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    Ranking Top 10 iOLs in 2025 NFL Draft: Grey Zabel, Donovan Jackson Making Massive Case For Round 1

    As the 2025 NFL Draft approaches, the interior offensive line class has become one of the most exciting groups to rank subjectively. Tackle-to-guard converts dominate this year’s list, and the art of projection has been especially tested by this incoming batch.

    How does the versatile group of 2025 iOL stack up, and what might their NFL projections be? Below, you’ll find our current top 10 iOL rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft.

    For this exercise, Missouri’s Armand Membou and Will Campbell — the top two OT prospects in the class — were not projected as guards.

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    10) Charles Grant, William & Mary

    Charles Grant is one of the most compelling small-school, high-upside investments in the middle rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft. Grant distinguishes himself on tape with his physical talent alone at 6’5″, 311 pounds, with near-35″ arms, and his upside is tantalizing.

    Grant started at just one position — left tackle — for the entirety of his collegiate career, so any position flex is projected. But his size affords him an elite power profile, and he has the searing explosiveness and nimble flexibility to execute reach blocks with consistency.

    Grant will need to become a bit faster, more malleable, and more disciplined with his footwork, but his flashes of combative hand usage are promising. His size, athleticism, leverage acquisition, and finisher mentality all speak to promising potential at guard.

    9) Jared Wilson, Georgia

    Jared Wilson is the second-ranked center prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft behind Grey Zabel, with an approximate two-round gap between them. It’s not a great year to need a center, but Wilson gives you enticing developmental potential to work with.

    At 6’3″, 310 pounds, with over 32″ arms, Wilson has the perfect build for the interior, and he’s an elite athlete at that size — with a 4.84 40-yard dash, a blazing 1.72 10-yard split, a 32″ vertical jump, and a 9’4″ broad jump to validate that claim.

    Operationally, Wilson is still a work in progress. He has good awareness, strength, and physicality, but his play style can be a bit slower than preferred, and he struggles to consistently engage his lower body to drive power. In time, he can be a solid starter.

    8) Aireontae Ersery, Minnesota

    Some boards will have Minnesota offensive lineman Aireontae Ersery higher, and they have reason for it. Ersery is incredibly explosive on the attack, with elite power drive generated from his 6’6″, 331-pound frame. But from a three-year starter, more refinement is ideal.

    As it stands, Ersery still has room to keep developing. His tackle tape has its highs, but those high moments are blended within a compliation of poor leverage reps, uninventive hand usage and deference to two-hand extensions, and lapses in balance across phases.

    Being 6’6″ without great knee bend and with just 33″ arms, leverage and lurching can be major issues for Ersery. Thus, he may project better at guard. There, he’ll have more help, his displacement skills will be amplified, and he’ll still be able to work on the move.

    7) Emery Jones Jr., LSU

    Emery Jones Jr. was one of my highest-rated offensive tackle prospects heading into the 2025 NFL Draft cycle. A down year has caused him to slide, and new limitations have come to light. Nevertheless, he’s still a viable Day 2 option with projected tackle-guard flexibility.

    At 6’5″, 315 pounds, with over 34″ arms, Jones passes the eye test, and his size profile comes with added boons, such as his reach, punch power, and suffocating anchor strength. He can also be plodding with his feet, however, and stiff in his hips when redirecting.

    With his clean pass sets, Jones could feasibly stick at right tackle with more consistency. But weary teams could also slide him inside to guard, where his limitations would be masked, and where his strong, sturdy, heavy-handed style would shine.

    6) Tate Ratledge, Georgia

    Tate Ratledge hangs his hat on being one of the more athletic and experienced guard prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft, though he could’ve started more games if not for multiple injuries over his five-year career with the Georgia Bulldogs.

    Medicals and age will be potential red flags for teams in Ratledge’s evaluation; he’ll be 24 years old at the start of the 2025 campaign. He also has abnormally short arms and a narrow wingspan for his 6’6 1/2″ frame, which can lead him to over-extend and lurch.

