I had hoped I might be able to do another long post, as I did last year, on the 2025 draft class. Unfortunately events conspired against me and the time just isn't available.
I do have a few basic thoughts I'd like to put to paper though, as it were. The first is that, of the quarterbacks in the class, Jaxson Dart was my favourite from purely following along with college football last year. I thought he threw very accurately even deep down the field and was a real stand out. A slightly less famous name would be Cam Miller from North Dakota State, who I've been watching with interest for a few years now. I think he's very accurate as a passer and throws some very nice catchable balls.
At the other end of the scale I'm really not surprised to see Shadeur Sanders fall as far as he did. He is very much a product of his father's name. While a competent quarterback at times, there was absolutely nothing in his play to suggest he would be a first round quarterback. The fact he was throwing to some pretty exceptional receivers and still didn't post any especially noteworthy performances is an indictment in itself. His handling of pressure in games was not great.
The only other real shock for me from my observations was to see Ashton Jeanty go so early. I think teams might have been influenced by the success of running backs like Derrick Henry, but Jeanty is not the same type of player and benefited highly from the Boise line being exceptional and routinely blowing large holes in the opposition's defensive front for him to run through. I'm not expecting the Raiders to be quite as successful. Running backs remain, in my opinion, a terrible waste of a selection in the first round.
And that really is all I have as thoughts for now. I didn't even have the time to go back and really look at any of the games in depth so, take this one with a pinch of salt, but circumstances just would not permit a deeper dive.
I'm hopeful that next year will be different as I do really enjoy doing the proper deep investigations and watching the players, but alas that will have to wait.
