The 2027 NFL Draft LBs will have plenty to live up to after a 2026 NFL Draft class in which seven off-ball linebacker prospects went within the first two rounds, with Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese at the very top as a blue-chip LB tandem.
Styles and Reese stole the show, but the 2026 class quietly had a respectable amount of top-end depth. Promising playmakers like Jacob Rodriguez, Josiah Trotter, Jake Golday, CJ Allen, and Anthony Hill Jr. filled out the early rounds, while sleepers such as Aiden Fisher, Kendal Daniels, Kaleb Elarms-Orr, and Kyle Louis dotted Day 3.
The 2027 NFL Draft LB class doesn’t have the blue-chip talent the 2026 class had, at least not yet. But the potential energy is there for a number of prospects to rise and potentially command Round 1 capital. Even past that, mid-round gems will be on the radar.
As it stands, here are my current 2027 NFL Draft LB rankings, with a trio of high-pedigree performers battling for the gold.
10) Cade Uluave, BYU
Cade Uluave is a sleeper mid-round 2027 NFL Draft LB prospect with early-round potential at his maximum.
A three-star two-way recruit from Utah, Uluave signed with the California Golden Bears in 2023 and began his true freshman season as a special teamer.
But when veteran Jackson Sirmon went down with an injury, Uluave was thrust into the starting lineup and turned in what remains the best PFN LB Impact season of his career, with a grade of 79.8.
In 2025, his most recent full-time starting campaign, Uluave amassed 100 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, and 6 pass breakups, and maintained a solid Impact score of 77.7. In his first three seasons, Uluave played in 34 games with 26 starts and brings a unique blend of experience and physical upside to the fold as a prospect.
At around 6’1″, 231 pounds, Uluave is compact and a touch undersized, with below-average length, but he makes up for that size limitation with supercharged athleticism.
With hyper-elite explosiveness, short-area twitch, swarming lateral explosive range, and sideline-to-sideline coverage, Uluave can close instantly and cover large expanses to make plays, and in spite of his lacking size, he exudes relentless energy after the snap, and is a willing block engager.
He’s shown the requisite pre-snap discernment, post-snap processing, and reaction speed to trigger, sift through congestion, and align to gaps, and he’s a near-elite coverage defender with rare coverage mobility at the second level and keen hip leverage IQ in zone.
As a bonus, Uluave has deadly gap-intruding burst and range as a blitzer, and can catch QBs by surprise. Uluave’s lacking size does hurt him at times, as it corroborates a below-average strength and power profile, and contributes to lost ground and upfield drift on zone block engagements.
Additionally, as evidenced by a 17% missed tackle rate, Uluave’s pursuit and breakdown angles, as well as his tackling form, have substantial room for improvement.
As of now, Uluave is more of a developmental mid-round prospect, but with continued growth and development, he has distant impact starter upside as a WILL linebacker.
9) Suntarine Perkins, Ole Miss
Suntarine Perkins is a versatile but polarizing LB prospect with a unique skill set and schematic projection.
A gifted two-way player in high school, Perkins commanded a five-star recruit billing and dominated in his final season while playing running back, linebacker, and as a hybrid nickel defender.
In his very first season at Ole Miss, Perkins earned Freshman All-SEC honors while racking up 3.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss. As a sophomore, Perkins was fully unleashed; his 10.5 sacks that year ranked 2nd in Ole Miss history, and he also had 14 tackles for loss, an interception, and two fumble recoveries.
Perkins followed up that breakout campaign with another strong year in 2025, accumulating 4.5 sacks, 12.5 TFLs, an interception, six pass breakups, two fumble recoveries, and three forced fumbles.
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Production and pedigree are on Perkins’ side, and the athleticism lines up: He’s an obscenely explosive, quick, and fluid mover, with hyper-elite vertical and lateral propulsion, short-area twitch, hip sink, and malleability on transitions.
That athleticism comes with a tradeoff in mass, as he’s less than 220 pounds, and that lacking mass does manifest itself on the field. Perkins simply doesn’t have the play strength to consistently stack-and-shed blocks from climbing linemen, nor is he consistently able to break extensions and wrestle free when attempting to work across-face.
