It is time for the 2025 NFL Draft once again, which means everyone has multiple mock drafts in anticipation for this year’s draft. In this article I am not going to create my own mock drafts, because let’s face it who wants to see another mock draft. Instead, I am going to react to one of the many mock drafts seen on the internet. This year’s NFL Draft is taking place in Green Bay, Wisconsin both inside the historic Lambeau Field and the surrounding area called Title-town District on Thursday, April 24th through Saturday April 26th. I currently live in Wisconsin so when I first heard the draft was going to be at Lambeau it was tempting to see about trying to go and experiencing the draft no doubt. However, April in Wisconsin is very questionable weather wise, it could be sunny and sixty five degrees, raining with forty degrees, or snowing which results in me not wanting to risk it. Also, being a Bears fan I would not want to be around all the Packer fans (Sorry not sorry) for the whole weekend I deal with that enough during football season. I will say back when we were living in Kentucky the NFL Draft Night was always a fun time, we used to go hang out with friends, ordering pizza and wings, and reacting to every teams pick. Now a days, its just another night in sports, we definitely will watch it but just doesn’t seem as fun as in years past. We all know every analyst will come out with a mock draft and as the days get closer they keep adjusting and switching teams picks so with that being said lets get into reacting to the mock draft we got online. (Created on pro football network mock draft simulator) 

We are going to react to the mock draft pictured below, however this will not be a super in depth reaction of every team because who wants to read that am I right? Instead, I am going to pick a few players/teams that I think got it right and some that got it wrong along with giving my opinions on who will be the most successful player from the first round and who may be the biggest bust of the first round. 

Disclaimer: I am not the biggest football fan, let alone NFL football however I do keep up with the sport (obviously) and enjoy watching it for the most part. That being said I do not claim to know everything about every team/player in the draft. 

Alright, let’s get into this mock draft reaction shall we? First of all it looks like we have three quarterbacks taken in the first nine picks. Personally I think this is a lot for this year’s quarterback class, call me a hater but I am not sold on any of these quarterbacks in the first round (Cameron Ward, Shedeur Sanders, and Jaxson Dart). This year’s draft should not have had a quarterback taken within the first fifteen picks even if that teams needed that position. I would even wonder what if teams like the Tennessee Titans, Las Vegas Raiders, and New Orleans Saints decided to trade down with the lack of QB talent in this years draft, wouldn’t that be interesting. Cameron Ward had a decent year with Miami last year however the ACC is not a great football conference so stats could be misleading. Shedeur Sanders has the NFL pro DNA from being a former player’s son (Deion Sanders) and even with having the best completion percentage of the three quarterbacks a lot of those were bubble screen passes or short passes (again nothing wrong with that) how will that translate to the NFL? Lastly, we have Jaxson Dart, from Ole Miss so part probably the best football conference in college football, is the winningest QB in Ole Miss history (28 wins), best winning percentage in Ole Miss history (.737), and has most career total offense in Ole Miss history (12,115 yards). He definitely has the arm for the NFL for sure but is he accurate enough on the short and medium range throws? Do I think all these quarterbacks are NFL quarterbacks? Yes. Do I think these players should go in the first round? No. If you told me I had to pick one of these quarterbacks I would probably have to go with Jaxson Dart due to his ability to win and I think has the better arm of all the quarterbacks this year. 

Moving away from the quarterback position, let’s take a look at some other players in the first round. Obviously we all know Travis Hunter by now right? The Colorado Buffaloes player who played both sides of the ball at WR and Defensive Back, also the most recent Heisman Trophy winner. Personally I think Travis Hunter is the best player in this draft just being able to fill two positions for whichever NFL team drafts him (right now Giants at pick three). Seems to m Travis Hunter would be a cheat code in today’s NFL if he is able to play both sides of the ball. Next up, we have the best defensive player in the draft by a long shot in Abdul Carter. Abdul Carter is a EDGE player who played for Penn State and absolutely dominated most (if not all) teams he went up against in college. He is coming into the draft with a shoulder and foot injury but all reports say he is one hundred percent healthy coming into the draft. He is projected to go to the Browns at the second pick, what an absolute defensive nightmare for teams with Myles Garrett on one side and Abdul Carter on the other side! Looking at both offensive and defensive lineman I am not even going to pretend I know anything about any of these guys, however I does seem like the year for lineman with a total of seven projected to go in just the first round. My team is one of those taking a lineman (Chicago Bears) if the mock draft plays out the way it is projected. I would not be mad at this, a lot of teams need to good lineman, I know it is not the cool and flashy pick but its the foundation on both offense and defense. Lastly, I want to touch on the top two running backs in this year’s draft. We have Ashton Jeanty from Boise State who was an absolute monster at running back this past year. Ashton Jeanty pretty much owns all the records at Boise State and broke Barry Sanders’ single season rushing record, however the stats maybe misleading due to the conference and teams Boise State plays. All that being said, I think he will do just fine in the NFL maybe the next big running back for the NFL? The last player I would like to cover is the other top running back in Omarion Hampton from North Carolina. Omarion Hampton had a stand out year with the Tarheels and is another physical specimen at six foot and two hundred twenty pounds. I like Hampton a lot especially going to the Denver Broncos at pick twenty, he is a big running back who runs north and south with the ability to catch the ball coming out of the backfield that helps the Broncos offense to say the least. 

In conclusion, this year’s draft seems to be a little mediocre not a lot of story lines and looks like not a lot of projected teams moving up or down. That being said, I am going to end with one player who will be the best/most successful in the draft and one who may end up being a bust. Let’s start out good with the player I think will be the biggest success in the NFL, Tyler Warren TE from Penn State. Tyler Warren is by far the best tight end in the draft, he can catch anything that comes his way, he is athletic, and one of the best blockers on the line. Depending on what team Warren goes to (right now Jacksonville Jaguars at pick number five) he can instantly upgrade that teams offense and is a huge security blanket for a quarterback and helps in the blocking game. Now the not at good part, the biggest bust in this year’s draft is Shedeur Sanders. Unfortunately, I think it is Shedeur Sanders due to a few factors including, holding on to the ball to long trying to create the highlight play, rather take a loss of yards by either running out of bounds or taking a sack instead of throwing the ball away to save the percentage, and lastly just too much hype around him and being Deion Sanders son. Again, I like Sanders he is athletic and can throw the football and he is a NFL quarterback but I just do not think he will become one of the top quarterbacks in the class.

Happy Draft Season to everyone who celebrates! Personally love watching all the fans react to the players their team ends up going with because as a Bears fan we have certainly been in your shoes. Enjoy all those pizzas, wings, and beers while watching your team either plan for the future or absolutely make the worst pick in NFL history.