Behind the Scenes of the Final 2026 Rankings

We're close to turning the page on the 2026 class, as those players have played their final games, and all-star season is over. While there's the occasional unsigned senior showcase in the spring, the on-field work is largely finished for one of our favorite classes we've ever covered. This week, we dropped our final 2026 Rankings, and we're putting a bow on the class. One final time, we're going behind the scenes of the 2026 class rankings.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Behind the Scenes: Final 2026 Rankings</h2>   We're always player-focused, so I'll never write a piece without including plenty of thoughts on the players themselves.   But we can still examine the class as a whole and point out various themes. Here, I've got numbers, stats, and thoughts to accompany our final rankings update. I always welcome your thoughts and feedback as well.   <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Why Finish the Rankings in December?</h3>   We'll update the rankings for the 2027-2029 classes early in the new year, but we wanted our final senior rankings to stand alone.   While the final signing period isn't until February, there's very little left of our evaluation process. In other words, there's almost nothing we'll learn about these players that would drastically change our rankings. While we'll have some social media pushes for our top unsigned seniors, we'll shift our focus to the younger classes on the website.   Accordingly, we treat these final rankings very seriously. They're meant to stand the test of time. I still reference past class rankings. This final iteration is what will stay archived on the site for the foreseeable future. They allow readers to praise us (Byrum Brown was our No. 1 player in 2022) and roast us (James Pearce was No. 44 in that same class).   Mostly, they allow a look back. When players enter the transfer portal, our archived rankings often tell an interesting story about where they were as prospects. Former Rolesville quarterback Braden Atkinson excelled as a freshman at Mercer, for example, and is one of the top passers in the portal. We had him ranked 88th in the 2025 class, ahead of dozens of FBS recruits.   But while these rankings will stay archived, our evaluation process is closed. We ranked a lot of players. We saw a lot of them in person. And while we could quibble over a spot or two, we stand by our list. We'll get a lot wrong. But we'll also have plenty of accurate player rankings.   As a general reminder, our rankings often mirror future level of play, but not always. You'll find that most of the players at the top of our rankings are committed to Power Four schools. That's not because we blindly copied college scouts, but because those players are Power Four talents. The players ranked below them are generally Group of Five talents, and so on.   We also have no problem straying from that pattern or "calling our shot," if you will. [player_tooltip player_id='974827' first='LJ' last='Porter'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1600434' first='Terande' last='Spencer'] are both East Carolina (G5) commits, yet we've ranked them just outside the top 30, ahead of dozens of Power Four signees. Appalachian State commits [player_tooltip player_id='327286' first='Gavin' last='Barber'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1165700' first='Manny' last='Lewis'] finished in the top 40, as well. We even have 15 uncommitted players in our top 100, led by [player_tooltip player_id='1124842' first='Jayden' last='Jones'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1099168' first='Lan' last='Farmer'], who have the talent to be immediate impact players.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Numbers</h2>   Let's dive into some numbers around this rankings update. Last year, I started tracking stats for our rankings, giving some insight into the update. Take a look at some of the key numbers in this update:   ___________________ TWEET _______________________   Already the biggest class we've ever ranked, we added 36 players to the rankings since October, making a final total of 675 ranked players.   