Arvell Reese is a linebacker/EDGE from Ohio State who is ranked No. 1 on my NFL Draft Top 100 Big Board. This comprehensive scouting report analyzes Reese’s draft potential, current mock draft trends, and where he ranks among the top prospects.
Arvell Reese’s NFL Draft Potential
Arvell Reese has been a revelation midway through the 2025 regular season, and he’s my top overall prospect on my updated 2026 NFL Draft Big Board. At 6’4″, 243 pounds, with elite proportional length, Reese blends the line between LB and EDGE, and he overwhelms blockers like a true EDGE with his inhuman raw strength and power supplemented on-attack.
He’s hyper-explosive, which helps him generate overwhelming force and stack-and-shed with ease, but that same explosiveness helps him sear up gaps as a blitzer and instantly erase space in pursuit against lateral runners, where he can then match, break down, and tackle solo with similarly inhuman quickness.
All this, and Reese’s most potent quality might be his true pass-rush upside. He has a 99th-percentile power profile with his explosiveness, lean mass, and length, and he’s shown he can maximize and sustain brutal power exertions with proper base load and extension timing on bull-rushes.
He can assuredly drop into short zones and cover hooks out of feigned blitz looks, but NFL defensive coordinators will look to weaponize him any chance they get as an elite two-phase attacker and block destroyer. A true offensive terminator, Reese is worthy of the first overall pick.
CFB Week 10 Update
Arvell Reese had arguably his best game yet in a stellar season in Week 10 against the Nittany Lions. On the stat sheet, Reese secured a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss, and his impact went even beyond that. In the run game, Reese once again used his combination of hyper-elite lateral explosive range and stack-and-shed soundness to dominate interior and exterior gaps, and working 1-on-1 against Drew Shelton as a pass-rusher, Reese terrorized with his teleportation burst, inhuman short-area quickness, and previously unproven but now verifiable cornering ability.
Whether he used his incredible raw power or unmatched athleticism with wicked jab-dip combos, Reese proved his mettle as a defensive X-factor nearly impossible to replicate.
CFB Week 11 Update
Reese didn’t have a constant four-quarter impact in Ohio State’s victory over Penn State, but he didn’t need to. He did his job in this game, and he did it reliably. His best play came early on in the first quarter: Reese slabbed an ill-fated tight end block to plow a gap shut and envelop the ball carrier for a loss. But past that, Reese also displayed his ability to drop into short zones and manage depth against crossing routes.
CFB Week 12 Update
The Buckeyes drew an easy matchup against the UCLA Bruins in Week 12, winning 48-10 and taking out their starters in the fourth quarter. Reese wasn’t pressured as much to make game-changing plays in this one, but his most fundamental strengths still stood out. On running downs, he excelled at stacking blockers, setting the edge, closing ground in pursuit, and securing solo tackles when given the opportunity. He’ll have a chance to put an exclamation point on his ascension as a potential top-three pick when the big games come up later this year.
Where Is Reese Being Selected Most Often in the PFSN Mock Draft Simulator?
Reese currently holds the No. 4 overall rank among prospects, indicating his elite standing as of the most recent update. His most recent Average Draft Position (ADP) of 5.7 as of November 19 reflects that he is typically being selected within the top 10 picks overall.
This small gap between rank and ADP suggests he’s consistently valued among evaluators, even amid fluctuations in player evaluations at this stage of the draft cycle.
Users controlling the New Orleans Saints have been the team that selected Reese the most frequently over the past week, accounting for 3.7% of their picks across all seven rounds. Notably, 13.3% of the New Orleans Saints’ first-round selections over that same period were used on Reese, underscoring users’ strong preference for him as a potential immediate-impact linebacker/EDGE defender.
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Where Does Arvell Reese Rank Amongst Other NFL Draft Prospects?
Reese is currently ranked No. 1 overall in my November 2026 NFL Draft Big Board. Among LB/EDGE prospects, Reese ranks 1st at the position, making him the top-rated LB/EDGE in this draft class. With a top-10 ranking, Reese is considered one of the elite prospects in the 2026 class.
Want to see how we rank all the draft prospects in the PFSN Mock Draft Simulator? Check out our NFL Draft Prospect Rankings page, which includes more than 750 prospects.