This limitation complicates Perkins’ projection as a three-down LB, but Perkins nonetheless brings an unhinged motor and very willing physicality as a block engager, and his engagement technique is sound.
Meanwhile, in coverage, he’s versatile between man and zone, can play the overhang and operate from sim pressure looks, and he’s a true pass-rush threat equipped with stutter-dips, ghost-rips, impressive size-adjusted power, and gap-searing speed that’s magnified by his long-strider range and cornering ability.
Perkins’ projection in the box is a question mark he’ll have to address with added weight, but nonetheless, as a hybrid LB with dime LB coverage ability, attacking SAM rush chops and take-on technique, and endless front versatility, Perkins has immediate appeal as a rotational catalyst, and can become a quality starter in multiple-front schemes.
8) Ben Roberts, Texas Tech
Ben Roberts is a mid-round LB prospect with potential early-round upside, who returns as one of the key players on Texas Tech’s vaunted defense.
A three-star in-state recruit, Roberts originally played safety in high school, but made the switch to linebacker upon his arrival in Lubbock.
He redshirted his first year in 2022, taking time to acclimate, but made an immediate arrival as an impact starter in 2023. That year, Roberts amassed 107 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and an interception, earning Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors.
He carried the starting job through 2024 and 2025, and in 2025, he achieved career-highs in interceptions (4) and pass breakups (6), while earning a respectable 77.9 PFN LB Impact grade and serving a pivotal role in the Red Raiders’ CFB Playoff ascent. In coverage, he allowed a mere 40.5 QB rating, and he missed just 6% of his tackles.
A team captain, Roberts has started 39 career games entering 2026 and is on track to eclipse the half-century mark in starts. That experience is a hallmark of his NFL Draft evaluation.
At around 6’3″, 245 pounds, Roberts has great size to pair with strong functional foot speed and quickness. His explosiveness and speed are marginal overall, but he compensates with swift processing ability, keen post-snap processing, and a quick trigger to interior and exterior gaps.
In run defense, he has the willing physicality and take-on technique to scrape across-face, deconstruct blocks, and free himself up as a form tackler. And on passing downs, Roberts’ safety background comes in handy, as he displays smooth coverage mobility, high-level depth discipline and zone IQ, and elite ball skills and reactive quickness as a playmaker.
Roberts’ modest athletic limitations do limit him in certain respects; he’s more of a pure contact engager than a point resetter and displacement reducer when crashing into gaps, and he visibly maxes out in sideline pursuit, keeping paths upfield open.
Despite all this, Roberts’ experience and reliable two-phase profile translates to a steady backup or spot-starter projection, and he can be a quality starting MIKE or WILL at his maximum.
7) Rasheem Biles, Texas
Rasheem Biles is a potential early-round LB prospect in the 2027 NFL Draft who offers scheme-specific upside if he can keep adding mass to his frame.
As a three-star recruit, Biles joined the Pittsburgh Panthers in 2023 and immediately made an impact as a special teams ace in his true freshman season, blocking three punts.
In 2024, Biles entered the full-time starting lineup and emerged as a third-team All-ACC contributor, racking up 14.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, a pick-six, and nine pass breakups.
In 2025, Biles reprised his role as a defensive standout, this time earning second-team All-ACC recognition while amassing 101 tackles, 17 TFLs, 4.5 sacks, two pick-sixes, four PBUs, and two forced fumbles.
In addition to mind-boggling raw production, Biles secured a PFN LB Impact score in 2025 that ranked 6th in the entire nation, and his production earned him a transfer opportunity at the University of Texas.
At a lean 6’1″, 225 pounds, Biles is assuredly undersized, but he makes up for his lighter frame with excellent explosiveness, swarming sideline-to-sideline range, elite short-area agility and hip fluidity on transitions, and high-level pre-snap and post-snap processing.
Biles also brings relentless energy as a competitor, and while he can improve at fully resetting the contact point and engaging blocks with force, he has inspiring willing physicality and dictation at contact for his size.
Biles is fearless in the box and can navigate laterally, as well as knife through creases to make plays behind the line of scrimmage, and just as compelling is his ability on passing downs.
He’s a quantifiably elite coverage defender with overhang versatility, zone awareness, transition freedom, and rare ball skills, and he has the speed, bend, angle IQ, and urgency to pose a threat as a blitzer, too.
Biles’ below-average size does negatively impact his block deconstruction and point-of-attack power, and despite his tackle production, he can be more consistent with his angles and wrap-up technique.
Nevertheless, as a dynamic, versatile WILL LB, Biles has impact starter upside, and can be an active, uber-productive second-level presence in both phases.
6) Christian Alliegro, Ohio State
Christian Alliegro is a potential early-round LB prospect in the 2027 NFL Draft, whose raw physical talent serves as the crux of his appeal.
He played the first three seasons of his career at Wisconsin, before transferring to Ohio State this past offseason, and first joined the Badgers as a three-star recruit in 2023.
After playing as a rotational defender and special teams contributor as a true freshman, he took starting reps as a sophomore in 2024, and again in 2025, wherein he achieved career-highs in sacks (4) and tackles for loss (8).
Alliegro’s PFSN LB Impact score of 76.6 was close to average, but there are bright spots in his production profile, chief among them a 24.3% pressure rate on blitzing reps.
At 6’4″, 247 pounds, Alliegro is sure to field physical comparisons to 2026 first-round pick Arvell Reese, who he was brought over to replace.
It’s important to note that Alliegro isn’t close to Reese as a prospect right now. Physically, he is impressive, with a near-elite size profile, elite explosive athleticism, lightness in his motion, full-field range, and venerable power capacity at contact.
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He readily weaponizes those traits as an angle-aware blitzer and stunter, and assuredly has the traits to hold up well in interior gap stacking situations.
Having said all this, Alliegro can be more proactive dictating contact downhill at times, and in a related thread, his processing leaves much more to be desired. He can easily lose ball carriers in congestion; he’ll trigger prematurely at times and lose positioning, and he too frequently overshoots attack angles, which in turn affects tackle conversion.
Additionally, while Alliegro has ideal coverage mobility in zone, he’s not a natural playmaker, and his depth discipline can be more consistent.
Alliegro passes the eye test, and his blitzing versatility is a welcome sight in Matt Patricia’s defense, but he needs to improve his processing and pacing coming downhill to reach his impact starter ceiling. A year in Columbus could do the trick.
5) Cole Sullivan, Oklahoma
Cole Sullivan is a riser candidate in the 2027 NFL Draft class with early-round potential, though his smaller sample size complicates his current evaluation.
Though he originally joined the Michigan Wolverines as a mere three-star recruit, Sullivan’s high-level raw talent was put on full display down the stretch in the 2025 campaign.
Starting three of 11 games played, Sullivan racked up 44 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, and 3 interceptions before transferring to Oklahoma and joining Brent Venables’ unit.
Having never played a full season as a full-time starter, Sullivan is clearly young and still tracking toward his ceiling, but the early returns have been extremely promising, and Venables’ scheme can serve as a catalyst for his development.
At 6’4″, 230 pounds, Sullivan has an impressive frame, with rock-solid proportions and understated lean mass. He’s a tantalizing physical talent with brisk explosiveness, springy lateral burst and correction, and swarming full-field range on the chase.
On passing downs, he’s a fluid and instinctive second-level cover man with a penchant for finding the football, as well as a reliable and rangy flat patroller, and he also showcases the ability to blitz through multiple gaps and displace QBs with burst and bend.
Sullivan still has room to grow, mentally and physically. While he’s a strong natural processor who plays with urgency, congested looks can induce bouts of slight hesitation, and at a leaner weight, he can struggle to scrape and get clean working across-face against climbers.
Additionally, Sullivan can still improve his tackle breakdown timing and wrap-up technique, an issue which can be exacerbated by his lighter frame.
Having said all this, Sullivan looks like a clear-cut early-round physical talent, with high-end size, athleticism, flexibility, and playmaking ability, and the best is yet to come. At his maximum, he has impact starter upside as a scheme-diverse WILL.
