What I got right and what I got wrong in the 2025 NFL draft
What I got right and what I got wrong in the 2025 NFL draft
Now that we've had a week to let the 2025 NFL draft sink in and go over all the picks, it's time to talk about the hits and misses. When you are dealing with 32 individual organizations, it's impossible to be inside their heads and line up our own evaluations and projections with what they want. Here are our biggest hits and misses from the draft.
Hit - Shedeur Sanders slide
Back in February, we took quarterback Shedeur Sanders out of our first-round prospects and kept him consistently at the bottom of our Top 50 prospects. He did his draft stock no favors after that point and his huge fall came as no surprise to me. Falling to the fifth was somewhat shocking but given the way he handled the offseason and the flaws in his game, I'm less surprised he went in the fifth than had he gone in the first.
Miss - Malaki Starks in Top 10
I was sure some team would see the type of defensive weapon defensive back Malaki Starks is and take a shot on him very early. Instead he falls to the end of the round and the Baltimore Ravens get the biggest bargain of the round.
Hit - Kenneth Grant at DT2
A lot of pundits liked to ding Grant as some sort of two-down nose tackle and they were sure Walter Nolen and Derrick Harmon would go ahead of him. We knew teams would love his size and power over what Nolen and Harmon brought and the Miami Dolphins had the right idea.
Miss - Tyler Shough in the second round
If Tyler Shough turns into an NFL star, I will eat my words, but there's no way I thought he should go No. 40 overall. With their quarterback situation, he might be playing for the Saints sooner rather than later, and that would worry me as a fan.
Hit - Judkins before Henderson
There was a late push by NFL draft pundits to put Ohio State running back Tre'Veyon Henderson into the first round and ahead of fellow Buckeye Quinshon Judkins. We have had Judkins ahead of Henderson all season and saw nothing about Henderson's game to say he should go in the first round or go before Judkins.
Miss - JJ Pegues in the sixth
The biggest gap between where I had a player ranked and where they were picked was defensive tackle JJ Pegues. We had a late second, early third-round grade on the Ole Miss product and he fell all the way to pick No. 180 in the sixth round.
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