The NFL offseason moves faster than you’d think. Super Bowl 59 may have just wrapped 12 days ago, but we’re already six days away from the first major event of the 2025 NFL calendar: the pre-draft NFL Scouting Combine. This is where the best young talents prove their mental acuity and physical prowess against one another. But even before players arrive at the ‘underwear Olympics’, there is a hierarchy among the top players in the 2025 rookie class.
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The hierarchy begins with the top four: Miami QB Cam Ward, Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter, Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders, and Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter. In December, Sanders was the favorite to go No. 1 overall. However, the pendulum has swung, and now it’s Ward who has the shortest odds to be taken with the top pick by the Tennessee Titans. However, not everyone is in agreement with Vegas’ oddsmakers.
One of the outliers is NFL Network draft expert Daniel Jeremiah. In his latest mock draft, he believed that Carter would become just the third defensive player to be taken first overall since 2017 (Myles Garrett, Travon Walker). Rich Eisen went down Jeremiah’s list on his show on Wednesday.
With the Cleveland Browns trying to put the whole Deshaun Watson debacle behind them as soon as possible, they jump at the chance to take the top QB, Cam Ward, at No. 2.
The New York Giants then go with the best player available (Hunter) despite their dire need at QB. Mike Vrabel’s New England Patriots make the characteristically shrewd move of taking the top offensive lineman in LSU tackle Will Campbell, and the Jacksonville Jaguars nab DT Mason Graham to serve as a focal point between elite pass rushers Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker.
Shedeur Sanders is finally selected at No. 6 by the Las Vegas Raiders, which seems a very likely scenario if the Giants don’t take him instead of his Colorado teammate. In a very New York Jets move, they spend a No. 7 overall pick on a tight end (Penn State’s Tyler Warren). Two NFC South teams then snag the two next-best pass rushers before the Chicago Bears round out the top 10 with the most obvious pick on the board: an offensive tackle to protect Caleb Williams.
Titans have options with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft
Daniel Jeremiah acknowledged that Abdul Carter isn’t a shoo-in for Brian Callahan’s guys. Hunter and Ward should be seriously considered for that top pick as well. “I look at them and to me I think there’s really a couple options. I think it’s three players – I think it’s Abdul Carter, I think it’s Travis Hunter or Cam Ward,” he started.
“I think you’re deciding between those three players, and then the fourth option is to trade. If I am Tennessee, I am not going past three (in a trade) unless I get an enormous haul, and I don’t think you’re going to get that in this draft.”
Adding Carter to the defensive front for the Titans would create a scary situation for opposing offensive lines. They’ve already got Harold Landry on the edge with All-Pro Jeffery Simmons and 2024 2nd-rounder T’Vondre Sweat on the inside. Add Carter to that mix, and this could very well rival Philly for the best defensive front in football.
“I have Abdul Carter a little bit higher than [Hunter]. It is such a premier position, and when you look at the pieces already on that defensive line, and you go out and get Abdul Carter, I think you’ve got a chance to have one of the best units in the league. So that’s a good foundation to build off of.”
As a senior at Penn State in 2024, Carter blossomed. He was a Unanimous All-American, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, and a member of the All-Big Ten 1st Team. He proved he can get to the QB in a variety of ways, posting 12.0 sacks. But his elite run-stopping ability—he led the nation with 24 tackles for loss—will be highly prized too.
However, after Will Levis’ football folly fest in 2024, it’s clear the Titans need a QB. That’s why Jeremiah’s latest Abdul Carter-topped mock draft is such an intriguing one. Even he had to admit that they’ll have to at least kick the tires on the Miami product considering the situation they’re in.
“But they need to do their homework on Cam Ward. If they feel confident and comfortable with him and they feel like he can be their guy going forward, I wouldn’t have any issue whatsoever if they decided that was going to be the direction they went.”
The Titans could also trade the top pick to a team that wants to take Ward No. 1 overall. But how far down are they willing to trade? Jeremiah says no further than the Giants at No. 3. If Tennessee can make either the Browns or the Giants (or both) believe that they have no qualms about selecting Ward, they could swing a trade that nets them Abdul Carter and a 2026 1st-rounder.
