7. New York Jets: Mason Graham, DL, Michigan
We are on a bit of a hot streak with the New York Jets taking Mason Graham in the 1st round of the 2025 NFL Draft and I still love the fit.
At this point, the Jets have very little direction for the franchise as we don’t know who is going to be their general manager, we don’t know who is going to be their head coach, we don’t know who is going to be their quarterback, and we don’t know which players currently on the roster are even going to want to be around.
It feels like a full-scale rebuild/reload is coming for the Jets this offseason and building in the trenches on both sides of the ball is always a great place to start. If you can upgrade and raise the floor of your defensive front, you can boost your chances to play in and win more one-score games. Mason Graham is a difference maker on the defensive front that the Jets could pair up with breakout edge rusher Will McDonald IV.
8. Carolina Panthers: Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona
The biggest development of the 2024 season for the Carolina Panthers was Bryce Young figuring things out after being benched for Andy Dalton.
I don’t know if we can overstate it enough but we talk about it in every single Panthers blurb because the team’s record may not have indicated it, but Young played extremely well down the stretch. It seemed like Dave Canales’s coaching finally started to take and Young married well with his offensive system.
So what do the Panthers need? Well, this is just not a very good roster. They were able to discover some nice pieces over the course of the season but I don’t know if you can go wrong by adding a weapon in the passing game like Tetairoa McMillan who has a ridiculous catch radius and can create offense in a variety of different ways for you.
Pair this guy up with Xavier Leggette and Jalen Coker and let Bryce Young thrive.