Updated 2025 DE/ER preview … The 2024 draft was something of a mixed bag for the edge rushers. Four were actually selected within the first 21 picks, but none went before the 15th pick; in fact, the first 14 players taken last April were all offensive players. However, don’t expect that scenario to be repeated this coming April. Tennessee DE James Pearce, for example, currently appears to be the top-rated prospect overall for the upcoming draft on more than one team’s board. And the 6-5, 245-pound Pearce, who had 9.5 sacks last fall for the Vols, is just the tip of the iceberg of what could be a very deep, talented positional grouping. In fact, there are whispers in the scouting community that Georgia DE Mykel Williams could ultimately be the better prospect. Williams, at 6-5, 265, has prototype size and length, along with uncommon athleticism, and while he has yet to put up big numbers with the Dawgs the special tools are there. Same for LSU LB Harold Perkins, who people were comping to Cowboys’ star Micah Parsons during a terrific freshman year in 2022. Again, though, his production fell off a little last fall – and he’s not huge at barely 225 pounds – but like UGA’s Williams, has potential elite tools. Meanwhile, Abdul Carter of Penn State, Florida State’s Patrick Payton and Nic Scourton, now of Texas A&M after transferring from Purdue, also look to have legit top 20 potential. Payton, like Williams, is long, tall edge rusher who is just starting to scratch the surface, while Scourton didn’t get much national ink with the Boilermakers, but is a full-sized 280-pounder with the athleticism to have played LB for Purdue last year.
At the same time, there is an even bigger group of second-tier edge rushers, many of whom were expected to be second day picks this past April, but opted to return to school. They include the Ohio State duo of JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer, Ashton Gillotte of Louisville, Princely Umanmielen, now at Mississppi, Landon Jackson of Arkansas, Jordan Burch of Oregon, RJ Oben, now at Notre Dame, and Tyler Baron and Akheem Mesidor of Miami. Three other guys who also have intriguing upside that we are really looking forward to seeing are Elijah Roberts of SMU, Trey Moore now at Texas and Jah Joyner of Minnesota. Roberts is a solid 6-4, 265-pounder who had a breakout year last fall when he posted 10 sacks and made several AA teams. Same for Moore who was third in the country with 14 sacks last fall while playing at Texas-San Antonio where he was the AAC Defensive Player of the Year; Moore is LB sized at 6-3, 245, but he’s both explosive and instinctive. For his part, the Gophers’ Joyner is another prototype sized DE (6-5, 265) who had 7.5 sacks last fall despite playing mostly as a situational pass rusher. Here is our current ranking of the top edge rushers for the 2025 draft.
