With all due respect to my top-ranked overall player, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and the rest of an above-average edge rusher class, it is the collection of playmaking cornerbacks and hard-hitting safeties that really stands apart this year. Of the 32 players listed below, 10 line up in the secondary. It remains to be seen, of course, if NFL teams value the defensive backs the same way, but if they do, it would make for a historic class. An average of just six defensive backs have earned first-round selections since 2010. In 2014, nine DBs were picked in the first round, the most since the NFL expanded to its current 32-team format in 2002.
