2025 NFL Draft takeaways: First-round locks and skepticism, Shedeur Sanders' slide and more

New York Times

28-04-2025

The NFL Draft always finds a way to be quarterback dominant, even when the quarterback group isn't very strong.
Because of Shedeur Sanders' fall, football fans received three consecutive days of Shedeur debate. Friday night, I went to coach my son's youth football team, and that was all anybody wanted to talk to me about: That Sanders still hadn't been selected. It wouldn't be until Saturday afternoon that Sanders would get drafted No. 144 to the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round.
If he had been drafted in the second or third round, you could make a strong case that the Colorado star didn't really 'fall,' but rather was picked where NFL evaluators thought he merited to go, rather than where the draft analysts expected.
'Shedeur has some leaks in his throwing motion,' an NFL offensive coordinator told me a few weeks ago. 'But I do like the kid. I think he's smart. He's tough. I hate the system he played in. He got sacked 94 times in the last two years. I get it (he had a terrible O-line), but I don't. Get the ball out! At some point, you have to give him outlets and some built-in Hots, ways where he can get the ball out and give a fighting chance to sustain drives. He doesn't have an exceptional arm or running ability. He's streaky.'
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A second NFL OC didn't see any elite traits in Sanders: 'He's really developmental. He's a good QB. He's tough as hell. He's not overly mobile.'
But for Sanders — the son of Deion Sanders and a player whose college just announced, to much local uproar, that his Colorado jersey was being retired — getting picked at No. 144, definitely counts as a fall. Or frankly, a plummet.
Being a developmental quarterback and going to a spot with an established starter, like the L.A. Rams or Seattle Seahawks, would've been an interesting dynamic. So much of being an NFL backup quarterback is how comfortable the starter is with the other two QBs in the room.
Sanders has always been the starting QB and the star wherever he's been, at Jackson State and then Colorado. I suspect his fit played a role in why so many teams opted not to pick him earlier. The Cleveland Browns took another QB, Oregon's Dillon Gabriel, two rounds earlier, and that is against whom Sanders has to compete, along with 40-year-old Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett.
'He's got a skill set, but no dominant trait. He's a backup at this point, and those guys have to be wired for humble support of the starter,' added an NFL WR coach.
It didn't help Sanders' stock that he didn't compete in the Senior Bowl or at the NFL Scouting Combine. If you're not a first-round lock or injured, that's going to create some pause. A former NFL quarterbacks coach I spoke with Sunday morning said it was 'not surprising' that Sanders waited as long as he did in the draft.
'The intel I got was shocking: 'This guy has no awareness about how he's coming across,' or the type of leverage he has or doesn't have,' said the coach.
But now the draft process is over. It's on Sanders to prove a lot of people wrong. And he did that plenty in the last two years in Boulder.
My favorite fit of the first round
The Cardinals selecting Ole Miss DT Walter Nolen. He had 14 TFLs last season after transferring from Texas A&M. No one questions Nolen's talent: 'He's twitched up and his change of direction is off the charts,' an NFL DL coach told me. 'That makes him special. He's just got to make sure he studies the game; he can't go out there and put his hand in the ground and think he's gonna beat everybody in the NFL.'
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Another NFL coach who loved Nolen's ability said, 'I worry a little about his attitude, but everybody was worried about Jalen Carter. Then you put him on the Eagles and everybody forgets about that.'
A national scout called Nolen a top 15 talent, but said there are some concerns about his maturity and focus. 'You have to plan for him,' he said. 'I think he has to be in the right place and in a D-line room with some strong veterans.'
Well, that's exactly the situation Nolen ended up in. He'll have 38-year-old Calais Campbell, a former Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, and another well-respected vet Dalvin Tomlinson, among others, around him. If any setting can enable Nolen to blossom, it's this one.
My most skeptical first-round fit
The Giants trading back into the first round for Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart. You have a head coach on the hot seat with Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston there to play this year. Maybe Dart gets some action this year, but aren't there bigger needs for this franchise? If things continue to go south with the Giants, and they end up looking for a new GM and new head coach in a year, where does that leave Dart?
