{"id":466449,"date":"2026-02-10T19:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466449\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:32:10","slug":"nfl-draft-dane-brugler-drops-his-1st-top-100-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466449\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Draft: Dane Brugler drops his 1st top-100 of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best public resource for NFL Draft coverage right now is probably The Athletic\u2019s Dane Brugler, who covers the draft year-round. On Tuesday, Brugler dropped his first top-100 of the 2026 cycle<\/a>, so it\u2019s worth going through his opinions on players at the Green Bay Packers\u2019 positions of need.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at who Brugler is higher on, lower on or doesn\u2019t have ranked at all in his top-100 at center, defensive tackle and cornerback, the squeaky wheels in Green Bay.<\/p>\n

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Center<\/p>\n

#83: Jake Slaughter, Florida (#105 on the consensus board)<\/p>\n

#96: Trey Zuhn III, Texas A&M (#165)<\/p>\n

As far as Brugler sees it, there are two Day 2 selections at the center position, and one of them is Texas A&M\u2019s Trey Zuhn III, who primarily played tackle at the college level. While Zuhn only played 123 snaps of center at A&M, compared to 2,813 at tackle<\/a>, I\u2019ve been told by scouts \u2014 and written throughout this cycle \u2014 that many view his position at the next level to be center due to his shorter arms. For the most part, college teams are playing their best linemen at tackle, not putting much thought or value into what players\u2019 best positions will be in the NFL.<\/p>\n

Here is what Brugler had to say about Zuhn:<\/p>\n

A college left tackle who projects best inside at center, Zuhn is a solid athlete who understands positional leverage. It will only help that NFL scouts say he is an \u201coff the charts\u201d type of kid who can play any of the five offensive line positions in a pinch.<\/p>\n

The other center is Florida\u2019s Jake Slaughter, who has scored well over multiple years for charting services, but scouts didn\u2019t really fully buy into the hype until he had a strong performance at the Senior Bowl\u2019s week of practices. Notably, the following center-types were left off Brugler\u2019s cut: Auburn\u2019s Connor Lew (#73, coming off an ACL tear), Duke\u2019s Brian Parker II (#84, a college tackle similar to Zuhn), Georgia Tech\u2019s Keylan Rutledge (#85, a college guard) and Kansas State\u2019s Sam Hecht (#86).<\/p>\n

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Defensive Tackle<\/p>\n

#24: Caleb Banks, Florida (#25)<\/p>\n

#26: Kayden McDonald, Ohio State (#27)<\/p>\n

#33: Peter Woods, Clemson (#16)<\/p>\n

#37: Christen Miller, Georgia (#40)<\/p>\n

#60: Lee Hunter, Texas Tech (#35)<\/p>\n

#69: Darrell Jackson Jr., Florida State (#81)<\/p>\n

#71: Domonique Orange, Iowa State (#69)<\/p>\n

#95: Chris McClellan, Missouri (#124)<\/p>\n

#100: Rayshaun Benny, Michigan (#137)<\/p>\n

Neither Georgia\u2019s Christen Miller nor Michigan\u2019s Rayshaun Benny is a nose tackle type, but the rest of this list can credibly play that position, in at least certain schemes. Green Bay should be more interested in the nose tackle market, where they\u2019ll look to improve from Colby Wooden, rather than the three-technique market, where Devonte Wyatt played well when healthy in 2025.<\/p>\n

Brugler is a little lower on Hunter than the consensus, and I\u2019m sort of with him. Honestly, I think Hunter best fits as a 320-pound three-technique, since his best trait is lateral movement rather than holding up at the point of attack. Here\u2019s what Brugler said about the Texas Tech tackle:<\/p>\n

A 320-pounder with almost 35-inch arms, Hunter is an active run defender who can work up and down the line of scrimmage. He is limited as a pass rusher by his tall pads and inconsistent pocket push, but he should be an asset on early downs.<\/p>\n

Teams that stunt a lot will love Hunter. Defenses that ask their noses to eat space will like him a lot less.<\/p>\n

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The players left off of Brugler\u2019s list are Cincinnati\u2019s Dontay Corleone (#87) and Oklahoma\u2019s Gracen Halton (#97). Corleone has some medical concerns about his bloodclot issue that popped up starting in 2024, but he\u2019s reportedly got it under control. Teams will certainly be poking around for that at the combine later this month. Halton is undersized for a three-technique, much less a nose tackle.<\/p>\n

Cornerback<\/p>\n

#7: Mansoor Delane, LSU (#11)<\/p>\n

#16: Jermod McCoy, Tennessee (#14)<\/p>\n

#18: Avieon Terrell, Clemson (#20)<\/p>\n

#28: Colton Hood, Tennessee (#32)<\/p>\n

#38: Chris Johnson, San Diego State (#46)<\/p>\n

#40: D\u2019Angelo Ponds, Indiana (#57)<\/p>\n

#41: Brandon Cisse, South Carolina (#31)<\/p>\n

#50: Davison Igbinosun, Ohio State (#78)<\/p>\n

#59: Keith Abney II, Arizona State (#42)<\/p>\n

#73: Devin Moore, Florida (#98)<\/p>\n

#77: Treydan Stukes, Arizona (#103)<\/p>\n

#88: Chandler Rivers, Duke (#99)<\/p>\n

#90: Malik Muhammad, Texas (#72)<\/p>\n

From a Packers\u2019 perspective, I\u2019d go ahead and write off D\u2019Angelo Ponds, Treydan Stukes and Chandler Rivers right now. Ponds and Rivers are smaller than any cornerback Green Bay has drafted in more than two decades, while Stukes was a slot defender at the college level.<\/p>\n

For the most part, Brugler\u2019s cornerback rankings are pretty chalk. The hottest take he has is probably listing Ohio State\u2019s Davison Igbinosun (whose full scouting report, with video, we got done last week<\/a>) as a top-50 player. Here is Brugler\u2019s blurb on Igbinosun:<\/p>\n

With prototypical size and speed for outside work, Igbinosun can carry routes vertically and stay in phase to contest passing windows. Teams must be comfortable with his aggressive physicality \u2014 he was flagged a combined 16 times in coverage over the past two seasons (although that number decreased from 12 in 2024 to just four in \u201825).<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t too many surprises here, with the top names who didn\u2019t make Brugler\u2019s list being Miami nickel Keionte Scott (#58) and Arkansas\u2019 Julian Neal (#92). He actually ranked Scott (#76), but as a safety. You might also see South Carolina\u2019s Jalon Kilgore, who didn\u2019t make Brugler\u2019s top-100, listed as a cornerback, depending on the source. Kilgore is another true nickelback in this class, but he is generally considered more of a safety than a cornerback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best public resource for NFL Draft coverage right now is probably The Athletic\u2019s Dane Brugler, who covers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,10391,190357,190353,190350,190356,190349,68415,112220,190358,6388,1043,1730,6442,184609,6390,514,190352,190351,5003,2600,82,1445,544,190354,190355],"class_list":["post-466449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cincinnati","tag-colby-wooden","tag-cornerback","tag-dane-brugler","tag-darrell-jackson-jr","tag-davison-igbinosun","tag-defensive-tackle","tag-devonte-wyatt","tag-dontay-corleone","tag-florida","tag-green-bay","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-lee-hunter","tag-miami","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft-coverage","tag-offensive-line-positions","tag-ohio-state","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-sports","tag-tennessee","tag-texas","tag-trey-zuhn-iii","tag-treydan-stukes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}