2025 NFL Mock Draft roundup: Panthers select another QB at No. 1; Browns’ RB options
What will the Carolina Panthers do with 2023 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young?
After benching the former Alabama quarterback after just two starts in the 2024 NFL season, Panthers new head coach Dave Canales is making a bold statement with replacing Young with veteran QB Andy Dalton, but it might just be the right move.
As the No. 1 overall pick, expectations were high for the signal caller, but he may have been better served sitting and learning behind a veteran. He is getting that opportunity now, but are the Panthers giving up on the young QB? Is the entire league giving up on the QB?
Answers to both of those questions appears to be no. The Panthers still have hope in the talent of Young and NFL teams looking for QBs will still explore the option of Young if he continues to have confidence in himself. He hasn’t had the greatest start to his NFL career, but he and only he still controls the destiny of his career.
“I have confidence in myself. I’ve always had confidence in myself,” Young told reporters on Thursday, via CBS.com. “At the end of the day, I’m a competitor. Whenever there’s a football and there’s a field out there, I have the utmost confidence in myself. It’s been great with these guys, too, having teammates that I can lean on as well. That’s not something that’s gonna waiver.”
Will the Panthers explore the 2025 NFL Draft quarterback draft class?
They would be crazy not to and that’s why early NFL Mock drafts have the Panthers as a destination for the top QB prospects entering the draft.
Josh Edwards’ CBS.com NFL Mock Draft 1.0: Panthers select Quinn Ewers No. 1 overall
Former NFL general manager Rick Spielman has Texas star Quinn Ewers surprisingly going No. 1 overall to the Panthers in Edwards’ NFL Mock Draft.
Is he a better option than Carson Beck or even Shedeur Sanders? Although his stock was rising before going down with an injury, the Panthers will be pressured to get this one right, especially after what they traded to be able to select Young at No. 1 overall.
In his mock draft 1.0, Edwards writes:
“Rick Spielman [former GM] -- Spielman called Bryce Young's Week 1 tape ‘horrendous,’ so he's giving the Panthers another No. 1 overall QB in Quinn Ewers.”
NFL Mocks has the New York Giants, Las Vegas Raiders and New York Jets as fits for Ewers. But, given the state of the Panthers and the QB situation, the selection of Ewers makes sense, especially given the Panthers have selected Texas teammates Jonathon Brooks and Ja’Tavion Sanders in the 2024 NFL Draft. With talent around him, Ewers has proven he can excel. With familiar players around him in the NFL, perhaps Carolina is the perfect opportunity for Ewers.
In an NFL Mocks early season mock draft, the Panthers select another Alabama quarterback in Jalen Milroe in a scenario that will set up a QB competition in 2025. Milroe would be an option in the later rounds if Carolina wants to hang onto Young and go in another direction with their top pick.
The dilemma for the Panthers will be whether Ewers is No. 1 overall material once the 2025 NFL Draft comes around. They will have options, including QBs in later rounds like Milroe.
3 intriguing running back options for the Cleveland Browns
Another player rising up the draft board early in the college football season is Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty. The dynamite running back has already rushed for 586 yards and 9 touchdowns through just three games, including a Week 1 breakout game in which he rushed for 267 yards and 6 touchdowns.
In his mock draft, Edwards has Jeanty going No. 17 overall to the Browns despite a possible need at QB. A team that loves to run the ball the 5-foot-9, 215-pound Jeanty would shine in the Browns’ offense.
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But, if the Browns do go QB or another position in the first round, a couple other top running back prospects would be awesome in a Browns’ uniform. With retirement rumors surrounding Nick Chubb, Cleveland will have options in the 2025 NFL Draft including Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon II and Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins. Both running backs could go high on Day 2 of the draft and have similar size and explosiveness as Chubb. The world is watching Jeanty go wild week after week, but Gordon II and/or Judkins are names Browns fans should be paying attention to leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft.