HEADLINES

Month: April 2025

Colts Draft TE Tyler Warren At No. 14

April 24th, 2025 at 8:38pm CST by Sam Robinson

Without needing to trade up, the Colts have landed a prospect they have long been connected to. Indianapolis has selected Penn State tight end Tyler Warren.

Late Warren-Indianapolis rumors swirled this afternoon, but the Colts have been linked to bolstering their long-dormant tight end cadre for a while. The Colts have not churned out a 400-yard tight end receiving yardage season in the 2020s; they are now bringing in a player coming off a 1,200-yard campaign during his final college slate.

Indianapolis scheduled an early meeting with Warren, who shredded defenses last season to the tune of 104 catches, 1,233 yards and eight touchdowns. Although Warren posted a seven-touchdown 2023 season, last year was a full-on breakout showing for a dynamic player who played a central role in the Nittany Lions reaching the CFP semifinal round. The 6-foot-5 pass catcher will be expected to step in immediately to help Anthony Richardson (or Daniel Jones).

Warren-Bears ties emerged during the draft runup as well, but a late report indicated Chicago preferred Michigan’s Colston Loveland. That turned out to be accurate, as the NFC North team went with the ex-Wolverines contributor at No. 10. Despite Warren-Jets connections also coming out, the Colts did not need to trade up to address perhaps their biggest need.

With Jelani Woods missing the past two seasons, Colts tight ends have largely been M.I.A. Although the team brought back Mo Alie-Cox, Indy gave the ex-basketball player a pay cut upon re-signing him. The Colts simply have been unable to count on anyone at tight end this decade, but that should change with Warren.

The five-year Big Ten performer will join a host of rookie-contract wide receivers, players whose talents have largely been unable to boost Richardson. The wildly inaccurate passer is entering a crossroads season, with Jones representing real competition. Warren stands to serve as a key short- and mid-range option for Richardson and/or Jones, and the Colts predictably used Round 1 to check a rather important item off their offseason to-do list.

Dolphins Select DT Kenneth Grant At No. 13

April 24th, 2025 at 8:35pm CST by Ely Allen

The Dolphins are adding along the defensive interior with their top pick. Miami has selected Michigan defensive tackle Kenneth Grant 13th overall. While teammate, and fellow first-round pick Mason Graham got much of the attention in the pre-draft runup, Grant has plenty to offer, as well, and he’ll take his talents to South Beach.

Unlike Graham, Grant worked more over center as a three-tech or one-tech lineman. Despite the large stature that makes him a perfect fit for such a role, Grant impressed with his mobility all over the field and his ability to chase down runners from sideline to sideline.

He doesn’t get into the quarterback’s lap too much, but he is a stout, immovable force in the middle of the line with quickness to move laterally down the line and stop the play. The Dolphins were connected to Grant earlier this week, having done a lot of work on the former national championship contributor. Miami will add a high-profile interior D-lineman a year after losing Christian Wilkins in free agency.

Miami already has one of the league’s best interior defenders in Zach Sieler, but without Wilkins, there isn’t much help around him on the defensive line. Enter: Grant. Grant should slot in immediately as a starter next to Sieler and, likely, Benito Jones. Grant occupying the middle should concentrate enough of the offensive line to free things up for a pass rush that finished with the sixth-fewest sacks in 2024.

Adam La Rose contributed to this post.

Cowboys Select G Tyler Booker At No. 12

April 24th, 2025 at 8:26pm CST by Adam La Rose

After losing Zack Martin to retirement this offseason, the Cowboys have made a first-round investment at guard to replace him. Alabama’s Tyler Booker is headed to Dallas.

Booker was a two-year starter at Alabama, earning a pair of first-team All-SEC nods and an All-American accolade over that span. At 6-foot-5 and 321 points, Booker was lauded for his surprising agility, and there’s a belief the prospect simply has to work on his consistency to emerge into a long-time starting offensive guard.

Considering his measurables and performance, Booker was considered the top offensive guard prospect in the draft. While Cowboys fans may have been hoping for a splashier selection, the rookie should instantly plug a hole for the squad while providing potential stability at the position for years to come.

