If you’re into the NFL draft for flash and YouTube highlights and potential fantasy points to be scored in the fall, you might want to click off this story.
That’s just not what the league, or its fans, will be getting April 24. And it’s certainly not what the folks on Park Avenue will want to hear as we draw closer to the event in Green Bay, with the draft having grown into the NFL’s second biggest tentpole event, one that brings together all 32 fanbases behind only the Super Bowl.
But if you like meat-and-potatoes players, and team-building, well, then pull up a chair.
“It’s a terrible television draft,” says Todd McShay, the former long-time ESPN draft analyst who now hosts the on The Ringer. “Outside of [Colorado QB] Shadeur [Sanders] and [two-way star] Travis [Hunter] and I guess [Miami QB] Cam [Ward] at this point and a couple other guys, it’s just not the same group that we’re used to seeing at the top of the draft. That’s what everyone’s frustrated by.
“But I will say this—and I think it has a lot to do with NIL and the incentive NIL presents to stay in college, and still some leftovers from COVID-19 and then also the transfer portal—this draft is loaded depth-wise. It’s absolutely loaded at certain positions. It’s not all positions, but I laugh, because everyone’s like, .”
Welcome in, everyone, to my annual precombine overview of the draft class.
If it feels like the Super Bowl was yesterday, well, that’s not too much of an exaggeration. The Philadelphia Eagles were crowned just 15 days ago. And just like that, now, all 32 teams, Philly and the Kansas City Chiefs included, have turned the page to 2025, with the league descending on Indianapolis for the next week to set the stage for the offseason ahead.
It’s one of my favorite weeks of the year, and the draft is one of my favorite times of year, because I love seeing the NFL and college football—our country’s two most popular spectator sports—intersect, and also because there’s so much to learn starting now. So, again, I’ve enlisted two buddies of mine, McShay and NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, who I believe are the best in the business to educate me, and you, on the class.
“I summarized this draft by saying this is a starter draft, not a star draft. Go plug holes. Go find starters. You’re going to get really solid. There’s just not a lot of special.”
– Daniel Jeremiah
Which, again, starts with a lack of sizzle that won’t bother me, but probably will turn off some fans, and force some executives to be creative in building up the event.
“I summarized this draft by saying this is a starter draft, not a star draft,” Jeremiah says. “Go plug holes. Go find starters. You’re going to get really solid. There’s just not a lot of special. There’s not a lot of superstars. There’s a lot of supporting actors and character actors. I don’t know if there’s a lot of leading men.”
And with that, let’s dive in.
