Jeremy Pernell's Top 100 NFL Draft Prospects for 2025

We’ve seen how much NIL has changed the landscape of college football and now we’re starting to see the trickle-down effect it’s having on the NFL Draft. Fewer and fewer players are leaving early and are instead choosing to remain in college where they’re making more money than they would being mid-round draft picks.

This year’s draft is lacking marquee talent. Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter are the clear headliners with Ashton Jeanty also being in the conversation.

Outside of Hunter — who’s one of one — the draft is relatively weak at premium positions like quarterback, wide receiver, left tackle and cornerback. Carter, on the other hand, is part of an extremely deep D-line class that is loaded with talent at both the edge and interior positions.

This is the deepest RB class we’ve seen since at least 2017, led by Jeanty, who is getting comparisons as a prospect to Saquon Barkley and Bijan Robinson. It’s also a really good TE group that could see two players — Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland — taken in the top 15 for the first time since 1992.

The majority of premier players play non-premium positions. Many pundits have labeled this as a draft of starters, not stars, and the prevailing feeling is that the strength of the draft is on Day 2.

Last year, eighty-two of my top 100 players were taken in the first 100 picks. Regardless of that hit rate, my board would have looked a lot different had I been stacking it for a specific offensive and defensive system.

Casual fans of the NFL Draft would probably be surprised by just how different every team’s draft board is around the league. These teams are scouting around 3,000 players, and there’s very little consensus within a team’s own scouting department, let alone between all 32 franchises.

Whether it’s schematic or cultural fit, medical or character concerns, athletic or physical thresholds, several factors influence how much each team values or covets a player. Even if you think a player is a great prospect, if he doesn’t fit what you do it’s irrelevant because it’s just not going to work.

Another thing that might surprise most is that even though there will be 257 players drafted this year, a typical team’s board will not exceed 150 prospects and oftentimes it’s a lot smaller than that.

With that said, here are my top 100 prospects for the 2025 NFL Draft.

Rank-Name-Position-School
1. Travis Hunter (ATH) Colorado
2. Abdul Carter (EDGE) Penn State
3. Aston Jeanty (RB) Boise State
4. Mason Graham (DT) Michigan
5. Jalon Walker (EDGE) Georgia
6. Tyler Warren (TE) Penn State
7. Mykel Williams (EDGE) Georgia
8. Will Campbell (T/G) LSU