Peter Schrager 2025 Mock Draft: Notable Picks from ESPN Expert's Final Predictions

In his first and only mock draft of the season, ESPN's Peter Schrager is expecting a shakeup starting at No. 5.

The once safe bet of Mason Graham being selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars has given way to a lot of thought that Ashton Jeanty will be the pick.

Schrager is expecting the Jaguars to end up with the Boise State star. His top four projected picks are chalk before the Jeanty selection.

The other key first-round selection Schrager is projecting has Shedeur Sanders falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 21, with the New Orleans Saints passing on him at nine to take Georgia edge Mykel Williams.

The smoke around Jeanty going to the Jaguars has been rising rapidly in the past few days. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler said on the April 18 episode of NFL Live they were a "sleeper" destination for the 2024 Heisman runner-up.

Five days later, it's hard to call Jeanty a sleeper option at that spot. The Ringer's Todd McShay said on Tuesday there is real "buzz" about the Jaguars taking him.

Sanders' draft spot could be the biggest story of the first round. The Steelers remain stuck in limbo if they are waiting for Aaron Rodgers to make a decision. He said last week on The Pat McAfee Show that retirement remains a "possibility" and offered no indication when a final answer might come.

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Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson are currently the only quarterbacks under contract to the Steelers, so they seem likely to draft someone. The problem is if they wait until after the first round, they don't pick again until No. 83 because their second-round pick was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in the DK Metcalf deal.

It was assumed as soon as the news of Derek Carr's shoulder injury came out that Sanders was all but a lock to end up in New Orleans at No. 9.

Now, it seems like Jaxson Dart is the preferred quarterback option for the Saints. In Schrager's mock, however, they won't have the chance to take him because there's a projected trade with the New York Giants acquiring the 26th pick from the Los Angeles Rams to select the Ole Miss standout.

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In this scenario, Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough could end up being the Saints' pick in the second round at No. 40 overall if they want to add a signal-caller.

If the Giants come out of the draft with Carter as their top pick and Dart as a developmental quarterback who doesn't need to play right away because Russell Wilson is on the roster for this season, that's not a bad result for a franchise in need of talent on both sides of the ball.

All of these hypothetical scenarios will finally get real answers starting on Thursday night when the first round of the 2025 NFL draft begins at 8 p.m. ET.