5. Las Vegas Raiders - Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado
The Las Vegas Raiders take Shedeur Sanders with the fifth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, and this is a team that I think Deion Sanders would "let" his son get drafted to. I do not anticipate that current head coach Antonio Pierce will be in that same role with the team in 2025, as he's had a disastrous tenure.
He's a defensive-minded coach, and he can't even get that unit right. You have to wonder just how much influence the players had on the Raiders hiring Pierce. To make matters worse, they also hired a failed, re-tread GM in Tom Telesco, who was most recently with the Chargers. The one thing that may save the Raiders is that Telesco was the guy who drafted Justin Herbert.
He could have a good pulse on the right QB in the 2025 NFL Draft, and for all of the attention that Shedeur Sanders and Colorado brings, this kid can play. He's very good from the pocket but definitely does have to learn that it's OK to throw incompletions. Sanders seems scared to let the ball go if there isn't a clear player open.
I do believe that Shedeur Sanders can develop into a franchise QB at the NFL level, but it must come with a new coaching staff in Vegas that knows what they are doing.
6. New England Patriots - Kelvin Banks, OT, Texas
Another college tackle that may be a guard at the NFL level, Kelvin Banks comes off the board at pick six in this 2025 NFL mock draft to the New England Patriots. Banks, even if he slides over to guard, would still fill a need for the New England Patriots.
Drake Maye is simply not going to develop playing behind this current offensive line, and I hope that de-facto GM Eliot Wolf invests a ton of resources into the OL this coming offseason, as it would be a mistake if he instead invested more into the WR and TE rooms. As I said before, good NFL teams are built from the inside, out.