An Early 2025 Dynasty Rookie Mock Draft
The 2024 NFL Draft is over, and many dynasty leagues are having their rookie drafts as we speak. This is the perfect time to look ahead to 2025 and see what kind of prospects will be waiting for us a year from now. Knowing what players will be available in the future is an important part of constructing your dynasty roster. The 2024 class is looking like it might be an all-time great, what does the 2025 class have in store for us?
Before we dive into the first-round mock draft, I want to take some time to discuss the class as a whole. The biggest difference between the 2024 class and the 2025 class is the quarterback position. A year ago this time, we knew Caleb Williams and Drake Maye were going to be top-five NFL draft picks, JJ McCarthy was a highly regarded prospect, and Bo Nix and Michael Penix were excellent out west but had serious warts on their prospect profile. While some of those players rose up boards, and Jayden Daniels came out of nowhere, there was still an idea of certainty at the top of the position.
The same cannot be said about the QBs in 2025. There’s a group of three or four QBs who are in play to be the first signal-caller selected next Spring, but I don’t think any of them are good enough to go first overall. Instead, the 2025 class has a few elite pass catchers at the very top and about a dozen NFL-caliber running backs that will hear their name called in the first four rounds of April’s draft.
1.01 – Luther Burden, WR Missouri
Even in a superflex format, the current 1.01 right now is pretty easy; it’s Burden. A former five-star recruit and #2 WR in his class, Burden has been as advertised. In 2023, he had 86 receptions for 1,209 yards and nine touchdowns. He finished third in Pro Football Focus receiving grade and seventh in yards per route run at 3.29.
He has everything you want in a wide receiver. He’s sure-handed, fast, and gains yards after the catch. I’d be shocked if he isn’t the first WR selected in next year’s draft and has an outside chance of going #1 overall depending on the team.
1.02 – Tetairoa McMillan, WR Arizona
McMillan was the #4 WR in the 2022 class, two spots behind Burden, and held offers from all over the country but decided to stay close to home and went to Arizona with a bunch of his high school teammates. McMillan was dominant from day one. As a freshman, Tet recorded 39 catches for 702 yards and eight touchdowns. He followed that up with 90 receptions, 1,396 yards, and 10 touchdowns in 2023.
McMillan looks like he was built in a lab to play the X receiver. He’s 6’5’’ and 210 pounds and uses that frame well. He was one of only 12 players last year who had 10 or more contested receptions while also averaging over six yards after the catch per reception – a group that includes Marivn Harrison Jr, Malik Nabers, Xavier Legette, and Keon Coleman from the 2024 class and also Luther Burden in the 2025 class.
1.03 – Evan Stewart, WR Oregon
We’ve been talking about highly-ranked WR recruits from 2022, but now it’s time to discuss the #1 WR in that class: Evan Stewart. Not only was Stewart the #1 WR recruit over Burden and McMillan, but he was the #6 overall recruit in the entire class. He burst on the scene as a freshman with 53 receptions for 643 yards and two touchdowns which included a four-game stretch in the SEC where he earned 52 targets and had 26 catches for 395 yards.
Unfortunately, his production plummeted in 2023 due to injuries and inconsistent QB play which was also due to injuries. Stewart is only 5’11’’ and 175 pounds and durability issues are already a bit of a concern after missing six games over his first two college seasons. However, he has unlimited upside and is probably the best route runner in the country. Stewart is a devy darling so you may see him ranked even higher than third by other people, but I feel pretty comfortable slotting him here behind Burden and McMillan.
1.04 – Carson Beck, QB Georgia
I’m doing a bit of projecting with Beck at the 1.04, but I’m going to stick with it for a few reasons. First, this is still a superflex league and quarterbacks will always reign supreme. Every year dynasty managers are looking for new QBs to add to their roster. Second, in my humble opinion, Beck has the best chance of any quarterback in this class to go #1 overall. I’m not buying Shedeur Sanders, a player we’ll talk about later, as the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Beck was quietly excellent in 2023. Georgia underwent a bit of a transition year after their back-to-back titles but Beck had them in the national title conversation until their very end. He finished the year with 3,949 yards, 24 touchdowns, and only six interceptions as well as the seventh-best PFF passing grade in the country. He did all of this while his two top targets, Ladd McConkey and Brock Bowers, missed a combined 10 games throughout the season.
I’m a big Beck fan; he has everything you want out of a potential NFL quarterback. He’s 6’4’’ and 220 pounds, doesn’t turn the ball over, and most importantly, doesn’t take many sacks. I think he will be the QB1 in the NFL draft and should be the QB1 in superflex rookie drafts a year from now.
