2026 Defensive Back Prospects

Caleb Downs, S, Ohio State

Downs is the first prospect I’m breaking down this year, and he is also the easiest. He is, simply put, everything you could want from a safety, the sort of player who can fit into any scheme and do anything a defense could ask him to do. He has the range to play as a deep safety, the quickness to match up in man coverage in the slot, and the physicality to make plays in the box. He can cover, he can blitz, and he basically never misses a tackle. He’s a day one starter with the potential to be the best in the league at his position.

Downs isn’t the most explosive athlete, but he has plenty of speed when he needs it, and he combines this with rare fluidity. He is always under control and always in balance, able to react to what he sees in front of him at all times. And as good as he is as an athlete, what really sets him apart is his intelligence. He is always moving in the correct direction, typically a step or two ahead of anyone else, whether it’s anticipating a receiver’s break to jump a route or charging downhill to plug a gap in the running game. At times it seems like he knows what the offense is doing better than the offensive players themselves.

If there is a nit to pick with Downs, it’s his size. He measured at less than 6 feet tall and only 203 pounds, and this lack of size can sometimes cause issues on the field. He’s a sure tackler, but he always goes for the legs, meaning ball carriers can often fall forward for an extra yard or two. And while his intelligence means he can often react to the ball before a blocker can cut him off, when he does get caught in congestion he can get pushed around. It might make me a little reluctant to have him play in the box too often, but there are enough roles to fill on any defense that this doesn’t bother me too much.

The last thing to bring up about Downs is something I’ll be talking about a lot in this draft class, and that’s positional value. Typically safety isn’t considered that high-value a position. There are too many plays where the ball doesn’t come anywhere near a safety, and too many ways for an offense to play around them. With most safeties I would be reluctant to ever spend a top 10 pick on the position. But Downs isn’t most safeties. He’s a rare talent, and I might even be able to talk myself into selecting him in the top 5.

 

Jermod McCoy, CB, Tennessee

McCoy is a more complicated evaluation, though not because of anything he does on the field. His tape is comfortably the best of any cornerback in the class, and based on that alone I’d be willing to take him in the top 5. He is an elite coverage corner with special stop-start ability and explosive speed that allows him to take chances and then instantly erase almost any mistake he makes.

McCoy played primarily man coverage in college, typically on an island walked up in the receiver’s face with no help over the top. He has the strength to disrupt receivers with a jam and the quickness to turn and run with them if this isn’t enough. He uses the sideline to his advantage to eliminate throwing windows, and his ability to change direction on a dime makes him next to impossible to beat on comeback routes. He’s another player with extraordinary balance, and this allows him to keep up with just about anything a receiver throws at him. And when the ball does come his way, he has very good ball skills, able to go up to get an interception or play around a receiver to swat it away without getting a penalty.

There are things for him to clean up in his game. He can be a little too physical at times, which even if he doesn’t directly commit a penalty can make him vulnerable to some bad officiating luck. He doesn’t have a lot of experience in zone coverage, and at times it shows, as he can get caught on one receiver too long and let someone run into the space he’s supposed to be covering. And he needs to get better about recognizing when he can and cannot get away with gambling. In college he could erase his mistakes against all but a handful of receivers. But elite receivers were able to take advantage of him at times, and that level of competition will be more common in the NFL.

These are all things that are fairly common with young cornerbacks, and I expect he’ll clean them up with time and experience. And if he does so, he has the potential to be an All Pro. The issue that makes him a challenging evaluation is health. He tore his ACL last January and missed his entire final year in college. He skipped athletic testing at the Combine 13 months removed from an injury that normally takes 9 months, but then he ran a 4.38 forty at his Pro Day, which should put a lot of minds at ease. NFL teams have access to full medical testing of these players, and I’m just some dude in New Jersey sitting at a computer, so this is a place where I’m not really qualified to weigh in. But it’s a reason for concern, the only one I can find for an otherwise stellar prospect.

 

Mansoor Delane, CB, LSU

Delane is another cornerback with an elite combination of quickness and top-end speed that makes him a challenge to beat both over the top and underneath. He ran a 4.38 forty at his Pro Day, and that speed shows up on the field, as he regularly erases anyone who tries to run past him deep. He can be a little passive at times allowing space underneath, but when he tries to clamp down he has the ability to make hard breaks downhill without sacrificing the flexibility to flip his hips and open things up over the top.

Delane has experience in both man and zone coverage, and he’s capable in both, though he still has some occasional lapses in the latter to iron out. He’s less versatile when asked to play with physicality. He doesn’t get much disruption when he tries to jam opposing receivers, and he often settles for just grabbing hold. His issues with physicality occasionally show up at the catch point, where he has the balance and skill to make plays on the ball but can still sometimes be bullied away from the catch point.

I think Delane is a bit farther from a complete player than McCoy, but he has most of the tools needed to be a top-tier cornerback in the right scheme. He has all the speed and quickness in the world, and he just needs to get better at harnessing the latter and playing under control to keep sharp-breaking routes from opening separation. He’s good enough right now to be worthy of a selection in the top half of the first round, and he has enough upside that I’d be willing to gamble in the top 10. 

 

Dillon Thieneman, S, Oregon

Thieneman is explosive. It shows up on tape, where he covers ground in a hurry flying back and forth across the field. It shows up in testing, where he ran a 4.35 forty and had a 41 inch vertical leap, insane numbers for any player at any position but particularly for a safety. He is one of the best athletes in the class, and he is well-rounded enough as a player that I wouldn’t categorize him as a pure project.

