2025 NFL Draft Stock Watch: Risers From Round 1 of CFB Playoffs

If you haven't been able to tell, I've been absolutely stoked about the new format of the College Football playoff.

To keep the energy going without CFP games for the next week-plus, I want to recap the first weekend of the playoff with my biggest risers based on their Round 1 playoff performances.

NFL Draft Stock Risers From Round 1 of CFB Playoffs

Here are my 11 NFL Draft risers from Round 1 of the CFP …

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2025 NFL Draft Analysis

QB Stock Risers in 2025 NFL Draft

Ohio State QB Will Howard

Against the Vols, Ohio State put the game in Howard’s hands and asked him to beat Tennessee’s corners one-on-one. He obliged, lighting the Vols up for 311 yards and a 2/1 TD/INT rate on 29 attempts. It was probably Howard’s best game as a Buckeye, and it could not have come at a better time for the high-variance prospect.

The 6-foot-4, 237-pounder is a good athlete in a big package. He also has arm talent, throwing a tight spiral with NFL-caliber velocity. Howard is a risky prospect, though, because he has messy mechanics for a guy who will turn 24 prior to next season. And while he has solid attributes across the board, none of them are elite—he decidedly does not have Josh Allen’s athleticism or arm strength.

Howard’s accuracy tends to vacillate the further he goes down the field because of a sloppy lower half that isn’t always set as he throws. He’s a Day 3 prospect, but exactly where he ends up falling on Draft Weekend will be informed by how he continues to play in the CFP.

Next Wednesday’s Round 2 rematch with Oregon is an enormous opportunity for Howard to make another statement to the NFL. Franchises with veteran quarterbacks that are interested in adding a developmental pick will be watching closely.

Clemson QB Cade Klubnik

Klubnik returned home over the weekend, to Austin, Texas, where his parents—Kim and Tod—attend the same church as Texas QB Quinn Ewers. I’m not even kidding. Anyhow, Klubnik was Clemson’s best player in a 38-24 loss on Saturday. Klubnik threw for 336 yards—the most Texas has given up all season—and three TDs with one INT.

The fact that Clemson was even in the game in the first place was mostly attributable to Klubnik, of whom HC Dabo Swinney said—“You’re never out of a game with him.” The common assumption had been that Klubnik would return to Clemson next season, but that’s an open-ended question now after Klubnik’s resurgent season. “I don’t have an answer for that yet,” Klubnik recently said when asked whether he’d return or declare.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder is a very good athlete who will add move-the-pocket utility to any offense he plays in. A former five-star recruit, Klubnik’s field-reading took a big step forward this season, but needs to keep improving. In the NFL, he won’t beat anyone with arm talent, so he’ll need to win in the pocket with his eyes and brain. Improving his progression speed and his decision-making under pressure would lead to another rise in his NFL Draft stock. Will he return to school with an eye on that, or will he cash in his Day 3 development chip right now and attempt to refine these areas of his game off the bench to begin his career?

RB Stock Risers in 2025 NFL Draft

Ohio State RB TreVeyon Henderson

Ohio State had the polar opposite gameplan for Tennessee than they deployed against Michigan. The Buckeyes worked around Tennessee’s big advantage in the trenches and put the ball in the air far more than expected. And while Tennessee shut down RB Quinshon Judkins (34 yards on 3.4 YPC)—his patience has not been a good trait behind OSU’s shoddy run-blocking—the Vols had all kinds of issues corralling Henderson.

The explosive, slippery OSU back finished with 10 carries for 80 yards and two TDs, along with four receptions for 54 yards. The 5-foot-10, 212-pound Henderson has good vision, as Judkins does, but Henderson’s is used more like a cat, immediately denoting danger to dart from, whereas Judkins will wait out the development of creases, sometimes getting swallowed by the ocean before the Red Sea parts.

Turns out Henderson was the perfect antidote to Tennessee’s aggressive front seven. He can snap off complete direction changes with one hard foot in the dirt, and he can throttle up to top speed in a few steps. If you overpursue, Henderson will make you pay.

What has aided Henderson’s draft stock is the legitimate development of his receiving game over the past few years. Henderson is a terrible pass-blocker, so he needs to be able to catch and run to be usable in the NFL on passing plays. In the past two seasons, he has had 41 receptions and only one drop, averaging nearly double-digit YAC during that sample.

This is a very deep RB class. Henderson is going to hear his name called on Day 2. He’s making a strong argument to be considered in the initial round of that day’s festivities, as opposed to having to wait til near the end. The Oregon game provides another big opportunity.

Pass-Catcher Stock Risers In 2025 NFL Draft

Texas TE Gunnar Helm

An unheralded three-star recruit coming out, Helm, now a senior, has developed into one of college football’s best tight ends. He had to wait his turn behind five-star former starter TE Ja'Tavion Sanders—a fourth-round pick of the Carolina Panthers last spring—to get his turn. And that wasn’t always easy. Texas TE coach Jeff Banks has recounted the story of Helm arguing to him after the 2022 season that he was a superior blocker to Sanders and with similar receiving utility.

In Saturday’s 38-24 victory over Clemson, Helm led the team with six receptions for 77 yards, one of which was a 19-yard TD catch. Helm left the game with 55 catches for 688 yards, breaking Sanders' single-season school records for a TE in both receptions and receiving yards.

