As we continue on through the defensive side of the football, what follows are my 2025 NFL Draft linebacker rankings. I provide in-depth analysis for the top four, followed by bulleted rankings to round out the top 12 at the position.

For more positional draft rankings, see the end of this column.

2025 NFL Draft Linebacker Rankings

Read THE THOR 500 here — Thor Nystrom's full ranks of the 500 best players in the 2025 NFL Draft!

Top Four Linebackers In The NFL Draft

1. Jalon Walker | Georgia | 6010/243 | RAS: N/A | Comp: Haason Reddick

Sleek, high-octane athlete. Hybrid LB/EDGE defender. Comes to the NFL at the perfect time—a modern defensive answer to the continued spread-and-space evolution of offensive football. Walker has shown an exceptional prowess for getting after quarterbacks—the past two seasons, he was 96th percentile in PFF pass-rushing grade. He’s dangerous with his hand in the dirt as a DE, and also when sent as an off-ball blitzer. Last year, Walker logged over 40% of his snaps on the EDGE, shifting down more and more on obvious passing downs.

As a pass-rusher, I didn’t see Walker’s “lack of size” hinder him much. In fact, his size, in conjunction with his rush style, sometimes played to his benefit—multiple times, I saw Walker get skinny as a sheet of paper to squeeze through double-teams when sent on the blitz from an off-ball alignment. He’s bendy and flexible, dipping low and using his shoulder pad as a shield to absorb the offensive linemen’s blow before turning the corner.

Walker is extremely sudden side-to-side and has proven to be an effective second-level spy, forcing dual-threat quarterbacks to think twice before running. Walker does take false steps in run defense, but often gets back on schedule and then some with a sharp veer and instant acceleration the other way. Walker is taking fewer false steps as time goes on, but his instincts are still improving. Blink-fast closing speed when he gets into the backfield. Blew up numerous plays he wasn’t credited for in the box score by forcing the quarterback to flee, or forcing the running back to steer away from the flow of his blocking.

Prior to 2024, Walker didn’t appear to know what he was doing in coverage—this zapped him of his athleticism. But in 2024, he started to show a better understanding of zone coverage responsibilities. I’m not going to harp on that area of his game much. Because, on passing downs, let’s be honest—Walker’s value is harassing quarterbacks, and that’s what you’re employing him to do.

2. Jihaad Campbell | Alabama | 6027/235 | RAS: 9.87 | Comp: Derrick Johnson

The SEC had two destructive LB/EDGE hybrid defenders who wore #11 last year. In the case of Campbell, he’s a former five-star 3-4 OLB recruit who wound up starting the past two years at off-ball. Campbell logged a tick over 10% of his career snaps off the EDGE. It’s entirely possible that Campbell’s drafting team will see him as an edge-defender first, with additional off-ball utility. In a sound business decision, Campbell spent the pre-draft process training exclusively as an EDGE defender at Exos.

Here’s the simplest way I can explain the difference between Walker and Campbell … Walker is more versatile and is the clearly superior pass-rusher, while Campbell is more reliable in run defense (95th-percentile missed tackle rate the past two years) and far better in coverage (83rd percentile in PFF coverage grade last two seasons).

Campbell is a bursty, sideline-to-sideline athlete who arrives with violent intentions. I appreciate his dichotomy of physical football while adhering to technique. Campbell is a wrap-up tackler who keeps a base under him into contact. I was surprised by how natural Campbell looked in zone coverage. He’s smooth and efficient backpedaling to appropriate depth, and he has a clear understanding of his responsibilities on each concept.

I appreciated examples on his tape of carrying a target to the outer rings of his area before passing off the assignment to deep help in order to peel off to an intermediate target threatening to enter his space. Campbell reads the quarterback's eyes and has the acceleration and length to close distance with the ball in the air and contest. The next evolution of Campbell’s overall game is simply improving his snap-bang post-snap instincts.

