The 2025 NFL Draft cycle is underway. Off of preliminary viewings, how does the upcoming talent crop stack up? Which positions are strongest at the top of the board, and how do the ever-coveted quarterback talents look at first glance?
2025 NFL Draft Big Board
The 2024 college football season is fast approaching. And with it, the next leg of the 2025 NFL Draft cycle. There are still countless prospect arcs left to play out and potential breakout players left to stake their claim on the NFL Draft stage. Live action in the fall is the next step.
Countless way-too-early first-round mocks have shown that, this far out, it’s almost impossible to predict how the 2025 class can progress. Nevertheless, having a starting point to work from is a necessity. And this, our latest preseason big board, serves that purpose.
In the early months, the 2025 class might not be quite as strong at quarterback as the 2024 class was. The previous class boasted Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels, while Carson Beck, Shedeur Sanders, and others vie for the top QB spots in 2025.
There is upside to make note of (at quarterback and elsewhere), but entering the season, so much is unsettled. That paves the way for drastic amounts of potential energy to be unleashed. Entering the season, here are some of the top players on PFN’s Big Board.
Malaki Starks, S, Georgia
Thus far in the 2025 NFL Draft cycle, no prospect has a higher grade on PFN’s board than Georgia safety Malaki Starks. In fact, Starks carries a blue-chip grade and could be one of the best safety prospects over the past few cycles.
At 6’1″, 205 pounds, Starks has a strong frame with great length. He couples that size with truly extraordinary functional athleticism and range. Starks is fast, explosive, agile, fluid, and impressively malleable on recovery. He’s also an adept processor with playmaking chops.
Starks’ full pallet of traits enables him to play two-high, single-high, or in the slot as an off-man defender — and his range can suffocate run plays in support as well. Early on, Starks looks like a top-five-pick-level talent and a defensive X-factor.
Will Johnson, CB, Michigan
Michigan’s defense was one of the driving forces of the team’s CFP National Championship run in 2023. Will Johnson was one of the best players on that star-studded unit. Now, he returns as not only a first-team All-American but a premier 2025 NFL Draft prospect.
Johnson was already on the 2025 NFL Draft radar with his three-interception true freshman campaign in 2022. Still, he tantalized evaluators further with a strong 2023 season that saw him dominate most wide receivers and go toe-to-toe with Marvin Harrison Jr. in the finale against Ohio State.
At 6’2″, 202 pounds, Johnson is at his best in off-man and zone coverage, where he can use his lightning-quick reaction moves to manage space, plant and drive, and explode downhill with swarming closing speed.
Nevertheless, on a broad scale, Johnson has the size, athleticism, and ball skills to be one of the best cornerback prospects in recent memory.
Benjamin Morrison, CB, Notre Dame
Johnson holds the CB1 mantle in the 2025 NFL Draft for now, but Benjamin Morrison is his closest challenger. The Notre Dame cover man is a press-man and off-man savant, who at times resembles a water bug on the field with his unnatural quickness and reactive athleticism.
Morrison was great from the jump at Notre Dame. As a true freshman in 2022, he logged six interceptions. Then, in 2023, he racked up three more picks and a career-high 10 pass deflections. His ball production is emblematic of his truly superlative playmaking gene.
At 6’0″, 185 pounds, Morrison functions as a gnat in coverage with his short-area quickness, closing speed, corrective twitch, and willing physicality. He also has a nose for the football in both tight quarters and trail scenarios.
Travis Hunter, WR/CB, Colorado
It’s the question on everyone’s mind. Will Travis Hunter play at wide receiver or cornerback at the NFL level?
My answer is simple: Play him wherever you want, and he’ll be a game-changer.
Hunter’s combination of hyper-elite athleticism, flexibility, and playmaking instincts sets the foundation for him on both sides of the ball. On offense, he’s an effortless separator and an electric catch convertor and RAC (run after catch) threat. On defense, he’s as deadly a ball hawk as anyone has ever seen.
The one thing keeping Hunter from reaching the blue-chip-tier prospect level at this point is his relative lack of mass and physicality. Still, for teams in need of a playmaking presence on either side of the ball, Hunter is truly as good as advertised.
Mason Graham, DT, Michigan
The Wolverines’ defense is stacked with potential 2025 NFL Draft prospects. In addition to Johnson, Michigan boasts talents like Kenneth Grant, Jaishawn Barham, Aamir Hall, Josaiah Stewart, and Derrick Moore — and they would’ve had Rod Moore if not for an injury.
Michigan’s defense is truly a treasure trove of NFL talent, but the top-rated prospect outside of Johnson is defensive tackle Mason Graham. Alongside Grant, who serves as the nose tackle, Graham is the hyper-disruptive hybrid, with utility from 1-tech to 4i.
At 6’3″, 318 pounds, Graham has the size and raw strength to hold up on the interior in run defense, but the biggest splash plays come when he attacks with his supercharged athleticism and pummels blockers with his heavy hands.
Luther Burden III, WR, Missouri
Like Harrison and Brock Bowers before him, Luther Burden III is the player who has given evaluators premonitions of an early first-round pick since his high school days. He signed with Missouri as a five-star recruit and amassed 86 receptions for 1,212 yards and nine touchdowns in 2023.
At 5’11”, 208 pounds, Burden has the density and contact balance to be a venerable RAC threat in the NFL. He compounds that build with hyper-elite explosiveness, agility, and foot speed in tight spaces.
In particular, Burden is a weapon in the creative phase. But his proportional length, play strength, and body control are traits that allow him to contend at the catch point as well, and he flashes great potential as a savvy separator with his quickness and flexibility.
Burden has the raw, natural instincts for WR play that few can match.