2025 NFL Mock Draft Grades: Scoring the experts

The 2025 NFL Draft may be over, but the 2025 mock draft season is not over. It is time to score 2025 mocks.

The scoring system is simple. For every number of picks a selection is off, the mock drafter gets a point. If someone mocked Mike Green to the Falcons at 15, which as you will see was a pretty popular pick, they got 44 points because Green went 59th overall.

If they were bold enough to mock a trade and were wrong–and mock trades are almost always wrong–they were penalized double the points. This does mean that they penalized twice if they were wrong on both players, but nobody made them mock a trade, they brought this on themselves.

This year was our biggest one ever, with 64 mocks (along with, as a sort of control, Arif Hasan’s consensus big board): a collection of big names, some old hats, those who did well in previous years, and some new faces.

Briefly though we must address the Buffalo in the room. Nearly every year there are a couple of players that get mocked as first round picks who in fact go on day three. Usually they’re either obviously out there at the time picks, or someone who we come to find out has no knee cartilage or some other massive medical red flag that reporters wait until after they are picked to disclose after they go in the 5th round.

Not a high profile QB. Not everyone made this error though, 19 mock drafts did not have Shedeur Sanders in the 1st round. So while Shedeur Sanders’ draft party lasted longer than Fyre Fest, their mocks were said and done.

Best mock:

Ironically Mel Kiper, who spent the whole weekend pooping his pants, had the best mock draft by not putting out a final mock draft of his own. You never miss a shot you don’t take. As for the best actual mock…

Jason Boris. His biggest miss was just 16 points, and 10 picks were by 5 points or fewer.

Best mock that had Shedeur Sanders, not counting Shedeur Sanders: Lance Zierlein was sitting at 152 points at the end of day 2.

Honorable mentions:

Best picks that no one else had:

Peter Schrager was the only person to have the Cowboys taking Tyler Booker.

Ross Jacobs was the only person to have the Dolphins draft Kenneth Grant.

Draftek had the only mock with Donovan Jackson to the Vikings.

Trevor Sikkema was the only person to have Tyleik Williams in the 1st, and accurately mocked Williams to the Lions.

Mike Band had 11 correct first round picks. But he also had Sanders 9th overall to the Saints.

Mr. Popular: The first four picks were the most commonly correctly mocked, the fifth was Gray Zabel to the Seahawks.

Best pick that almost no one else had: Cris Collinsworth and Vinny Iyer correctly mocked Tet McMillan to the Panthers at 8.

Worst mock that didn’t have Shedeur Sanders:

Charles McDonald and Nate Tice, bogged down by non 1st rounders Will Johnson (14th), Mike Green (15th), Jalen Milroe (21st), Trey Amos (26th), and Sharon Revel (30th). They also had Jaxson Dart 9th, Matthew Golden 12 and Donovan Ezeiruaku 32nd.

Worst mock that had Shedeur Sanders:

Diante Lee started out great, with one of the lowest scores in the top half. Then it got bold. He had the Steelers trade back from 21 to 25 and take Jahdae Barron, then trade up to 27 for Shedeur Sanders. Then he had the Bengals trade Trey Hendrickson to the Bills for the 28th pick, where they took Trey Amos. At 29 went Shavon Revel, giving him 347 points over a three pick span, which on its own would put a mock in the bottom half this year.

Dishonorable mentions

Worst pick that wasn’t Shedeur Sanders: Eric Edholm and John Molnar both accurately predicted that the Giants would trade up into the mid 20s for a QB. But rather than to 25 for Jaxson Dart, they predicted it would be to 24 for Jalen Milroe. This cost them each 136 points.

Worst pick that was Shedeur Sanders: Vinny Iyer and the PFF Staff both had Cleveland taking Sanders at 2nd overall. But Rob Maaddi had the Saints trade up to 4 to draft him, costing him 280 points.

Don’t overthink it: Everyone except Cris Collinsworth (of course), Vinny Iyer, Rob Maaddi, Rob Rang, Chris Trapasso, Ian Valentino, and the PFF staff had the first four players correct.

Ian Valentino did not have Kelvin Banks or Colston Loveland, who went 9th and 10th, in the 1st round at all. At 8th and 9th he did have Mike Green and Shedeur Sanders, who did not get drafted in the 1st round.

Chris Trapasso did not have Mykel Williams, who went 11th overall, in the 1st.

Diante Lee, John Molnar, Lou Pickney, Rob Rang, and Charles McDonald/Nate Tice did not have Kenneth Grant in the 1st.

Sam Farmer, Mike Florio, Eric Galko, Matt Miller, Tony Pauline, Ethan Woodie, Field Yates, and the ESPN beat writers mock did not have Jihaad Campbell in the first round.

Odds and ends

Players that nearly everyone had in the 1st who weren’t a 1st:

• 47 mocks had Nick Emmanwori, who went 35th, in the 1st round.
• 54 mocks had Donovan Ezeiruaku, who went 44th, in the 1st round.
• 57 mocks had Will Johnson, who went 47th in the 1st round.
• 57 mocks also had Mike Green, who went 59th, in the 1st round.

Player that no one had in the 1st that was a 1st:

Nobody, which wasn’t surprising for this draft. But as noted above, Tyleik Williams nearly made it.

The wisdom of the crowds: I always include Arif Hasan’s consensus big board, as he puts in great work combining over 100 big boards. It’s an interesting barometer. This year felt like it could be wild one compared to the big board, but it wasn’t. The only big misses were Shedeur Sanders and Will Johnson.

Joes vs Pros: Every year I include our community mock draft to see how it fares against the people who get paid to do this. It never does great but it always beats at least a few professionals. Last year was its best yet, so I thought about retiring it, but it performed admirably this year, finishing 49th, so it stays in. Unfortunately it got the first three picks wrong. However it was one of only 9 mocks to accurately predict Matthew Golden to the Packers. Well done!

2025 Mock Draft Scores