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There are 460 players in my 2017 NFL draft database, including some underclassmen who may not declare and a lot of senior starters who will ultimately be deemed unworthy of the NFL. The job of narrowing down those 460 from the 750 players I started with has taken months. Now it's all about finding the top 300 prospects and getting them ranked in the right tiers.

That's what this Big Board update is: putting players in the correct grouping and then breaking ties over the next four months as more information comes out.

Scouting is done in-season and with the advantage of viewing tape over multiple weeks if you want the best results. But when you're a one-man show, you do as much as you can and then catch up over the next five months. Because of that inevitable delay, these rankings will change; in some cases, dramatically. A good example of that is having D.J. Humphries as a late-rounder at this time two years ago before watching five to six more games and realizing he was a late first-rounder.

A snapshot look at this class shows strength at running back, tight end, edge-rusher, cornerback and safety. That's bad news for many of the teams at the top of the draft (Cleveland, San Francisco, Chicago) needing help at quarterback or the Jacksonvilles of the world that badly need a left tackle.

A quarterback could still go No. 1 overall due to need, but you won't find one inside my top five, despite four making the top 40.