Way-too-early Jaguars 2025 first-round mock draft

Way-too-early Jaguars 2025 first-round mock draft

Don’t look now, but the Jaguars currently own the No. 1 overall selection in the 2025 NFL draft (per Tankathon).

Week 4 is way too early in the season to seriously monitor the upcoming draft order, but after their disastrous 0-3 start, the Jaguars find themselves in a spot no one expected them to be.

Especially not Jaguars owner Shad Khan.

“Winning now is the expectation,” Khan was quoted in Jacksonville’s “The Hunt” YouTube series before the season. “Make no mistake, this is the best team assembled by the Jacksonville Jaguars, ever. Best players, best coaches. But most importantly, let’s prove it by winning now.”

Given the extreme circumstances of the Jaguars’ season not going as planned, Jaguars Wire presents a first-round 2025 mock draft for Jacksonville.

First round, No. 1 overall: Will Campbell, OT, LSU

Sep 30, 2023; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; LSU Tigers offensive lineman Will Campbell (66) lines up before the snap during the second half against the Mississippi Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

Whether general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Doug Pederson both maintain their posts through the draft, one sticks around and not the other, or Khan opts to clean the Jaguars’ decision-making house, Trevor Lawrence will still be Jacksonville’s quarterback this offseason and for a long time to come.

One of, if not Jacksonville’s biggest priority in March through April must be to improve the protection of its $275 million investment.

Campbell checks in currently as the No. 9 overall prospect on the NFL mock draft database consensus big board and is viewed as the No. 1 offensive tackle in the 2025 draft class.

A true junior with 30 college starts under his belt already, Campbell has proven his worth as a prospect on the field and can boost his overall stock with continued strong play and, so long as he declares for the pros, a compelling draft process.

The 6-foot-6, 323-pound Campbell is a polished pass-blocker who has not allowed a sack since Week 10 of his freshman year, per Pro Football Focus. He has given up only two quarterback pressures this season, over 165 true pass-blocking snaps.

On average, Campbell has allowed a pressure once every 30.5 true pass-blocking snaps in his career.

Campbell is also a solid run blocker but has been less consistent in this area than in protecting LSU’s quarterback. He peaked with an 85.5 out of 100 PFF season-long run-blocking grade in 2023, but is down to 66.4 this season and finished at 66.6 in 2022, both slightly above-average marks.

A left tackle through and through, Campbell has spent 1,755 of his 1,757 offensive snaps with the Tigers at that spot, with the other two reps at right tackle.

Campbell’s biggest concern is his tendency to be penalized. He has collected 10 offensive flags in his college career, including four this season, all false starts.

This should be a coachable flaw, especially in the NFL, but a one-penalty-per-game average to begin his third year as a starter raises a red flag.

Still, Campbell projects as a plug-and-play offensive tackle at the next level who should quickly present his next team with a steady presence in pass protection. Jacksonville would greatly benefit from acquiring such a prospect, whether it is Campbell or another top tackle.

Lawrence has been sacked 11 times through three weeks this season. PFF dings Jacksonville’s starting offensive linemen for allowing a combined 35 pressures, with offensive tackles Cam Robinson (13) and Anton Harrison (nine) accounting for 21.

Robinson, who has started at left tackle for Jacksonville since 2017, is in the final season of the three-year, $52.8 million contract he signed with the Jaguars in 2022. His backup, Walker Little, is also slated to become a free agent this offseason.

Jaguars 2024 day two mock draft

Projecting the Jaguars’ selections on day two of the 2024 NFL draft

Round one of the 2024 NFL draft is in the books, with Jacksonville moving down the order and netting picks this year and next, yet ultimately selecting the prospect it claimed was the choice all along on Thursday night, wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. from LSU.

“He was going to be the pick at 17,” Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said after the first round.

“We just felt the way the board looked and where the needs were, the teams in between us, we felt we had a chance. There’s risk, there’s reward. You make the move back, but we felt we were going to get a really good football player that we had high on our board with the move back. Fortunate that Brian was still there.”

Moving forward, the Jaguars have eight selections over the draft’s remaining six rounds, including picks No. 48 in the second round and No. 96 in the third round on Friday.

2024 NFL draft: Jaguars’ biggest positional needs

Additionally, the trade Jacksonville completed with Minnesota on Thursday strengthened the Jaguars’ arsenal of 2025 picks to nine, including six between rounds one through four. The club could use present and future picks as chips for a potential trade-up over the next 36 hours.

