Marcus Mariota overtakes Jameis Winston in Mike Mayock’s latest 2015 NFL Draft position rankings

Although most mock drafts have already locked in Jameis Winston as the No. 1 pick, draft guru Mike Mayock of NFL.com doesn’t even think he’s the top quarterback prospect, according to his latest draft positional rankings published on Wednesday.

Mayock, one of the most respected analysts in the scouting world, moved Oregon’s Marcus Mariota to the top of his quarterback rankings and pushed Winston down to No. 2. The former Florida State signal caller had been the top-ranked quarterback in each of the first two versions of these position-by-position big boards.

Although Mayock doesn’t expand on his reasons for the change, it’s worth noting that this latest set of rankings incorporates the work that Mariota and Winston did at their pro days and information he’s gathered from their visits to various teams around the league.

Below are Mayock’s latest set of rankings at each position:

Quarterback
1. Marcus Mariota, Oregon
2. Jameis Winston, Florida State
3. Bryce Petty, Baylor
4. Garrett Grayson, Colorado State
5. Brett Hundley, UCLA

These are the same five quarterbacks that Mayock had in his rankings at the beginning of March. As mentioned above, the major change was swapping Mariota and Winston at the top. He also jumped Grayson ahead of Hundley to round out the top five. SB Nation’s Dan Kadar has these same five guys in his quarterback draft rankings as well, though he placed Winston No. 1 and Mariota No. 2.

Running back
1. Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin
2. Todd Gurley, Georgia
3. Ameer Abdullah, Nebraska
4. Duke Johnson, Miami (Fla.)
5. Tevin Coleman, Indiana

Likewise, these are also the same five running backs in the same order that Mayock had in his most recent rankings last month. It appears that all of them had strong pro days and there has been no change in the outlook for Gurley making a full recovery from the torn ACL he suffered last fall.

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Wide receiver
1. Kevin White, West Virginia
2. Amari Cooper, Alabama
3. DeVante Parker, Louisville
4. Breshad Perriman, Central Florida
T-5. Dorial Green-Beckham, Missouri
T-5. Nelson Agholor, USC

The major change here was putting Agholor among the top five receivers -- he had not appeared in either of the first two versions. Mayock also dropped Arizona State’s Jaelen Strong from the rankings despite an impressive showing at his pro day.

Tight end
1. Maxx Williams, Minnesota
2. Clive Walford, Miami (Fla.)
3. Blake Bell, Oklahoma
4. Nick O’Leary, Florida State
5. Tyler Kroft, Rutgers

The main shakeup in the tight end rankings is Southern Illinois’ MyCole Pruitt falling out of the top five, and being replaced by Kroft. Pruitt was a Combine star, but apparently hasn’t shown enough since then to keep his place among the elite tight end prospects.

Interior offensive linemen
1. Brandon Scherff, Iowa
2. Cameron Erving, Florida State
3. Laken Tomlinson, Duke
4. A.J. Cann, South Carolina
5. Tre’ Jackson, Florida State

This list hasn’t changed since the last version, and the order remains the same as well. The one potentially interesting nugget is that Mayock continues to group Scherff, who played tackle at Iowa, with the guards/centers in these rankings. Dan Kadar, on the other hand, ranks Scherff as the top-rated offensive tackle.

Offensive tackle
1. La’el Collins, LSU
2. Ereck Flowers, Miami (Fla.)
3. D.J. Humphries, Florida
4. Andrus Peat, Stanford
T-5. T.J. Clemmings, Pittsburgh
T-5. Cedric Ogbuehi, Texas A&M

The big winner in this set is Flowers, who moved up from fourth to second. The draft guru has since attended Miami’s pro day and called Flowers a talented player but also “incredibly raw,” noting that he’s nearly a lock to go in the first round. Mayock was very impressed by his workouts and sees him as a “potential Pro Bowl right tackle.”

Interior defensive linemen
1. Leonard Williams, USC
2. Arik Armstead, Oregon
3. Malcom Brown, Texas
4. Danny Shelton, Washington
T-5. Eddie Goldman, Florida State
T-5. Jordan Phillips, Oklahoma

The names in this group remain the same from the post-Combine version, though he’s moved a few of the guys around. He swapped Armstead and Shelton at the No. 2 and No. 4 positions. Both players stood on their Combine numbers and participated only in position drills at their respective pro days.

Edge rusher
1. Dante Fowler Jr., Florida
2. Randy Gregory, Nebraska
3. Vic Beasley, Clemson
4. Bud Dupree, Kentucky
5. Shane Ray, Missouri

Gregory moves up from fourth to second in these latest rankings, pushing Ray all the way down to fifth. This is a curious change by Mayock, considering the fact that Gregory recently admitted to failing a drug test at the Combine and that Ray reportedly performed well at Missouri’s pro day.

Linebacker
1. Paul Dawson, TCU
2. Eric Kendricks, UCLA
3. Stephone Anthony, Clemson
4. Denzel Perryman, Miami (Fla.)
5. Benardrick McKinney, Mississippi State

The only shift by Mayock in his linebackers rankings was switching the two players at the bottom, Perryman and McKinney. Dawson remained at the top of the list after posting a much-improved 40 time at his pro day a few weeks ago.

Cornerback
1. Trae Waynes, Michigan State
2. Jalen Collins, LSU
3. Marcus Peters, Washington
4. Kevin Johnson, Wake Forest
T-5. Eric Rowe, Utah
T-5. Byron Jones, Connecticut

Rowe is the lone newcomer on this list, pushing Florida State’s P.J. Williams out of the top five. Rowe had a very good pro day, showcasing his versatility by participating in both safety and cornerback drills.

Safety
1. Landon Collins, Alabama
2. Shaq Thompson, Washington
3. Damarious Randall, Arizona State
4. Quinten Rollins, Miami (Ohio)
5. Alex Carter, Stanford

Collins and Thompson remain the consensus top safety prospects, but there are some new faces at the bottom of this group. Both Rollins and Carter were elevated by Mayock into the top five after impressive workouts in the past month, replacing Fresno State’s Derron Smith and Samford’s Jaquiski Tartt. Dan Kadar agrees that Collins is by far the best safety prospect, but lists Thompson with the outside linebackers even though he could end up playing in the defensive backfield at the next level.

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