On Walker’s tape, the eagerness to crash downhill sometimes had his foot tapping the gas before he knew for sure what color the traffic light was. On Campbell’s tape, I noted a delayed beat before triggering—to extend our car metaphor, Campbell wanted to confirm the light was green before moving instead of hitting the gas right when he saw the first flicker of a color change. The quicker that Polaroid starts developing in Campbell’s mind, the more plays he’s ultimately going to be involved in. 

3. Carson Schwesinger | UCLA | 6024/242 | RAS: N/A | Comp: Paul Posluszny

A case study in perseverance, Schwesinger arrived at UCLA in 2021 as a walk-on. He redshirted that season, and then spent the next two as a rotational reserve and core special-teamer. That work earned him a crack at the starting lineup in 2024, and Schwesinger went ballistic, earning First-team All-American honors while finishing as a Butkus finalist.

Whereas Walker and Campbell are each in their own ways new-age hybrid defenders, Schwesinger is a throwback. Schwesinger is not the caliber of athlete that Walker or Campbell are, but he processes information quicker and thus tends to threaten the blocking scheme earlier. Schwesinger has a bag of tricks to breach the moat and storm the gates, timing his entry into the gap and contorting through cramped quarters to free himself into daylight. He’s not an upper-echelon athlete, but Schwesinger is a very fluid one, an economy-of-movement type whose appendages are connected to his eyes and processor.

Schwesinger was used differently than Campbell and Walker, logging more snaps in coverage than as a pass-rusher and in run defense combined. Out in coverage, Schwesinger’s fluidity and brains stood out. He doesn’t get baited. Like Campbell, Schwesinger has the light feet, short-area quickness, and mental fluidity to protect the seam to the depth of his responsibility and peel off downhill to deal with new threats to his area. In instances where the offense gets him isolated in space, Schwesinger typically stomps out brush fires with a swift tackle. Over 33 receptions allowed in 2024, Schwesinger had 14 PFF-charted “stops”— constituted as a loss for the offense based on down and distance— against only four missed tackles.

4. Demetrius Knight | South Carolina | 6015/235 | RAS: 8.17 | Comp: Junior Colson

Big, experienced, well-built linebacker. Knight, a four-year starting quarterback in high school, sees the field well. The cousin of former NFL CB DeAngelo Hall, Knight took some time to develop while transitioning to full-time LB at Georgia Tech.

He was a reserve and special-teamer his four seasons with the Yellow Jackets. Knight broke out in 2023 at Charlotte (First-Team All-AAC) before his true coming-out party in 2024 for South Carolina. Knight has the grit and body armor for dirty work between the tackles—he’s fearless coming downhill and is happy to scrap with offensive linemen. He’s an explosive, violent finisher, accelerating to the doorstep and kicking down the door with a firm base under him while uncoiling through the target. Last season, Knight finished 87th percentile in PFF run-defense grade.

He’s also strong in coverage due to his combination of athleticism and football IQ. Over his two full seasons as a starter—and across nearly 600 coverage snaps—Knight picked off four balls while allowing only one TD and surrendered a QB rating against on targets lower than 66.0 in both campaigns.

Of my top-15 ranked LBs, Knight allowed the lowest QB rating against on targets in 2024, and was No. 2 in that department in 2023. Knight scares the analytics community due to his late breakout and older age. However, Knight’s size, athleticism, instincts, and level of play in the SEC last season strongly suggest he’s going to be an effective NFL player.

More 2025 NFL Draft Positional Rankings

• Quarterback Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Running Back Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Wide Receiver Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Tight End Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Offensive Tackle Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Offensive Guard and Center Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Defensive Tackle Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• EDGE Rusher Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft
• Linebacker Rankings for the 2025 NFL Draft

Premium

Go FantasyLife+

Your league is unique. Your advice should be too. Get personalized tools, rankings, and projections tailored to your fantasy football league settings.

Learn More