Martin manned the RG spot for 11 years; his retirement left a major hole on the Cowboys offensive line. Booker will now step into the role and provide more youth to the already-young offensive line. 2022 first-round pick Tyler Smith will start on the opposite side at LG, while 2024 first-round pick Tyler Guyton mans LT and 2024 third-round pick Cooper Beebe is at center.

Booker should be a starter from Day 1, but the Cowboys did put in some effort to add interior OL depth this offseason. If the rookie isn’t immediately ready for a starting role, the team could turn to free agent addition Robert Jones. Still, considering the rookie’s college track record and his impressive scouting report, Booker will surely be in the lineup come Week 1.

After the Cowboys closed 2023 with Martin and Tyron Smith at their longtime roles, along with four-year starter Tyler Biadasz at center, they are now poised to have four rookie-contract starters up front. Though, Tyler Smith is a surefire extension candidate. Dallas rostering three rookie-scale O-line starters will certainly help the team cover the costs of the Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb deals, with a monstrous Micah Parsons payday also likely on tap this year.

Ben Levine contributed to this post.

49ers Select DE Mykel Williams At No. 11

April 24th, 2025 at 8:23pm CST by Sam Robinson

The 49ers have, unsurprisingly, added along the defensive front in the opening round of the draft. Georgia edge rusher Mykel Williams is headed to San Francisco.

D-line loomed as a 49ers need for months heading up to the draft, and the NFC West franchise will make Williams the first Georgia defender taken in this draft. Jalon Walker had been expected to hold that honor, but the hybrid defender remained on the board at No. 11. San Francisco will go with Williams, a former top-10 national recruit who contributed for the Bulldogs across three seasons.

Williams took a “30” visit to the Bay Area to meet with 49ers brass, and the 49ers will take him with their highest pick since the 2021 Trey Lance misfire. Williams profiles as a bookend to Nick Bosa. The 49ers have gone with veterans in that slot in recent years, cycling through the likes of Samson Ebukam, Charles Omenihu, Arden Key and Leonard Floyd. San Francisco cut Floyd earlier this offseason, freeing up a spot opposite Bosa. Williams’ draft position points to a clear starter path, and the 49ers will line him up on a D-line that could still use some help up the middle.

Williams’ size (6-foot-5, 260 pounds) and athleticism gave him some of the highest upside amongst edge rushers in the 2025 class. He posted 4.5 sacks in each of his first two seasons with the Bulldogs, but a lingering ankle injury limited his production in 2024. Williams recorded five sacks and nine tackles for loss, figures short of what many other Day 1 prospects managed but enough for a second-team All-SEC nod. Williams joined Walker in participating in a late pro day this month in Athens, and the 49ers evidently liked the final returns from the one-time elite prospect.

Lingering injury concerns do not appear to exist with Williams, who also worked out at Georgia’s pro day. The 49ers had also been viewed as a potential landing spot for defensive tackle Walter Nolen, but they will take a player whose production did not quite match his recruiting profile in college. That said, the 49ers still employ well-regarded D-line coach Kris Kocurek. Rather than having a midlevel free agent to use opposite Bosa, the veteran assistant now has a high-profile prospect to develop.

Bears Draft TE Colston Loveland At No. 10

April 24th, 2025 at 8:15pm CST by Adam La Rose

Tight end is, to little surprise, the position the Bears have targeted with the 10th overall pick. Rather than Tyler Warren, however, Chicago has selected Michigan’s Colston Loveland.

The tight end if coming off a 2024 campaign where he took over as Michigan’s top receiving option. Despite failing to reach his yardage total from 2023, Loveland still led the team in receptions (56), receiving yards (582), and receiving touchdowns (5) by a wide margin.

Those numbers also aren’t near the production put up by some of the more productive tight ends in the NCAA, but he still found himself as one of the top-ranked players at his position heading into the 2025 draft. Loveland and Warren were competing to be the first player at their position off the board, and it is a bit surprising that the former was the one to hear his name called first.

Still, at 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, it’s easy to understand why the Bears opted for the player they did. The Bears were active last offseason as they added to rookie Caleb Williams‘ arsenal, and despite most of their offensive depth returning (Keenan Allen remains unsigned), the team is still investing on that side of the ball.

Tight end wasn’t necessarily a need for the Bears, and this selection could ultimately spell the end of Cole Kmet‘s tenure in Chicago. Kmet was handed a four-year, $50MM deal following his career year in 2023, although his numbers took an expected step back in 2024. With the addition of so many WRs, Kmet’s counting stats suffered, but he still finished the campaign with a career-high 70.9 percent success rate and 85.5 percent catching percentage.

The Bears surely won’t be in any rush to move on from Kmet, and the veteran could join his new rookie teammate as one of the league’s top TE duos. Still, with D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze around for the foreseeable future at receiver, there’s a chance Williams eventually settles on a trio of favorites, leaving Kmet on the outside looking in.

Ben Levine contributed to this post.

Saints Select T Kelvin Banks Jr. At No. 9

April 24th, 2025 at 8:09pm CST by Ely Allen

As expected, the Saints have not used the No. 9 pick to select a quarterback. Instead, help up front is coming. New Orleans has drafted Texas left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. While Banks was often projected as a potential interior offensive lineman, the team announced him as a tackle during their selection.

Despite the inside projections, Banks was a mainstay at left tackle throughout his time in Austin. He’s actually fairly new to the position, though, as he didn’t play offensive line until he was in high school. He can struggle to hold blocks or find his targets in the run game, but he has natural pass blocking abilities, utilizing skilled feet and hand placement to establish leverage against his pass rusher.

The Saints return both starting tackles from last year in left tackle Taliese Fuaga and right tackle Trevor Penning. Neither player was stellar in their roles last year, so it would not be out of the question for Banks to supplant one of them in a starting role. Fuaga stands the best chance at retaining a starting job as he was only a rookie as last year’s first-round pick. Penning was also a first-round pick, but he was selected back in 2022 and has not truly established himself in his three years of play.

Even though the team made a point to call him a tackle in Green Bay, the Saints have a much bigger need at guard. They need to replace their starting left guard and don’t really have many doable options at the moment. Unless they plan on shifting Fuaga in to guard, Banks may need to start his NFL career on the interior.

Adam La Rose contributed to this post.

Panthers Draft Tetairoa McMillan At No. 8

April 24th, 2025 at 8:04pm CST by Ben Levine

The Panthers were a candidate to trade down, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports Carolina fielded calls about doing so. Instead, Carolina has retained the selection.

Many felt Jalon Walker would be the team’s top choice, and he was on the board at No. 8. Surprisingly, neither Walker nor another defender is headed to Carolina. Receiver Tetairoa McMillan has been selected.

Tet is certainly worthy of an early-first-round selection following his standout career at Arizona. His numbers took a slight step back in 2024, but he still finished the campaign with 84 catches for 1,319 yards, a performance that definitively established him as one of the draft’s top wide receivers.

The Panthers have clearly been motivated to provide former first-overall pick Bryce Young with as many young targets as possible. The team used the No. 32 pick in last year’s draft on Xavier Legette, and the rookie finished the year with 521 yards from scrimmage.

While Young was mostly responsible for his benching last year, the team’s lack of dynamic receiver depth certainly didn’t help. Now, the signal-caller will be armed with a pair of highly-touted WRs, making this a crucial year for both Young and the Panthers offense.

McMillan will likely be penciled in atop the depth chart next to Legette heading into next season. Adam Thielen is still kicking around, and the Panthers are hanging on to the likes of David Moore and Jalen Coker. Those veterans shouldn’t provide the rookie with many threats for playing time, and there’s a chance Tet ends up emerging as the team’s top offensive weapon.

While WR was certainly a need for the organization, there was a belief that they’d ultimately settle for Walker. Although Carolina did not send a large contingent to Walker’s Athens pro day earlier this month, sources believed Dan Morgan and Dave Canales remained high on the intriguing front-seven piece, especially after the team failed to replace Brian Burns in 2024.

Adam La Rose contributed to this post.

Jets Draft Armand Membou Seventh Overall

April 24th, 2025 at 7:56pm CST by Ely Allen

Addressing right tackle has long been seen as a logical draft target for the Jets. To no surprise, then, Missouri tackle Armand Membou has been selected seventh overall.

While LSU’s Will Campbell was widely seen as the most NFL-ready offensive tackle in the draft, Membou was seen as the tackle prospect with the highest potential ceiling. Membou came to the game of football late but still found his way into Missouri’s starting lineup as a freshman. He would keep the job for the rest of his collegiate career, improving with each start.

