The 2025 NFL Draft has concluded after some surprising, but mostly pleasing events in Green Bay, WI, the home of the PACKERS.
So let’s begin our review with a look at some of the details that developed during said Draft.
Pigskin’s 2025 NFL Draft Review
I thought the most interesting development centered around the detail that every team in the league held their initially assigned First Round Picks when the affair began with the selection of QB CAMERON WARD by the TITANS at Pick One. The balloon of Pick serenity changed shortly after the BROWNS were announced as being on the clock at Pick 2.
In the blink of an eye, it all changed with the JAGUARS trading up to get Pick 2 and select WR/CB TRAVIS HUNTER. And the rush was on! By the end of the proceedings at Pick 257, there had been 34 trades consummated. And those trades also had far-reaching effects, with multiple 2026 Draft choices changing hands around the league. Sort of business as usual with a slight twist at the start.
Draftee Pipelines
The more some things change, the more they stay the same. How about the SEC holding serve as the Conference with the most Draftees taken by Saturday evening? The Power 4 conference led the way with 79 players drafted overall. The BIG 10 was close on their heels with 71 players selected. The ACC tallied 42 draftees while the Big 12 limped in with 31. For the math-challenged, this means that 223 of the total 257, or 86.8% of the total draft class, came from those 4 Conferences.
While we are looking at Picks per Conference, how about we take a look at teams that had the most players chosen? Let’s look at the Top 10 teams.
1 OHIO STATE 14
2 GEORGIA 13
3 TEXAS 12
4 OREGON 10
5 OLE MISS 8
6 (TIED) each with 7 players selected: ALABAMA, FLORIDA, LSU, MICHIGAN, MIAMI (FL)
FCS schools contributed only 8 draftees, which was due in great part to the high number of FCS players who used the Transfer Portal to move up the the higher levels to finish out their college career.
NO COMBINE INVITE…WELP
Also, a stat that I think does have some significance is the fact that 239 of the 257 players drafted were invited to the NFL Combine at the end of February. That’s 93% of the total number drafted. That’s a higher number than in most previous years. Only 18 Combine ‘snubs’ were drafted this time around.
ALL-STAR Game Draftees
We usually take a peek at how many players were drafted by the so-called postseason All-Star games. We will go with the numbers, which may include some players who showed up but never donned pads at their venue.
SENIOR BOWL 107 players drafted
SHRINE BOWL 52 players drafted
HULA BOWL 9 players drafted
Congrats to the Senior Bowl, which still wears the crown as the most prestigious and draftee productive All-Star venue. A tip of the cap, one last time, to the efforts of Executive Director JIM NAGY of the Mobile, AL venue. Mr. Nagy has moved on to be the football GM of the Oklahoma Sooners.
The Senior Bowl recently announced its new Executive Director to replace NAGY, and he is DREW FABIANICH. DREW has most recently been the General Manager at West Virginia & Auburn. Prior to those endeavors, he had almost two decades serving in the Dallas Cowboys scouting department, 14 years of it as a National Scout for them.
No one team loved the Senior Bowl as a talent hunting source than the JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS, who had 9 Picks in the 2025 Draft and used 8 of them on players from that game.
Sanders & other QBs
Of all the top news stories connected with the 2025 NFL Draft, none carried the publicity and press appeal more than the slide of SHEDEUR SANDERS/QB/Colorado, who fell from almost unanimous media acclaim as a potential First Round selection, to finally being picked in Round 5 at Pick 144.
What made this an even harder pick to understand was that the BROWNS had chosen undersized Oregon star QB DILLON GABRIEL back near the end of Round 3 at Pick 94. Say what? Just in case you have lost track, these moves mean that 5 QBs are currently on the BROWNS roster: DeSHAUN WATSON (injured list), KENNY PICKETT, JOE FLACCO, DILLON GABRIEL, and Shedeur Sanders.
Just because there is so much interest in the NFL QB pool, let us summarize the QB Draftees in the 2025 Draft…13 in number.
1-1: CAM WARD/Titans
1-25: JAXSON DART/Giants
2-40: TYLER SHOUGH/Saints
3-92: JALEN MILROE/Seahawks
3-94: DILLON GABRIEL/Browns
5-144: SHEDEUR SANDERS/Browns
6-181: KYLE McCORD/Eagles
6-185: WILL HOWARD/Steelers
6-189: RILEY LEONARD/Colts
6-197: GRAHAM MERTZ/Texans
6-215: CAM MILLER/Raiders
7-227: KURTIS ROURKE/49’ers
7-231: QUINN EWERS/Dolphins
Draftee numbers by position were as follows:
QB/13
RB/25
WR/31
TE/16
OL/41
DT/29
EDGE/28
LB/21
CB/29
S/19
K/2
P/1
LS/1
Teams with the most Picks
11 RAVENS, RAIDERS, SEAHAWKS, PATRIOTS
10 EAGLES, 49ERS
Teams with the fewest Picks
5 FALCONS, VIKINGS, COMMANDERS
That about does it for you, stats fanatics. We will be back in the next few weeks with Team Draft details and opinions.
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