2011 NFL Draft ranking comparison

Not all draft rankings are created equally, especially when the next selection process is a year away. Still, it's fun to compare and contrast how guys have them ranked. On April 26, I put out my initial top 75 players. Other sites did the same.

Below is my top 10, and how they compare. We may do this a few times over the summer.

Today, we compare to Tony Pauline, who writes for Sports Illustrated. He ranked 40 players for the 2011 draft. We also compare to the rankings from our friends at New Era Scouting. Juniors have asterisks next to their name.

1. A.J. Green | 6'4, 200 pounds | WR | Georgia *
- Pauline: 9 | NES: 8

2. Patrick Peterson | 6'1, 211 pounds | CB | LSU *
- Pauline: 8 | NES: 4

3. Robert Quinn | 6'5, 270 pounds | DE | North Carolina *
- Pauline: 1 | NES: 2

4. Julio Jones | 6'4, 210 pounds | WR | Alabama *
- Pauline: 3 | NES: 5

5. Jake Locker | 6'3, 226 pounds | QB | Washington
- Pauline: 10 | NES: 1

6. Travis Lewis | 6'2, 230 pounds | OLB | Oklahoma *
- Pauline: 30 | NES: 35

7. Allen Bailey | 6'4, 288 pounds | DT/DE | Miami (Fla.)
- Pauline: NR | NES: 16

8. Ras-I Dowling | 6'2, 200 pounds | CB | Virginia
- Pauline: 15 | NES: 17

9. Adrian Clayborn | 6'3, 282 pounds | DE | Iowa
- Pauline: 18 | NES: 7

10. Prince Amukamara | 6'1, 200 pounds | CB | Nebraska
- Pauline: 6 | NES: 21

A quick averaging, and Quinn is by far rated as the top player. We got to know Quinn earlier this week. Looking at how Pauline and NES have Lewis rated, I may have to do some explaining in the coming days on why the Oklahoma junior is rated so highly by me.

As an aside, NES rated Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck second overall. Pauline ranked Luck 14th overall. I didn't rank Luck because I've only seen a few of his games. But if you check out the comments on my top 75, you'll find a lot of good thoughts on Luck from commenter Der Jaeger (who is the man).