The 90th edition of the NFL Draft kicks off this Thursday from Green Bay with the Tennessee Titans–coming off a 3-14 season and tied with the Browns and Giants with the worst record but having a weaker strength of schedule–awarded the first overall selection for the first time since the franchise relocated from Houston. The league is setting up the stage for the draft on the northeast corner of the Lambeau Field complex with the theater for the athletes sitting to the east in the Resch Center.

Since 2004, the NFL had been using boring and sterile corporate blue/light blue draft logos with only two exceptions. First in 2015, the logo was the same except in gold to celebrate the 50th year of the Super Bowl. Then, in 2023 they made the logo a magenta and light blue MS Paint looking affair randomly for the draft in Kansas City.

This year, the league has designed something more specific to Green Bay and I hope they keep changing the logo like this each year for the hosting franchise.

The 2025 NFL Draft

Day 1
Round 1
Thursday, April 24th
8:00 PM ET

Day 2
Rounds 2-3
Friday, April 25th
7:00 PM ET

Day 3
Rounds 4-7
Saturday, April 26th
12:00 PM ET

*TV Coverage will be on ABC, ESPN, and NFL Network for every round.

Notre Dame Player Projections:

I didn’t do individual NFL scouting reports for the Fighting Irish prospects, although in my Combine review I wrote down some thoughts on the situation with most of the players coming into this spring. Here’s the latest information on Notre Dame players from the NFL Mock Draft Database averages from the start of this week:

CB Benjamin Morrison: 2nd Round, 45th overall
S Xavier Watts: 2nd Round, 48th overall
TE Mitchell Evans: 5th Round, 143rd overall
DL Rylie Mills: 5th Round, 145th overall
LB Jack Kiser: 5th round, 154th overall
QB Riley Leonard: 5th Round, 157th overall
DL Howard Cross: UDFA, 254th overall
WR Beaux Collins: UDFA, 445th overall
WR Kris Mitchell: UDFA, 635th overall
DB Jordan Clark: UDFA, 682nd overall
DB Rod Heard: N/A
DE RJ Oben: N/A
WR Jayden Harrison: N/A

As noted a million times, Morrison’s stock has fallen about 20-25 spots on average in most of the recent mock drafts compared to his future projections prior to ending his season with an injury. I’ve been saying Watts will get picked before him (see below) for a while now.

If Evans lasts until the 5th round that will be a solid steal for a team.

Kiser and Evans are extremely high character Good Guys™ who are going to get picked higher than projected, I am sure of it. I’m sticking to my prediction that Leonard will struggle at the next level and even if he’s a 5th round pick making a roster could be difficult. Still, rookie quarterback deals are so valuable to NFL teams so he should be fine even as a 3rd stringer somewhere.

If we see Cross not getting drafted that will be painful to watch. However, he’s the type of player who will sign a free agent deal, hang around for a while, then we will see “Howard Cross starting for [insert team] this Sunday” followed by “Howard Cross signs 3-year deal worth $19 million” at some point in the coming years and none of us will be surprised at these developments.

18 Stripes Mock 1st Round Draft

A reminder that this mock draft from yours truly is largely based on vibes, although I went pretty chalk-y with the early picks.

A soon-to-be 23-year old Cam Ward going 1st overall to a franchise with such a dearth of offensive firepower, now and in their past, feels like it’ll be a bad idea but maybe not a complete disaster as his floor as a rookie should be high enough to not be hot garbage.

Allow me to chug some more haterade and say that Shedeur Sanders won’t get picked in the 1st round. He did finish 8th in the Heisman voting this past season, which isn’t nothing, but to have his number retired by Colorado is hilarious. They retired Heisman winner Travis Hunter too, something tells me Colorado will eventually reverse the retirement of Sanders’ jersey and quietly change things to a ring of honor type situation in the future.

Ward sat out the 2nd half of the Pop-Tarts Bowl to become the favorite for the no. 1 overall pick. 

Philadelphia released cornerback Darius Slay and doesn’t have a ton of money tied up at the position long-term. I’m sneaking Morrison into the last pick of the 1st round.

Xavier Watts teaming up with Kyle Hamilton in Baltimore? Yes, please.

The 3 Biggest Storylines of the NFL Draft

1) What role will Aaron Rodgers play?

Back on March 12th, the Jets ended their 2-year dalliance with quarterback Aaron Rodgers featuring a blown Achilles in season one after 1 pass attempt and a career-worst quarterback rating in a 5-12 season in 2024. By making the move, New York decided to spread Rodgers’ $49 million in dead cap money over the upcoming 2025-26 seasons. Good times.

While nothing looks to be ready to happen during the draft, we’ve seen weirder things occur. Rodgers is also mulling retirement but also seems to be really only in talks with the Steelers at this point. It’s been a weird off-season. Justin Fields was traded to the Steelers last off-season and just signed a 2-year $40 million deal with the Jets this off-season. Russell Wilson was released by the Broncos, signed with the Steelers last year, and has since inked a 1-year deal with the Giants (another team previously linked to Rodgers).

2) Just one quarterback picked in the 1st round?

Okay, it’s unlikely Sanders falls out of the 1st round. Many mock drafts have him solidly in the top 10, and while that’s a bit different than a lot of the top 3 talk that surrounded him for most of the 2024 season, he’s also involved in a ton of trade up rumors in the back half of the 1st round, too.

Since 2013, we’ve only seen a single NFL Draft with one quarterback taken in the 1st round–that was 2022 with Kenny Pickett who is already on his 3rd team after heading to Cleveland this off-season. At least he teamed up with Ian Book to get that ring with the Eagles in 2024.

If cool names were the the difference Jaxon Dart would be a 1st round pick. 

Outside of Ward and Sanders, maybe Jaxon Dart sneaks into the 1st round too. The only other option without a team mega-reaching would be Alabama’s Jalen Milroe who has been solidly in the mid-2nd round in most mock drafts.

3) Notre Dame’s most draft picks, safe for another year?

No, USC won’t be catching the Irish for the most NFL Draft selection of all-time this year, or any time soon for that matter. Notre Dame looks set to pad their lead following 2025. Here’s where we stand coming into this weekend:

Notre Dame – 532
USC – 530

Notre Dame should safely have 6 picks this year, and I really want to believe Howard Cross will make it a 7th selection. The Trojans might have 2 players picked–center Jonah Monheim has been hovering around the middle 5th round and running back Woody Marks isn’t rated as a top 10 player at his position and could be a late round pick up. They might have one or two others sneak in the 7th round, but I doubt it.