Thieneman isn’t on Downs’s level mentally, but he’s pretty advanced for a college player. You can generally count on him making the right decision and being in the right position, especially when he has the chance to sit back and read the field from the back end of the defense. He’s at his best in a deep zone, where he can anticipate routes and use his speed to close off a massive chunk of the field. When matched up in man coverage his speed allows him to turn and run with receivers on vertical routes, but he struggles some with change of direction, so I would be reluctant to ask him to do too much covering players in the slot. He’s good at filling lanes downhill in the running game but can get a bit caught up in traffic if asked to scrape laterally through the box.

There is one major problem with Thieneman’s game, and it’s a big enough problem that I would be reluctant to take him until the tail end of the first round. Simply put, he’s a terrible tackler. And it isn’t just one thing that holds him back here. The lack of lateral quickness I mentioned above means he can be broken down in open space. His small stature means he can get blasted backwards on contact. And he consistently takes awful angles, letting ball carriers beat him to the edge and on at least one occasion I saw race past him for a touchdown.

There are some things Thieneman can do to get better here, and he showed enough progress between his last two years of college that I think there’s a chance he can figure it out, in which case his tools could make him one of the best safeties in the league if placed in the correct scheme. But if he can’t figure it out, he’s borderline unplayable. Safety is the number one position where you need to be able to count on someone making a tackle, a position where one tackle can be a difference between an eight yard gain and a seventy yard touchdown.

 

Colton Hood, CB, Tennessee

Hood is a very good athlete who knows how to make use of his 4.44 speed on the field. He can turn and run with any receiver, and he has no trouble sticking in man coverage on crossing routes across the field. He isn’t quite as fluid an athlete as the top cornerbacks in this class, and it can sometimes take him an extra step to change direction, but his closing speed is often enough to erase the small windows this opens up.

There are the makings of a very good cornerback here, but he has a lot to clean up on the next level. He played very little zone coverage at Tennessee and appeared lost when he was asked to do so, either late to rotate in coverage or often just drifting in the middle of two receivers covering neither of them. He has the physicality to be very good in press coverage, but he doesn’t utilize these skills in the right way. Sometimes he gets too physical and draws a penalty, others he doesn’t use his physicality at all and lets the receiver get down the field too freely.

Hood is a work in progress, and I think even if he develops he will ultimately top out as a pretty good, not great cornerback. He is an explosive athlete but has just average size and average quickness, and his technique is far enough from a finished product that I’d be reluctant to take a chance on his development until the end of the first round.

Emmanuel McNeil-Warren

McNeil-Warren is more of the project of this safety class. He is a long, lanky athlete (he weighs about the same as Downs and Thieneman despite being 3 inches taller than them) who flies all over the field, arriving with violence and making splash plays at every level. He is a strong tackler who can stop ball carriers dead in their tracks or cut their legs out from under them, and his best plays are up there with the best plays of the two safeties I have ranked above him.

In the mental part of the game he’s a bit farther from being ready to be on an NFL field. He generally makes the right reads in coverage, but in the running game he too often winds up out of position. He has a tendency to bite hard on fakes, and at times this can pull him too far out of position to be able to make a play on where the ball actually goes.

McNeil-Warren is a good athlete, but not a great one. His 4.52 time in the forty is perfectly fine for a safety, and he plays faster than that on the field, but he definitely isn’t elite in that aspect like Thieneman. He struggles some in man coverage too, which limits him schematically. With time I think he will probably develop into an above average starter, and I might be willing to justify grabbing him at the end of the first round, but would be more comfortable waiting until the second.

 

Avieon Terrell, CB, Clemson

Terrell isn’t the most physically impressive cornerback you’ll see. He’s only 5-10 and 186 pounds, and he doesn’t explode on the field, but he makes up for it with impressive quickness and intelligence. He changes direction with ease, and he has a tendency to anticipate the route the opposing receiver is running, breaking before he does to beat him to the spot where the ball is supposed to be. At that point he can have some issues, often being boxed out or outmuscled by bigger and stronger receivers, but just as often the quarterback refuses to throw the ball to a receiver who appears blanketed.

Terrell’s strengths profile as someone who would be great as a slot cornerback, but I have some concerns there too. Playing in the slot places a heavier burden on a cornerback in run support, a part of the game where Terrell is very boom or bust. His effort is inconsistent—alternating aggressive attacks with plays where he looks almost afraid of contact—and his lack of play-strength is an issue here as well, as he can be bowled over by ball carriers as if he isn’t there. He makes up for this somewhat with a knack for being able to knock the ball free, forcing five fumbles in his last year in college. Though at times this seems to make him even worse as a tackler, as he’ll jump out of the path of a ball carrier to try to get a better angle to punch the ball free.

There is a way to make it work as a player with these limitations, and Terrell seems pretty far along towards figuring it out. Finding the right fit for him will be tricky, but once that happens I think he’ll settle in as a solid, if unspectacular starter for a while. I don’t think there’s a lot of downside here, but not a lot of upside either. He’s the sort of player I’d be happy to get in the second round, but a little disappointed if he was the best I could find with my first pick.

 

Brandon Cisse, CB, South Carolina

Cisse is the project of this year’s cornerback class. He has decent size to go along with tremendous explosiveness, a 41 inch vertical leap combined with a 4.40 forty that both show up on the field. He flies all over the place and makes some really good plays on the ball in the air, and at times shows flashes of physicality that could turn him into a lockdown cornerback someday.

Unfortunately, that day is a long way away. His technique in coverage is somewhat baffling, which I think is mostly due to some strange coaching, but also means he will need to make a major adjustment to play in the NFL. He tends to just sit back and watch as guys make breaks away from his leverage, then hoping he has the speed to erase the easy separation he’s given them. He rarely engages with physicality, and he often doesn’t even try to match or anticipate a receiver’s breaks.

