It's still early enough in the 2024 NFL and college football seasons that none of us really has any idea what the 2025 NFL Draft is going to look like, which is what makes exploring different possibilities so much fun. Even with the college season well underway at this point, there is still plenty of time for prospects to make noise and rise up the board in 2025 NFL mock draft predictions as we get closer and closer to Spring.
One of the players who has a real shot to make a name for himself among the NFL Draft community is Alabama's Jalen Milroe, who has been working his way into the QB1 discussion since the offseason. Not many projections have Milroe going that high at this point, but it does seem as though the QB1 race is still wide open at this point and teams are always starving at the position.
With every team still owning a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, let's take a look at our latest early first-round predictions and get another look at some ascending players, team needs, and possible matches in next year's class. We will be using our latest Week 4 NFL Power Rankings to determine the draft order.
Early 2025 NFL mock draft: Full 1st-round projections
1. Tennessee Titans: Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama
The Tennessee Titans still have a long season ahead of them, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see this team as a trade deadline seller and moving on from Will Levis in the 2025 offseason. You can kind of already see the writing on the wall there. Brian Callahan, with his first head coaching gig in the NFL, isn’t going to stake his job to multiple years of Levis at this rate.
Jalen Milroe is an extremely dynamic playmaker at the QB position who would require patience but may be the most talented overall QB with the highest upside in this class, even if he may not be the most NFL-ready (Carson Beck, Shedeur Sanders). He has a great matchup to showcase his skills against Georgia this week.
2. New England Patriots: Will Johnson, CB, Michigan
The New England Patriots are kind of in a brutal situation here. The top needs they might have on the roster right now wouldn’t exactly be satisfied by the players available in this draft class. We’ll see how the year progresses, but a lot of the buzz right now indicates that neither Will Campbell Jr. nor Kelvin Banks would be worth a pick like this, so the Patriots go after the best overall player on the board in Michigan’s Will Johnson, who has been absolutely dominant so far this season.
He's picked off six passes since the start of the 2023 season, and three of those (including both of his interceptions this season) have been returned for touchdowns. The guy is just so impressive with his combination of overall size, instincts, athletic ability, and ball skills.