Membou is a strong run blocker, serving as a lead battering ram for the Tigers throughout his career. He’s an equally menacing pass blocker with impressive balance and quickness off of the line of scrimmage. What he lacks in ideal size, he makes up for with effort and attitude.

Some teams saw Membou as a guard leading up to the draft, but based on the Jets’ O-line configuration, it is fairly clear they view the Mizzou product as a tackle. The team has now chosen tackles in back-to-back first rounds, having added Olu Fashanu to start last year’s draft. New York has also gone O-line in four of the past six first rounds, dating back to its Mekhi Becton and Alijah Vera-Tucker choices. The latter remains on the team at guard.

After working with two extremely experienced veterans, Morgan Moses and Tyron Smith, for most of the year as their bookend starters in 2024, a youth movement will now take over in New York. Last year’s first-round pick, Fashanu, should man the left tackle role. Membou should certainly challenge to start immediately at right tackle, but if he isn’t quite ready for the job, Chukwuma Okorafor should be able to fill in until he is.

Adam La Rose contributed to this post.

Raiders Select RB Ashton Jeanty At No. 6

April 24th, 2025 at 7:48pm CST by Adam La Rose

Ashton Jeanty‘s name was floated as a potential top-five pick, but he remained on the board through to the sixth overall selection. To no surprise, the Boise State running back has been selected by the Raiders.

This selection doesn’t come as a big surprise. The Raiders were one of the first teams to be definitively connected to Jeanty, although the star RB’s draft stock has picked up major steam in recent days. We heard just this afternoon that the Bears were interested in trading up for the Boise State product, and there was a belief that the Jaguars could even add to their RB depth at No. 5.

Instead, the Jaguars traded up to No. 2, paving the way for Jeanty to fall to the Raiders at No. 6. Jeanty is one of the most hyped RB prospects in several years following his run at Barry Sanders‘ hallowed single-season Division I-FBS rushing record. The RB ultimately finished last season with 2,739 yards from scrimmage and 30 touchdowns while guiding Boise State to the College Football Playoff.

The Raiders struggled to replace Josh Jacobs in 2024. The team shuffled through a handful of solutions, with veterans Alexander Mattison, Ameer Abdullah, and Zamir White all garnering at least 60 carries. White, shockingly, is the only one of those three still on the roster, and the Raiders brought in Raheem Mostert as some veteran depth.

Still, Jeanty should dominate the backfield touches in Las Vegas. With a decent O-line and a lack of elite wide receivers in the class, the new brain trust of general manager John Spytek, head coach Pete Carroll, and minority owner Tom Brady are clearly counting on the rookie to be a major weapon for new quarterback Geno Smith. Despite entering his first NFL season, Jeanty is now undoubtedly the team’s most dynamic offensive talent, and he should be a major contender for Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2025.

Ben Levine contributed to this post.

Browns Draft DT Mason Graham At No. 5

April 24th, 2025 at 7:43pm CST by Adam La Rose

After trading down from No. 2, the Browns loomed as a team capable of moving down the board once again. Dianna Russini of The Athletic reports that Cleveland took calls and was willing to execute another trade. Instead, the Browns have stayed pat and selected Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham at No. 5 overall.

In many respects, Graham is considered the best interior defensive line prospect in this year’s draft class. A two-year starter in Ann Arbor with a National Championship victory under his belt, Graham may not have stuffed the stat sheet in the offensive backfield, only notching nine sacks and 17 tackles for loss in three years, but his presence was felt and appreciated all over the defense.

Coming from a wrestling background, Graham wins with low body position and leverage. He sheds blocks with ease and works extremely hard to keep the ball in front of him. He strength, effort, and quick twitch off the line of scrimmage will be extremely valuable in Cleveland.

Graham immediately upgrades a defensive tackles group headed by Shelby Harris and Maliek Collins. Graham should immediately factor in for starting snaps, giving Cleveland much more quality depth across a defensive line led by annual Defensive Player of the Year candidate Myles Garrett.

The last time the Browns traded out of a first-round pick that became a wide receiver and selected a defensive tackle instead was in 2011, when they traded out of a No. 6 overall pick that became Julio Jones and selected Phil Taylor at No. 21 overall. They’ll hope that this year’s trade yields much more positive results, and Graham sets them up well for this possibility.

Ely Allen contributed to this post.

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