1.05 – Emeka Egbuka, WR Ohio State
The last WR at the top of this class is Egbuka, who many thought would come out this year but decided to return to Columbus after a disappointing 2023. Similar to Evan Stewart, Egbuka was the #1 WR in the 2021 class. Egbuka’s career started slow in 2021 playing behind Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, but he exploded in 2022 for 74 catches, 1,151 yards, and 10 touchdowns.
2023 was not the year he would have hoped for after injuring his ankle in the fifth game. Egbuka missed three games and was never the same the rest of the year. Following the season, he explained that he got “tightrope’ surgery on his ankle. He wisely decided to return to Ohio State after the disappointing year to avoid the talented WR class in 2024 and instead, he should lead the Buckeyes in receiving and be a first-round pick in a much weaker WR class in 2025.
1.06 – TreVeyon Henderson, RB Ohio State
Henderson is the second Buckeye in this mock draft and the first running back off the board. He would have been the unquestioned RB1 in the 2024 draft had he decided to leave school but he’s returning to Columbus for his senior season.
His career at Ohio State has been a roller coaster. He exploded onto the scene as a true freshman with 1,248 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground but an injury in 2022 derailed his sophomore season. 2023 was a bit of a bounce-back campaign but there are some looming injury concerns surrounding his game; Henderson’s missed eight games over the last two seasons.
Those concerns aside, Henderson has everything you want from a star running back in the modern NFL. He’s 5’10’’ and 215 pounds with a reported 4.39-second 40-yard dash time. When he gets the ball in the open field it’s hard to bring him down. Henderson is also one of the best receiving backs in this class and has recorded 50 catches for 569 yards and five touchdowns during his college career.
1.07 – Quinshon Judkins, RB Ohio State
At the 1.07 we have our third straight Ohio State Buckeye and second straight Buckeye running back with Judkins who surprised people this winter after transferring from Ole Miss to Ohio State. Judkins figures to be the thunder to Henderson’s lightning in the Buckeye backfield this fall. The 6’0’’, 220-pound back is a punishing runner between the tackles.
Judkins had one of the best freshman RB seasons in the history of the SEC in 2022 when he finished the year with 1,567 yards and 16 touchdowns. He fell just 49 yards short of Herschel Walker’s freshman record set in 1980. He followed that up with 1,159 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2022 which was seen as a disappointment based on his 2021 performance.
He is a punishing runner who’s forced 154 missed tackles in just two seasons of college football. He’s shown he can shoulder a massive workload in the SEC, but his explosiveness and straight-line speed leave a bit more to be desired.
1.08 – Nicholas Singleton, RB Penn State
The next running back on this comes from a school with a rich history of developing NFL-caliber running backs and Singleton looks to be the next in line. He was the #1 RB in the 2022 recruiting class.
Singleton had an excellent freshman season with 1,057 yards and 12 touchdowns but his production and efficiency fell off a cliff in 2023. He only had 753 yards and eight touchdowns on a measly 4.4 yards per attempt this past season. Not only did his raw production drop, but his missed tackles forced, yards after contact, and explosiveness dropped as well.
I’m not the biggest fan of Singleton and if I had to bet he would be the running back of this top group who could see the biggest fall over the next 365 days. You can see the athleticism when he plays, but for some reason, it doesn’t all come together.
1.09 – Ollie Gordon, RB Oklahoma State
The next running back on this list couldn’t be more opposite of Singleton in almost every way. Gordon was a three-star prospect in the 2022 class and only the RB41 compared to Singleton’s RB1 status. Contrary to Singleton, Gordon started slow in his freshman season before taking the world by storm in 2023. This past year, Gordon ran for 1,732 yards and 21 touchdowns on the way to the Doak Walker Award for the country’s best running back.
While Singleton is compact and athletic but the tape can sometimes be lackluster, Gordon again is the opposite. He is tall for a running back, standing 6’2’’ and 220 pounds and he runs with an unorthodox upright style but he just gets the job done. He grades out better in missed tackle forced rate, yards after contact, and explosive rush rate.
An underrated part of Gordon’s game that is going untalked about due to his monster production on the ground last year is his work in the receiving game. In 2023, he had 39 catches for 330 yards and another touchdown. I love Gordon, and if an NFL team believes in him despite his untraditional size and running style he could challenge one of the Ohio State backs for a top spot with another monster season.
1.10 – Conner Weigman, QB Texas A&M
The top nine on this list are fairly chalky and I’d imagine you will see all nine of those names in some order of any 2025 superflex rookie mock draft you look at this early. With these last three picks, I want to be a little unique and call my shot on a few players I think have a chance to drastically rise up boards. The first of which is Weigman.
