Booger McFarland Breaks Down the Deepest Position Group in the 2025 NFL Draft

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Luke Easterling | Last updated Mar 20, 2025 2:56 PM ET

The 2025 NFL Draft is loaded with promising talent across the board, but no position group is deeper than the defensive front, both in terms of edge players and interior defensive lineman.

On the latest episode of "Best Podcast Available," Athlon Sports NFL Draft expert Luke Easterling sat down with ESPN football analyst and former first-round defensive lineman Booger McFarland to get his thoughts on this year's incredible class of defensive trench players.

Among this year's top edge defenders, McFarland is a big fan of Marshall's Mike Green, who led the FBS in sacks last season for the Thundering Herd, and brings a ton of explosiveness to the table as a potential first-round selection.

"When you look at his size, his testing numbers, his productivity...the one thing I wanted to know was, did he have power?" McFarland said of Green. "Well, when you go back to the Senior Bowl, when he ran over (Oregon offensive tackle Josh) Conerly, there's some power there. I don't want to put too much on one rep, but that rep alone answered a lot of questions."

As far as the interior defenders go, McFarland likes what he sees from the Michigan duo of Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, both of whom bring different skill sets to the next level.

"I want Grant lining up inside the guard, over the center, and just eating that space up in there," McFarland says of the Wolverines' massive nose tackle. "He's big enough to dominate on the inside in that way, but he's athletic enough where if there's a play outside the tackle on the perimeter, he can go and make it. He's huge, but he's so athletic."

McFarland says Graham reminds him of himself when he was coming out of LSU as the No. 15 overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"He can play the 3-technique, or he can play the nose," McFarland explains. "It depends on who's next to him. If I'm in Tennessee, I put Jeffrey Simmons at the 3-tech, and I put Graham at the nose. If I've got a really good nose tackle, I've got no problem putting Graham at the 3-technique. He's got that quickness, the balance, the ability to flip his hips. He's shown the ability to get vertical, and I need my 3-technique getting vertical, getting north-and-south, getting upfield."

Those combined position groups should easily account for double-digit picks in the first round of this year's draft, with top-end prospects like Graham and Penn State edge defender Abdul Carter likely to come off the board in the top five.

To check out the full episode of BPA, click here.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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