Music City Miracles
Where do Travis Hunter, Cam Ward, Abdul Carter, and Shedeur Sanders land on recent 2025 NFL Draft Big Board updates?
The Tennessee Titans have a big decision to make as owner’s of the No. 1 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft. Needing a quarterback this offseason, temptation to select either Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders will be present. The general consensus is that Colorado wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, and Penn State EDGE Abdul Carter, are the better overall prospects, though neither of them play the game’s most important position.
Two of the more respected pre-draft evaluators, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, and ESPN’s Field Yates, recently released updated prospect rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft. We thought it would be fun to analyze where those four prospects land on their big boards. The evidence insinuates Carter and Hunter are a tier above Ward and Sanders.
Unsurprisingly, Hunter is ranked No. 1, and Carter No. 2 on Yates’ Big Board. Ward is Yates’ top-ranked quarterback at No. 12 overall. Sanders isn’t far behind at No. 19, but there’s a clear gap between the most talented overall players and the quarterbacks on ESPN’s latest update.
That gap is even larger for Brugler. On The Athletic’s latest Big Board, Hunter and Carter are also Nos. 1 and 2 overall. Ward, however, is the first quarterback to appear at No. 19. Meanwhile Sanders is Brugler’s No. 25 overall player.
It’s likely that Yates has probably accounted for the importance of the position in his rankings. Brugler appears to have decided to ignore positional importance, simply ranking the best players regardless of position. Either way, both evaluators see a fairly large gap between Hunter/Carter and the quarterbacks.
Will the Titans feel pressured to reach for a quarterback? They’ve already met with Sanders at the East-West Shrine Bowl. They’ll have a chance to meet with Ward (and others) at the NFL Scouting Combine. That’s when Chad Brinker and Mike Borgonzi will begin nearing a decision at No. 1 overall.
The general consensus remains that no quarterback is worth the top overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft. That belief is further supported by recent Big Board updates. The Titans have also been linked to veteran quarterbacks, like Aaron Rodgers and Jameis Winston. If Derek Carr or Matthew Stafford become available, both have worked with head coach Brian Callahan in the past.
If the Titans decide to take the patient approach at quarterback, it’s fairly clear that Hunter and Carter are a different caliber of prospect compared to the available quarterbacks.