4) Chris Cole, Georgia
Chris Cole is a potential early-round prospect in the 2027 NFL Draft who follows a promising pedigree of Georgia LBs.
In high school, Cole was a standout football player and track athlete. He joined the Georgia Bulldogs as a five-star commit in 2024, and played in 14 games as a true freshman, primarily on special teams.
In 2025, Cole entered the full-time rotation, starting one of 14 games played while accruing 59 tackles, seven tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, and two pass deflections.
At around 6’3″, 235 pounds, the still 20-year-old Cole is a pure physical specimen, with impressive length, lean mass, and a rare type of long-strider range that chews up ground from sideline to sideline.
When Cole has the space to open his gait, he can cover massive swaths of ground and run down ball carriers, but he also has the athleticism and physical build to operate in the box.
He can use his quickness and lateral burst to navigate congestion, play spacing patiently, and stay square to gaps, and he can use his length and lean mass to scrape past blockers, keep himself clean, and stay engaged as a potential tackler.
In coverage, Cole’s production is still improving, but he has great agility and bend for his size, and has flashed the ability to both manage zones and carry big-slot targets through stems in man coverage, while using his length to dislodge at the catch.
As his sack production rightly indicates, he’s a force on the rush, with the long-strider speed, burst, and scraping play strength to sear and rip through gaps and around the arc, and his power profile can’t be ignored.
Naturally, being a younger player, Cole still has room to improve. In spite of his size, he takes more often than he gives at the contact point, and can utilize more proactive physicality when stacking and shedding. Part of this problem downflows from inconsistent reaction speeds and gap processing in the box, another issue he must remedy.
Still, at his maximum, Cole has the potential to be a dynamic WILL or SAM LB, with run-and-chase range, blitzing utility, and disruptive upside in coverage.
3) Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Notre Dame
Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa is a potential early-round LB prospect in the 2027 NFL Draft, who has the physical upside and tenacity to be the first LB off the board.
Originally from California, Viliamu-Asa played high school football at St. John Bosco, and was a highly-touted four-star signee for the Fighting Irish in 2024.
That year, Viliamu-Asa played in 14 games as a true freshman, and he’d later play in 11 games, with two starts, in 2025. The 2025 campaign saw Viliamu-Asa achieve career-highs in tackles for loss (7.5) and sacks (3), and he also logged an interception and two pass breakups.
Viliamu-Asa’s 2025 campaign ended prematurely due to an ACL tear in his left knee — the second tear in the same spot. That tear could fuel concerns about his medical history and longevity in the lead-up to the 2027 NFL Draft.
But if Viliamu-Asa can stay healthy and alleviate those concerns among NFL teams, he has the talent and contemporary skill set to earn allure as a potential first-round target.
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At around 6’3″, 230 pounds, Viliamu-Asa is a certifiably elite athlete with rare on-attack explosiveness and range coming downhill into gaps.
He couples his size and hyper-elite explosive element with an unhinged brand of physicality, and is incredibly willing to engage and reset the contact point against surging blockers.
He can meet pullers with menacing force on the frontside of plays to compress gaps and close on runners, ordain ideal gaps to attack based on blocking schemes, and he’s eager to meet opponents in the hole.
Meanwhile, as a pass-rusher, Viliamu-Asa shows very real nuance, power capacity, and arc-running speed. Not only can he win with his speed and motor, but he can also use stutter-steps to off-set blockers before levying awesome bouts of power and shortening corners.
Viliamu-Asa still has room to keep growing; his post-snap processing can run hot and cold, he can be prone to blind spot manipulation in coverage, and he needs more mass before any NFL ascent.
Regardless, as an attacking SAM LB with competent coverage mobility, a relentless downhill attack mentality, hyper-elite closing explosiveness, and legitimate pass-rush chops, Viliamu-Asa has impact NFL starter upside, and is a valuable rotational add right away.
2) Whit Weeks, LSU
Whit Weeks is a storied SEC LB prospect with early-round potential if he can stay healthy. Weeks originally joined the LSU Tigers as a four-star recruit, and started three of 11 games played as a true freshman in 2023.
