2026 NFL Draft big board: Jeremiyah Love No. 1 overall, Caleb Downs best defender

NBC Sports draft analyst Connor Rogers has released his updated 2026 NFL Draft Big Board, placing Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love at the top of the overall rankings. Alabama safety Caleb Downs is named the best defensive prospect in the class. The board, published six weeks before the draft, reflects the current consensus among national evaluators about where the top talent in this cycle sits, and it has been drawing significant attention from teams currently holding early picks.

A running back topping an NFL Draft big board is unusual. The position has been consistently devalued in first-round draft capital over the past decade, with only four running backs selected in the top 15 picks since 2018. Love's placement at No. 1 overall reflects both his exceptional physical profile and the specific scarcity of genuinely elite pass-rushing and quarterback prospects in this particular class, which is driving evaluators toward skill position talent they might otherwise rate lower in a stronger year for defensive linemen or signal callers.

What makes Jeremiyah Love the top overall prospect

Love finished the 2025 college football season with 1,380 rushing yards, 14 touchdowns, and 52 receptions for 487 yards in Notre Dame's system, which operates out of multiple formations and asks its backs to be functional receiving options rather than pure ball carriers. His 4.36 40-yard dash time from the NFL Scouting Combine puts him in the same speed tier as the fastest backs currently in the league, but what separates him in evaluator conversations is his contact balance.

Love's broken tackle rate in 2025 was 28.4 percent according to Pro Football Focus's college metrics, meaning he shed contact on more than one in four carries where he was initially touched. That number ranks him in the 94th percentile among running back prospects evaluated since PFF began tracking the metric in 2014. Contact balance at his speed combination is what Rogers cited specifically as the reason Love sits above prospects at positions that typically draw higher draft capital.

Caleb Downs and why he leads all defensive prospects

Caleb Downs transferred from Georgia to Alabama after his freshman year, which raised eyebrows at the time given that he was already regarded as a top-five prospect in the class. At Alabama, he started all 14 games in 2025, finished with 89 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, 4 interceptions, and 8 pass breakups, and was named a unanimous All-American. His coverage grade from PFF for the 2025 season was 91.4, placing him above every other safety prospect and every cornerback in the current class.

What makes Downs unusual among safety prospects is his ability to play deep coverage at the same level he plays in the box. Many safeties in recent draft classes have been profiled as one or the other. Downs's Alabama film shows him making plays from 15 yards deep as a single-high defender in the same games where he blitzes effectively and holds up physically against tight ends in the run game. That positional flexibility is what NFL teams pay top-ten draft capital for at the position.

The depth of this class at skill positions and secondary

Rogers's big board reflects a class with unusual concentration of talent at wide receiver, running back, and defensive back. The top 32 players on the board include 8 wide receivers, 4 running backs, and 6 defensive backs, which is a different distribution from recent classes that were top-heavy with edge rushers and offensive tackles. The 2024 NFL Draft, for comparison, had 5 edge rushers in the top 15 picks. The 2026 class has only two edge prospects in Rogers's top 20.

That distribution matters for teams trying to address specific needs. A team picking in the top five that needs an edge rusher will likely have to reach relative to their board position or trade down. Teams picking later in the first round with receiver needs may find better value than typical because the position depth extends further into the second half of the first round than in most recent cycles.

Teams most likely to be watching this board closely

The Tennessee Titans hold the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft following a 3-14 regular season. The Titans have needs at multiple positions, but their offensive infrastructure and the presence of second-year quarterback Will Levis on a team-friendly contract creates some flexibility about whether to take the best available player or address a specific positional need. Love at No. 1 overall would be the first running back taken first overall since Eric Dickerson in 1983 if Tennessee selects him, which adds historical context to a pick that is already generating significant pre-draft attention.

The 2026 NFL Draft is scheduled for April 23 through 25 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Green Bay is hosting the draft for the first time in the event's history.