Lou Pickney's 2025 NFL Mock Draft

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It was an early rise for NFL Draft fans in Hawaii, where day two of the draft began at a brutal 4 a.m. local time. Hey, the NFL has to fit five rounds into the second day, gotta get at it early. Even for west coast NFL fans, 7 a.m. PT is early for many by weekend standards.

I've read evaluations of the draft online, even as it is still going on. Giving grades to draft soon after the fact is an exercise in futility, at least in my estimation. My belief is that you can only give preliminary grades after three seasons and begin to give more solid grades after five years. Players develop at different paces, particularly depending on the position, and to make an immediate accurate assessment on a given team's draft can be very difficult.

Some guys went lower than expected:

-Texas Tech WR Michael Crabtree fell to San Francisco at #10. It's very surprising that he went after Maryland WR Darrius Heyward-Bey, though I was happy that my DHB to Oakland surprise projection proved to be accurate.
-Ohio State RB Chris "Beanie" Wells sliding to Arizona at #31 was a solid value pick. It's interesting to me that the Colts passed on him in favor of UConn RB Donald Brown. Wells could be a 25-30 carry a game guy, and Arizona lucked out in getting him.
-USC MLB Rey Maualuga went to Cincinnati at #38. It's interesting that, after being listed above Ohio State MLB James Laurinaitis on many draft boards, it was Laurinaitis who went three spots above him to St. Louis.
-Oregon C/OG Max Unger was a nice pickup by Seattle at #49. He provides great depth and gives the Seahawks a nice boost on its interior offensive line.
-Pitt RB LeSean "Shady" McCoy slid to the Eagles at #53. After the somewhat surprising drafting of Missouri WR/KR Jeremy Maclin in round one, Philly came back in round two and landed a quality prospect at a good value at a need spot.
-Georgia Tech DE Michael Johnson fell from being a first-round projection on my board to being a third-round pick by Cincinnati at #70. Mike Mayock tore him up on film pretty good in making the case that Johnson only has one rush move and that he gives up on plays, but he has great athleticism and fills a huge need spot for Cincinnati.

One of the more surprising picks of the draft came with the Raiders selecting University of Ohio safety Michael Mitchell in the second round at pick #47. Mitchell wasn't even invited to the combine, but he had a strong pro day at Ohio, running a 4.43 40 at the event. Raiders owner Al Davis values speed perhaps more than any other NFL owner and/or GM.

I just overheard an errant piece of audio on ESPN (that aired underneath an interview with Jim Zorn) with the guys at the desk discussing the pronunciation of Arkansas center Jonathan Luigs. "I say loo-EEGZ," I heard. Funny enough I had the same thing hit me on live radio this past week while discussing center prospects and I stumbled on his name. Meanwhile I was prepared to say the name of Hawaii DE David Veikune with the proper pronunciation (vay-KOO-nay) while talking to KKEA radio in Honolulu, but we ran out of time before we could get to the Hawaii prospects. So it goes.

It's interesting that, soon after drafting Wake Forest OLB Aaron Curry, the Seahawks revoked the franchise tag it had placed on LB Leroy Hill in February. Butler is now free to sign with anyone. It surprises me that Hill didn't jump on the franchise offer after his arrest in Atlanta on drug-related charges in January, but clearly there is demand out there for him if that wasn't enough to deter Seattle from using the franchise tag on Hill one month after his arrest.

	The Bears got a steal in Vanderbilt CB D.J. Moore in the fourth round of the 2009 NFL Draft. (Icon SMI)

How did Vanderbilt CB D.J. Moore fall all the way to Chicago in round four? That's a superior value pick there...

In looking back on the running commentary from yesterday, I found that I didn't give proper mention to the Redskins for landing Brian Orakpo at #13 overall. He is a solid player who fills a need spot, and the idea of Orakpo and DT Albert Haynesworth on the same defense has to be pleasing to Washington fans.

The Colts landing both USC DT Fili Moala (once upon a time projected at #1 overall on here and elsewhere for the 2009 Draft) and Michigan DT Terrance Taylor. Indianapolis has had major problems at DT in recent years. They gave up a second-round pick to get Anthony McFarland from Tampa Bay in 2006 (the season they won the Super Bowl), but McFarland ended up getting hurt the next year and was never the same. Then, this past season, starting DT Ed Johnson got the ax early on after an arrest on marijuana charges. So, despite it seeming odd to think of taking two DTs in the first round rounds, the Colts had great reason to do so.

The Bengals interestingly drafted University of Cincinnati punter Kevin Huber in round five (pick #142). Some may snicker at the notion of the Bengals drafting a punter, but punters in general are often underrated, particularly in games that turn into defensive, field position type battles. Cincinnati held a private workout with Huber this past week, and apparently he impressed the Bengals enough to warrant the team using a fifth round pick on him.

There is a fun collections of five quotes to remember related to the draft in this article. My favorite might be this one, from Eagles coach Andy Ried about Missouri WR Jeremy Maclin: "This was not who we had targeted. He just happened to be one of those guys who fell a little bit and kind of fell into our laps." Hmm...

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