If he can figure this out, the sky is the limit for him. But the infrequent occasions he tried this in college were enough to raise concerns. He seems somewhat linear as an athlete, struggling to change direction when he needs to. There were times where he made sharp breaks in a way suggested this might be an issue of technique more than physical tools. But at this point it’s mostly an unknown whether or not he can ever figure this out. And if he doesn’t, he’s the sort of player who could struggle to make it onto the field.

The Kyler Murray Era

 

Kyler Murray is a Minnesota Viking, and I have a lot of thoughts.

Let’s start with Murray himself. I’m going to get a bit negative as this goes along, so let me be clear from the beginning that I do believe the Vikings just got the best quarterback available on the market this offseason. Murray is a phenomenal athlete with a strong arm who has been a bit erratic but typically is somewhere between the 10^th and 20^th best quarterback in the league. This is the sort of profile that has been earning quarterbacks contracts worth $30+ million a year, and the Vikings got him for the veteran minimum, making him instantly one of the five best bargains at the position in the league.

Murray does a lot of things well, but he also has clear limitations. His short stature means that he has trouble seeing the middle of the field, and the rash of injuries he’s suffered over his career have made him skittish in the pocket. He’ll bail early at any sign of pressure, and he has a tendency to fade away on throws, leading to inaccuracy issues on deeper targets. Despite his arm strength, he’s consistently performed as a bottom 5 quarterback on targets in the intermediate range of the field.

There is a way to build an offense around a quarterback like this, and Murray does enough other things well that he can make it work. An ideal offense for him would look a lot like the one he ran with Kliff Kingsbury the first four years of his career. Spread the field out, let him operate in shotgun making quick pre-snap reads and getting the ball out in a hurry. He is smart and accurate when making these underneath throws, and he’s creative enough with his athleticism to make plays if these initial reads aren’t there.

If a team wanted to build an offense this way, they could do a lot worse than Murray. The questions I have are less about him on his own, and more about how he’ll pair with Kevin O’Connell.

Since the Vikings hired O’Connell, their offenses have had a few key trademarks. They operate under center more than almost any other team in the league, leaning on an attack that blends condensed formations and play action to engineer separation down the field. They are heavy on seven-step drops and long developing routes, with the aim of generating explosive plays down the sidelines and over the middle of the field.

You know, all the stuff I said Murray doesn’t do well.

If you were designing an offense to be the worst possible fit for Murray, it would look an awful lot like O’Connell’s. And if you were designing a quarterback to be the worst possible fit in O’Connell’s offense, it would look a lot like Murray.

Something has to give, and the general assumption seems to be that O’Connell will adapt his offense to fit Murray’s skills. I have some skepticism—O’Connell has shown an unwillingness to adapt in the past, such as this past year when he continued to call deep shots with an offensive line that was missing multiple starters for most of the season—but even if the Vikings do overhaul their offensive scheme this offseason, there will be other downsides.

Changing the scheme to play to the strengths of the quarterback makes a lot of sense, except if by doing so you’re minimizing the strengths of your other players. In Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison the Vikings have two of the best receivers in the league at creating separation on deep routes, but also two players who can sometimes struggle with press coverage. In the past defenses had to be wary about how they took advantage of this. Pressing these receivers can disrupt the timing of routes, but that’s not as big a deal on longer-developing concepts where they have time to get open anyway. And if they are able to win at the line, the result can be a massive play that makes this strategy too costly to risk.

That calculus changes in a Murray-style offense. Timing is much more critical on the slants and hitches he excels at, and he doesn’t have the consistency as a down the field thrower to punish defenders for failing at the line. Jefferson is a good enough player that he’ll be able to make things work, but he probably won’t be able to hit the same heights he could in a scheme more designed to suit his talents.

There are similar issues with the running game. The Vikings love to run a scheme that utilizes multiple tight ends and under center rushes, and players they’ve acquired like Jordan Mason and Josh Oliver will have less value in a scheme that spreads the field and operates out of shotgun. Murray’s value with his legs can make up for this, but you also have to be worried about how much they can actually utilize that, given his injury history.

I think ultimately the Vikings will settle into some middle-ground offensively, where they are better than the mess they were last year but not as dynamic as the talent on the field suggests they should be. I also think we’ll see a few games with JJ McCarthy at quarterback next year, either due to injury or because the issues on offense are severe enough that O’Connell decides to abort the Murray experiment. I don’t buy that there is a genuine preseason competition between the two, but I think Murray’s leash could be pretty short.

All that said, if the defense sustains its level of play it should be enough to bump the Vikings up to 10 or 11 wins and get them into the mix for playoff contention. And this is where I want to step back and address where my true pessimism about the Murray signing comes from, which is what it means about the Vikings’ big picture goals as a franchise.

Before O’Connell was hired, the Vikings went through a decade-long period that was best defined by a dogged fixation on the present with little consideration for the future. Their goal was to put the best team they could on the field every single year, a plan that pretty consistently produced between 7 and 11 wins.

This was most evident in their approach to the quarterback situation. After the Teddy Bridgewater pick failed, they addressed the position with a series of veteran bandaids that did just enough to keep them afloat. When Bridgewater went down they traded a first round pick for Sam Bradford. When Bradford got hurt, they rolled into Case Keenum. When they wanted to move on from Keenum, they signed Kirk Cousins. And when they couldn’t find anything better out on the street, they kept kicking the Cousins can forward for six years that resulted in two playoff appearances and one playoff win.

This approach was driven by head coach Mike Zimmer and GM Rick Spielman, but it also filtered down from ownership. The Wilfs are not interested in rebuilding. They want a competitive team every single year, even if “competitive” ends up being a fairly loose term.

When O’Connell was hired alongside former GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, they managed to convince the ownership to try a different approach. Not a complete teardown, but a “competitive rebuild”, which would focus on adding veteran talent while targeting a cheap rookie quarterback that they hoped they could slide into the machine. This has been done successfully in the past, most notably by the Kansas City Chiefs, who let Alex Smith walk for an unproven and raw first round pick named Patrick Mahomes.

And it might have worked in Minnesota too. They just got the wrong quarterback. This is the downside of this approach. Because quarterback scouting remains maybe the hardest thing in football, and there are very few young quarterbacks that carry no possibility of failure. (The only recent ones that come to mind are Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence, and they both went first overall.)

Failure is an essential risk of the process. What really defines a team in the long-term isn’t whether they fail, but how they react to the failure. In 2013 the Bills spent a first round pick on EJ Manuel. That didn’t work out, so in 2018 they drafted Josh Allen. In 2021 the Patriots drafted Mac Jones. Three years later they took Drake Maye. The Bears failed twice, with Mitch Trubisky in 2017 and then Justin Fields in 2021. So in 2025 they took Caleb Williams, and now they appear set to be competitive for the next decade.

Drafting a quarterback should ultimately be a volume strategy. Because it only has to work once to make it all worth it. Yes, there is a risk you end up in a Jets-like cycle where you get failure after failure after failure. But most teams eventually do get it right.

This is what bothers me the most about the Murray signing. Because on the surface it appears to be the Vikings taking the wrong lesson from the failure of McCarthy. Rather than setting themselves up in the best position to try again, they are scrambling to find their way back to mediocrity.

I can’t see inside Kevin O’Connell’s head. It’s possible he is genuinely enthused about having Murray as a quarterback. But based on everything I said above, and based on every other quarterback he’s brought into the Vikings, I would be surprised. This feels more like something he feels forced into, because if he doesn’t find a way to get back into playoff contention he won’t be the head coach of the Vikings in 2027. This once again feels like something trickling down from ownership. They saw the 2025 season as an unacceptable outcome, and they will do everything in their power to prevent it from happening again.

Murray is only on a one-year contract, and the future after that remains very murky. How well does he have to play for them to sign him to an extension? How well does he have to play before they find themselves in a bidding war for his services? If he moves on after 2026, where do they go from there? Do they try to find a different guy to keep them afloat year by year? Maybe Mac Jones in 2027, Daniel Jones in 2028? Drop Bryce Young or Jaxson Dart in there somewhere along the way?

Right now the message that ownership is sending is that any risk of failure is not acceptable. But nearly every top quarterback in the league had some risk. Patrick Mahomes came out of a gimmicky offense playing a reckless style that almost always ended in disaster in the NFL. Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson completed less than 60% of their passes in college. Drake Maye and Caleb Williams were phenomenally gifted talents who needed to struggle through a tough rookie season before they finally figured out how to put it together.

The Vikings have no interest in anything like that. All they want is another Kirk Cousins, to keep them from ever feeling like there’s anything actually at risk.

2025 Mock Draft - Predicting the Future

 

Here is the second of my two mock drafts, this one attempting to predict what is actually going to happen. I think I have a handle on the first few picks, but after that things feel even more wide open than normal.

 

1) Tennessee Titans – Cam Ward, QB, Miami

It’s become increasingly clear over the past couple weeks that a decent chunk of the NFL—including, most importantly, the Titans—feels that Ward is a quarterback prospect worthy of the first overall pick. I don’t particularly agree, but I can see the upside in his best plays on the field, and he’ll certainly bring some excitement to a franchise that always seems to lack it.

 

2) Cleveland Browns – Travis Hunter, CB/WR, Colorado

I think this pick feels pretty set in stone as well. The Browns have been pretty open about their love for Hunter, and I don’t think this is some smoke signal to suggest they’re trying to trade the pick. It sounds like they see him having more potential at wide receiver, but will also mix him in on defense. I don’t agree, but I definitely think he can be a valuable player following that route as well.

 

3) New York Giants – Abdul Carter, EDGE, Penn State

This is the first place where the draft feels interesting. This pick is between two players, whether they try to plug their hole at quarterback with someone of slightly lesser talent than most top 5 quarterbacks, or take the supremely gifted pass rusher Carter at a position of lesser need. I think, in the end, they won’t be sold enough on Sanders to pass up on someone with Carter’s gifts, and will kick the can down the road at the quarterback position for another year.

 

4) New England Patriots – Will Campbell, OG/OT, LSU

The Patriots are praying that two quarterbacks go above them so they can get one of Hunter or Carter. If that doesn’t happen, they’ll grab an offensive lineman. Campbell isn’t my favorite of the line prospects, but most of the reporting has him as New England’s preference.

 

5) Jacksonville Jaguars – Ashton Jeanty, RB, Boise State

The closer we get to the draft, the more confident I am that someone is going to take a gamble with Jeanty. He’s one of the few elite talents in a year that is weak at the top of the class, and even as the value of the position has declined, NFL teams have shown a willingness to throw that aside for special talents. I’m not convinced it will actually be the Jaguars, but someone will take Jeanty in the top seven, even if it costs a couple of picks to trade up to do so.

 

6) Las Vegas Raiders – Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona

McMillan is a somewhat polarizing prospect, but I think there’s a decent chance some team in the top ten falls in love with his size and his surprising movement skills. In this case the Raiders are looking for any sort of young talent to plug into their offense, and I think it’s slightly more likely they go this route than grab a lineman.

 

7) New York Jets – Armand Membou, OT, Missouri

The Jets took an offensive tackle in the first round last year, and I could see them trying to get some variety by going after someone like Tyler Warren. But Membou is a rare athlete, and you can never have too many talented young linemen, especially when you’re trying to build back the foundation of a team from scratch.

 

8) Carolina Panthers – Jalon Walker, LB/EDGE, Georgia

This seems like one of the most common linkages of player and team heading into the draft. I don’t understand it, but I do believe it. Walker doesn’t have a clear position at the next level, but I guess that works, because Carolina needs help at pretty much every position.

 

9) New Orleans Saints – Mason Graham, DT, Michigan

Ever since it was announced that Derek Carr may miss the season, people have been speculating this could be a place to see a quarterback go. If Shedeur Sanders doesn’t go to the Giants, this is the next logical landing spot for him (Raiders or Jets could grab him, but they just made multi-year commitments to veterans in the offseason). Except I don’t think it’s really that logical. The Saints need a quarterback, but they also need pretty much everything else. The smart thing to do would be not to jump at a mediocre prospect, but to wait with the expectation they’ll be picking higher next year. Of course, it’s the Saints, so smart decisions aren’t really their thing (see the Carr trade, the Carr extension, etc.)

 

10) Chicago Bears – Tyler Warren, TE, Penn State

Warren is an odd prospect, and while I don’t think much of him, I think someone is going to talk themselves into getting the ultimate gadget player. Ben Johnson comes over from Detroit, where he saw the value that a young, versatile tight end can provide for an offense. I don’t think Warren is anywhere near as good a receiver as Sam LaPorta, but he’d certainly have opportunities to prove me wrong in a Bears offense without a lot of playmaking options.

 

11) San Francisco 49ers – Walter Nolen, DT, Ole Miss

Nolen has a wild range of possibilities. He’s a player with tremendous gifts but also some clear red flags, and I could see him either sneaking into the top ten or sliding out of the first round entirely. San Francisco lost a couple of pieces from their interior defensive line to free agency, and this seems like the sort of gamble they’d be willing to make.

 

12) Dallas Cowboys – Matthew Golden, WR, Texas

Golden is the sort of wide receiver who always goes higher than he should. 4.3 speed is hard to ignore, and he does enough other things well in the passing game that I think he can grow into a more complete receiver. Having him stretching the field should hopefully open up things for CeeDee Lamb as well, giving the Cowboys offense a chance to bounce back with the coaching change.

 

13) Miami Dolphins – Kelvin Banks, OT, Texas

Miami has some pieces to like on their offensive line, but it still hasn’t translated to a reliable unit. Banks won’t solve all of those issues, but he’ll at least give them something solid at one of their tackle spots. They could also address the defensive line as well, but with the way the draft has worked out, there’s more value on the offensive line at this point than on the defense.

 

14) Indianapolis Colts – Colston Loveland, TE, Michigan

The Colts have a lot of interesting weapons in the passing game, but they still have a glaring hole at tight end. Loveland would give them another target to help out whoever is playing quarterback, while also potentially bringing the versatility to open a few more things up in the running game.

 

15) Atlanta Falcons – Mykel Williams, EDGE, Georgia

Atlanta has been trying to find some semblance of a pass rush for nearly twenty years. Williams won’t solve all their issues overnight, but he’s a rock-solid player with impressive physical tools that will give them a foundation to build around. Outside of quarterback I’m not sure there’s a position that wouldn’t make sense for Atlanta to address—they have a lot of solid players, but no real depth at any position group.

 

16) Arizona Cardinals – Jahdae Barron, CB, Texas

Arizona’s in a similar place where they just need bodies on defense. Barron has impressed enough in the draft process that I think he’s leapt Will Johnson to be the second cornerback off the board. He’s a fantastic athlete with experience in a range of positional alignments. Still a little rough around the edges, but Arizona is a good place for him to develop and grow.

 

17) Cincinnati Bengals – Kenneth Grant, DT, Michigan

One other pattern I’ve noticed over the years is that giant defensive tackles always go higher than I think they should. Grant isn’t the physical specimen that players like Vita Vea and Jordan Davis were, but he shows some intriguing movement skills on the field to go along with his massive size. The Bengals defense was a catastrophe in every phase a year ago, and while I’m not sure Grant offers much in the way of immediate improvement, he would at least give them someone with potential to develop.

 

18) Seattle Seahawks – Grey Zabel, OG/OT, North Dakota State

The offensive linemen could go off the board in a hurry on Thursday, but I see more of a slow rollout, which works perfectly for a Seahawks team that is looking for immediate improvement. I think Zabel is the one they’ll identify as the best fit, thanks to his versatility and experience playing at the interior positions to give them an immediate boost in that area.

 

19) Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Jihaad Campbell, LB, Alabama

This is another player and team combination that has been rumored quite a bit. Campbell is an explosive athlete in the middle of the field with some experience bouncing out to the edge as a pass rusher, and he is a good fit for a defensive play caller like Todd Bowles who loves to use every tool at his disposal to throw pressure at the opposing quarterback.

 

20) Denver Broncos – TreVeyon Henderson, RB, Ohio State

Jeanty is not going to be the only running back to go in the first round. I expect to see 2 or 3 taken by the end of the night, and while Henderson may be a bit of a surprise as the second off the board, he is a good fit for what the Broncos want to do with this offense. His abilities as a receiver out of the backfield and a rock solid pass protector will open up a lot of options for Sean Payton, as he had in New Orleans with Alvin Kamara.

 

21) Pittsburgh Steelers – Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado

I don’t think Sanders is going to be here at 21, but I think there’s a decent chance the Steelers end up with him. I think he’ll probably go in the 15-20 range, as someone trades up to grab him. The Steelers are in the best position to do so, though don’t rule out a team like Cleveland or New York jumping back in from the start of the second round. But since I don’t forecast trades, I think the Steelers would happily take him if he slides into their lap.

