Predicting the NFL Draft is never an exact science, as 2025 proved near-perfectly.
For example, no expert or fan guessed that Shedeur Sanders was going to fall down draft boards as much as he did, landing with the 144th overall pick to the Cleveland Browns. Outside of prospects quickly rising and falling down the rankings, every team has their own big board of players who fit what they are looking for from the draft. When one of their targets is off the board before their pick, however, that forces teams to construct alternate gameplans in order to avoid potentially costly mistakes.