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    Having said all this, Ratledge is exceedingly quick off the snap, with superb awareness, assignment discipline, and physicality. He stays square to opponents and can anchor with his core. He’ll never have an elite power element, but he profiles as a serviceable starter.

    5) Marcus Mbow, Purdue

    Marcus Mbow’s first 20 starts at Purdue came at right guard. Then, he came back from a leg injury to lead the team’s blocking unit at right tackle in 2024. With sub-33″ arms and below-average mass, Mbow’s future may rest at guard, but it’s a bright one nonetheless.

    At 6’4″, 303 pounds, Mbow is lighter and more compact than most linemen in the 2025 NFL Draft, but he makes up for it with explosive athleticism and blocking range, unique natural leverage and low gravity, and relentlessly combative hands and power drive at contact.

    With his fast and violent hands, Mbow can go toe-to-toe with anyone in pass protection, and he’s an elite puller and second-level mover. He’ll need to improve at anchoring against power and responding to inside-outside counters, but he can be a solid starter in the NFL.

    4) Jonah Savaiinaea, Arizona

    An instant starter at right guard as a true freshman who then shifted out to right tackle for his final two seasons, Jonah Savaiinaea is yet another prospect with position flex. That said, Savaiinaea himself has expressed a desire to play guard over tackle in the NFL.

    It’s a preference that makes sense for Savaiinaea, given his build and his play style. At 6’4″, 324 pounds, with near-34″ arms, he has a picture-perfect mix of mass, natural leverage, and proportional length, and it’s weaponized by his high-energy athleticism.

    As a tackle-to-guard convert, Savaiinaea bears a lot of similarity to recent Atlanta Falcons second-round pick Matthew Bergeron. Bergeron, like Savaiinaea, had hand usage inconsistencies that played a hand in his move. But on the inside, Savaiinaea has the tools to thrive.

    3) Donovan Jackson, Ohio State

    Donovan Jackson has been on the NFL Draft radar since he joined the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2021 as a five-star recruit. He went on to start 31 games at left guard and the final nine games of his career at left tackle — in a championship run that opened evaluators’ eyes.

    Jackson’s ability to play tackle in a pinch is extremely valuable, and teams can’t ignore that. Still, Jackson likely projects better as a guard at the NFL level. He’s not the most flexible in his midsection or on recovery, and that could be a limiting factor outside.

    On the interior, Jackson has a perfect build. He’s low-to-the-ground and hyper-dense at 6’4″, 315 pounds, with near-34″ arms. He has great lateral mobility, clean pass sets, forceful and active hands, power in both phases, and the core strength to absorb.

    2) Tyler Booker, Alabama

    Tyler Booker comes in as our second-ranked iOL in the 2025 NFL Draft, but he and the top iOL are separated by only one spot on the big board. Both are top-20 caliber prospects, and any choice between them is essentially a matter of preference and positional value.

    Booker is a guard, and only a guard. And he plays the guard position better than anyone in the class. He’s a massive phone-booth blocker at 6’5″, 321 pounds, with 34 1/2″ arms, 11″ cinder blocks for hands, and surprising flexibility and knee bend for his size.

    Booker is an average athlete, which reduces his ceiling. But he maximizes his size, strength, and power with elite footwork, calculated hand usage, sharp gap and stunt awareness, and brute tenacity. He’s a great football player who shouldn’t be overthought.

    1) Grey Zabel, North Dakota State

    It’s an incredibly close race for the top interior offensive lineman spot on PFSN’s 2025 NFL Draft board, but as it stands, the top iOL in the 2025 class is North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel. Zabel checked all the boxes in the pre-draft process, and his tape is alluring.

    Zabel played 62 games in a storied career with the Bison and took his all-encompassing positional versatility to the Senior Bowl, where he dominated FBS linemen. Then, he tested in the elite tier at the NFL Combine, with a 36.5″ vertical at 6’6″, 312 pounds.

    The tape is complimentary of Zabel, too. Despite being 6’6″, he has tremendous flexibility and leverage acquisition to go with his size. He’s explosive and ruthless in the run game, heavy-handed in the pass game, and projects well at guard and center.

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