5 players 1 love, and 2 I don’t, on Dane Brugler’s early 2025 NFL Draft top-50 Big Board

Fans of the New York Giants may be concentrating on this week’s preseason game against the New York Jets and the start of the 2024 regular season in September. However, the 2024 College Football season is looming as well, and gets started this weekend.

So with the 2024 college season starting, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler dropped his initial Top-50 big board. Everyone’s board will change on a weekly basis for the next few months and will likely change massively by the time the draft rolls around.

But for now it’s a fine reference point. It’s also a nice jumping off point to highlight some players I’m excited about at the start of the season, as well as a couple players that I’m wary of.

Players I love this year

Tetairoa McMillan (WR, Arizona)
The 2024 wide receiver class was strong, but I’ve been trying to put the word out since before this year’s draft that next year’s receiver class could be stacked as well.

The first receiver off the board will likely come down to McMill and Luthor Burden III, and there’s a strong argument for either. Burden will (and already has) drawn comparisons to Deebo Samuel and has Pro Bowl potential in the right offense. McMillan, however, is a more classic “X” receiver who absolutely jumped off the screen when I watched Arizona’s offense this past spring.

McMillan has great size at 6-foot-5, 210 pounds with the long speed to get behind the defense, an absolutely massive catch radius, and great body control. His route running could probably be best described as “good but not great” right now, but he could turn into another A.J. Green if he can take his routes to the next level.

For me, the difference between Burden and McMillan is that McMillan would offer the Giants a skill set that they currently don’t have.

Harold Perkins (LB, LSU)
If you like defensive football and Perkins isn’t already a favorite of yours, I’d suggest getting familiar with him sooner rather than later.

Perkins ranks 20th on Brugler’s board, but there’s a real chance he could crack the top half of the first round and even the Top 10. Not only is he disruptive playing downhill from the second level and has the ability to affect the quarterback as a blitzer, but Perkins is also a very good coverage player. He’s slightly undersized compared to the classic archetype, but his size comes with elite athleticism and movement skills.

Perkins is fiery, instinctive, and can play sideline-to-sideline. There’s a ton to like, and he’s going to make some team very happy.

While I think he should be drafted highly, he’s also the type of player that the NFL mysteriously refuses to draft and falls to the Baltimore Ravens.

Benjamin Morrison (CB, Notre Dame)
The Giants have quietly expressed concern about their defensive secondary at times this year. During Hard Knocks we saw Joe Schoen acknowledge that trading for Brian Burns meant that the team likely wouldn’t be able to add an outside corner in the second round.

But 2025 is another year, and this year projects to have a very good cornerback class.

Benjamin Morrison might not be the best corner in this draft class, though he’s hot on the heels of Travis Hunter (Colorado) and Will Johnson (Michigan). He doesn’t quite have the physical and athletic traits of the other corners in this draft class, but Morrison is smart and extremely versatile. He has fluid hips, quick feet, and very high football IQ which allows him to excel in both man and zone coverage. Morrison can stick in tight coverage with receivers, is good in zone coverage, and understands his assignments in coverage schemes using pattern matching rules.

Morrison could give defensive coordinator Shane Bowen a great cornerback to pair with Deonte Banks in his quarters-heavy defense.

Tyleik Williams (iDL, Ohio State)
The Giants’ defensive line is one of the best in the NFL, but they do have a bit of a question next to Dexter Lawrence II. The truly excellent news there is that this year’s draft class is absolutely loaded with great defensive linemen. There are so many potentially great linemen that the Giants would have to actively try to avoid drafting one, and it’s possible that there could be overwhelming value at one of their first three picks. And that might be Williams in the first two rounds.

Williams isn’t quite the dancing elephant that Lawrence is, but he’s big, powerful, and has surprising athleticism. He’ll also come into the NFL with good technique that should allow him to be a force immediately. He keeps good pad level, knows how to use his hands, and understands how to properly leverage his gaps.

He should be able to play pretty much anywhere along the defensive interior, as well as in an odd or even front. The Giants have always drafted defensive tackles well, and it’s easy to see a player like Williams appealing to them.

Jalen Milroe (QB, Alabama)
Millroe doesn’t make Brugler’s Top-50, but I suspect we’ll all be talking about him after this season. First and foremost, I’m a big believer in developmental arcs when it comes to quarterbacks. Last year was Milroe’s first season as a starter at Alabama, and he looked it to start the season. However, improved significantly over the course of the year and was an (almost) completely different player by the College Football Playoffs than he was in September.

Another year’s growth could make him a legitimate contender to be the first quarterback off the board. He has good size (6-foot-2, 225), with great athleticism, and one of the best arms in the upcoming draft. He’s already a very good deep ball thrower who loves to attack deep, and can also make defenses pay for not respecting his ability as a runner. He also showed some good competitive toughness pulling out a win in the Iron Bowl, which was a game Alabama should have lost.

Of course, he needs to work on his sack avoidance and his 32.8 percent sack rate is disastrously high. But he could stand to get much better at the mental side of the game under Kalen DeBoer, who coached Michael Penix Jr. at Washington.

All in all, Milroe’s development could be absolutely fascinating to watch this year.

Two players that make me wary

Shadeur Sanders (QB, Colorado)
Full disclosure, I’m writing this strictly from the perspective of the New York Giants. Sanders has upside as a quarterback and is a pretty safe bet (if you want to bet on such things) to be the first QB off the board in April.

However, I would be stunned if the Giants draft Sanders next year. Again, not because of his ability on the field, but because I just don’t see John Mara bringing in Deion Sanders’ son. Mara is very protective of the Giants’ brand and being a good representative of the franchise is almost as important as being a good player on the field. The image put forward, and Deion Sanders’ larger than life personality could bring way too much attention to the Giants.

Emery Jones Jr. (OT, LSU)
LSU has a pair of offensive tackles who could get drafted in the top half of the first round, and the Giants could well be in the market for a new right tackle after the 2024 season. But while Will Campbell could be a Day 1 starter at left tackle, Jones Jr. has some traits that would make me nervous.

In particular, while he’s massively powerful and is already a dominant run blocker, Jones struggles with pass protection. It’s game over when he gets his hands on defenders, but his feet can get stuck in the mud and he can struggle to match speed rushers off the edge. We’ve already seen plenty of big, powerful linemen who can’t quite get their footwork to work for them and have issues with speed off the edge. There’s room for him to grow and improve this year, but I need to see it before I advocate the Giants draft him.