• Jalen Milroe is in the perfect situation to sit and learn: The former Alabama quarterback is set to sit behind Sam Darnold for at least a year and work on his consistency.

• The Bengals secured a great fit at linebacker: Demetrius Knight Jr. could immediately get playing time next to Logan Wilson in 2025.

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Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

We’ll continue to recap the 2025 NFL Draft by examining our favorite player-team fits — rather than just looking at some of the players who were drafted early and will naturally get early playing time.

With short- and long-term impact taken into consideration, here are some of our favorite fits, one at each position.

QUARTERBACK: JALEN MILROE, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS

Milroe won’t start right away after the Seahawks handed Sam Darnold a hefty contract — and maybe not even for his first two years in the NFL. But the landing spot is great for that exact reason.

Milroe might just be the most talented quarterback in this class, but he is not consistent enough in his current form to succeed in the NFL. His 74.7% adjusted completion percentage from 2024 isn’t terrible, and his 2.5% turnover-worthy play percentage is fine, as well. But when he makes his mistakes, they often feel major. There is a starting NFL quarterback within Milroe, and Seattle’s situation can pave the path to develop him into that.

RUNNING BACK: KALEB JOHNSON, PITTSBURGH STEELERS

The Steelers didn’t draft a quarterback until Will Howard in the sixth round, but they did make an offensive addition in running back Kaleb Johnson before then. His selection gives Pittsburgh a deep running back room, pairing him with Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell, and represents a good fit.

Under offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, the Steelers ran zone run-blocking schemes 58.32% of the time in 2024. That lines up well with Johnson’s skillset, as he earned an 82.6 PFF rushing grade behind zone concepts at Iowa last season.

WIDE RECEIVER: MATTHEW GOLDEN, GREEN BAY PACKERS

I’ve talked about this one a few times post-draft, but Golden to Green Bay is one of my favorite landing spots. Jordan Love has some gunslinger in him. He can be methodical in Matt LaFleur’s offense with shorter completions and longer drives, but he also has the arm to push the ball — and he likes to show that off.

The Packers ranked in the top five in 20-plus-yard pass attempts (90) and completions (34) in 2024, and Golden earned a 92.1 PFF receiving grade on such passes in 2024. Christian Watson and Jayden Reed both earned elite PFF receiving grades on deep passes for Green Bay last season, but Watson will miss most of the season while recovering from his ACL injury suffered in Week 18.

TIGHT END: MASON TAYLOR, NEW YORK JETS

The Jets’ 58.0 PFF receiving grade from their tight end room in 2024 ranked 27th in the league. Not only will Mason Taylor elevate that naturally, having earned a 69.5 PFF receiving grade in 2024 at LSU, he could very well see the second-most targets on the team after receiver Garrett Wilson.

Now-Rams wideout Davante Adams garnered the second-most targets on the team last year (114), while former Jets tight end Tyler Conklin was fourth (72). Those are a lot of vacated passes that could go Taylor’s way, even as a rookie.

OFFENSIVE TACKLE: KELVIN BANKS JR., NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

No Saints offensive lineman who played at least 300 snaps earned a PFF overall grade above 70.0 in 2024, and they earned just a 53.5 PFF pass-blocking grade as a team.

Banks, who posted an 89.0 PFF pass-blocking grade last season as the Longhorns’ left tackle, should slide right into that spot as a rookie, which allows Tailese Fuaga to move back to right tackle, where he earned 80.0-plus PFF overall grades in three consecutive seasons in college. This also allows the Saints to move Trevor Penning to guard in a make-or-break contract year.

OFFENSIVE GUARD: DONOVAN JACKSON, MINNESOTA VIKINGS

I didn’t love the Vikings’ 2025 NFL Draft strategy of not trading back when they had only four picks, but aside from that, Donovan Jackson is a very good fit.

Jackson earned a 68.5 PFF overall grade in 2024 but was forced to play offensive tackle most of the season due to Josh Simmons going down with an injury. Jackson will move back to guard in Minnesota and form a starting five of Jackson, Ryan Kelly and Will Fries on the interior with Brian O’Neill and Christian Darrisaw at the tackle spots. On paper, that’s a top-five group in the league.

Wilson might not start right away for the Patriots after they signed free agent Garrett Bradbury, but he is the likely long-term answer at center for New England. Wilson was only a one-year starter at Georgia, but he earned an 81.2 PFF overall grade and an 84.0 PFF pass-blocking grade in that season. He was also an 80th-percentile athlete for the position in every athletic drill at the NFL Scouting Combine.

INTERIOR DEFENDER: JAMAREE CALDWELL, LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

The Chargers lost interior defender Poona Ford in free agency, which left quite the void in the depth chart, specifically in run defense, where he was a top-five player on the team (78.8 PFF run-defense grade).

In steps Caldwell, the massive but surprisingly nimble defensive tackle. He earned PFF run-defense grades above 80.0 in three straight seasons — first at Houston, then this past year at Oregon. The Chargers likely would have wanted defensive tackle Kenneth Grant in the first round, but Caldwell is a solid consolation prize, especially in the third round.

EDGE RUSHER: LANDON JACKSON, BUFFALO BILLS

I said this right after the draft: It feels like Jackson is just a better version of what the Bills hoped A.J. Epenesa would be when they drafted him in the second round in 2020. Epenesa has had only one season out of five with a 65.0-plus PFF overall grade.

Jackson is built similarly to Epenesa in height, weight and length, but he is a much more explosive athlete, placing in the 96th and 97th percentiles for the vertical jump and broad jump at the NFL Scouting Combine. 

LINEBACKER: DEMETRIUS KNIGHT JR., CINCINNATI BENGALS

Logan Wilson recorded a 72.4 PFF overall grade at middle linebacker in 2024, while Akeem Davis-Gaither recorded a 59.0 mark and Germaine Pratt recorded a 60.6 mark. Davis-Gaither is now in Arizona, but Pratt remains.

The Bengals would still likely want better from their LB2 next to Wilson. Knight earned an 82.5 PFF overall grade at South Carolina in 2024, with an 85.4 PFF run-defense grade. His landing spot hints at playing time and needed impact early on.

CORNERBACK: AZAREYE’H THOMAS, NEW YORK JETS

The Jets were looking to replace D.J. Reed across from Sauce Gardner after Reed joined Detroit in free agency. Aaron Glenn, the Lions’ defensive coordinator from 2021 to 2024, is now New York’s head coach.

Under Glenn, Detroit’s defense played press with man-coverage assignments at a 46.25% clip. That leans into what Thomas does well as a cornerback. He played in press on more than 50% of his coverage snaps in all three years at Florida State, earning a 77.4 PFF coverage grade in single-coverage situations across the past two seasons.

SAFETY: XAVIER WATTS, ATLANTA FALCONS

The Falcons needed to make a splash in their secondary. Safety Jessie Bates III earned an 81.4 PFF coverage grade in 2024, but the next four coverage defenders who played the most snaps last season didn’t eclipse 70.0 marks.

Watts’ pairing with Bates creates a fantastic ball-hawking duo. The Notre Dame product recorded an 89.4 PFF coverage grade last season and racked up 13 interceptions over the past two years. Bates has nabbed 14 interceptions over the past three seasons with PFF coverage grades of 81.4 and 90.2 in 2024 and 2023, respectively.