2025 NFL mock draft: Here is a full first-round mock draft prediction

11. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Nic Scourton, EDGE, Texas A&M

Man, I have no idea what to think of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2024 NFL Season.  They were a nice surprise in 2023, as QB Baker Mayfield played the best football of his career and helped lead the Bucs into the postseason, where they made an appearance in the Divisional Round.  It was quite impressive, actually, but their team wasn’t great by any means.

They also lost former offensive coordinator Dave Canales to the Carolina Panthers as their new head coach, so the likelihood that Mayfield continues to play as well as he did in 2023 might not be there.  However, the Bucs do have a clear need off the EDGE, so that’s where they should target in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Tampa parted with Shaq Barrett earlier this offseason but did bring in Randy Gregory.  The long-term need for a steady pass-rusher is evident, so I picked Nic Scourton from Texas A&M to the Bucs with the 11th overall pick.

An unrelated story I am going to follow with this team is whether WR Mike Evans can continue churning out 1,000-yard seasons.

12. Seattle Seahawks - Malaki Starks, S, Georgia

The Seattle Seahawks are in the Mike Macdonald era. And Macdonald quickly gained a strong reputation as being an elite defensive mind.  He was with the Baltimore Ravens in 2023 as their defensive coordinator, and is now with the Seahawks as their head coach, taking over for long-time head coach Pete Carroll.

You’d have to think that Macdonald would advocate for a defensive player in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, and that’s the direction the Seahawks go in.  The issue here is that Seattle might not be quite bad enough in 2024 to earn a top five selection, where they could draft a QB, but with the weaker QB class in 2025, the Seahawks might be stuck.

Geno Smith is clearly not a viable long-term option for them, as he was pedestrian in the 2023 NFL Season.  Seattle may have to approach the quest to find their next franchise QB a different way when the 2025 offseason arrives.