 

22) Los Angeles Chargers – Derrick Harmon, DT, Oregon

As you fill out a mock draft things can sometimes surprise you. I have a general feeling that Harmon is going to go higher than this, but I couldn’t find a place that made a ton of sense for him to go. So the Chargers will happily snap him up, giving them a pass rushing menace on a defense that made major strides last year but relied on a lot of aging players to get quarterbacks on the ground.

 

23) Green Bay Packers – Will Johnson, CB, Michigan

Johnson slides a little on concerns about his physical toolset. The Packers are a team that typically prefers excellent athletes, but I think they’d make an exception for someone with Johnson’s size and ball skills at a position of desperate need.

 

24) Minnesota Vikings – Malaki Starks, S, Georgia

A couple years ago the Vikings passed on a safety with good tape but questions about his measurables, preferring to trade back and select Lewis Cine rather than taking Kyle Hamilton. That decision hasn’t aged well, and I think this year they’ll just grab the guy who looks good on tape, measurables be damned. Starks isn’t the fastest or the quickest safety, but he has good instincts and strong coverage skills that will make him a solid starter for years.

 

25) Houston Texans – Josh Conerly, OT, Oregon

This scenario works out pretty perfectly for Houston, with two of the top tier of offensive linemen falling into their laps. If they go off faster on draft night the Texans may need to trade up to make sure they get their guy, but if things unfold this way they will happily stay put and let Conerly fall to them. He’s still a bit raw, and there are enough other problems that the Texans line is still going to be a disaster this year. But a couple years from now, they might have something to work with.

 

26) Los Angeles Rams – Josh Simmons, OT, Ohio State

The next tackle goes off the board a pick later. Simmons drops a little because of his injury, but his tape is good, and all indications are that he is making a solid recovery. The Rams have made it clear that they don’t rely too much on high draft picks making an immediate impact, so if they have to wait a year for Simmons to crack the starting lineup, they aren’t going to press any panic buttons.

 

27) Baltimore Ravens – Shavon Revel, CB, East Carolina

Back-to-back injured players off the board. The Ravens are another team that will happily grab a player who slid some because of injury and trust that they can bring him along slowly. Revel has the ability to erase opposing receivers in press coverage, and while his torn ACL could slow down his transition to the NFL, he has the potential to become a top-end starter in a couple of years.

 

28) Detroit Lions – Tyler Booker, OG, Alabama

The Lions have built their team on the strength of their offensive line, but they’re starting to show some cracks in the middle. Booker has his limitations a player, but for a team that would gladly pound the ball between the tackles for ten straight plays if it was working, his ability to blow defenders backwards off the line of scrimmage will definitely have its appeals.

 

29) Washington Commanders – Omarion Hampton, RB, North Carolina

Hampton makes sense as a first round running back from a purely physical perspective. He’s big, he’s fast, and he does enough good things as a rusher to make you believe he can do even more. It might be a slightly strange stylistic fit with the wide-open spread offense that Kliff Kingsbury likes to run, but I think running back is definitely on the table, and Hampton is the most talented one available here.

 

30) Buffalo Bills – Trey Amos, CB, Ole Miss

The Bills need help desperately on the back end, and Amos is a name that has been shooting up draft boards for the past couple weeks. He’s another cornerback with good size and good speed, and the Bills need to take another shot after whiffing on Kaiir Elam a couple years ago.

 

31) Kansas City Chiefs – Nick Emmanwori, S, South Carolina

Offensive line would make a lot of sense here as well, but with most of the big names off the board I think the Chiefs would choose to grab the best player available rather than reaching for a lineman. Emmanwori is a special athlete who shows flashes of what that athleticism can accomplish on the field. Plugged into Steve Spagnuolo’s defense, he could be a genuine difference-maker if fully unleashed to attack.

 

32) Philadelphia Eagles – Shemar Stewart, EDGE, Texas A&M

Stewart is one it’s really hard to pin down. I could see him being a top ten pick, or I could see him falling out of the first round entirely. The Eagles feel like a good team to take the gamble on him. They lost Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham, and Milton Williams this offseason, so they need some fresh blood on their defensive line. And if Stewart pans out, he could allow them to sustain the dominance along the front that won them the Super Bowl.

2025 Mock Draft - I'm in Control

Below is the first of two mock drafts I'll put out this year. In this version, I'm not trying to predict what will happen. I am making the picks as if I was in charge of every team.

1) Tennessee Titans – Travis Hunter, CB/WR, Colorado

It’s hard to know what to do with a player like Hunter, but ultimately I think the only answer is to just pick him and let it sort itself out. He’s a better cornerback than he is a wide receiver, but I think he’s good enough on offense to at least have a role there, likely as a third option getting 15-20 snaps a game. If it works, he’s a superstar who will change the shape of your franchise. If it doesn’t, in a couple years they can try to transition him to a more traditional role, where he still has the potential to develop into an All Pro cornerback.

 

2) Cleveland Browns – Abdul Carter, EDGE, Penn State

Another pass rusher isn’t the biggest need for Cleveland after they got past Myles Garrett’s trade request and signed him to an extension, but Carter is the clear best player available, and the Browns aren’t in position to be picky. He’s a versatile athlete with tremendous upside to develop into one of the best defensive players in the league.

 

3) New York Giants – Kelvin Banks, OT, Texas

There’s a clear top two of elite prospects, and after that you have to start reaching. Banks isn’t the sort of sensational athlete that normally goes top five, but  he’s a reliable and solid tackle who brings value in both the running and passing game. The Giants have been trying to fix their offensive line for years, and it hasn’t worked yet, but this will hopefully get them to that point.

