About Us
Our Story
How OnDraft Came To Be
OnDraft (formerly known as “The Joe Cheeks Podcast,” and “The Cheekscast”) was originally created in July 2022. After initially being a podcast discussing the state of the league and weekly predictions, it soon expanded into a fast growing YouTube channel for the 2023 NFL Draft, amassing almost 100,000 views in the span of just three months. After a long hiatus and a complete rebrand, Aleks and Ryan came together again in 2026 with the vision to overhaul and re-create the product into OnDraft, spanning various social medias and mediums, including podcast episodes, written articles, YouTube videos, and TikTok content. OnDraft is not only a passion project, but a community, with this website serving as the home base for all content and discussion.
Bio
Ryan McWalter
Analyst and Writer
I am an aspiring football front office professional and current undergraduate Sport Management and Operations & Information management student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. My journey started with the creation of ‘The Cheekscast’ with Aleks Ryabinkin, now using ‘OnDraft’ to serve as a portfolio for my NFL coverage, primarily with the NFL Draft as a talent evaluator. Professionally, I currently serve as a student intern with the UMass Football Team, performing duties for the video staff, in addition to the high school recruiting and player personnel department. Additional work experience can be found on my LinkedIn profile, in addition to my attached resume. Feel free to contact me on X or via the listed email address.
Bio
Aleks Ryabinkin
Analyst and Writer
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved football. Beginning in 2022, I turned this love into a passion project with Ryan McWalter on “The Cheekscast.” I’ve been working on scouting NFL Draft prospects in some capacity since 2023, inspired to understand the game on a deeper level after my beloved Commanders picked Emmanuel Forbes over Christian Gonzalez. As they say, there’s no better teacher than experience, and I hope to continue developing my skills as an NFL draft analyst with the OnDraft team.
/ @Aleksandr Ryabinkin
Bio
Nick Southey
Website Developer
I'm an aspiring software and web developer and an undergraduate Computer Science student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I designed, built, and maintain the OnDraft Football website. I built this project for my two friends and co-founders, Ryan McWalter and Aleks Ryabinkin. I currently work as a software engineering intern for a golf course management company called FAIRWAYiQ. As an NFL fan myself, I was excited to be a part of this project. For more about me, check out my LinkedIn or GitHub profiles linked below, or contact me at the email seen here.
Draft grades
Our Grading System
Our grading system was built from scratch after the 2026 NFL Draft by Ryan McWalter and Aleks Ryabinkin with the goal of formulizing our process and generating more objective grades, opposed to using scales that are completely arbitrary. We wanted to create a way to streamline our grades between us. The foundation and functionality was coded in Python by Ryan, with the specifics of position traits, archetypes, and weights by trait being a continuous work in progress by both Ryan and Aleks. Ryan also developed a fully functioning draft board template as an Excel workbook, with the entire grading structure built in with additional information and descriptions. If interested in learning more about this process, internal structure, or want access to the Excel workbooks, reach out to Ryan by any contact method listed on the about us page (Email, X, LinkedIn preferred).