Jaguars Wire projects Jacksonville’s approach to its day two selections below.

Jaguars Wire used the Pro Football Focus mock draft simulator for this exercise, with all slider settings median.

Round 2, Pick No. 43 (trade with Atlanta): Kool-Aid McKinstry, CB, Alabama

Alabama defensive back Kool-Aid McKinstry (1) gestures in celebration after Tennessee failed to convert a 4th down in the fourth quarter of a football game between Tennessee and Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.

Jacksonville receives: No. 43 overall (second round) 

Atlanta receives: No. 48 overall (second round), No. 116 (fourth round, via New Orleans)

A bigger move-up was considered here as Buffalo took cornerback Cooper DeJean with the first pick of the second round.

But with the run on wide receivers continuing into the 30s, pushing the next defensive back selection to No. 42 (Houston: safety Tyler Nubin), Jacksonville was fortunate to see another respected prospect slip outside their pre-draft projected range and didn’t rush a move in this scenario.

Still available at pick No. 43, Jacksonville trades with Atlanta — arguably in need of more picks after spending its first on a quarterback who probably won’t start until 2026 — to hop cornerback-needy Las Vegas (No. 44) and Indianapolis (No. 46) and take Alabama’s Kool-Aid McKinstry.

The 5-foot-11 and 1/2-inch, 199-pound McKinstry is considered one of if not the best man coverage cornerback in this draft class, making it surprising that he fell out of the first round. His average athletic testing results while running on a Jones fracture in his right foot at Alabama’s pro day could have played a factor.

Still, McKinstry proved dominant against opposing receivers throughout his college career. He started a game by Week 2 of his freshman year and several more before it was over, defended 16 passes as a sophomore and allowed 40+ receiving yards in a game just twice as a junior.

In total, McKinstry tallied 92 tackles, two sacks, five tackles for loss, two interceptions and 25 passes defended over 42 games and three seasons with the Crimson Tide. He allowed 47.9% (70-of-146) of his career targets in coverage to be caught, per PFF.

With 35 punts returned, 418 punt return yards and 11.9 yards per punt return on his résumé from Alabama, McKinstry could reasonably fill the NFL’s recently-instituted second return specialist position for Jacksonville.

Round 3, Pick No. 96 (compensatory pick): Michael Hall Jr., DL, Ohio State

Oct 8, 2022; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. (51) sacks Michigan State Spartans quarterback Payton Thorne (10) in the second quarter of the NCAA Division I football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium.

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The Jaguars held onto the cornerstone of their defense by giving edge rusher Josh Allen a five-year extension earlier in April and solidified their interior defensive line by signing veteran Arik Armstead in free agency the month before.

But Jacksonville’s defensive trenches remain in need of depth reinforcements and potential long-term starters. Four interior linemen, including Armstead, will play the 2024 season at 30+ years old.

Enter Michael Hall Jr. from Ohio State, who Jacksonville snags here with plenty of tread on his tires. A redshirt season in 2021 and lingering injuries in 2022 limited Hall to 301 defensive snaps over his first two seasons, before starting in seven of 12 appearances in 2023.

In those three years, over 714 snaps, Hall recorded 45 tackles including 10 for loss, six sacks, one fumble recovery and 48 quarterback pressures, the latter stat via PFF. His 7.5 tackles for loss in 2022 led the Buckeyes, despite his lack of consistent playing time that season.

Hall presents a unique frame — 6-foot-2 and 3/4-inch, 290 pounds — making him a tweener defensive line prospect, likely to split time between strong-side defensive end and three-technique defensive tackle.

No matter how you look at Hall positionally, he possesses an above-average wingspan and arm length for a defensive line prospect, which is certain to catch Baalke’s eye. 13 of the 17 defensive line prospects he’s drafted in his career as a general manager have had 33+ inch arms; Hall’s are 33 and 1/2-inch.

2022 NFL mock draft: 7-round projections for the Jaguars

Here’s how all seven rounds of the 2022 NFL draft could shake out for the Jacksonville Jaguars

The 2022 NFL draft is just days away, and your favorite NFL team is about to add tons of young talent to help improve their chances of success in the upcoming season.

Here’s how all seven rounds of this year’s draft could shake out for the Jacksonville Jaguars: