Prepare for the NFL Season with the 2025 NFL Draft Review
Each offseason, two key events can cause monumental shifts in the NFL. One is the free agency, where expired top players not slapped with a franchise tag can collect paydays somewhere else in the league. The other is the NFL Draft, where teams look to pick pieces that’ll have an immediate impact or underpin the future of the franchise.
To help you prepare for the 2025 NFL season to come, we’re offering a review of some of the most important additions made in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Below, we profile the teams that made potentially very impactful picks as well as the standout draftees who look set to take the NFL by storm.
Most Impactful Draft Selections for 2025
In this section, we’re looking at the draft selections who would appear to have the best chance of making an immediate impact for their teams.
In each case, we’ve picked teams that have selected two draftees who, on paper, can go straight into the roster and improve the team. The excellent selection of two of these rookies may even improve the team’s Super Bowl odds.
Colston Loveland & Luther Burden III for the Chicago Bears
With the tenth pick in the draft, the Bears brought in 6’6’’ tight end Colston Loveland from Michigan. An average blocker, this pick is all about creating another pass catcher to target.
He’s an excellent route runner and has very good speed for his size. In 2024, he brought in a record 56 receptions for 582 yards and five touchdowns.
In the second round, making use of a pick that once belonged to the Carolina Panthers, Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden III was added to the Soldier Field selection.
At 6’0’’, he utilizes his above-average speed and excellent playmaking ability across the field. Used mostly on short throws in college, he still put up an average of 11.1 yards per reception with six receiving TDs in 2024.
For the vaunted former co-ordinator and now Bears head coach, Ben Johnson, the goal was to give sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams more weapons. In picking Loveland and Burden III, he’s certainly done that. With the current NFC North odds at the time of writing, it’s tough to see them doing enough to rise above the rest in the stacked division.
However, with the new head coach and the hope that Williams won’t suffer the all-too-common sophomore slump, Loveland and Burden III look primed for success in 2025.
Loveland is set to be the team’s primary pass-catching tight end, while Burden III will likely overtake Olamide Zaccheaus on the depth chart to land alongside Rome Odunze and DJ Moore before the season’s through.
Tetairoa McMillan & Nic Scourton for the Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers were the first to jump at the wide receiver corps of the 2025 NFL Draft, deeming Tetairoa McMillan to be the best of the bunch.
The Hawaii-native stands with an imposing 6’4’’, 219lbs frame and put that to good use in Arizona. He finished college with the school record of 3,423 career receiving yards.
On the other side of the ball, the Panthers selected Nic Scourton with their second-round, 19th overall pick. The 6’3’’, 257lbs Texas A&M edge rusher led the team with five sacks and 14 tackles for a loss in 2024.
While not one to plough down or outpace tackles, he is one to keep them guessing, boasting an extensive move set and tremendous presence.
For Carolina, McMillan looks to be a particularly useful tool who’ll do a lot of the work for the quarterback. Not only is he suited to going over the top of cornerbacks for jump balls, but he also instinctively adjusts to work back to make throws easier.
Last year’s passing game struggled greatly, and little has fundamentally changed since.
They’ll continue to roll the dice with Bryce Young under centre, so a presence like McMillan will be welcomed. The defence landed 31st against the pass and 32nd against the run, so just about any form of enthusiastic talent infusion will help.
With Scourton, they get a reliable weapon on the edge. These additions have enabled the Panthers to climb up the NFC South odds to win it, just short of the Falcons and Bucs at the time of writing.
Omar Norman-Lott and Ashton Gillotte for the Kansas City Chiefs
Arguably, Omar Norman-Lott was the NCAA’s best pass-rushing defensive tackle in 2024. At a somewhat undersized 6’2’’ and 291lbs, the tackle out of Tennessee specializes in penetrating the line and put up four sacks and 18 tackles as a reserve in 13 games last season. He also recorded a nation-leading 18.9 percent pass rush win rate.
Further enhancing the defensive line, the Chiefs spent their third-round pick – the second of the round via the Titans – on Ashton Gillotte. The Louisville defensive end offers superb baseline athleticism and an uncomplicated approach that can be moulded to suit the needs of the defensive front. In 2024, he tallied 4.5 sacks and 43 tackles.
The offence found itself left wanting in the Super Bowl, so the Chiefs’ first-round pick went to left tackle Josh Simmons. Still, the team wants more from its defence to help win games, and that’s where these two pass rushers come into play. Adding more bite to the defence has enabled the Chiefs to remain the AFC West odds leaders.
Most Exciting Prospects from the 2025 NFL Draft
Based on their draft credentials and performance at the NCAA level, these players stand out as the most exciting prospects from the 2025 NFL Draft. In some cases, they may not be immediate starters, and they may have entered the league in unenviable situations, but all boast an incredibly high talent ceiling.
Travis Hunter – Jacksonville Jaguars
Coming into the 2025 NFL Draft, Travis Hunter was hailed as an incredibly rare talent and the top prospect on the board. Perfectly capable as a wide receiver and cornerback, the Jacksonville Jaguars were thrilled when the Tennessee Titans locked in who they hope to be their franchise QB at No. 1.
With Colorado, the slight-of-frame, 6’0’’ Hunter swept up just about every possible award. On defence, he put up four interceptions and only allowed 23 catches and one touchdown on 41 targets in coverage. On offence, he notched 96 receptions for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns.
The absurdly gifted Hunter arrives on the roster sheet of the worst passing defence and the 21st passing offence. With offensive mastermind Liam Coen now running the show, Hunter’s uncanny ability to contort himself into catching zones will be deployed most prominently on offence at first, with his duties in the secondary likely being eased into throughout the first season and those to come.
The NFL segments its Rookie of the Year Awards into offensive and defensive categories. This might work against Hunter if he ends up in a controlled two-way role. Instead, he looks to be the prime frontrunner for the vaunted PFWA NFL Rookie of the Year Award, which is given to the best overall rookie.
Abdul Carter – New York Giants
Abdul Carter was ranked by many as the second-best overall prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft, only behind the freakish Hunter. He’s an incredible athlete and, in his first season, having transitioned from off-ball linebacker to defensive end, put up 68 tackles, two forced fumbles, and 12 sacks.
Every NFL team craves a destructive edge rusher, and the New York Giants might just have found the perfect addition to their cadre of pass disruptors. A true blue chip talent, Carter joins a defensive front that already has a fair few impact players – namely Brian Burns, Dexter Lawrence, and Kayvon Thibodeaux. He looks to enter this rather impressive rotation of edge rushers and line disruptors the Giants have collected.
The coaching staff are keen to tap into his raw athleticism, strength, and versatility. Carter will get games and, more than likely, he will get plenty of sacks. What the coaching team wants is for him to fill out his 6’3’’, 250lbs frame a bit more, become even stronger, and then he’ll be a true force on the edge. That notwithstanding, Carter leads the Defensive Rookie of the Year odds, ahead of Jalon Walker and Travis Hunter, going into the season.
Mason Graham – Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns could have had Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter with their No. 2 pick.
However, when the Jags called offering their fifth, 36th, and 126th overall picks in 2025 and first first-rounder in 2026 for the slot, the 104th and 200th picks, they couldn’t turn it down.
Plus, they were able to add a top defensive line talent in Mason Graham.
At 296lbs and just over 6’3’’, the tackle out of Michigan was a finalist for the Bednarik Award and Outland Trophy in 2024. That season, in 12 starts, Graham collected seven tackles for a loss, 3.5 sacks, and 45 tackles in total. His first-step quickness, strength, effort, and IQ all combine to make the former wrestler a veritable interior disruptor.
He graded as the best interior run defender in college football last season, and now he’ll be wrecking on the side of the trenches Myles Garrett obliterates for fun. This will put Garrett as the right defensive end with Graham next to him from day one at right defensive tackle.
Offensive lines are going to loathe playing the Browns in 2025, even if they’re out in the AFC North odds.
Ashton Jeanty – Las Vegas Raiders
A junior for Boise State, Ashton Jeanty was a mere 28 yards short of breaking Barry Sanders’ record for the most NCAA rushing yards – a tally he set in 1988.
Also a Heisman Trophy finalist, the running back put up 2,601 yards on the ground from just 374 carries. From scrimmage, his 2,750 yards led the NCAA, and he scored 30 touchdowns.
Even with last year showing the game-changing utility of a top-class back, the NFL still seems to undervalue the ground game. Jeanty ended up falling to sixth despite being the whole package as a back who can even make big plays and explosive moves behind lacking offensive lines. Arguably, he was a top-three talent in the 2025 draft.
Luckily for Jeanty and the Raiders, the running back will be receiving the rock behind what’s expected to be a distinctly middle-of-the-pack offensive line. That’s pretty good for a back taken so high in the draft. He immediately becomes the undisputed top rusher on the team and will be relied upon to produce explosive plays.
Once again, the Raiders aren’t expected to do particularly well, and while being behind on the scoreboard often isn’t favourable for backs who want the rock, Jeanty already looks to be their most effective weapon. So, his involvement should be game script-immune, which helps his credentials as the Offensive Rookie of the Year odds favourite.
Will Campbell – New England Patriots
Coming out of LSU, Will Campbell more than makes up for his somewhat lacking size (6’6’’, 319lbs) with his superb IQ and durability. The tackle – who can realistically play anywhere along the line – is described as being aggressive, determined, and spirited, which helps to make up for some of his lapses. Across three years as a starter, he was tested by several NFL-calibre pass rushers, becoming uniquely experienced entering the NFL.
Sporting the worst offensive line in the NFL last season, it was the talent of Drake Maye that helped to drag the New England Patriots to a much more respectable rank of 23rd for passing offence. New head coach Mike Vrabel sought to make Maye’s job easier and help to further his development, and Campbell’s a good start to achieving that.
His agility, awareness, and willingness to keep in the fight will make him a highlight on what’s still expected to be a fairly lacking unit overall. He joins two new additions to the line in Morgan Moses at right tackle and centre Garrett Bradbury, who should form at least a better line than last season.
It’ll be a tough first season for Campbell, but he has a high ceiling, and may even make it to the playoffs with the Pats ranking second in the AFC East odds heading into the season.