2025 NFL Draft: 5 players who are flying up scouts’ draft boards this season
Before the college football season even begins, scouts from every NFL team are hard at work evaluating the upcoming crop of talent. Most of the early round draft picks selected the next spring were identified at least a year in advance as players to watch.
Occasionally, however, star players sprout up unexpectedly. Take the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2024 first round pick Amarius Mims, for example. Scouts traveling to the University of Georgia could see the talent, but Mims entered last year with just two career starts. Nevertheless, the 6-foot-8, 340-pound right tackle flashed the upside to ultimately earn the No. 18 overall selection.
[2025 NFL mock draft: Ashton Jeanty surges up board, Travis Hunter remains No. 1]
Two years earlier, the Detroit Lions gambled the No. 12 overall pick on Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams based largely on a breakout campaign in which he led the SEC in receiving yardage (1,572) and touchdown receptions (15). Williams was virtually unstoppable in 2021, but that only came after transferring to Tuscaloosa, following two seasons stuck behind fellow future first round wideouts at Ohio State.
Frankly, describing prospects as “risers” is often an overused expression in NFL draft coverage. Normally, this is a case of the media simply catching up to prospects that scouts have liked for a year or more. However, like in the case of Williams, today’s more liberal transfer policy has provided the stage for players to turn breakout campaigns into dramatic leaps up draft boards. And, in other cases, players enter the season with impressive statistics but lacking key traits or success against quality competition, leaving scouts more skeptical than certain about their chances at NFL success.
The following is a list of 2025 NFL Draft prospects producing at a high level, and raising their stock as a result.
Derrick Harmon, DT, Oregon
While quarterback Dillon Gabriel and a host of “other” skill position stars are generating most of the attention for the top-ranked Ducks, the 6-foot-5, 330-pound Harmon has emerged this fall as Oregon’s top-rated NFL prospect.
Harmon is no stranger to scouts. He registered a combined 70 tackles, including 3.5 sacks, over the past two seasons at Michigan State prior to transferring to Oregon. This shade of Nike green seems to be fitting Harmon even better in Eugene than in East Lansing, however, as he is on pace to shatter his previous career highs in every conceivable category, having already set personal bests in sacks (three), tackles for loss (seven), forced fumbles (two) and passes broken up (four).
Harmon registered three stops, and both forced and recovered a fumble in Oregon’s dramatic home win over Ohio State, and these statistics don’t come close to capturing how disruptive he was in the middle for the Ducks. Harmon is a virtual boulder inside, capable of eating up double-teams and collapsing the pocket. I have him going 27th overall in my latest mock draft, and he’ll be higher than that in the next one.
Ahmed Hassanein, DL, Boise State
Like the aforementioned Harmon at Oregon, Hassanein is being overlooked by many throughout the country simply because at Boise State, all eyes are understandably trained on superstar running back Ashton Jeanty. The Broncos, however, are no one-man show, with the 6-foot-3, 270-pound Hassanein one of this year’s best stories on and off the field.
Hassanein is the first Egyptian-born player in FBS football history. That fun fact might get him a curious look from NFL scouts, but it is his combination of agility, power and instincts that will maintain their attention. Given that he’s only been in the game since 2019, he shows remarkable awareness of blockers and the ball, winning with pad level, heavy, active hands that he uses to rip himself free of blocks, and impressive core strength.
Critics will point out that Hassanein is already well known in the scouting community. After all, he recorded 12.5 sacks a year ago, earning First Team All-Mountain West honors. Nevertheless, Hassanein still generated low grades from NFL scouts entering the year. Now, he is well on his way to proving that last year’s breakout campaign was no fluke, and he has the look of a top-100 prospect, at minimum.
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