NFL Trade Rumors
It’s been just over a week since the 2025 NFL Draft wrapped up and I’ve had some time to evaluate each class and examine the impact they’ll have for their respective teams. Now it’s time to rank the best 10 of the bunch.
Plenty of teams did good work last weekend, and there were only a handful of draft hauls I truly didn’t like. But some teams definitely did better than others. This isn’t purely an analysis of who got the best collection of players, though that obviously played a large factor. This is an attempt to rank the classes based on the value each team got relative to their resources, and how they were able to maximize their drafts. Not having many picks isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you capitalized on the opportunities you had and added impactful depth to your roster.
Without further ado, the top 10 2025 draft classes:
**RoundPickPlayer****Pos.**116Walter NolenDT247Will JohnsonCB378Jordan BurchEDGE4115Cody SimonLB5174Denzel BurkeCB6211Hayden ConnerG7225Kitan CrawfordSHaving the Cardinals at the top might surprise people, but I love what they did in this draft. Nolen is exactly the type of player they need on their defensive line — young, athletic, and with a devastating pass rush profile. He can collapse the pocket and hold the line in run defense, and he blows past guards to get after the quarterback. There’s a lot he still needs to work on, but he took a huge step forward in 2024 at Ole Miss.
Burch is a big edge rusher who can play multiple alignments on the defensive front. He’s a plus athlete with an impressive power profile, and he adds juice off the edge. Simon was one of my highest-rated players vs. consensus, and getting him in the fourth is good value. He projects as a run-stuffer with underneath coverage and playmaking ability, and could factor into the starting lineup early in his career. Burke and Crawford add depth to a young secondary.
But the crown jewel of this class is getting Johnson in the second round. He was the No. 6 overall player on my big board and fell due to medical concerns. He played through a toe injury in 2024 that limited him to just six games and hampered his ability on the field, and he also dealt with a hip injury that some teams worried could be a long-term issue. When healthy, however, Johnson is one of the best cornerback prospects I’ve scouted. He has All-Pro upside and a stable floor of high-end play against elite competition on his tape.
**RoundPickPlayer****Pos.**132Josh SimmonsOT263Omarr Norman-LottDT366Ashton GillotteEDGE385Nohl WilliamsCB4133Jalen RoyalsWR5156Jeffery BassaLB7228Brashard SmithRBThe Chiefs didn’t do anything fancy with their draft, they just drafted good players at every chance and took advantage of the value available with their picks. Simmons is an NFL starter on tape, but a torn patellar tendon caused him to fall to the end of the first. He projects as the long-term starter at left tackle, but he...
