Mel Kiper Jr, who has presented the NFL Draft for ESPN since 1984, is widely credited for kick-starting the idea of mock drafts. He set the tone for the Draft and made it a television spectacle. At a time when the NFL Draft has transcended from TV to social media, one cannot help but revisit the role played by analysts like Mel Kiper Jr.
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That’s exactly what Skip Bayless did in his Skip Bayless Show podcast episode before the 2025 NFL Draft, comparing Kiper to Tom Brady!
Mel started covering football for ESPN when Brady was just 7 years old. Compared to Brady, who played for 22 years in the NFL, Mel’s broadcasting career—now entering its 42nd year—has also spanned generations.
“When I think of the NFL Draft, the first image that pops into my mind is Mel Kiper Jr. I’ve long been a draftnik, and to me, Mel is the Draft. He is the Tom Brady of the NFL Draft. Because nobody has done it better or longer on national TV than this man has,” Skip said about Mel Kiper Jr.
While there are hundreds of mock drafts just a click away for football fans today, Mel used to compile two types of mocks. And he used to think that if he got “six, seven hits the night before the NFL Draft, you’ve done pretty well.”
It was an impressive feat at a time when TV was the sole medium for access to information. As a result, takes offered by experts like Mel Kiper Jr. influenced not just football fans but also scouting units, NFL GMs, and more.
“In my early draft reports when I started out, I had a mock draft about what I thought would happen. And I had a mock draft on what I would’ve done had I been the GM of each team. They were completely different, Skip… One trade throws it all out of whack. The last mock for the draft report came out in March long before the early,” Mel Kiper Jr. detailed.
In 2025, Mel Kiper Jr. joined hands with Field Yates for the NFL Mock Draft for ESPN. He picked Travis Hunter to be the No. 2 pick for the Cleveland Browns, while, expectedly, Cam Ward was named the No. 1 pick for the Titans by Yates. Yates also picked Abdul Carter as the No. 3 pick for the New York Giants. And for No. 4, Kiper picked Will Campbell.
While Mason Graham was the fifth pick for the Jaguars, per Yates, Kiper opted for Ashton Jeanty as the No. 6 pick for the Las Vegas Raiders. Yates also picked Shedeur Sanders as the No. 9 pick for the New Orleans Saints.
“If you get 25, 26 right out of the 32, you’ve done pretty well,” thinks Mel Kiper Jr., when it comes to the result of the predictions. However, beyond mock drafts, the presence of Mel, who is like a Tom Brady of mock drafts, will certainly help the viewer connect with both the past and present of the NFL Draft in addition to their deep game knowledge.
