The 2025 NFL Draft is set to kick off on Thursday, and the guessing game will finally be put to rest. We have spent the last several months obsessing over which player will be selected where, who is rising, falling, and who are the diamonds nobody is talking about. Soon we will have a complete understanding of the draft landscape, and how teams really felt about each player. 

Over the last several weeks, I have spent time exhausting every contact I have, and really trying to find some truth hidden behind every smokescreen and rumor that is out there. While I can’t divulge everything, here is a lot of what I’ve learned. From the quarterback carousel, injury news, and undervalued prospects, there is a lot to talk about. 

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Final quarterback feedback 

Let’s get the quarterback talk out of the way. This class, which is a below average group by every measure, has been overhyped, overly scrutinized, and honestly, overthought. There is always some value to be found, but it just isn’t a very good class. We have, as a collective, spent a lot of time arguing over a pretty pedestrian group. 

Miami quarterback Cam Ward is going No. 1 to the Tennessee Titans. That isn’t news. We have known that to be a fact for a couple of months now. The only question that remained was whether Tennessee would stick at the top to select the gunslinger. Ward is, and has been, the guy in Nashville. 

When you talk about Colorado signal caller Shedeur Sanders, the feedback has been all over the place. In the beginning of the draft process, most anticipated him to be the second selection off the board to the Cleveland Browns, or whatever team wanted to trade up for him. Then most predicted Sanders to fall down the board, with whispers of very inconsistent opinions of Sanders. The feedback has been all over the place. 

After talking with several sources I trust, I believe the truth is somewhere in the middle. While Cleveland and the New York Giants have decided to go the veteran route at quarterback to try and win now, there is still a strong opinion and market for Sanders. The New Orleans Saints are the team everyone is curious about at No. 9 with the recent Derek Carr injury news. The Pittsburgh Steelers are another team of interest, currently selecting at No. 21. 

In the end, I expect Sanders to go inside the top ten selections. Who exactly the team is that pulls the trigger is the question mark, but I do believe there is enough love around the league for Sanders to go in that range. 

The hot take I’ll present on you is that I am not buying a third quarterback goes in the first round. There have been a lot of conversations around Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss) and Jalen Milroe (Alabama), and while there is intrigue for both, I’m not sold that it’s enough for a team to trade up for in the first round like it has been discussed. From conversations I’ve had, I’m most confident that Ward and Sanders end up being the only two Round One quarterbacks, and a solid trade market can begin at the top of the second round for one of those two. 

Quarterback desperation can always cause that to change, but the Dart love is just something I haven’t heard enough from my contacts to project him that early. In the end, I believe Milroe is the first off of the board between the two, and he is the more likely between them to go late in the first round. 

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The Jihaad Campbell fall 

There hasn’t been a bigger riser at linebacker since the end of the season than Alabama star Jihaad Campbell. He has steadily moved up in mock drafts the last couple of months as we have all gotten more feedback from the NFL. The league is obsessed with the talent, and the potential three down impact. If it was just about the talent on the field, Campbell would be a top 20 selection in this class. Teams like the Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers all love him. 

Unfortunately in this process, medicals and off the field concerns can quickly alter the outlook for prospects. Most have seen the news about shoulder surgery for Campbell, which was a tough blow for Campbell. Despite that news, teams have still been willing to pull the trigger early. As more medicals have come back, things have gotten murkier. According to a source, both shoulders have raised some worry. Campbell also has a knee issue, which some teams are worried about the long term implications. 

I still believe an organization may draft Campbell inside the top 20 with the short term value still being high, but I’m not nearly as certain as I once was. It appears that a slide is a very possible outcome for the talented linebacker. Don’t be shocked if he ends up falling out of the first round entirely. 

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Going higher than people realize 

Kentucky cornerback Maxwell Hairston has been featured pretty regularly in first round mock drafts, especially after he blazed the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine with his 4.28-second forty-yard dash time. Most have projected him to come off of the board at the very end of the round, if not early in the second. Those projections could end up being way too low. There is some belief that Hairston could up being selection within the top 20 overall picks, and there is an NFC South team that loves him in particular. 

While not a first round projection, people have been way too low on Minnesota cornerback Justin Walley. In most mock drafts, you typically see him in the fourth-sixth round ranges it is just very unlikely that Walley gets there at this point. He isn’t the biggest cornerback of all time at just 5-10, but some teams are obsessed about his combination of movement skills, football IQ, and physicality to also play inside. I would be surprised if he made it out of the top 100, and don’t be shocked if someone pulls the trigger in the second round.

You can throw Kansas State cornerback Jacob Parrish onto that list as well. There is a lot of love for the diminutive cover man around the league. He is viewed as a starting nickel on the next level, and a darn good one. I also believe he will go inside of the top 100 selections. 

Speaking of Day Two targets that nobody is talking about, get familiar with Central Arkansas pass rusher David Walker. He has gone mostly under the radar due to his outlier height/arm length and level of competition concerns, but there is quite a bit of love out there for Walker. The production speaks for itself (82.5 tackles for loss and 39 sacks in his career), and Walker is also a talented athlete, and insanely tactical rusher. Don’t be surprised if Walker ends up as a top 64 selection, but at least inside of the top 100. 

We have seen a steady dose of Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts in the second round of mocks the last several weeks. He is loved for his combination of ball skills (13 interceptions the last two seasons), and football IQ. In the safety debate, most people have Malaki Starks (Georgia) and Nick Emmanwori (South Carolina) as the top two safeties, and have wondered who will be third off the board. 

When it comes to Watts, he is more involved in that second safety conversation than people realize. It’s ultimately going to come down to what teams are looking for at the end of the first round. If you want more of a box presence with high upside, then Emmanwori is your guy. If you want more of a free safety type that majors in forcing turnovers then those teams will value Watts. I would be slightly surprised if Watts is the second safety off the board and a late first rounder, but I definitely wouldn’t be shocked. 

UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger has had quite the journey. From walk on top-50 selection potentially, Schwesinger broke out in 2024 by leading the team with 136 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, and four sacks. There is some late first round buzz building for Schwesinger around the league. If Campbell does end up going early like some people still believe, there is a pretty strong chance that a team could pull the trigger on Schwesinger in the back end of the first, and don’t be surprised if it’s a particular team that ends up trading back from the teens, and letting him fall into their lap.