continuity is hard to manufacture.

ZonePower

This is a speed-and-special-teams play, and it is exactly the kind of late-round dart throw that can change a roster’s complexion in a way the first four picks cannot.

Thomas ran a 4.28 forty at the Combine. That alone gets him in the building. But the profile goes deeper than a forty time. He scored four different ways during his college career at LSU and Mississippi State: receiving, rushing, punt returns, and kickoff returns. He led the SEC in kickoff return yards in 2024 with 633 on 24 attempts, capped by a 95-yard return touchdown in the Texas Bowl. His 2025 season at LSU showed growth as a route runner, with a 62-yard catch-and-run touchdown against Vanderbilt where he broke multiple tackles after the catch.

The return game pathway is significant from a roster construction standpoint as well. Joe Hortiz builds rosters from the bottom up. Players who can contribute on special teams while developing at a skill position earn their roster spots on Ryan Ficken’s coverage and return units first. Thomas’ four-way scoring ability (receiving, rushing, punt returns, kickoff returns) gives him multiple pathways to the 53-man roster that do not require him to beat out an established receiver for playing time. That is exactly the kind of low-risk, high-optionality player Hortiz has been adding since his first year as GM.

The receiving production is modest. 41 catches for 488 yards and 4 touchdowns as a senior. The route tree needs development and the contested-catch profile at 5’10” and 190 pounds is not going to frighten NFL cornerbacks. But in a sixth-round selection, you are not looking for a finished product. You are looking for a specific thing you cannot coach, and Thomas has the fastest thing in the building. Between the return game and the jet-motion role, his pathway to a roster spot does not depend on winning a starting receiver job.

SpeedMotion Game