8 NFL Rookies Who Could Be All-Pros or Pro Bowlers in 2025

With the NFL draft now come and gone, we know where this year’s rookie class will begin their professional careers. In the next week or so, those newcomers will be heading to their new teams for rookie minicamps and their first taste of life in the pros.

Now, there isn’t a fanbase in the league that isn’t happy with their haul—or at the very least trying to talk themselves into being happy about it. But the fact is that not all drafts are created equal. Some teams added more impact players than others, if only because they had earlier picks in each round.

Now, being an early pick doesn’t guarantee success in the NFL—there are no guarantees in this game, folks. But there are players who are much better positioned for the type of success that leads to individual accolades, the crown jewel of which is being named the Offensive or Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Making the Pro Bowl or being named an All-Pro is another honor for rookies to shoot for, although it isn’t easy to reach—in 2024, just six rookies made the Pro Bowl, and that includes alternates.

But there will be first-year guys who will either be headed to Orlando or getting an attaboy from the Associated Press—and this talented octet contains the leading candidates to do so.

What? Like this was going to start somewhere else?

There’s a reason the Jacksonville Jaguars mortgaged their future to trade up for Colorado’s Travis Hunter. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner is a unicorn—the first true two-way player to come along in years.

Per ESPN, Jaguars general manager James Gladstone said that it wasn’t a difficult decision at all to trade up and select Hunter second overall.

"You can count however many drafts you want to [and] there are players who have the capacity to alter a game. There are players who have the capacity to alter the trajectory of a team. There are very few players who have the capacity to alter the trajectory of the sport itself," Gladstone said. "He's somebody who is deserving of a first-round draft pick as a wide receiver, and he is worthy of a first-round draft pick as a corner. Certainly look forward to each of those elements showing themselves over the next few years while he's under his rookie contract. But yeah, we're excited about just getting him in the boat, so to speak."

Hunter will not play as many snaps defensively as he did in college. The Jaguars have said that in the beginning at least, he’ll be primarily positioned as a wide receiver, with some cornerback sprinkled in. And Hunter will be playing opposite another wide receiver in Brian Thomas Jr. who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie.

But if Hunter is half the talent he’s being made out to be and he starts racking up receiving yards while making the occasional big play defensively, folks are going to be lining up to throw accolades at the youngster.

Not that he isn’t used to that.

The last time a running back was drafted in the top six was all the way back in 2018 when the New York Giants selected Saquon Barkley second overall.

I hear he’s pretty good.

Ashton Jeanty wasn’t drafted quite that highly, but after the Las Vegas Raiders made the Boise State star the sixth overall pick, new Raiders head coach Pete Carroll’s phone was blown up by Marshawn Lynch, who was so happy that Skittles rained from the heavens.

“He’s been calling all evening about it and he’s pretty fired up about it," Carroll told reporters. "There’s nobody who loves the whole running game more than he does and the style and guys that have style are really special to Marshawn. There is similarities in that his ability to make plays when it doesn’t look like there’s anything there. And Marshawn did that throughout his career. He found a physical way to bank off of people and bounce and just keep alive. And Ashton really is a player who shows that kind of a style. That’s one of the aspects of his style along with his burst and all the other things that he does as well. There’s a special makeup in there and in Ashton in particular.”

Jeanty came within 28 yards of breaking Barry Sanders’ single-season FBS rushing record last year, rushing for a ridiculous 2,601 yards. He’s undoubtedly going to be a focal point of Carroll’s offense in Sin City.

If there’s a player who is a safer bet to make the Pro Bowl as a rookie than Hunter, it has to be Jeanty.

Let’s get this out of the way—it’s an uphill battle for any rookie receiver to make the Pro Bowl. That two (Thomas and Malik Nabers of the New York Giants) did a year ago is more exception than rule. It’s just a numbers game—there isn’t a position more choked with talent in today’s NFL than wideout.

But if a “true” wide receiver is going to do it again in 2025, Tetairoa McMillan of the Carolina Panthers is the best bet.

Partly, it’s a matter of talent. McMillan has the skill set to be a true No. 1 receiver. With an almost ideal combination of size, speed and hands, he was highly productive at Arizona, topping 80 receptions, 1,300 yards and 15 yards per catch each of the past two seasons.

It’s also a matter of opportunity. McMillan was drafted eighth overall for a Carolina Panthers team whose wide receiver room was headlined by an aging veteran in Adam Thielen and a disappointing youngster in Xavier Legette. As ESPN’s Mina Kimes pointed out, there’s a clear path to McMillan becoming the top target for Bryce Young in short order.

"Bryce Young played well down the stretch, and they've given him a lot of votes of confidence this offseason,” Kimes said. “This receiver group is so bad, right? A stat that I brought up on NFL Live after day one. McMillan, on third down, had the second-most conversions in all of college football. Zero drops. Panthers didn't have a receiver in the top 45 last year in terms of conversions on third down. I think that perfectly captures what they so desperately need, which is a guy who will get a bucket for you, a guy who will catch everything thrown his way."

When talent meets opportunity, it often results in production.

And production is what gets players a trip to Orlando.

For much of the pre-draft process, Will Campbell of LSU was regarded as the No. 1 offensive tackle prospect. But when Campbell’s arms measured at under 33 inches, some draftniks questioned his ability to play tackle at the NFL level.

The New England Patriots weren’t scared off by that shortcoming—the Pats made Campbell the first offensive lineman selected at No. 4 overall. The 6’6”, 319-pounder made waves just after being drafted when he said he was going to “fight and die” to protect New England quarterback Drake Maye—a statement that was well-received by the second-year quarterback.

"I listened to it live," Maye told reporters. "It gets you going, gets your juices going. I think it makes you want to go out there and play football now. Pumped that we picked Will. We got a chance to meet him when he flew in on Friday. Pumped to get things going. Obviously, he seems like a football player. That's what you want around here."

Campbell is indeed a football player. He succeeded at tackle against some of the best edge-rushers in the game a year ago in the SEC, demonstrating excellent strength and athleticism and the sort of mean streak that NFL teams love in the trenches.

To be fair, Campbell isn’t a flawless prospect—he needs to refine his technique and can struggle at times against quicker pass-rushers. But Campbell also impresses as the type of player who will be fanatical in the pros about improving his game, and frankly this writer always thought the arm length thing was a tad overblown.

3/8 of an inch doesn’t make the guy a T-Rex.

OK, so this is another call from the files of Captain Obvious. But while Miami quarterback Cam Ward was the first overall pick in the 2025 draft, the top two prospects overall were Hunter and Penn State edge-rusher Abdul Carter.

After Ward and Hunter came off the board, it was Carter’s turn—he was drafted third overall by the New York Giants. After the pick was made, Giants general manager Joe Schoen told reporters that the hope is that Carter will have the same sort of first-year impact in 2025 that Malik Nabers had a year ago.

"We were talking on the way down just in terms of adding dogs and a certain type of mentality," Schoen said. "I would say two years in a row with Malik's (Nabers) competitiveness and the toughness that he plays with, and then you add another guy like that in the first round like Abdul Carter and the motor he plays with and the toughness and the violence, that can really help. And the identity question was mentioned. That can help develop an identity, those type of players, and the more of those guys that you can acquire, the more that can come to life."

Carter joins a crowded group of edge-rushers that includes a former top-five pick in Kayvon Thibodeaux and a two-time Pro Bowler in Brian Burns.

But a team can never have too many edge-rushers—a rotation may cost Carter snaps, but it will also keep him fresh. The 6’3” 250-pounder tallied 12 sacks and a whopping 24 tackles for loss last year at Penn State. And the Giants didn’t draft Carter third overall so he could be a spectator.

The Giants have the pieces to field one of the NFL’s best pass rushes this season. And it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Carter quickly became an anchor for it.

Among all the players listed here, Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell was the last drafted—the Eagles moved up to select Campbell with the penultimate pick of Round 1.

