by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/27/2026 Welcome to Draft Season! Technically the new draft season starts the day after the NFL Draft but with the College Football season set to kick off tomorrow and the NFL season only 2 weeks away, I'm using this timeline to start my official Draft Content for the 2027 season. Draft content will start with this Mock Draft but as my content showed last year, I will be again prioritizing player evaluations and team makeup over Mock Draft exer

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/26/2026 Photo Credits to Jamie Rhodes via Imagn Images 10. Isaac Brown 5'9" 190 lbs. Louisville Pro Comparison Bucky Irving 2025 Overview Brown was starting 2025 pretty good before a hamstring injury would keep him out of 5 games towards the end of the season. In the 3 games before his injury, Brown was TORCHING ACC defenses for 150 yards per game and 10 yards per carry. He would even return for Louisville's final game of the season and went

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/25/2026 Photo Credits to Ricardo B. Brazziell/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images College Football will return this Saturday with the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland between TCU and North Carolina at Noon. The rest of the schedule for "Week 0" is only 7 more games in the FBS including only 1 consensus Top-25 team. Even though we won't see most of the teams we are most excited about this week, let's give the

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/24/2026 Photo Credits to Jeff Bottari via Zuffa LLC Gregory Rodrigues vs Brendan Allen Zak Drapeau - Hell yeah, RoboCop is gonna be Top-7 in the Middleweight division this week. I'm stoked! Rodrigues had a great display of power and striking this weekend and now has 4 wins in a row and in 7 of his last 8. His next fight doesn't necessarily have to be a Top-5 guy, but Brendan Allen is also not active enough for his #4 ranking either. If the t

Photo: Donovan Cook-AP For years, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were my standard for NBA tandems—a homegrown one-two punch that eventually grew from promising young wings into champions. Now, with the two officially split up, the league’s duo hierarchy suddenly feels wide open. And that got me thinking: who is actually the best Batman-and-Robin pairing in basketball right now? We're firmly in the superteam era. Teams aren’t just chasing Big Threes anymore. Some are trying to

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 8/21/2026 In our FN Gamrot vs Salkilld Predictions, which you can find here, Zak went 3-3 in picks with 2 method for 5 points. Matt went 3-3 in picks with 2 method for 5 points. Points To Date: Zak: 158 (106-60) Matt: 145 (95-65) *All odds courtesy of Caesar's Sportsbook on 8/ Photo Credits to Uselyis on Youtube.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 6Anthony Hernandez vs 11Gregory Rodrigues (Hernandez -165) Zak Drapeau - T

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/20/2026 Make sure to come back everyday for positional rankings and my MOCK DRAFT 1.0 releasing Thursday, August 27 at noon Top-10 Quarterbacks of the 2027 Draft Class Photo Credits to Chad Hamilton/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images 10. John Mateer 6'1" 225 lbs. Oklahoma Pro Comparison: Older Russell Wilson 2025 Overview 2025 was a very up and down year for the former Washington State transfer. At one point early in the season, Mateer's name wa

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/19/2026 We are 3 weeks away from the start of the 2026 season and if it's anything like last year, the only thing we know for sure is that making predictions like this are almost useless and more often wrong than not. Just to make my case, let's look at my predictions for the 2025 season that I made the same time last year: MVP - Baker Mayfield Super Bowl MVP - Lamar Jackson Coach of the Year - Todd Bowles Comeback POY - Christian McCaffrey OP

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/18/2026 Photo Credits to Al Bello via Getty Images Tier 1: Guarantees 1. Josh Allen 2. Lamar Jackson _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Tier 2: Good but Not Great 3. Joe Burrow 4. Jalen Hurts 5. Justin Herbert 6. Caleb Williams 7. Dak Prescott 8. Bo Nix Tier 3: Bust Year Incoming 9. Jayden Daniels 10. Drake Maye _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Tier 4: League Winners/ Steals 11. Kyler Murray 12. Jared Goff _ _

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 8/17/2026 Photo Credits to Derik Hamilton via Associated Press Islam Makhachev vs Carlos Prates Matt Hylen - There's only one man, now that Ian Machado Garry got his shot, that deserves a shot at the title and that's Carlos Prates. Sure, Michael Morales was the backup fighter for the Makhachev/Garry fight, but his resume still needs one more top contender before getting a shot over Prates. Now, do I think Prates is stylistically t

