2 weeks Ago
The Tennessee Titans are on the clock, and they open the 2025 NFL Draft on Thursday night. But who they choose, and who comes after, can only be speculated about until the No. 1 pick is announced.
Will it be Miami quarterback Cam Ward, leaving Colorado wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter for the Cleveland Browns at No. 2? Do the New York Giants pick up Penn State edge Abdul Carter at No. 3? Will Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders fall out of the top 10, or as projected by The Athletic ’s Dane Brugler’s mock draft and the most recent beat writer mock draft , out of the top 20? Advertisement Sometimes elite collegiate talent gets taken where projected, and other times, players make like a playground and slide.
Here are a few notable names of NFL drafts past who fell below their projected draft stock. Will Levis, 2023 He was supposed to be a top-10 pick. Then the top 10 picks came and went.
As did the top 20. Then he spent the entire first round waiting in the green room. Will Levis, the QB out of Kentucky evaluated highly for his physicality, smarts and toughness, was taken with the 33rd pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
It was a big tumble for Levis, who Brugler predicted would go No. 7 in his final 2023 mock draft and who Brugler at the time ranked No. 14 among all prospects and No.
4 among quarterbacks. So when Levis was left on the board to start the second round, the Titans made a move in hopes of landing a Ryan Tannehill successor. Tennessee sent two 2023 picks and a 2024 pick to the Arizona Cardinals for the 33rd choice, the Levis choice.
Laremy Tunsil, 2016 Laremy Tunsil, the esteemed left tackle out of Ole Miss, was relaxing in the green room minutes before the 2016 NFL Draft. Seconds later, he was “panicking,” he told ESPN last year upon reflection of his draft night experience. Soon before the Los Angeles Rams were on the clock with the No.
1 pick, Tunsil’s Twitter account was hacked and a video of him wearing a black gas mask and smoking a substance from a bong was posted online. He couldn’t sign into his account because the password was changed, and when he finally accessed it and deleted the post, the draft had started. Tunsil, who at times during the draft process was considered a No.
1 pick, slid to No. 13, where he was taken by the Dolphins. After the draft, Tunsil owned up that he was the person in the video, telling ESPN then he was “blessed” to be picked by Miami.
He spent three seasons with the Dolphins and six with the Houston Texans. The five-time Pro Bowler was traded to the Washington Commanders in March. Advertisement La’el Collins, 2015 La’el Collins was a likely first-round pick, but his involvement in an investigation caused teams to pass on the LSU offensive lineman altogether.
He never heard his name called in the 2015 NFL Draft. Days before, teams became aware that Collins was being questioned in a murder investigation of a pregnant woman. He was not considered a person of interest or suspect in the case.
Collins tried to pull out of the draft right before it started, asking to instead enter the supplementary draft in hopes of having time to be cleared, but the NFL denied that request. About a week after the draft, Collins signed with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent to kick off his career. He most recently signed a one-year deal with the Buffalo Bills in April 2024 and was cut by the team in August.
Brady Quinn, 2007 Brady Quinn graduated from Notre Dame at the top of the national QB class. The expectations were that he would do the same in the 2007 NFL Draft. Perhaps he’d go No.
3 to the Cleveland Browns, or No. 9 to the Dolphins. But when the Dolphins passed on Quinn, he fell further.
The Browns were the one to catch him, trading up with the Cowboys to secure Quinn with the No. 22 pick. He played 14 games over three years (2007, 2008, 2009) in Cleveland, ending his career with one season in Kansas City in 2012.
Aaron Rodgers, 2005 Aaron Rodgers could’ve been a No. 1 pick — and judging by what we know now, he should’ve been. But he wasn’t.
Quite surprisingly, the Cal QB wasn’t even close. Rodgers fell from the pinnacle of the NFL Draft to No. 24, from the hands of his hometown San Francisco 49ers, and many other teams, to the Green Bay Packers.
When asked in 2005 if the Chico, Calif., native was disappointed with the 49ers for not drafting him, Rodgers responded: “Not as disappointed as the 49ers will be that they didn’t draft me.” Advertisement He went on to play 18 seasons in Green Bay, assuming the starting QB spot after three years behind Brett Favre.
Rodgers won the 2011 Super Bowl and four league MVPs with the team before his recent two-year tumultuous stint with the New York Jets. Dan Marino, 1983 Much to the surprise of many — despite hearing the rumors of Dan Marino’s drug use — the Dolphins found the Pittsburgh QB available when deciding who to pick with their first selection, at No. 27, in the 1983 NFL Draft.
Little did they know, they’d find their franchise QB for the next 17 seasons. Marino fell behind five other quarterbacks, including Hall of Famers John Elway and Jim Kelly, in the draft. The rumors about Marino’s drug use convinced coaches around the NFL to pass on him, including former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll.
Noll decided to pass on Marino, who was also raised in Pittsburgh, with the No. 21st pick in that draft. He told the Associated Press in 1992 that he did so because of the ramblings, which were never substantiated.
Once in the NFL, it didn’t take long for Marino to secure his new team’s starting job. In his rookie season, Marino led the AFC in passer rating and the Dolphins to the AFC East title. The next season, he won MVP.
His pro career started on a slide, but Marino retired as a nine-time Pro Bowler for the Dolphins. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 2005. There have been plenty of other notable slides in NFL Draft history: WR DK Metcalf (2019), QB Johnny Manziel (2014), QB Geno Smith (2013), WR Randy Moss (1998) and RB Thurman Thomas (1988) are others who were supposed to start on top, but one way or another, found themselves in the pros.
That list may only grow from the seemingly wunderkind-less 2025 NFL Draft class. (Top photo: Sarah Kloepping / USA Today – Wisconsin / USA Today via Imagn Images).
