Draft Wire

2 days ago | draftwire.usatoday.com | Jeff Risdon

Every NFL draft class features players who drip with high-end potential but also drag with low-floor downsides. The promise of greatness, balanced with the trepidation of calamitous inability to make it work in the NFL, makes certain prospects equal parts titillating and terrifying. Or, to put it more simply, with great risk comes the potential of great reward...or abject failure that talk radio hosts and social media gadflies will never let anyone forget.

3 days ago | draftwire.usatoday.com | Jeff Risdon

It's t-minus three days and counting until the 2025 NFL Draft kicks off in Green Bay, and there still hasn't been a single first-round pick traded. That's never happened in the post-merger (1970) era, and it seems extraordinarily unlikely to persist into Thursday night's first round. One team to watch: the Denver Broncos. Adam Schefter from ESPN specifically cited the Broncos and GM George Paton as looking to make a move up from the No. 20 spot in the draft.

3 days ago | draftwire.usatoday.com | Jeff Risdon

Every NFL Draft analyst finds players each year that they are drawn to on a different level. There's just something captivating and invigorating about watching them play that resonates with you. When you watch over 300 college games every year, it's refreshing to have a player stand out as someone that you just really enjoy watching and studying. They're known in the industry as "my guys."These designations are not exclusive to any analyst. Many draftniks wind up having several "my guys" in common.

4 days ago | draftwire.usatoday.com | Jeff Risdon

Brian Hudspeth has been the Detroit Lions director of collegiate scouting for the last three draft cycles. He's been involved in evaluating NFL Draft prospects for over 20 years, but that job and process has undergone a radical change in the era of collegiate name-image-likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal. In an interview with Lions staff media member Tim Twentyman, Hudspeth reflected on how the game has changed thanks to NIL.

5 days ago | draftwire.usatoday.com | Jeff Risdon

Most mock drafts attempt in some form to project what might happen in the upcoming draft. This is not one of those kinds of mock drafts. This is the annual "what I would do" mock draft. I put on the GM hat for each of the 32 teams and make the selections at each slot based on what choice I would make in the given situation.