Week 12 Mailbag: 2025 NFL Draft class strengths, weaknesses, and some fun but unlikely scenarios
I probably babbled too much here.
It’s been about a month since I’ve done a 2025 NFL Draft mailbag, so let’s fire away again here!
We are now entering Week 12 of the College Football season, and we are a month away from conference championship weekend, then the College Football Playoffs, and then the fun part of the pre-draft process that includes the Reese’s Senior Bowl, the NFL Scouting Combine, then the main event itself.
But let’s not jump too far ahead of ourselves as I’ve got mail!
In this edition, we talk about what some of the strengths of this draft class are, what some of its weaknesses are, all of the offensive tackles that are actually guards, some fun Anthony Richardson discourse, my favorite wide receivers in the class, and more!
Would you rather trade a second for Anthony Richardson to draft one of these QBs?
I would trade a second round pick for Anthony Richardson. And the answer is two-fold.
The first is that the hit rate on second round picks is extremely low anyway. With a second round pick are you going to get a better player than taking a shot on a quarterback with the best tools we’ve ever seen at the position (that’s not an exaggeration)? That’s a low-risk, high-reward potential bet. If it doesn’t work out? Who cares!
The Dolphins traded a second round pick and a fifth round pick for Josh Rosen.
Secondly, Richardson is still younger than Shedeur Sanders, and Garrett Nussmeier, and is just a few days older than Cam Ward. He has played just 22 total games of football since high school including eight NFL starts. In a bad quarterback class, if you’re telling me you can get Richardson for effectively the value of 50 picks lower than Sanders or Ward?
Yeah, I’m in. Even if Richardson struggles the rest of the way out in Indianapolis in 2024 after re-taking the keys as the starting quarterback this week.
How many OTs get bumped inside as guards at the NFL level?
Boy, just about all of them.
I am grading the LSU duo of Will Campbell Jr. and Emery Jones Jr. as guards. I am grading Texas left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. as a guard. West Virginia’s Wyatt Milum will be kicking inside, and so will Missouri’s Armand Membou.
Then come Arizona’s Jonah Savaiinaea who has 34-inch arms and who I think can hang at tackle, but most of the league sees him as a guard as well. Minnesota’s Aireontae Ersery falls into this category.
This is why I tend to gravitate toward Texas right tackle Cameron Williams and think he will get drafted extremely high despite a limited resume of starting experience. This is why Ohio State’s Josh Simmons was gathering OT1 hype before his season-ending knee injury, and this is why Oregon’s Josh Conerly still has top-50 hype despite wide hands and a soft anchor.
Teams are desperate for offensive tackle help. There are not 64 good ones in the NFL.
Where would Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith go if he were draft-eligible?
Without a single doubt in my mind, Ohio State true freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith would be the first wide receiver off the board this year and a potential top-five pick.
We are talking about a Julio Jones-type player who immediately stepped onto campus and became the guy from day one. There is not a hole in his game at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, and just 18 years old. And it shows as he leads Ohio State, a school already known for their NFL output at the position and with a potential first rounder in Emeka Egbuka already on the roster, in receiving.
Smith is averaging 17 yards per reception, has scored one touchdown per game (breaking Cris Carter’s freshman record in Columbus), and has dropped just one pass all season for the Buckeyes as he sits with 765 yards receiving through nine games.
He’s the real deal.
If my team doesn’t love a QB should they trade back?
Good luck.
Here is the issue with trading back: you have to find someone who wants to trade up. And this class very much has the makings of the 2013 or 2022 class where teams picking at the top of the draft are just stuck making their picks because teams aren’t interested in coming up for the quarterbacks on the board.
This is why offensive tackles Eric Fisher and Luke Joeckel were the first two players off the board in 2013, and the Jacksonville Jaguars opted to select Travon Walker with the first overall pick in 2022. We very much may be in a similar situation this year.
The only difference is sitting at the top of this year’s draft are some quarterback-needy teams desperate enough to take these guys like the Tennessee Titans, New York Giants, Cleveland Browns, and Las Vegas Raiders.
So sure, say the Browns aren’t interested in a quarterback could they get the Raiders to come up one spot to prevent another team from leaping them? Yeah. But the scenario is highly unlikely this year as teams are more apt to just take the top player on their boards.
This class is particularly weak at QB but what would you say is a positional strength of the class?
Despite a slow start, the EDGE class has exploded since entering conference play. Penn State’s Abdul Carter is playing like one of the best players in the class, Tennessee’s James Pearce has seen his production leap over the past month or so, and the Georgia duo of Mykel Williams and Jalon Walker both ripped apart the first round offensive linemen from Texas.
Texas A&M’s Shemar Stewart is gathering top-10 buzz as well with a massive 6-foot-6 and 290-pound frame and the athleticism that accompanies it. There is also Nic Scourton to consider out of A&M.
Then we can turn to the back end of the first round with guys like Ole Miss’ Princely Umanmielen, Arkansas’ Landon Jackson, and potentially one of The Ohio State guys.
Turning to a couple of non-premium positions, tight end and running back are both two fun classes.
Even if Bowling Green junior Harold Fannin Jr. transfers up instead of declaring, we still have Michigan’s Colston Loveland, Penn State’s do-it-all player Tyler Warren, Texas’ well-rounded player Gunnar Helm, and even more.
Everybody knows Ashton Jeanty and the top-10 player he is in this class. Beyond the Boise State standout, however, there is Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, Penn State’s Nick Singleton, the Ohio State duo of Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson (even if I think both are a bit overrated), North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton, Tennessee’s Dylan Simpson, Kansas’ Devin Neal, and more!
It’s a deep, deep crop of running backs to choose from.
Who are some of your favorite WRs in this year’s class?
This is going to go a bit against consensus. Dalton and I have discussed the top of this class and why we are a bit lower on Tetairoa McMillan than many this week on the Daft on Draft podcast. Luther Burden III, my personal favorite, has seen his production drastically decline this year.
Texas’ Isaiah Bond is the most slept-on receiver in the class. He’s an explosive threat and an easy separator. However, if we want to move into Day 2, let’s talk about some of those guys.
Ole Miss wideout Tre Harris, while he lacks explosiveness, is so refined and savvy. He just gets how to win. Maryland’s Tai Felton is quite Darius Slayton-like and is an absolute burner who is still able to get out of breaks quite smoothly without much loss of acceleration. Miami’s Xavier Restrepo might be the toughest player in the entire draft class and has the makings of a decade-long slot receiver.
Those are my three favorite wideouts in this class plus Bond, who is going to more than likely go much higher than anticipated on November 15.