This was a tough class to rank at the top. The three players we considered for our top overall spot were [player_tooltip player_id='284097' first='Samari' last='Matthews'], [player_tooltip player_id='284090' first='Faizon' last='Brandon'], and [player_tooltip player_id='953008' first='Kendre' last='Harrison'], who ultimately finished at the top. All three are elite prospects, among the top 2-3 at their respective positions nationally, and a half-step above the rest of the top 10. Ultimately, Harrison's elite production caught up to his immense upside, making him a prospect with the best of both worlds.   The top 20 sort of created an invisible buffer in our rankings. The guys in that range may have shuffled around a bit, but there weren't any late-risers who broke that glass ceiling. Guys like [player_tooltip player_id='1157260' first='KD' last='Cotton'], [player_tooltip player_id='1661003' first='Kosci' last='Barnes'], [player_tooltip player_id='1368098' first='Tyreek' last='Copper'], and [player_tooltip player_id='1671861' first='Grant' last='Lawless'] made late runs into the top 50, and maybe one or two of them could have pushed into the top 15-20.   <h3 class="wp-block-heading">From Unranked to Top-400</h3>   This late in the process, it's almost impossible to go from off the rankings to the top half, but a handful did that, impressing down the stretch and jumping hundreds of other players to make their debuts inside the top 400:   [player_tooltip player_id='2074942' first='Conner' last='Lindsey'], QB, Cardinal Gibbons   [player_tooltip player_id='2089892' first='Shawn' last='Kennedy'], OL, Hough   [player_tooltip player_id='2001422' first='Mykie' last='Anderson'], OL, Rocky River   [player_tooltip player_id='1707820' first='Cameron' last='Norton'], LB, High Point Christian Academy   [player_tooltip player_id='1332087' first='Justin' last='Westbrook'], DB, Myers Park   <h3 class="wp-block-heading">Biggest Movers</h3>   We had 72 stock-risers, and 24 jumped 50+ spots (We'll write about every one of them this week). Here are the 15 who jumped at least 75 spots in the rankings:   [player_tooltip player_id='1728226' first='Jackson' last='Cancel'], RB, Christ School (+76)   [player_tooltip player_id='1626301' first='Kaleb' last='Richardson'], QB, South Stanly (+76)   [player_tooltip player_id='1337049' first='Tyler' last='Jones'], QB, Kinston (+76)   [player_tooltip player_id='1321106' first='Kelson' last='Tate'], WR, Weddington (+77)   [player_tooltip player_id='1277000' first='Damonte' last='James'], RB, Central Cabarrus (+77)   [player_tooltip player_id='1619052' first='Nolan' last='Jefferson'], OL, Palisades (+92)   [player_tooltip player_id='1671988' first='Penn' last='Craver'], OL, Myers Park (+93)   [player_tooltip player_id='1908004' first='Corey' last='Armstrong'], LB, Starmount (+94)   [player_tooltip player_id='1599171' first='Brooks' last='Culp'], OL, South Iredell (+121)   [player_tooltip player_id='1704824' first='Jamauris' last='Howard'], Ath./DB, Hunt (+123)   [player_tooltip player_id='1604514' first='JJ' last='Gulat'], RB, Dixon (+168)   [player_tooltip player_id='1937885' first='Reed' last='Harvey'], QB, Cary Christian (+183)   [player_tooltip player_id='1671976' first='Corddarious' last='Neal'], OL, Statesville (+202)   [player_tooltip player_id='1425453' first='Seth' last='Rucker'], LB, Heritage (+245)   [player_tooltip player_id='1909825' first='Kamari' last='McDonald'], LB, Lexington (+246)   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Biggest Watchlist-to-Ranked Jumps</h2>   There weren't many players added from the watchlist (A second-half of senior year breakout is very late), but we had a few. Here are the players who moved from the watchlist into the top 500:   [player_tooltip player_id='1574386' first='Daniel' last='Phillips'], OL, Charlotte Christian (242)   [player_tooltip player_id='1670331' first='Keenan' last='Early'], DB/WR, Ashbrook (321)   [player_tooltip player_id='1149025' first='Caleb' last='Owens'], Ath., Ballantyne Ridge (325)   [player_tooltip player_id='1304463' first='Jared' last='Curtis'], QB, Ardrey Kell (469)   There's plenty to come as we put a bow on the 2026 class. Want to share Prep Redzone with a friend? Promo code Helms30 will get them 30% off their first billing cycle for any subscription.

We're close to turning the page on the 2026 class, as those players have played their final games, and all-star season is over. While there's the occasional unsigned senior showcase in the spring, the on-field work is largely finished for one of our favorite classes we've ever covered. This week, we dropped our final 2026 Rankings, and we're putting a bow on the class. One final time, we're going behind the scenes of the 2026 class rankings.