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/18/2026 Photo Credits to Zach Dimmit via Sports Illustrated 10. Cam Coleman WR Texas Let's start this list off with a wild card pick straight away! Truth be told I'm not too sure if this pick is indeed a hot take because Cam Coleman is an elite WR athlete who will be joining a Texas team with one of the best QBs in the country in an offensive-friendly system. In two seasons at Auburn, Coleman did well statistically but didn't take the year 2-

by Zak Drapeau and Will Gilhooly Sportz Nation - 8/16/2026 Photo Credits to James Lang via Imagn Images All Odds courtesy of DraftKings on 8/13 Starting tomorrow we can officially say, "College Football is back." The season won't actually start until August 29th when TCU and UNC play in Dublin for the College Football Classic. But the first official, AP Top-25 poll will release tomorrow at Noon. Before the coaches' poll becomes official, Sportz Nation's Zak Drapeau and Will G

Photo: Jesse Johnson-ImagnImages The United States may be the birthplace of the game we love, but the NBA has long since become a global sport. From all-time legends who introduced entire countries to the league, to today's brightest superstars carrying international basketball into a new era, some of the greatest players in NBA history have come from every corner of the world. Canada gave us 2x MVP gave us Steve Nash. Germany produced Dirk Nowitzki. Greece has Giannis Anteto

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 8/14/2026 In our FN Gamrot vs Salkilld Predictions, which you can find here, Zak went 3-3 in picks with 1 method for 4 points. Matt went 4-2 in picks with 1 method for 5 points. Points To Date: Zak: 153 (103-57) Matt: 140 (92-62) *All odds courtesy of Caesar's Sportsbook on 8/11 Graphic Credits to UFC via eventbrite.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Islam Makhachev vs Ian Machado Garry Welterweight Championship (Makhac

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/13/2026 Photo Credits to Kevin Sabitus via Getty Images Tier 1 Guarantees 1. Bijan Robinson 2. Jahmyr Gibbs _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Tier 2 Still Elite 3. Jonathan Taylor 4. Christian McCaffrey 5. Saquon Barkley 6. De'Von Achane 7. James Cook 8. Derrick Henry _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Tier 3 Breakouts 9. Ashton Jeanty 10. Kenneth Walker 11. Chase Brown 12. Kyren Williams 1

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 8/10/2026 Quilan Salkilld vs Diego Lopes Zak Drapeau - Salkilld has been one of the biggest rising stars of the division because of his violence and striking. The test he had against Gamrot was to see if he could keep himself up against a relentless wrestler and instead, he showed us that he may be just as dangerous on the ground and COMPLETELY altered his prospect status to contender... and a strong one at that. At the same time

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/11/2026 When I made this list in 2022 which you can find here, I had Shavkat, Du Plessis, Chimaev, Pereira and Topuria, so I can't wait to see where this group of prospects will climb to by 2030. Honorable Mentions: - Ion Baraniewski - Mairon Santos - Ethyn Ewing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Photo Credits to Jeff Bottari via Zuffa LLC #10 Tommy McMillen Division Lightweight Age 28y, 239d UFC Record 2-0 Finishes 2 McMillen j

Photo: Cody Jeffries-AP Another week, another flash into the past. This time around, the time machine pivots to 2016—and we might be looking at one of the deepest classes we’ve covered yet. Lonzo Ball. De’Aaron Fox. Jayson Tatum. And somehow? That still barely scratches the surface. This wasn’t a class where two or three prospects separated themselves and everyone else faded into obscurity. Damn near half of these McDonald’s All-Americans went on to carve out above average NB

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 8/9/2026 Photo Credits to Todd Kirkland via Getty Images 10. Bijan Robinson Falcons Running Back Last Year's Rank: 24 Bijan spent 2 days as the highest-paid RB in NFL history and it was well-deserved. Robinson had just under 2,300 yards of total offense this season along with 11 TDs all while rushing for 5.1 yards per carry. Robinson's true value and reason he cracks the Top-10 list is his dual threat ability. Robinson's 287 carries and 79 catc

by Zak Drapeau and Matt Hylen Sportz Nation - 8/8/2026 In our FN Du Medic v Rodriguez Predictions, which you can find here Zak went 4-2 in picks with 3 methods for 7 points. Matt went 5-1 in picks with 2 methods for 7 points. Points To Date: Zak: 149 (100-54) Matt: 135 (88-60) *All odds courtesy of Caesar's Sportsbook on 8/7 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Graphic by UFC via UFC.com 8Mateusz Gamrot vs 12Quillan Salkilld (Salkilld -150) Zak Drapeau - I was talking to fr