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How did your favorite team fare in the 2025 draft? Plus, a lookahead to 2026.

Jim Reineking   Paste BN

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Hoo boy, the 2025 NFL Draft was quite a ride!

Between the No. 1 overall selection by the Tennessee Titans – Miami QB Cam Ward – and Mr. Irrelevant at pick No. 257 – Memphis CB Kobee Minor – there was no lack of intrigue.

Most of that intrigue, of course, centered around the most polarizing prospect in this year's draft class ... Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders.

Shedeur Sanders drama dominated weekend

Projected as a first-round selection, Shedeur Sanders – the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer and Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders – had one of the most stunning slides in NFL draft history. It wasn't until six picks into the fifth round where the Cleveland Browns traded up and finally selected Shedeur Sanders, ending the drama on the draft's third day. By then, the president weighed in on the draft slide, Sanders had been pranked called and tweeted messages of hope, and ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. had gone into full meltdown mode.

Shedeur Sanders was the sixth quarterback selected in the 2025 draft, following top pick Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough, Jalen Milroe and Dillon Gabriel, who also was picked by the Browns.

The Browns, for their part, have quite a quarterback situation. In the draft alone, the Browns added two quarterbacks. Deshaun Watson won't play in 2025 after multiple Achilles surgeries. Veteran Joe Flacco recently rejoined the team, which traded for fourth-year pro Kenny Pickett this offseason. Training camp in Berea, Ohio, should be an interesting follow.

Draft grades: Who aced, who didn't (hint: The Browns)

The 2025 draft featured plenty of the non-Shedeur Sanders-related drama, head-scratching decisions and OMG 😱 moments that are inherent to the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. While it's a bit premature to judge a team's draft class so soon, Nate Davis takes a big-picture look at all 32 teams' performance.

Here's a sampling of the grades:

New England Patriots (A) — A team that had to get a transfusion of offensive talent – regardless of circumstances, but especially to give QB Drake Maye a fighting chance in his second NFL season – wisely spent its first four picks on that side of the ball.

Pittsburgh Steelers (B+) — Let’s call this a progress report grade – at least until they officially have Aaron Rodgers in the building. But assuming Rodgers ultimately arrives, he should walk into a locker room that’s more talented than the version that qualified for the playoffs last season.

Green Bay Packers (B+) — Nice to see them break their 23-year streak of not taking a wideout in Round 1, especially considering what Matthew Golden can bring to this offense.

Chicago Bears (B-) — GM Ryan Poles, who’s known for his aggressive maneuvers, continues to build out the support system for second-year QB Caleb Williams. But did Poles hit the optimal notes? Time will tell if first round TE Colston Loveland was the correct choice over Tyler Warren.

🤷🏻 Cleveland Browns (I – for incomplete) — Think this assessment is a copout? Fine. But there’s no legitimate way to know what to make of this until the bigger picture comes into focus – at least a year from now. 

2026 mock draft

Attempting to chart the course of the NFL draft even a day out can be a dicey proposition. Lucky for us, Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz dives right into that dicey proposition with his very, very early look at the players who could be prominent figures in mock drafts to come.

Here's a quick peek at the top five:

  1. Cleveland Browns – Drew Allar, QB, Penn State
  2. New Orleans Saints – Garrett Nussmeier, QB, LSU
  3. New York Jets – Caleb Downs, S, Ohio State
  4. New York Giants – Kadyn Proctor, OT, Alabama
  5. Tennessee Titans – T.J. Parker, DE, Clemson

➤ Full way-too-early 2026 mock draft

⬆️ Vibes check ⬇️

⬆️ Sampling of favorite names of players who were drafted this weekend:

  • Oluwafemi Oladejo
  • Princely Umanmielen
  • Upton Stout
  • Teddye Buchanan
  • Ruben Hyppolite III
  • Tonka Hemingway
  • Robert Longerbeam
  • Zeek Biggers

⬆️ Draft class's heaviest player: 437-pound Florida defensive lineman Desmond Watson went undrafted, but he'll still get a shot at making a team's roster. The proverbial "space eater" signed as an undrafted free agent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

⬆️ NFL on Christmas Day. 🏈 🌲 🏈 🎅  🏈 🎁 Commissioner Roger Goodell promises three Christmas Day games every year, matching the league's annual Thanksgiving Day slate. The NFL's takeover of Christmas is now complete. Tune in on May 14 to find out which three games will be played on Dec. 25.

⬇️ Deion Sanders. It was quite a weekend for "Coach Prime," who saw one son fall four rounds from his expected draft spot and then got "fired" by his other draft-eligible son in the aftermath.

⬇️ Mel Kiper Jr. I’d personally long tapped out on the man with the hair who for decades has been considered the preeminent NFL draft TV analyst, instead preferring NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah and Mike Mayock before him. Finding it "disgusting" how Sanders dropped in the draft, Kiper got into a heated argument with fellow analyst Louis Riddick when the son of Deion finally did get selected by the Browns. Kiper continued by saying that "the NFL has been clueless for 50 years when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks." Meanwhile, over on NFL Network, the conversation was more nuanced. It should be noted, however, that Kiper was hardly alone in his overvaluation of Sanders.

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