Building the Board: A look at players No. 11-20 in the 2025 NFL Draft
The NFL regular season has ended, and the playoffs are set to begin. The top of the draft order is set, and the 2025 NFL draft festivities start later this month. They start with the East/West Shrine game in Frisco, Texas (I’ll be there), then bleed into the Reese’s Senior Bowl.
The NFL Scouting Combine will be here before you know it. Scouting reports are getting written fast and furious, and my board is building out piece by piece. Today, we will discuss players No. 11-20. If you prefer to listen to this list, Dalton and I went over our boards on the Daft on Draft podcast.
In case you missed the first edition where I broke down my top-10 players in the class, here is a refresher:
CB/WR Travis Hunter, Colorado
EDGE Abdul Carter, Penn State
RB Ashton Jeanty, Boise State
DT Mason Graham, Michigan
CB Will Johnson, Michigan
S Malaki Starks, Georgia
S Nick Emmanwori, South Carolina
EDGE Shemar Stewart, Texas A&M
You can find further analysis on players 1-10 here.
In the second edition of this series now, let’s dig in to players 11-20.
11. OL Will Campbell, LSU
Guard or tackle (I prefer him at guard), Will Campbell is the best offensive lineman in the 2025 NFL Draft class. He is strong as an ox, possesses elite grip strength, and plays with a wide base.
All of his deficiencies come in his lower half. He doesn’t have the foot speed to routinely match speed off the edge to protect his outside shoulder. He doesn’t have the knee bend to adequately and consistently match bend off the edge. However, those issues are largely mitigated with a move inside to guard.
A three-year starter, Campbell is rock solid. Even if he is just an average athlete. A team that needs interior help (ahem, Chicago Bears) should draft Campbell early.
12. EDGE James Pearce Jr., Tennessee
James Pearce Jr. was once seen as perhaps the top prospect in the draft class. And while I have him here at 12th, his pass rush prowess off the edge gives him a high ceiling.
While he dealt with some injuries and a few more things that relegated him to a rotational player until late in the season, Pearce still put extraordinary flexibility, hyper-active hands and pass rush planning, and an explosive first step on display this season for the Volunteers.
Could his play strength and ability to be more physical through contact as a run defender improve? Without a doubt. But there is a solid baseline of playing with length when setting an edge where Pearce can do the bare minimum in that phase of the game as well.
He’s EDGE3 for me behind Carter and Stewart.
13. WR Tetairoa McMillan, Arizona
I’m partial to Luther Burden III. But that does not make Tetairoa McMillan any less of a threat and first round talent at the wide receiver position. I just have some questions about his overall explosiveness and ability to create separation from defenders.
That’s what scares me about McMillan’s profile. It would be different if he were a bit stronger through contact, but for a man in a massive 6-foot-5 frame, McMillan does not throw his weight around well.
However, he has the catch radius of a pterodactyl, catches anything in sight, and is way more fluid getting in and out of breaks than any man who is that tall should be. He even improved his profile after the catch as well, proving to have the ability to create hidden yardage with the football in his hands.
14. OT Josh Simmons, Ohio State
While Josh Simmons got hurt in the first matchup between Ohio State and Oregon, the tape he put out against Iowa, Michigan State, and every other opponent is OT1 stuff. And he is my OT1 here.
For starters, he is one of the few offensive tackles in the class that is not asked to just jumpset the man across from him with the expectation the quarterback is getting the ball out quickly (Texas offensive tackles, looking at you). But Simmons took a massive leap from his first season at Ohio State as well.
He possesses explosive foot speed, can set vertically and at 45 degrees with no difficulties, changes direction with lossless acceleration, and has no issues climbing or getting to the boundary and finding work. Simmons plays with excellent pad level, mainly because his knees are so damn flexible he can match the level of anyone across from him.
Will the injury hurt his medicals or draft stock? Beats me. But Simmons is OT1 purely on tape.
15. CB Azareye’h Thomas, Florida State
Azareye’h Thomas isn’t a household name yet, but he should be. While he may be a bit scheme-specific to being a press-man cornerback, Thomas does that one thing extraordinarily well.
However, the twitch and fluidity that he can trigger and transition with gives me hope that he can transcend scheme and play a bit more off-coverage, bail, and maybe even some zone match schemes. The eyes will be the adjustment to transitioning to an NFL team that is going to ask him to do more than just stare down the man across from him and wear him down for 60 minutes.
However, at 6-foot-2 and 198 pounds, some NFL teams will only want him to do just that. Thomas is my CB3 behind just Hunter and Johnson and will catch on as a potential first rounder before the end of the cycle.
16. OT Cameron Williams, Texas
I feel uncomfortable ranking Cameron Williams this high because his play did plateau out a bit. However, at the end of the day, Williams is a first year starter with rare tools in his 6-foot-5 and 330-pound frame.
He’s raw. It shows predominantly in his hands and some of the pre-snap penalties he commits. However, Williams is explosive as all get out, moves incredibly smoothly for a man his size to mirror games along the interior, and is an absolute behemoth in the run game.
This is an upside player. His floor is lower than most prospects, but his ceiling is near the top of the class.
17. RB Kaleb Johnson, Iowa
Two running backs in my top 20 baby! Real football is back.
With Jeanty falling as my third overall prospect, Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson hits the board here at No. 17. Johnson is not the most explosive running back in the class in terms of breaking angles with green grass in front of him, but he sure is one of the smoothest ones.
Johnson, listed at 6-foot-0 and 225 pounds, is extraordinarily light on his feet for his frame. With excellent eyes and patience, it’s a joy to watch Johnson set up his blocks, and wait for a crease to sliver open before putting his foot in the ground and taking it.
One knock is that he isn’t asked to do much in the passing game. He shows soft hands out of the backfield but is not going to command manufactured touches. His pass protection is raw as well, but he’s got just the frame to grow into a dominant one with the right coaching.
Johnson would be a dream fit for a team like the Los Angeles Chargers or Denver Broncos in the backend of the first round.
18. WR Emeka Egbuka, Ohio State
There is not a hole in Emeka Egbuka’s game from a skillset standpoint.
He is a smooth route runner, knows how to hunt out green grass and show his number, shows soft hands to catch just about everything, and is an elite ball tracker. That latter part has been on display over the first two College Football Playoff games where he has had to locate the ball in traffic and come down with it.
The knock on Egbuka? His athletic upside. He’s not a burner. He’s not a twitchy athlete who is going to shake the cleats off of defenders. He’s not going to jump through the roof to highpoint footballs above the rim.
But he is rock solid. Egbuka would be a great addition in a room that already has one dominant vertical threat on the roster where he can eat up the middle of the field.
A partner in crime for George Pickens in Pittsburgh, with Courtland Sutton in Denver, or even with his old college teammate Marvin Harrison Jr. in Arizona would be stellar fits for Egbuka.
19. LB Jihaad Campbell, Alabama
The first linebacker has made an appearance on my big board. Now every position except for quarterback is well represented. Alabama’s Jihaad Campbell is in a stellar 6-foot-3 and 230 frame while moving like he’s 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds.
He has alignment versatility to come off the edge occasionally (played over 100 SAM snaps in 2024), will come downhill and make a firm tackle even if he is not a big-time thumper, but the most impressive part of his profile is what he can do on the backend in coverage.
Campbell plays with some of the best zone eyes I’ve seen in a linebacker in recent years, anticipates route concepts and what periferal receivers may be threatening him based on what the man in front of him is running, and has even proven more than capable to turn and run up the seam in coverage to erase tight ends as well.
This is one of the most fun players in the draft class.
20. CB Shavon Revel, East Carolina
It’s a great year to need a cornerback. This is already the fourth cornerback I’ve listed in my top 20. While East Carolina’s Shavon Revel tore his ACL in September, he will be ready for training camp his rookie season.
Listed at 6-foot-3, Revel might have the best long speed in the class working on the vertical plane down the field. He has shown that elite burst working across the field with a crosser before jumping the route and taking it back for a touchdown against Appalachian State this year.
Revel also possesses the twitch to transition instantly from a flat-footed buzz look to getting over the top without needing time to build up his speed. He played a ton of press bail technique at ECU and can get a bit grabby when asked to play off-man, but Revel has the elite tools to be an NFL lockdown cornerback.