Grading NFL drafts right after they happen is like grading a meal after you order it: all you know is what was said on the menu. That said, drafts do tell you a great deal about how NFL teams think about themselves at a particular point in time – what they need, where they’re lacking, and how they want it all to come together. Whether right or wrong in the end, there’s no more clear indicator of team philosophy than the annual three-day exercise, and that’s why it’s important beyond the players who are actually selected.
While it will be years before we know how wise each move was in the 2025 draft, here are those who benefited most and least, as well as the decisions we feel are worthy of applause, and the ones that had us shaking our heads.
WINNER: The Jacksonville Jaguars
When the Jaguars moved up from the fifth overall pick to the second in a trade with the Cleveland Browns to select Colorado cornerback/receiver/unicorn Travis Hunter, they were making history in more ways than one. This marked the first time that a team moved up into the top five in a draft to select a non-quarterback since 1997, when the St Louis Rams moved up to take offensive tackle Orlando Pace, who wound up in the Hall of Fame. And if you consider Hunter more of a cornerback than a receiver, he became the highest-drafted player at that position in the NFL’s common draft era, which goes back to 1967.
The Jaguars gave up their fifth overall pick in 2025, as well as their 36th and 126th picks in 2025, and their first-round pick in 2026 for the right to draft Hunter, and Cleveland’s 104th and 200th picks in 2025. Cleveland (more on them in a minute) took Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham with the fifth pick, Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins with the 36th, and Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson with the 126th. Good players all, which is important to a Browns team with multiple needs, and that extra 2026 pick could mean a lot in next year’s superior quarterback class.
But for Cleveland, this trade only works if they hit big, because Hunter is unlike anyone we have seen before. Two-way football players of this magnitude have not existed since the days of Sammy Baugh and Chuck Bednarik – hence the comparisons to Shohei Ohtani and Victor Wembanyama.
“Travis Hunter, he embodies belief,” Jaguars general manager James Gladstone said. “He’s a rare person. He’s a rare player. But he’s also a reminder that the boundaries of the game of football were built to be challenged. So, the decision to select him was actually a statement, a statement for how we plan to move, who we are, and we want him to be nothing more than him because, when he is, he elevates the space around him.”
Hunter had a credible case as the best receiver and the best cornerback in this draft class. If he is able to live up to his potential, Jacksonville won’t regret the price they paid.
LOSER: The Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons’ need for pass-rushers on the edge was perhaps the most obvious in the entire draft, and the team went all out to fill it. Perhaps a bit too all-out. Atlanta selected Georgia’s Jalon Walker with the 15th overall pick, and Walker can rush the passer very well from the defensive line and from linebacker depth. Then, the Falcons traded their 46th pick in the second round, their 242th pick in the seventh round, and their first-round pick in 2026 to move up to No 26 to select Tennessee pass-rusher James Pearce Jr.
Pearce has been productive, with 23 sacks and 113 total pressures over three seasons with the Volunteers, per Pro Football Focus. But he is a bit of a one-trick pony at this point – if he can’t win with speed around the edge, he struggles to win at all, and one-trick ponies tend to struggle at any position in an NFL with more dimensional demands.
The price the Falcons paid there was especially odd given what the New York Giants paid to trade up for the 25th selection one pick before what Atlanta did. For the rights to select Jaxson Dart, the Giants gave the 34th pick in the second round, the 99th pick in the fourth round, and a third-round pick in 2026 to the Houston Texans. That’s a more reasonable transaction, and now, the pressure is on Pearce to perform to a higher standard, through no fault of his own.
That’s the football stuff, but the Falcons’ draft story got plain weird on Sunday night, when it emerged that the son of the team’s defensive coordinator had prank called Shedeur Sanders as the quarterback slid down the draft. Atlanta DC Jeff Ulbrich had apparently left his iPad lying around and his 21-year-old son, Jax, had copied Sanders’s number off the device. Jax then passed himself off as New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis on Friday to tell Sanders the team intended to take him with their next pick. After his part in the prank was revealed Jax said his conduct had been “completely inexcusable, embarrassing, and shameful.” He also called Sanders for the second time in a few days, this time as himself. He did not say whether Sanders accepted his apology.
LOSER: Dillon Gabriel, QB, Cleveland Browns
For about 24 hours, Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel thought that he had a good shot at the Browns’ starting job. Gabriel had earned that opportunity given the Browns’ dearth of hope at the position, with veterans Joe Flacco and Kenny Pickett in the room and Deshaun Watson out of the picture for 2025 through injury, not to mention the fact that Watson’s tenure has been a disaster, on and off the field.