I’ve already discussed the uncertainty around QB1 in this class at the 1.04 with Carson Beck, and that uncertainty allows for a bit more chaos and movement within the position. Weigman was a five-star recruit in the 2022 class and finished as the QB3 and the 22nd overall prospect in the class.
He started on the bench his freshman season at Texas A&M but ended up stealing the job by week eight and finishing the season with a 3-2 record as a starter with 896 yards, eight touchdowns, and zero interceptions.
2023 was supposed to be Weigman’s coming-out party. He was excellent the first month of the season but unfortunately, an injury during the fourth game caused him to get foot surgery and end his season. Through those three and a half games he had thrown for 979 yards, eight touchdowns, and only two interceptions. He was so good during that stretch that he finished the season fourth in PFF passing grade.
He’s only played in nine college football games in his career, but in that limited sample, Weigman has shown high-level skill. If he can put it all together for a full season he could be the biggest riser of the entire 2025 draft.
1.11 – Isaiah Bond, WR Texas
The WR5 position in this class is up for the taking and I think Bond is as good an option as any to find his way into the first round of the NFL draft and rookie drafts in 2025. He doesn’t have great counting stats – only 891 yards and five touchdowns in his career up to this point – but he’s shown all the tools of a potential great WR.
Bond has elite speed and he’s an excellent route runner. He makes his living burning defenders at every level of the field. After two seasons at Alabama, Bond decided to transfer to Texas for the upcoming season and he has the opportunity to really shine in Steve Sarkisian’s offense and play the Xavier Worthy role that was so productive for the Longhorns the last few seasons.
1.12 – Shedeur Sanders, QB Colorado
To round out this mock draft we have one of the most talked about and scrutinized college football players in some time: Shedeur Sanders. Some sportsbooks posted odds to be the #1 pick in the 2025 NFL draft a few weeks ago and many had Sanders as an even-money favorite to go first which was just insane to me. He had some real flashes in 2023 after making the jump from Jackson State to Colorado, but there are still some concerns about his game.
Everyone remembers the first month of the college football season when Shedeur and the Buffaloes were throwing the ball all over and scoring 40 points a game. However, reality set in during conference play and there were some concerns. Most concerning is that Sanders takes far too many sacks for a potential first-round quarterback. He was sacked 49 times which was the second most in the country last year and his pressure to sack rate was over 25% which was top 15 as well. The offensive line was bad but he did them no favors hanging onto the ball and inviting pressure through his own decisions.
While he isn’t a perfect prospect, he still showed excellent arm talent and potential throughout the 2023 season which he can build and improve on before the 2025 draft. I think he absolutely has first-round potential if he cleans up some of the sack issues.
Special Mention
There are a few players I wanted to mention who didn’t make the list because of unique circumstances that I didn’t feel right not mentioning so I will below.
Travis Hunter, WR/CB/??? Colorado
Hunter is one of the best pure college football players in the country who dominated both sides of the ball in 2023 when he wasn’t sidelined with a lacerated liver (what a crazy injury. I’d be sidelined for months!) There is a ton of debate about what position he’s better at and which he will play once he joins the NFL. His insane snap count at both WR and CB caused him to slip a little at both by the end of the year even if he was consistently making highlight plays
If I’m not entirely sure a player will even play offense in the NFL, I couldn’t in good faith list him in a 2025 mock draft. However, if we found out that he would be playing exclusively WR at the next level I think he would slot in just behind Emeka Egbuka for WR5 and I’d easily have him in the top ten for the class as a whole.
Ashton Jeanty, RB Boise State
I’m sure there are people reading this mock draft and screaming “Where’s Ashton Jeanty?!” Well, here he is in the special mention category! College football fans will know this name well, but if you’re not familiar, Jeanty has been unbelievable for two years at Boise State but his 2023 was something special.
This past season, Jeanty rushed for 1,344 yards and 14 touchdowns and was PFF’s #2 graded running back. He finished fifth in yards after contact per attempt, third in missed tackles forced, and third in elusiveness rating. You might be thinking that’s pretty good, but it gets even better. He also added 44 receptions, 578 yards, and five touchdowns in the receiving game and was PFF’s #1 graded running back in receiving grade and finished with an incredible 3.19 yards per route run.
On the surface that sounds like the best running back of all time. Leaving him off this list was not a hater move. I love Jeanty, I drafted him a ton in college fantasy football last year. (Subtle plug to play CFF, it’s really fun!) But there are concerns about his NFL future. He’s only 5’8’’ and 200 pounds and there are questions about his level of competition in the Mountain West. I just fear he’s going to be a fourth-round pick and get buried behind a ton of day two picks even if he’s an excellent college player.
