With March Madness and the Final Four in the rearview mirror, and Opening Day behind us, too, (with the Rockies stumbling out of the gate), it’s time to turn our attention to the 2025 National Football League Draft.
In just two weeks NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will step to the microphone in Green Bay 32 times. The first round is Thursday, April 24.
Broncos fans are filling the air with debates over which player Denver will select with the 20th pick, and how high and by whom the University of Colorado’s top two Buffaloes will be taken.
I decided to check out some mock drafts—not because the mocksters know much more than you or me when it comes to exactly which teams will pick which players in the first round, but because they at least give you an idea of which players are considered most likely to go highest.
For example, the consensus among these so-called “experts” is that Miami University quarterback Cam Ward and Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter likely will be the first two players chosen.
If so, where does that leave Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter?
Somewhere in the top seven.
And Shedeur, the coach’s son?
Maybe third to the Giants, or seventh to the Jets, or 19th as Derek Carr’s successor in New Orleans, or 26th to the Giants by virtue of a trade with the Rams.
In other words, who knows?
Some say Shedeur’s the second coming of Patrick Mahomes. Others aren’t impressed.
I’ll be surprised if he’s not a franchise quarterback, wherever he’s taken. (Remember, Mahomes went 30th.)
Before free agent signings, I felt the Broncos needed a tight end most of all, someone who could develop into the kind of target Travis Kelce became for Mahomes.
I figured the top tight end, Penn State’s Ty Warren, would be gone before the Broncos could take him but thought there was a good chance Michigan’s Colston Loveland (6-foot-5, 245 pounds) would be available.
The mocksters I checked agree with me on both.
However, Denver’s free agency bonanza included a 6-3, 240-pound tight end, Evan Engram, who in coach Sean Payton’s eyes fills the bill. Engram was a first-team All-American at Ole Miss and recipient of the Ozzie Newsome Award as the nation’s top collegiate tight end in his senior season. But that was 2016, so he’s a short-term answer.
With tight end seemingly secure (for now) and needs at linebacker and safety filled with a pair of ex-49ers—Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga—the smart money is saying the Broncos will seek a replacement for Javonte Williams, who departed for Dallas via free agency.
Everyone’s dream is that Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty from Boise State will be available when Denver is “on the clock” at No. 20. But commissioner Goodell likely will have called his name long before that, probably as the Raiders’ choice at No. 6.
The next best ball carrier on the board, some say, is TreVeyon Henderson from national champ Ohio State. But my pick is Omarion Hampton, a 6-foot, 221-pound bruiser from North Carolina, where Javonte also matriculated.
A second-team All-American and finalist for the Doak Walker Award as the top collegiate running back (won by Jeanty in 2024), Hampton carried 281 times for 1,660 yards, (5.9 per carry) for a middling Tar Heels team that finished 6-7 after losing the Fenway Bowl to Connecticut. He also caught 38 passes for 373 yards.
Playing on a stronger 8-4 team in 2020, Javonte Williams carried 157 times for 1,140 yards (7.3 average) and caught 25 passes for 305 yards. Denver chose him in the second round.
The line on Hampton is that he’s a straight-ahead runner who is hard to bring down. That’s better news for third-year slasher Jaleel McLaughlin than for 2024 rookie Audric Estime, who’s more of an inside runner akin to Hampton.
Maurice Jones-Drew, a nine-year pro who led the NFL in rushing for Jacksonville in 2011, is currently an NFL.com analyst. Of Hampton, he says, in part:
“Hampton has the potential to be a bell cow at the next level, thanks to his patience to the hole and burst through it . . .”
That sounds like a dynamic complement to Bo Nix, his wide receiver group and Evan Engram.
We’ll find out in a couple weeks if Sean Payton agrees.
______________
Denny Dressman’s 17th book, a collaboration with Kansas City artist Anthony High titled Black Baseball’s Heyday – Capturing An Era in Art and Words, will be published in late June. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.