2025 SNS Pound the Table - Prospects You Want on Your Team

During the scouting and evaluation process, certain players catch the scout’s eye and for a variety of reasons. Prospects may have such physical stature that it is hard to ignore their upside. Or it could be because they have a motor in which the shut off switch is broken and they play with a passion that can almost be viscerally felt. Perhaps it is because anytime his team needs a clutch play, this prospect consistently steps up. Whatever it is, these are the prospects who caught SNS’ eye during the run up to the 2025 NFL Draft. All of these prospects are graded as being likely to be drafted over the course of the seven round draft and a case is made why this prospect is preferrable over other similarly graded prospects. These are prospects that SNS would lobby for in a team’s war room, players that SNS would Pound the Table for, April 24th – 26th in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Dillon Gabriel / QB / Oregon

In a QB class that lacks both elite top end talent and quality depth, Gabriel stands out. Where the NFL is concerned with QB game experience after notable QB prospects with limited college experience have struggled in the NFL (e.g. Mitchell Trubisky and Anthony Richardson), Gabriel is perhaps the most experienced college QB in history with 63 career starts, having started two seasons each at UCF and Oklahoma before leading Oregon to the college football playoffs last season. Gabriel is the career leader in FBS history with 189 total TDs and the second most passing TDs with 155. Gabriel passed for 18,722 yards, second most in FBS history, and accumulated 19,931 yards of total offense, also second best in FBS history. So, Gabriel is highly productive and a proven winner, too. The issue with Gabriel is his lack of size – he only measures in at 5’11 & 1/8”. But as Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa have demonstrated, a lack of height does not keep one from being a productive NFL starting QB. Gabriel is a better athlete than Tua (although not nearly as dynamic as Murray) and he is a dangerous open field runner. Cam Ward is the cream of this QB crop and the drop off after Ward is precipitous as Ward is the only QB SNS grades as a first round pick this week. Gabriel has the arm talent, mobility, and leadership skills to eventually be developed into a starter. Gabriel’s value starts in the second round but he is unlikely to get drafted prior to Saturday afternoon.

Ja’Quinden Jackson / RB / Arkansas

Jackson, like Gabriel, is much traveled, having started his career at Texas as a highly recruited 4-star QB, then transferring to Utah when his path to playing time was blocked in Austin. Finding his path similarly blocked at QB in Salt Lake City, Jackson converted to RB where he immediately earned playing time, becoming an eventual starter. Jackson played his last season at Arkansas where he rushed for 790 yards, averaging 5.3 ypc, and recording 15 rushing TDs during his lone season in Fayetteville. Jackson’s playing style is reminiscent of Marshawn Lynch, and much like Lynch, Jackson runs angry. His lower body is power packed and he runs with great contact balance. Jackson is a powerful goal line and short yardage runner with deceptive speed and burst. The 2025 NFL RB class offers elite talent and great depth and Jackson’s injury history may suppress his value. But Jackson still grades out as a fifth-round pick that is likely to fall to the last couple dozen picks of the draft. But whoever selects him gets a football player with a chip on his shoulder that coaches will love.

Ricky White / UNLV

White began his career at Michigan State in auspicious fashion during the Covid shortened 2020 season with an 8 receptions / 196 yds / 1 TD game against Michigan and then transferred to UNLV, where he started for three seasons and went over 1,000 yards receiving in both 2023 and 2024 with 19 total receiving TDs over the last two years. White lacks some desired thickness – his thin frame means he can be out-muscled against physical CBs – and his measured speed is pedestrian (4.61 40), but he is a gamer who plays faster than his time, is quick, creates separation due to his agility and precision, and plays big when it matters most. Besides his ability as a WR, White is one of the best special teams players in this draft. The 2024 Mountain West Conference Special Teams P.O.Y, White is a punt blocking demon off the corner with a special burst – he recorded four career blocked punts, scoring two TDs, and blocking another punt that was recovered for a safety. White’s game film makes him look like a third-round draft pick but his poor 40 time probably reduces his value to being a fifth or sixth round pick. But whoever drafts White gets a playmaker that fans will love.

Kelvin Banks / OT / Texas

The 2024 Outland Trophy winner (best college football interior lineman) is being overlooked by many draft analysts in favor of fellow top prospects Will Campbell (LSU) and Armand Membou (Missouri). All three players are excellent prospects with the physical and mental makeup to be long-term NFL starters. Banks looks the part, possessing the desired size and length (6’5 & 1/8” / 315 / 33 & ½” Arms / 10 & 3/8” Hands / 84 & 3/8” Wingspan), with very light feet, and a nasty playing disposition. He is a 3+ year starter at OLT for the Longhorns. He is very durable and plays with outstanding leverage and very light feet. Banks handles both speed and power well and is a well-rounded, complete OT capable of starting in week one this September. Campbell and Membou are also capable of starting early in their careers but Banks’ combination of skills, durability, and athleticism makes him a potential Pro Bowler early in his career. Banks should get drafted in the first dozen or so picks on Thursday and deserves to be the first offensive lineman drafted overall.

Ahmed Hassanein / EDGE / Boise State

Hassanein has limited football experience as a native-born Egyptian but has rapidly improved over the last two seasons and is now firmly on draft radars. What Hassanein lacks in experience, he more for makes up with effort and a non-stop motor. He is well-coached and plays with excellent leverage and a wide base. He establishes a strong edge and is a very effective run defender. Although lacking elite burst or bend, Hassanein is an efficient pass rusher who fights through blocks and pursues hard from the backside. He flashes a powerful bull rush that could become an effective tool to pressure the QB with continued development. The 2025 EDGE class is a quality group of pass rushers and Hassanein is much rawer than the top prospects at the position so this figures to make him a day three pick. But Hassanein should go off the board before the end of the fifth round on Saturday.

Quincy Riley / CB / Louisville

Sometimes it seems that scouts fall in love with measureables – height, weight, arm length, 40-time, vertical jump, and broad jump – while failing to put into perspective how those attributes translate to the playing field. And such seems to be the case of Riley who has put together two straight years of consistent, quality starts in the ACC. Riley did not win the genetic lottery from a traits perspective (5’10 & ½” / 194) but is a true, #1 CB at the college level. Although not tall, Riley’s arm length is more than adequate for an NFL outside CB (31” arms with a 75” wingspan) and he plays bigger than his size. More importantly, Riley is as good of a ball athlete as any corner in this class with 14 career INTs with 13 passes defensed last season. Riley plays like a first-round talent but is unlikely to get drafted in the first round. He should go off the board in the first 75 picks this coming weekend.

Billy Bowman / S / Oklahoma

The 2025 safety class has very good top end talent with Nick Emmanwori (South Carolina) and Malaki Starks (Georgia) entering the draft as likely first-round picks while Xavier Watts (Notre Dame), Lathan Ransom (Ohio State), Jaylen Reed and Kevin Winston (Penn State), and Bowman looking like day two picks. Bowman is much smaller than the other top safety prospects (5’ 9 & 7/8” / 192 / 28 & ½” Arms) but is a willing and physical tackler who hits like a LB. Bowman is an elite ball athlete with natural hands and instincts. Bowman can be over-matched in man coverage downfield against TEs and bigger WRs and his lack of height can cost him at the catch point, but Bowman is feisty and competitive with a playing style similar to Arizona’s Budda Baker. The depth of this safety class may suppress the value of this year’s safeties but it is hard to imagine Bowman being available when the draft kickoffs on Saturday.