No, there aren’t any fourth-rounders listed here. If I could pick which Day 3 selections would make the Pro Bowl, I’d be at Circle K right now buying Powerball tickets.

The Eagles were apparently giddy to land the 6’3”, 235-pound converted edge-rusher—Eagles assistant GM Alec Halaby raved about what Campbell brings to the table while speaking to reporters.

"Man, he's a great player. I love watching him play. He's springy, he's explosive – there are a ton of adjectives you can use to describe him," Halaby said. "When you ask him to rush the passer, it's electric when he comes from off the ball. He will blow up running backs, he will slither to the quarterback – he has a lot of different ways to get home. He can also drop out of the line of scrimmage in an overhang role if you want to create a five-down front either early or late and give teams a different presentation. And he can rush one-on-one against tackles. So, I think he is really good at all the core jobs, and he can also do a lot of things that a lot of linebackers can't do. We were fortunate that he was there when we picked."

From the sound of things, the Eagles envision Campbell as something of a “hybrid,” Micah Parsons-esque chess piece on the defense. Vic Fangio is rightly one of the most well-respected defensive coordinators in the game. If he can fully unlock Campbell’s explosiveness and athleticism, the former Crimson Tide star could be more than just a Pro Bowler.

He could be Defensive Rookie of the Year.

The biggest thing working against rookie cornerback Jahdae Barron making the Pro Bowl as a rookie has nothing to do with the 5'11", 194-pounder as a player.

Making the Pro Bowl playing opposite the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year in Patrick Surtain II isn’t going to make getting to Orlando any easier.

But after Barron was selected at No. 20 overall by the Broncos, he told reporters that he believes working with a superstar in Surtain and a veteran defensive coordinator in Vance Joseph can only help his transition to the NFL level.

“I bring a lot of versatility to the defense," Barron said. "I'm going to play my role. I'm [going to] master [my] position and I'm going to do that. I'm going to learn from the vets. I can't wait to learn from Pat Surtain. I can't wait to learn from Coach Joseph. It's going to be amazing. It's literally going to be amazing. I'm just going to embrace the opportunity and I'm going to live up to the opportunity. I'm truly blessed to be in this position and I'm very thankful right now.”

Denver general manager George Paton told reporters that the team is as happy to have Barron as he is to be in the Mile High City.

"[Payton and I] couldn't stop watching him," Paton said. "Just the instincts and participation, route awareness, zone coverage, really sticking to [his] man, doesn't give up any completions. This guy's really good in the run game, a really good tackler, really good blitzer. He plays all over the field. He just kind of fits everything we're looking for in a player."

Playing opposite Surtain, Barron is going to be challenged—early. If he rises to that challenge, the Broncos could be sitting on the best cornerback duo in the NFL.

The Baltimore Ravens have long made a habit of letting the NFL draft come to them. The team regularly gets value late on Day 1.

Or trades up for a quarterback every team in the league passed on in Round 1 who goes on to win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award twice.

It’s actually quite annoying.

Well, the Ravens struck again in 2025, landing Georgia safety Malaki Starks with the 27th overall selection. ESPN’s Jordan Reid didn’t just think that Starks was a value for the Ravens. He wrote that the 6’1”, 197-pounder was the best value selection of the entire draft.

“Once again, the Ravens allowed the board to fall to them and simply took the best player available,” he said. “Starks doesn't play a position of immediate need, but the Ravens don't bypass talent to reach for needs at certain positions. With the recent release of Marcus Williams, Starks could start right away at free safety and be another crucial performer for an already versatile secondary.”

Starks was widely regarded as the best safety in the class—a player as capable of getting dirty in the box in run support as he is hanging with tight ends or even wide receivers in deep coverage or the slot.

Along with Pro Bowler Kyle Hamilton, Starks gives the Ravens (who ranked 31st in the league in pass defense) a pair of the sort of versatile, do-it-all safeties that NFL teams covet nowadays. Both can be moved all over the back end.

It won’t be at all surprising if Starks becomes every bit the defensive standout that Hamilton is in short order.