Helm is your classic NFL projection at 6-foot-5, 250 pounds. He’s an extremely reliable receiver short and intermediate. What he lacks in route-running pizazz he compensates for with efficiency to his spot and a very good feel for pinning defenders behind his enormous frame at the catch point. He will appeal to timing-based offenses at the next level because of this. Helm is not a send-him-down-the-seam-and-watch-him-posterize-a-safety type—but he does offer a little big-play ability due to his smooth receiver-to-runner transitions and quick upfield burst.

Helm is in contention to be one of the first five TEs off the board in April. On paper, he has a good matchup in Round 2 against an Arizona State team that has some coverage deficiencies.

2025 NFL Draft Stock Risers - Offensive Line

Ohio State OG Donovan Jackson

Firstly, Jackson deserves his flowers for kicking from LG to LT in the middle of the season to fill in following the season-ending injury to stud LT Josh Simmons in October. This was not a nothing-burger move. Jackson was already a Day 2 prospect as an OG, coming off a First-Team All-B1G season.

This was an extremely risky move for his evaluation. Jackson mightily struggled in his first game at LT against Penn State. He excelled against Northwestern and Purdue, then had instances of pass-pro issues against Indiana and Michigan to close the regular season (allowing seven pressures in those games).

But in an enormous spot, Jackson stepped up big against the Vols. Tennessee’s offense—already playing without two starting WRs— became a limping M*A*S*H unit by the end of the game after RB Dylan Sampson and WRs Dont'e Thornton Jr. and Squirrel White got knocked out. But the Vols were expected to be able to be competitive because of their defense, particularly a powerful front seven against OSU’s injury-decimated OL.

Instead, Ohio State’s offensive line held up against a top-notch pass rush amid OC Chip Kelly’s audible to a pass-heavy game script. Much credit for that belongs to Jackson.

Matched up across from stud Tennessee EDGE James Pearce Jr. and a deep rotation of freaky-athletic Tennessee edge-rushers, PFF gave Jackson a 78.7 pass-pro grade over 34 pass-blocking snaps. Jackson is making the argument to the NFL that, in addition to his NFL-starter-OG toolkit, he possesses swing OT versatility as well.

In Round 2, Jackson will look to avenge OSU’s regular-season loss to Oregon, the game where his friend Simmons went down.

Texas OT Kelvin Banks Jr.

Banks did not play his best game of the season against Clemson. But the Lombardi Award winner (the nation's best collegiate lineman) and unanimous All-American returned from injury—he missed the SEC title game—to keep Quinn Ewers’ back clean.

Banks, who earned a 75.3 PFF grade for his performance against Clemson, has allowed only three sacks in his college career. The top-10 overall prospect this April gets Arizona State next.

2025 NFL Draft Stock Risers - Defense

Ohio State EDGE J.T. Tuimoloau

The improvements to Tuimoloau’s game in 2024 have largely been under-discussed. That probably ended with his dominant performance against Tennessee. Tuimoloau might have been the weekend’s best defender overall.

He wrecked the Tennessee offensive line for two sacks, five hurries, seven pressures, a batted pass, four run-stops, and a forced fumble. He and fellow OSU EDGE Jack Sawyer were utterly destructive. “We took turns, it looked like,” Tuimoloau said of he and Sawyer. “I got a sack, he got a sack. I got one, he got one.”

Tuimoloau has a Round 2 floor in April. He still has a very real chance to crack Round 1. Next Wednesday’s date with Oregon will be a much-watched tape by evaluators this spring.

Penn State EDGE Abdul Carter

SMU QB Kevin Jennings was terrible on Saturday. But to be fair to Jennings, he was under duress the entire game. Penn State generated 18 hurries and four sacks as a team. Carter, a projected top-15 pick, was the biggest thorn in SMU’s side. He posted an 83.1 PFF pass-rush grade, recording four hurries, five pressures, and a sack. Next round, Carter draws Boise State LT Kage Casey. Casey has allowed zero sacks and only one QB hit in 420 pass-blocking reps this season.

Clemson LB Wade Woodaz

Woodaz easily had the best game of Clemson’s three defenders who played all 75 snaps. Woodaz missed two tackles, but he also led the team with four run stops. In coverage, Woodaz knocked a ball away and allowed a mere four receiving yards on three targets. Woodaz showed off his versatility in the game, logging 20 snaps on the EDGE, 23 as a box LB, and 32 as the nickel defender. With the season over, Woodaz has elected to return to school. He enters next season as one of the 2026 classes’ highest-graded LBs.

Texas CB Jahdae Barron

You can’t blame Barron for Clemson QB Cade Klubnik’s air yardage outburst on Saturday. Targeted eight times, Barron allowed only four catches for 23 yards. He also made two run stops while going five-for-five on tackle attempts.

The 5-foot-11, 195-pounder has essentially played equal career snaps on the boundary and in the slot, versatility he’ll bring to the NFL. My guess is his name is called early on Friday’s Day 2 in April. He’s got a plum matchup in Round 2 against an Arizona State team that has little WR talent on hand with WR Jordan Tyson out for the season with an injury.

Notre Dame CB Leonard Moore

Lastly, I had to shout out ND CB Leonard Moore. Even though he’s a true freshman who won’t be draft-eligible for two more years, the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder is already drawing the eyes of evaluators. Against Indiana on Friday, Moore erased his side of the field, allowing only one catch for 17 yards on six targets.