Sebastian Cheeks has been incredible all season off the edge. He's among the highest pressure rates in all of college football, and the sacks are starting to follow. He was already on many NFL Big Boards before the season started, but now he is being called the top edge rusher in the draft. That's high praise with a field full of loaded rushers.
It's hard to disagree because not only does he look the part, but his performance on the field continues to be flat-out marvelous. He's got 34 tackles, 7 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles this season, with still a couple of games to go.
Here is my list for potential edge defenders for the 2027 draft and how they have performed thus far.#NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/g3TvlKbDDT
— Newt Westen (@NFLDraft_Westen) November 11, 2026
Newt Westen has Cheeks at the top of his edge defender draft board due to his high production. If you notice the chart, Cheeks is green in every major category except one: a run-stop percentage of 5.6%. But his pressure rate is over 20%, which means that one out of every four pass rush attempts, Cheeks is in the face of the quarterback.
Cheeks is ahead of everyone on this list and shows how high up he is in NFL Draft analysts' minds. The other person who recently jumped on the Cheeks bandwagon is Ian Cummings, one of the NFL Draft experts for PFSN. He also has him skyrocketing up the boards and a player that NFL teams will have high on their list.
Big fan of Wisconsin's Sebastian Cheeks: 85.3 PFN EDGE Impact. Among EDGEs w/ 400+ snaps, his 20.6% prsr rate ranks 3rd.
— Ian Cummings (@IC_Draft) November 13, 2026
Explosive, fluid, fleet-footed mover w/ lean mass & lower body load to generate speed-to-power. Vast rush arsenal, gap & LEO pursuit discipline. He's legit.
Sebastian Cheeks is going to be one of the top NFL prospects in the 2027 NFL Draft
Related: The CFP committee’s new reveal actually makes a strong case for Wisconsin in the rankings
Cheeks may still have some work to do with other NFL Draft experts. Mel Kiper currently doesn't have him listed on his early big board (which only includes 10 edge rushers). He also doesn't appear in the PFF first-round mock draft. There are still some who haven't been introduced fully to Cheeks, clearly.
CBS Sports' Mike Renner has him as the 26th pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in his latest mock draft. There are only four edge rushers taken before Cheeks, with Dylan Stewart from South Carolina taking the second overall pick.
Renner likes the idea of Cheeks slowly taking the reins from another former Badger in TJ Watt. "Cheeks is an edge-bending speed rusher who already has the refined rush plans of an NFL veteran," Renner writes. "With TJ Watt slowing down, it couldn't hurt to have another infusion of talent off the edge."
Cheeks still has two more games to continue to show his talent, and he's clearly high enough on the lists, no matter how you slice it or dice it, to get invites to NFL workouts and the NFL Combine. So, there's still work to be done, but it's fun to see the world taking notice of our very own Sebastian Cheeks.
Add us as a preferred source on Google