I Have No Wins and I Must Draft (Part 8)

(I Have No Wins and I Must Draft is our ongoing series that follows the 2025 NFL draft order and the players projected to be taken at the beginning of that draft. You can find all the previous parts, as well as a few supplemental articles about the 2025 NFL Draft here)

Pick #16: Arizona Cardinals

After starting off the season with a 2-4 record, the Cardinals put together a 4 game winning streak from Week 7 to Week 10 and fought their way back to 1st place in the NFC West as they headed into their Week 11 bye. Things quickly deteriorated after that as they lost their next 3 games in a row, and they finished the year back below .500 after going 2-5 in the final 7 games. They managed to end on a good note with a win over the 49ers in Week 18, but this 8-9 finish was still a disappointing way to wrap up the year. The head coach / general manager tandem of Jonathan Gannon and Monti Ossenfort are now 12-22 in the two seasons since they took over the team, and will be looking to finally put together a winning record next year. Offensively, this team performed slightly above the league average while their defense ranked closer to the middle of the pack. At this point in the draft, the best defensive player available should get picked. That player is likely to be Nic Scourton from Texas A&M, Kenneth Grant from Michigan, or Jalon Walker from Georgia if he falls this far.

Pick #17: Cincinnati Bengals

Bengals fans are still trying to wrap their heads around the fact that a team with this much talent on offense could have missed the playoffs. Joe Burrow was arguably a top 3 quarterback this season while Ja'Marr Chase was undeniably the most productive receiver in the entire league. Despite this level of scoring success and the 5 game winning streak they ended the season with, the Bengals were not able to overcome their early season struggles and that final record of 9-8 was not enough. Zac Taylor has now put together four consecutive winning seasons in his 6 years as the Bengals' head coach, but these last two years have both come very close to falling below .500 again. He and longtime director of player personnel Duke Tobin will most certainly be looking for a defensive player with this pick. Jalon Walker's draft projections are all over the place at this point in the year, but if he is still available, he could immediately bring a lot to this team's linebacker room. Nic Scourton, Mike Green, or Kenneth Grant would all be possibilities depending on how the Cardinals and Falcons use their picks right before this one.

Pick #18: Seattle Seahawks

First year head coach Mike Macdonald managed to get the Seahawks to their best record since 2020 and a 2nd place finish in the division. They started out 3-0, then dropped 5 of their next 6 games before heading into the Week 10 bye sitting at 4-5. They came out of the bye and finished with 6 wins in the final 8 games to get up to 10-7. Unlike his predecessor in Pete Carroll, Macdonald does not have final say over personnel decisions. That responsibility was granted to longtime front office staffer John Schneider. This pick would likely be best used to bolster the offensive line. Look for Josh Simmons from Ohio State to be taken here if no one else scoops him up, with a contingency to plan to take either Tyler Booker from Alabama or Josh Conerly Jr. from Oregon.

Pick #19: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Buccaneers were a really exciting team in the regular season that fizzled out immediately in the playoffs. A winning record is usually good enough to take first place in the NFC South, but head coach Todd Bowles got this squad to 10-7 with one of the more productive offenses in the league and they show a lot of promise for the future. While there might be a few defensive players who seem like an obvious choice here, longtime general manager Jason Licht might be tempted to pick a receiver here in order to help keep the positive momentum going with this offense. If Luther Burden III from Missouri or Emeka Egbuka from Ohio State are still on the board at this point, they might be too good to pass up as a new weapon for Baker Mayfield.

Pick #20: Denver Broncos

Sean Payton's second year in Denver surprised a lot of people. With a record of 10-7, rookie QB Bo Nix played much better than anticipated and led a Top 10 scoring offense to their first playoff appearance in the last decade. The defense overall was very good, allowing just 311 points on the season which was good for the 3rd lowest number of points allowed in the league. There aren't a ton of areas that this team needs to improve on, but the one position that lagged behind all the others this year was the tight end. Denver's tight end group only accumulated 46 receptions (Tied for 30th) for 455 yards (31st) last season. This team is way ahead of schedule in most areas and landing a solid rookie tight end could turn them into serious contenders going forward. General manager George Paton should try to land either Tyler Warren from Penn State or Colston Loveland from Michigan with this pick, and he might want to consider trading up to get which ever one they can if either of them have a good combine. In the event that both of these guys are off the board before the Broncos get to pick, they could find very solid alternatives in either Harold Fannin Jr. from Bowling Green or Gunnar Helm from Texas. It cannot be stressed enough how much better this team would immediately become if they could just get average production from their tight ends.

There is no update to the draft order since we published Part 7 of this series, but in Part 9 we will dive into picks #21 through #25 which are currently held by the Steelers, Chargers, Packers, Vikings and Texans. Picks #29 and #30 will be determined after tomorrow's Conference Championship Games. Once the order of all 32 picks of the first round have been set, we'll be releasing a full mock draft of the first round with updated picks to reflect the head coach / general manager changes that have been made in recent weeks. Check back here in the next few weeks for that.