NFL draft 2022 edge rusher projections - Rankings, historical comps for Travon Walker, Aidan Hutchinson, Kayvon Thibodeaux, more

With no top-shelf quarterback prospects available in this year's NFL draft, teams have understandably turned to the most valuable position on the defense: edge rusher.

Michigan edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson is a strong candidate to be the No. 1 overall selection, and Oregon's Kayvon Thibodeaux and Georgia's Travon Walker are projected in ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr.'s most recent mock draft to also go in the top four. Edge rusher is widely considered to be one of the strengths — if not the greatest strength — of this year's draft.

So will the 2022 NFL draft's edge rusher class live up to its reputation?

One tool that could potentially help answer that question is SackSEER, Football Outsiders' system for projecting college edge rushers. SackSEER uses pre-draft workout data along with college statistics to project the NFL pass rushing prospects of defensive ends and 3-4 outside linebackers.

SackSEER agrees with the conventional wisdom that this is a generally strong and deep draft for edge rushers. That said, contrary to some draft hype, there is a considerable degree of uncertainty as to just who is most likely to succeed.

In SackSEER, Hutchinson, Thibodeaux and Walker are all effectively tied — with only a small fraction of a sack separating their projections. Check out more detail on how SackSEER works here.

Below, we take a look at SackSEER's top prospects in the 2022 NFL draft, along with some similar prospects from previous drafts:

SackSEER projection: 27.2 sacks through fifth NFL seasonScouts, Inc. overall ranking: No. 8Similar historical prospects: Ezekiel Ansah, Brian Orakpo

Walker's draft stock has risen in recent weeks, and in SackSEER he manages to edge Hutchinson and Thibodeaux by a small margin.

Walker's best SackSEER