If there is one word summarizing the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, it will be “unexpected.” That’s always the case, but it’s a Thursday night Really We hit home the difference in the way our team sees prospects.
Traditional wisdom teaches us that drafting is an inaccurate science than skill, and that the best teams understand that it’s better to take more bites of apples. This is especially true for this draft. In this draft, no one agreed not only on the best prospects, but also on how they stacked up within their position group.
JP Acosta’s position on the big board and who stole in the first round and who reached to find their man can take a good photo. In this metric, a negative rating shows the number of picks under what the man was filmed under the draft spot.
Reach: Cameron Ward – Titan (+25)
There’s a football maxim that if you don’t have a quarterback then nothing else is important and the Titan really showed this on Thursday night. Tennessee chose to take the best man (arguably) in a bad position instead of the different maker. It may be one of the biggest examples of myopia draft in the NFL Hitley.
Ward was 26th on the big board. Behind Chedur Sanders. Clearly, Titan fell in love with Ward, but that doesn’t change the fact that they took over many proven talents to incorporate a handful of magical beans.
Theft: Malachi Starks – Ravens (-22)
My God, the value here. Baltimore had the highest safety in the draft with a big margin and didn’t even have to leave Pick No. 27. Starks was made to pair with Kyle Hamilton for his ability to play the ball in the air, and was made from the fact that he is not a violent, destructive tackler.
Starks was fifth on the big board and fell due to positional value paired with some Nippic concerns. Raven love Because to see other teams stifle minor issues, that means they get value – and they absolutely did.
Leach: Kelvin Banks – Saint (+21)
This was definitely a choice by New Orleans. Take Kelvin’s bank with the pick of No. 9 and he’s leaving him with the bank that he’s playing the right tackle, but there’s a very realistic chance he needs to be kicked at the NFL level.
If that happened, the saints made one of the biggest reach in this draft. Banks was 30th on the major boards and was a serious, slow riser in the process.
Steel: Josh Simmons – Chiefs (-20)
An absolute dream scenario for Kansas City. Simmons would have been the top 10 pick this season due to character concerns and injuries. And now the Chiefs landed one of the best offensive tackles in this draft at the end of the first round.
Despite the problems, Simmons was 12th on the big board and was just one place behind Armand Membou, who went on the 7th pick. It’s not likely you could land such a person later in the first round, but a lot of despair for the interior linemen at the top of this draft has defeated Simmons. Kansas City hit it.
Reach: Tyler Booker – Cowboys (+19)
How about a team taking big, stupid risks on offensive linemen? Booker is a good player to reach out to you, but he is an old school security guard who may really struggle with quick defensive tackles.
Dallas appeared to have had tunnel vision on the offensive line after Tetaroa McMillan was chosen, and succumbed to hell to take it, even if it was out of reach. Booker was 31st on the big board and thought it would be a pick tonight. Instead, he came in 12th overall. We’ll see if the Cowboys got another Zach Martin or if they really liked this.
Steel: Jihad Campbell – Eagles (-17)
Yes, Philadelphia did that again. This pick was no exception to this franchise, in the year 2019, to gain despair to find ridiculous talent in the backend of the first round. Campbell was the guy who could (and should have) become a top 20 pick. He was 14th in the big committee and eventually dropped to 31st.
Campbell could be the NFL’s violent, game-changing linebacker who adds another aspect to Philadelphia’s already great defense. This is a great move to keep your cupboard stocked and continues to run stellarly.
Reach: Walter Noren – Cardinals (+19)
Noren loves to compare herself to Aaron Donald and hopes that Arizona’s best is accurate. I fully understand why Jonathan Ganon falls in love with this type of player, but the Cardinals definitely reached to get him.
Noren was 35th on the big board, but no, he wasn’t in his second round pick. That doesn’t mean you need to overreach to get a guy. Never fall in love with a prospect until you ignore common sense. I feel that’s what happened here.
Steel: Tyler Warren – Colts (+9)
This isn’t exactly the same theft, but when we’re talking about getting nine spots above the value in the top 15, it’s a massive jump. The draft wouldn’t have been any better for Indianapolis, who had always been pegged to take tight ends, but perhaps they didn’t expect a chance to land Warren without a trade-up.
Warren, the sixth-ranked player on the major board, is just an old-fashioned, old-fashioned player, making everything a tight end without many weaknesses. He blocks and emphasizes that he catches passes in the middle area from short to short, and he will become a staple of the franchise for 10 years. It’s just a phenomenal pick, even if he’s not too excited about the way he plays the game. Warren hurts him, not the man who captures his imagination, but that’s the Colts’ interest.