After flashing early in his career, he became a full-time starter as just a true sophomore and put up 125 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, an interception, three pass breakups, and two forced fumbles, in a campaign that earned him first-team All-SEC honors and amounted to an 8th-place PFN LB Impact of 88.4.
The 2025 season was heavily anticipated for Weeks, but a combined broken fibula and Talus bone fracture limited him to eight injury-impacted appearances.
Weeks had surgery to repair his ankle in January of 2026, but the 2026 campaign will tell the tale on his readiness. If Weeks is indeed back to 100%, he has the ability to be one of the first LBs selected in the 2027 NFL Draft.
At 6’2 3/8″ and 225 pounds, Weeks is exceedingly quick and explosive, with a well-dimensioned frame in spite of his below-average mass.
In the running game, Weeks has the combined pre-snap intelligence, scheme recognition, explosive closing ability, take-on technique, and leveraging skills to sear into gaps, engage blocks, and clear himself to make plays in the backfield as a pursuit defender.
In coverage, Weeks can manage middle-field zones with keen blind spot awareness and vision, he can run the pole in Tampa 2 looks with his range, and he also displays overhang ability as an off-man defender against big-slot targets.
Weeks assuredly needs to add more mass to his frame; while his leveraging skills, lower-body explosion, and hair-on-fire physicality help with engagement authority, his lacking mass shows up when he’s asked to decouple from second-level blocks, as climbing linemen can often drive him off the ball and create displacement.
In a similar lens, Weeks is an up-and-down tackler, with streaky breakdown angle consistency and wrap-up technique.
Nevertheless, if Weeks can get healthy and stay healthy, as well as add a bit more mass, he’s a tailor-made MIKE or WILL LB, with high-end athleticism, processing ability, attack physicality, coverage variability, and blitzing gravity, with impact starter upside at his peak.
1) Sammy Brown, Clemson
Sammy Brown is a contender for the LB1 mantle in the 2027 NFL Draft, and while the race is close, Brown holds the top positional spot on my board entering the 2026 season.
He was a five-star recruit in high school, who distinguished himself as a two-way star in football, while also running a 10.7 100-meter dash and claiming back-to-back Georgia state wrestling titles. Upon arriving at Clemson, he was an immediate defensive contributor.
Starting six of 14 games played in 2024, he racked up 11.5 tackles for loss and 5 sacks, winning ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year honors. And in 2025, he upped the ante, earning first-team All-ACC recognition while putting up 106 tackles, 13.5 TFLs, 5 sacks, an interception, and 5 pass breakups.
His PFSN LB Impact of 83.2 in 2025 was 13th-highest in the nation, featuring a blitz pressure percentage of 15.9% and a missed tackle rate of just 6%.
Brown has the pedigree and the production, and the film follows suit in being undoubtedly tantalizing. Built with a rocked-up 6’2″, 235-pound frame, Brown has great tackling ability and contact authority.
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He plays with bristling energy post-snap and is very willing to engage blocks coming downhill, and he has the hyper-elite explosive element and sideline-to-sideline range to track plays to the boundary and cut off upfield angles.
He can be susceptible to misdirections and play fakes and struggles to adapt at times, but there are glimpses of quality raw reaction-to-stimulus on film, and his range, physicality, and blitzing utility magnify his appeal as a run-and-chase LB or attacking SAM.
Brown can improve the consistency of his pre-snap identification skills and post-snap adaptation, and while he has ideal coverage mobility, his blind spot awareness and depth discipline need more work as well.
All this being said, Brown is a freakish athlete with the right temperament and phase versatility, and in the right role, he can be an impact starter worthy of early-round capital.
Honorable Mentions
- Xavier Atkins, Auburn
- Tony Rojas, Penn State
- Myles Graham, Florida
- Raylen Wilson, Georgia
- Amare Campbell, Tennessee
- Owen Heinecke, Oklahoma
- Arion Carter, Tennessee
- Kip Lewis, Oklahoma
- Ray Coney, Texas A&M
- Antonio Watts, Louisville
