Jaguars' Draft Class Ranks High in Key Metric

The Jacksonville Jaguars are banking a lot on their 2025 NFL Draft class.

Obviously, the Jaguars are going to expect big things out of Travis Hunter early on in his career. Hunter has been one of the best players in the entire sport since he was a high schooler, and the expectations aren't getting any less significant as he enters the NFL as a rare two-way player.

But Hunter is not the only piece of the draft class the Jaguars are going to rely on in the first season of the Liam Coen and James Gladstone era. There could be a number of starters to emerge from the draft class, which is why it isn't surprising to see the Jaguars rank highly in a key metric from Pro Football Focus: Wins Above Average.

"Wins Above Average (WAA) is designed to help cut through that subjectivity. It estimates how many wins a player is worth above an average college football player, offering a standardized, data-driven method of assessing performance," PFF said. "The metric combines a player’s PFF grades across various facets of play with the relative value of each facet to winning football games. The result is a first-of-its-kind metric that enables cross-positional comparisons and offers predictive insight into a player’s future value."

"WAA has several applications, but here we are using it to evaluate and rank each team’s 2025 draft class. However, it is very important to note that this isn’t a black-and-white verdict on which team “won” the draft. Because WAA is based on positional value and snap volume, the rankings naturally skew toward teams that made more picks and targeted premium positions."

In essence, this does a good job of comparing the value each team got from its draft based simply on what their picks did at the college level. It isn't a projection for moving forward, but does show the value of the "now".

And when it comes to that value, the Jaguars ranked at No. 9, with Hunter leading the way. Of the Jaguars nine picks, all but one had a positive WAA in college.

The Jaguars are hoping the draft class pans out, but they leaned on production and experience in the draft process. This model reflects that completely.