The Browns selected Gabriel in the third round based on a 2024 season in which he proved to be one of the NCAA’s best quarterbacks under pressure and as a deep passer. If he wasn’t relatively small (5ft 11in and 205lb) and old (24) he might have been a first-round prospect. Regardless, Gabriel had, and may still have, a very good chance to become the Browns’ next franchise quarterback, and this is a team who have been trying to figure out that position since their rebirth in 1999.
But, one day after Gabriel heard his name called, the Browns selected Sanders in the fifth round, and all hell broke loose. The media circus that has followed Sanders throughout his NCAA rise will unquestionably remain and expand in the NFL – as we have already seen with the prank call. This could be the most overcooked story for a quarterback based on coverage versus actual NFL achievement since Tim Tebow. Gabriel was just a guy trying to make his way in the league; now, he’ll be seen by most as a barrier to the story everyone will want to read.
WINNER: Caleb Williams, QB, Chicago Bears
There were all kinds of questions about the future of the first overall pick in the 2024 draft after his rookie season, and few of them were Williams’ fault. The Bears cycled through three different offensive coordinators, the offensive line was a mess, and Williams didn’t even know what his coaches wanted him to do half the time.
Fortunately for Williams, the franchise looked to reverse all the negatives this offseason. New head coach Ben Johnson is one of the best offensive minds in football, and free agency brought a new interior offensive line with left guard Joe Thuney, center Drew Dalman, and right guard Jonah Jackson.
Then, in the first two rounds of the draft, the Bears gave Williams two new weapons who could be major factors right away. Michigan tight end Colston Loveland, the 10th overall pick in the first round, transcended a less-than-explosive Wolverines offense in 2024 by making plays at all levels of the field. And Missouri receiver Luther Burden III, the 39th overall pick in the second round, gets the nuances of the position in ways that amplify his physical attributes.
None of this guarantees anything once they hit the field, of course, but it’s hard to find a quarterback who had a better offseason – and after that brutal rookie year, Williams deserved a better hand.
WINNER: Howie Roseman, general manager, Philadelphia Eagles
Roseman is going to be a winner in just about every article of this nature just about every year, because he’s just so good at understanding his own team’s needs, the ideal players to fill them, and the vagaries of the draft process.
This year, Roseman started his draft by giving defensive coordinator Vic Fangio (quite possibly the best in the business) five straight additions, and all five could be immediate impact players.
Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell gives Fangio a peerless athlete who can succeed at all three levels of the defense – were it not for a shoulder injury that may delay his NFL debut, Campbell would have been a lock in the top half of the first round; instead Philly got him with the 31st overall pick. Texas safety Andrew Mukuba is one of the best pass defenders in the 2025 class, and Roseman stole him with the 64th pick in the second round. Fourth-round pick Ty Robinson, a defensive lineman from Nebraska, could be the ideal replacement for Milton Williams, who signed a massive free-agent contract with the New England Patriots this offseason.
On and on it went. There wasn’t a single pick the Eagles made that made you shake your head; more often, the thought was, ‘Oh, Howie did it again.” Other NFL executives are probably nervous when Roseman is on the other end of the line, because odds are, you’re about to get out-thought and out-foxed. If you want the primary reason the Eagles are the defending Super Bowl champions, you can start right there.
LOSER: The 2025 quarterback class
It’s clear that the NFL didn’t think much of a quarterback class that was seen as far worse than the one from 2024. Last year, there were six quarterbacks selected in the first round – the top three picks (Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye), and the remaining three in the top 12 (Michael Penix Jr with the eighth pick, JJ McCarthy with the 10th pick, and Bo Nix with the 12th pick). That was a star-studded class, and outside McCarthy, whose preseason torn meniscus cost him the 2024 season, the entire class showed starting potential right away.
This time around, just two quarterbacks – Miami’s Cam Ward first overall to the Tennessee Titans, and the aforementioned Dart with the 25th pick – were first-rounders. It’s a class far more like the group in 2022, when Pitt’s Kenny Pickett was the only first-rounder, and even that was a reach.
That’s not to say none of these quarterbacks will succeed; after all, the best from the 2022 class was Brock Purdy, the final pick that year. But it’s fair to say this class faces a steeper hill to climb – and the league made that judgment clear on draft weekend.