There's also a decent chance there will be better options for a franchise QB in 2026.
I like Dart, but I felt like he was more of a second- or third-rounder, a developmental player you want to take a chance on. He runs well, has a pretty strong arm and is very tough.
Here's why I'm skeptical: He played a lot of football in college. He had a very talented team around him last year. All they needed to do was beat a 5-5 Florida team and a really bad Mississippi State team, and the Rebels make the College Football Playoff. But Dart and the Rebels really struggled against Florida; he went 8-of-18 with two INTs and three sacks in the second half, when Ole Miss scored just 3 points. In the Rebels' three losses in 2024 — all against teams that finished unranked — he led them to one total touchdown in the second half of those three games. That stuck out to me.
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Another surprising slide: Texas' Quinn Ewers was picked in the seventh round by the Miami Dolphins. Ewers was once the highest-ranked high school quarterback prospect ever by internet recruiting sites. As hefty as that distinction might've been, Ewers went on to have a solid but hardly spectacular college career. He twice made second-team all-conference, but that was about it.
Ewers was the No. 1-ranked QB in the 2021 recruiting class. Caleb Williams was No. 2. Drake Maye was No. 4. J.J. McCarthy was No. 6. Jaxson Dart was No. 13. LSU's Garrett Nussmeier, who some NFL personnel people I've talked to consider a potential first-rounder in 2026, was No. 19. Sanders was No. 37. Riley Leonard was No. 58.
Texas coaches were ready for Arch Manning to take over the team in 2025. If Ewers wanted to stay in college football another year and keep developing in hopes of boosting his stock, it was going to have to be somewhere else. He likely would've commanded a lot of money on the NIL market. If Carson Beck — coming off a shoulder injury and without much of a spring to get up to speed with his new team and offense — got more than $3 million from Miami, Ewers probably was in line to get more. Before his injury, Beck was seen as a more talented prospect than Ewers, but other college QBs who have proven less and played in fewer big games are reportedly getting money in that ballpark.
When Ewers announced his decision to go to the NFL, there was speculation that he could go in the second or third round, but that was never the feedback I heard from NFL sources. Ewers opted to bet on himself and didn't make a decision based on what was probably financially the best move for him — the opposite of how his college career began, by skipping his senior season of high school to enroll at Ohio State to secure his seven-figure NIL deal. He didn't have a real chance to win the Buckeyes QB job, and then a few months later, he transferred home to Texas.
The Patriots drafted three of my favorite players in this draft. They got TreVeyon Henderson in the second round. He's the most explosive running back in this draft and should be a fantastic third-down RB. He's dangerous as a receiver and is already excellent in protection.
They got Washington State WR Kyle Williams in the third. He's super quick, a really good route runner who can play inside and out. He impressed in big games and when the Cougars played in the Holiday Bowl after their head coach left, along with their OC and star QB, Williams still opted to play in the game. And he played his butt off, catching 10 passes for 172 yards and a TD. At one point in the game, Williams got banged up, and you hoped he didn't derail his draft stock by playing. But Williams returned to action and made the game against Syracuse interesting.
The Patriots drafted Cal safety Craig Woodson in the fourth round, a player that an NFL DB coach from another team told me he hoped would fall to them.
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I also think their top pick of LSU OT Will Campbell will be a standout O-lineman for a decade.
This team just loaded up on a bunch of really productive high-level college players from top to bottom. First-rounder Emeka Egbuka is as close to a 'can't miss' as you'll get in a draft pick late in the first round. I think he's a slightly bigger, slightly faster version of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who already has proven terrific in Seattle.
Getting Notre Dame corner Benjamin Morrison late in the second is great value. He probably did as good a job as anyone in college matching up against Marvin Harrison Jr. two years ago. He's a really bright, technically sound corner.