 

4) New England Patriots – Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona

Drake Maye showed flashes of potential operating with basically no help from his supporting cast a season ago. So then the Patriots went out with the most cap space of any team in the league, and they spent almost all of it on defense. They still need someone to protect their young quarterback, and also someone for him to throw the ball to. They can’t get both here, but at least McMillan offers a good option as a big target with more quickness than you’d expect.

 

5) Jacksonville Jaguars – Armand Membou, OT, Missouri

Similarly, the Jaguars need to do something to help out Trevor Lawrence. Membou needs some polishing, but he has the athletic ability to develop into one of the best in the league. He’s big, and he’s athletic, and even if it takes a couple years for him to clean up his rough patches, he and Brian Thomas will give the Jaguars the foundation of a potentially elite supporting cast.

 

6) Las Vegas Raiders – James Pearce, EDGE, Tennessee

Defensive line isn’t the biggest need for the Raiders either, but it’s also never a bad thing to have multiple good pass rushers. Playing opposite Maxx Crosby would give Pearce a lot of opportunities to work one-on-one in space where he’s at his best. And even if he sometimes struggles to finish sacks, having other good rushers around him to clean things up will make the pressure he does generate even more valuable.

 

7) New York Jets – Colston Loveland, TE, Michigan

I’m still wary of taking tight ends this high, but Loveland is a special talent. He has good length and excellent ball skills, and he combines that with rare quickness and route-running ability that makes him a matchup nightmare. The Jets are still a couple years away from having a functional offense, but the combination of Loveland and Garrett Wilson will set them up well for when they do get an offensive line and quarterback in place.

 

8) Carolina Panthers – Walter Nolen, DT, Ole Miss

The Panthers already have a space-eating monster in the middle in Derrick Brown, exactly the sort of player that would be perfect to place alongside Nolen. He can get moved around some in the running game, but as a pass rusher his ceiling is almost unlimited. He’s explosive, he’s strong, he’s flexible, and he can bring some dynamism to a Panthers defense that is sorely lacking it.

 

9) New Orleans Saints – Jahdae Barron, CB, Texas

Things are pretty easy for the Saints. They have basically nothing, so they just have to take the best player available. That player is Barron, a very good athlete with the versatility to play all over the defensive backfield.

 

10) Chicago Bears – Mason Graham, DT, Michigan

It would make sense to take someone on the offensive side to support Caleb Williams, but I actually like what the Bears have done building out a receiving corps and offensive line through trades and free agency. And despite all the money they’ve spent on the defensive side, it still wasn’t very good a year ago. Graham would give them a disruptive interior presence to hopefully free up the big-money pair of Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo to work in space on the outside.

 

11) San Francisco 49ers – Emeka Egbuka, WR, Ohio State

The 49ers took a receiver in the first round a year ago, but he didn’t impress much as a rookie, and they traded away Deebo Samuel in the offseason. And Egbuka is just too perfect a fit for this offense to pass up on. He’s a savvy route-runner and a very willing blocker, a piece that Kyle Shanahan can move anywhere and use in any number of ways to create opportunities in both the run and pass game.

 

12) Dallas Cowboys – Ashton Jeanty, RB, Boise State

Jeanty is a rare talent, but it’s still hard for me to grab a running back at the top of the draft. I think the most value the position offers is someone who can come in and contribute right away for a team with a strong supporting cast. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, I still think the Cowboys are the sort of team that could really use someone like this, with the talent to leap back into contention if things break right.

 

13) Miami Dolphins – Derrick Harmon, DT, Oregon

The Dolphins have built an impressive group of edge pass rushers, if only they could stay healthy. They still have some holes on the interior though, and Harmon could give them one of the best young fronts in the league. It might have made more sense for this roster to take someone on the offensive side of the ball, but I think Harmon is a step above the other talents available at this point.

 

14) Indianapolis Colts – Will Johnson, CB, Michigan

Late last year Drew Lock threw for 309 yards and 4 touchdowns against the Colts. That is inexcusable. And while the Colts did some work to address their secondary in free agency, they could still use young talent on the back end. Johnson isn’t the best athlete, but he has good size and tremendous ball skills that can create big plays for the defense.

 

15) Atlanta Falcons – Josh Conerly, OT, Oregon

Tackle has been a strong point for the Falcons for the past few years, but that’s not going to be the case for much longer. Jake Matthews is 33 years old, and Kaleb McGary is a free agent after this year. Michael Penix is the sort of quarterback who can dice a defense up from the pocket but struggles to make plays under pressure. Getting a young and talented tackle on the same timeline as him is almost essential for Atlanta’s future.

 

16) Arizona Cardinals – Mike Green, EDGE, Marshall

I wasn’t able to find enough tape to do a full breakdown on Green, but the couple games I watched make me think he would slot in somewhere around here. He’s a twitchy athlete who is still rounding out the rest of his game but shows early signs of some advanced pass rushing techniques. Arizona has some interesting pieces on the offensive side of the ball, but they still need help at basically every position on defense.

 

17) Cincinnati Bengals – Kenneth Grant, DT, Michigan

The Bengals desperately need youth and juice along their defensive front, and Grant has both of those things. This is too high for a space-eating defensive tackle who is still not that good at eating space. But he shows flashes of the quickness that suggest there’s more for him to unlock here, and there’s a chance he could grow into a true game-wrecking force in a few years.

 

18) Seattle Seahawks – Josh Simmons, OT, Ohio State

Seattle’s offensive line was a mess in 2024, and then in the offseason they made a quarterback swap to get someone who is significantly worse at dealing with pressure. They need to find a way to protect Sam Darnold so he can attack down the field. I’m a little hesitant about Simmons here, both because he’s coming off of injury that might limit him as a rookie and because Seattle’s bigger need is on the interior rather than at tackle. But I think the value he provides is far enough above the options at guard to justify it.

 

19) Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Matthew Golden, WR, Texas

Tampa Bay has been able to count on very good receiver play for years, but both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are getting up there in years. Golden will add an instant burst as a deep threat, and he has the potential to develop into a more complete receiver to take over for the next era of Buccaneers football.

 

20) Denver Broncos – Luther Burden, WR, Missouri

Bo Nix was better than I expected as a rookie but still showed some clear limitations. He enjoyed chucking up deep balls to the big target of Courtland Sutton, but mostly he still focuses underneath, attacking in about the 5 yard range and counting on his receivers to create after the catch. Burden is the best after the catch threat in this year’s draft, and he’d add a new element to the Broncos offense.

 

21) Pittsburgh Steelers – Cam Ward, QB, Miami

This is a somewhat weird fit of player and team. The number one thing the Steelers ask their quarterback to do is to avoid turnovers, and the number one thing Ward loves to do is to launch the ball recklessly down the field. But I think they both need someone with the opposite impulses. The Steelers need someone who is going to push back and take chances to provide a spark on offense. And Ward needs coaches who will force him to play with more discipline.

 

22) Los Angeles Chargers – Grey Zabel, OG/OT, North Dakota State

The Chargers have a pair of very good tackles, but their offensive line is still a mess because they can’t trust the interior. I had Will Campbell ranked higher among guard prospects, but Zabel is a better fit for the downhill attacking style of the Chargers running game. He’s still a little raw in pass protection, but he bowls people over in the running game, and putting him alongside either Rashawn Slater or Joe Alt will give the Chargers one side of the line they can consistently trust to move people off the ball.

 

23) Green Bay Packers – Shavon Revel, CB, East Carolina

Revel is another player I wasn’t able to find much film of, partially because he missed most of his final college season with a torn ACL. But he’s a big and physical cornerback with a ton of upside, and the Packers have spent years chasing anyone at this position.

 

24) Minnesota Vikings – Nick Emmanwori, S, South Carolina

The Vikings made a lot of moves in free agency to beef up their offensive and defensive lines, but they still have some serious concerns at defensive back. Cornerback is a bigger need than safety, but the best value here is Emmanwori, a freak athlete who needs quite a bit of work but has the potential to develop into the perfect attacking weapon for Brian Flores’s defense.

 

25) Houston Texans – Will Campbell, OG/OT, LSU

Houston desperately needs to find any bit of competence on their offensive line, and Campbell is the best option available at this point. I don’t love this fit for him—I think he’d be better off going someplace that already has good tackles, where it will be easier to fast-track him on the transition to guard—but he’s certainly better than anything the Texans have on their line at this point.

 

26) Los Angeles Rams – Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado

Sanders is the best player left on the board, and I feel like he does deserve to go in the first round, especially in a week class. This part of the draft is hard to find a place for a quarterback though, since most of these teams are picking this late because they already have a good option at the position. But the Rams are in a unique place without a clear answer of what they’re going to do in the post-Stafford era. And unlike most teams in this position, I don’t think they’re close enough to Super Bowl contention that one more player here could push them over the top, so I’m less bothered taking someone who would likely spend a year or two offering very little value.

 

27) Baltimore Ravens – Shemar Stewart, EDGE, Texas A&M

The Ravens have gotten excellent pass rush production from Kyle Van Noy, with 21.5 sacks over the past two years. But he is 34 years old, and if he falls off they have basically nothing on the edge. A few years ago they used a pick in this same range on Odafe Oweh, a freakish athlete who never quite put it together as a pass rusher. But they shouldn’t scare them off from taking the same gamble with Stewart, an arguably even more gifted player with an even steeper development curve.

 

28) Detroit Lions – Mykel Williams, EDGE, Georgia

Last year the Lions defense fell apart due to injuries, but some of that is simply the nature of business with Marcus Davenport as part of the starting lineup. They need more youth and depth on their defensive front, and Williams can give that to them. He doesn’t have the upside to develop into a superstar rusher, but that’s fine, because the Lions already have one of those. He’s perfect as a secondary option, who can hold up against the run and occasionally take advantage of the one-on-one matchups he is going to frequently see.

 

29) Washington Commanders – Malaki Starks, S, Georgia

Washington made a couple of nice additions to the defensive side of the ball a year ago, but there is still more work they could stand to do there. Starks is a smart and reliable player who should be able to jump in as a starter from day one, even if his lack of elite physical tools could limit his usefulness.

 

30) Buffalo Bills – Maxwell Hairston, CB, Kentucky

I only checked out one game of Hairston as well, and there wasn’t a lot to see on the tape either good or bad. But the tools are enough to justify a relatively complete team like the Bills taking a gamble. He runs a 4.28 forty and had a 39.5 inch vertical leap, and if he can harness these gifts he can be a shot of youth to a defense that’s been hanging on by a thread for several years.

 

31) Kansas City Chiefs – Donovan Jackson, OG, Ohio State

Kansas City lost the Super Bowl because their offensive line wasn’t good enough, and then they traded away their best offensive lineman. They need to make a major investment here, and Jackson is a solid option who can plug in right away to the spot Joe Thuney vacated.

 

32) Philadelphia Eagles – JT Tuimoloau, EDGE, Ohio State

The Eagles won a Super Bowl on the strength and depth of their defensive front, but they lost three key pieces of that rotation to free agency and retirement, so it’s worth another dip. At this point I haven’t done enough tape study to have strong opinions on who the best option is, and I picked Tuimoloau mostly for stylistic reasons. He’s another physical player who excels against the run and may have a somewhat limited ceiling as a pass rusher, but who would be a great complement across the formation from the twitchy, explosive Nolan Smith.