The corner they got in the third round, Kansas State's Jacob Parrish, probably could've gone a round earlier. He's faster than Morrison and a playmaker. In Central Arkansas' David Walker, a two-time Freaks List guy, they got a short, explosive, pain-in-the-butt-to-try-and-block edge. Late fifth-rounder DE Elijah Roberts from SMU feels like a steal at that spot. He's big, fast and versatile. One NFL coach told me he sees a lot of three-time former Pro Bowler Za'Darius Smith in Roberts. Tiny Oregon slot Tez Johnson is ridiculously quick and productive; you wonder about his durability, but in the seventh round, he's worth that price.
South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori was the biggest freak athlete at the 2025 combine, but he lasted until the Seahawks' pick in the second round. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Emmanwori is a rare athlete. He broad jumped 11-6, vertical jumped 43 inches, ran a 4.38 40 with a 1.49-second 10-yard split. He also makes a ton of plays on the field. In three seasons, he had 244 tackles. Last year, he had four interceptions and two pick sixes.
Some NFL DB coaches I spoke to weren't sure if he could be a good deep zone defender, third-level safety, and didn't think he could cover slots like Baltimore's Kyle Hamilton, for example, but others think he can be really special.
'I think he's a better overall athlete and safety than Derwin James, who is a box safety to me,' an NFL DB coach said. 'Emmanwori is a five-tool safety. I think he's a complete safety. I think he's as good in coverage as Kyle Hamilton.'
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Green Bay drafted Texas speedster Matthew Golden in the first round. Golden can win one-on-ones and should be a good addition to the receiver room. I'm also very intrigued by late third-rounder Savion Williams from TCU. People often compared Missouri WR Luther Burden to Deebo Samuel, but NFL coaches think the 6-4, 222-pound Williams, who ran a lot of wildcat QB for TCU last year, is Deebo-like. I think Matt LaFleur will love what he brings to Green Bay.
'He's a different player from (former TCU first-round WR) Quentin Johnston,' an NFL receivers coach said. 'Quentin was more of a finesse player. This kid is a brute. He loves contact. He seeks contact. He's like Cordarrelle Patterson. He's so good with the ball in his hands. He's had some drops, but I think his hands are good enough. Some of those drops are due to poor hand placement, which can be coached. When he learns to run routes, that run after the catch is gonna be crazy because he's big and fast and good with the ball in his hands. So much upside.'
Sometimes it felt that way. The most Al Davis-y pick of all was fourth-round WR Dont'e Thornton Jr. from Tennessee. He's big at 6-4 and blazing fast (4.3 40), but he has inconsistent hands and a very limited route tree. He reminds coaches of Marquez Valdes-Scantling and that should at least help take the top of the defense off at times to help Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty.
The franchise that drafted Hall of Famers from small schools, such as Texas A&I guard Gene Upshaw, Maryland State College's Art Shell and Villanova's Howie Long, added some top FCS prospects I've been very high on.
Late third-round OT Charles Grant, a former high school wrestler who played at William & Mary, is a terrific value pick. I think he can be a starting OT within two years. The other small school gem is late-sixth-rounder Montana State QB Touchdown Tommy Mellott, another former FCS Freaks List guy. He'll transition to the slot and is expected to be a terrific special-teams player as he develops at receiver.
For years, LSU prided itself on being 'DBU.' Now it's become quite the receiver factory, albeit after the Tigers had a stretch from 2015-19 without a WR selected in the top 60.
Mickey Joseph, a Louisiana native who is now the head coach at Grambling, was hired in 2017 to fix a reeling receiver room. He recruited some touted prospects (Ja'Marr Chase) and some guys (Justin Jefferson) he believed had the potential to really blossom. One receiver who fit in the latter category, Jack Bech — ranked by 247Sports as the No. 58 wideout in the 2021 class — was selected No. 58. Bech transferred after the 2022 season to TCU, where he had a terrific career.
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Bech became the sixth LSU WR that Joseph recruited in his five seasons in Baton Rouge picked in the top 60. Four of them (Chase, Jefferson, Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr.) went in the first round and have emerged as big stars in the NFL. Those receivers helped spark LSU's national title in 2019 and played a big role in two transfer QBs (Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels) coming to Baton Rouge and winning Heisman Trophies.
(Top photo of Quinn Ewers: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)