2025 NFL Draft Stock Report: Week 9

2025 NFL Draft Stock Report: Week 9

It’s starting to get cold outside and we’re in the midst of Fall. Can you believe we’re nine weeks deep already? Where did the time go? This week’s post will be shortly than the mega reads we have been putting out recently. There was only two ranked vs. ranked matchups this week. Plus, there was the World Series, NHL, and a great UFC card ( read Herrick’s stuff here ) all at the same time. Don’t worry, you will still get your money’s worth with the 2025 NFL Draft Stock Report this week. You’re here because Trey has the best NFL Draft content on the internet and I thank you for your time.

The slate for Week 9 includes – Syracuse vs. Pitt, Boise State vs. UNLV, Washington vs. Indiana, Missouri vs. Alabama, Florida State vs. Miami, and LSU vs. Texas A&M.

Syracuse

ROUGH game for Kyle McCord. Just didn’t take care of the football. Bad decisions at the start of the game and it ended up killing them. These picks are just brutal and his eye level is something in a bad way. Not sure why he’s being so reckless. Especially on the road. It was beyond reckless. You don’t throw three picks on the first three possessions by accident.

I won’t lie, I turned the game off at halftime. This game was unwatchable once it got out of hand. Look, when someone stinks, it’s usually never one thing. The Pitt defense deserves credit. They had some moments where they got pressure and forced those mistakes. Syracuse also asked the guy to throw it all over the lot. When you throw the ball 64 times, you’re asking to lose. You can certainly argue the gameplan was as broken as his play was. Still, it’s hard to ignore this trash performance.

64 attempts, five picks, no touchdowns. He did rush for a touchdown but he also had -32 rushing yards. Major stock down for a player who coming in was second in the conference in passing. In fairness to McCord, the Orange couldn’t get anything going. Even running back LeQuint Allen rushed for 2.1 yards per carry. Pitt certainly brought their A game.

If you’re going to bring up one positive, it’s this tight end Oronde Gadsden. Only had three catches in the game but the body type (6-foot-5, 236) with the way he moves is something. Just might be a developmental target at the tight end position worth digging into. The Pitt tight end Gavin Bartholomew, just might be better though…

Pitt

I kept saying that a lot during the game. McCord was an interesting prospect, but Alabama transfer Eli Holstein looks better. Maybe these Western Carolina transfers Desmond Reid / Raphael Williams Jr. are late round fliers to dig more into. This defense came to play. Maybe some of these secondary guys are something. Donovan McMillon stands out in that unit.

I don’t really know how real this Pitt team is yet but I think it’s fair to say it’s time to start paying attention to some of their guys. Maybe I’m already late to the party but they’re firmly on the radar now.

Boise State

We’re going to talk about Ashton Jeanty. I was pretty locked into this game. Mountain West is the Mountain West so the level of competition is what it is. Let’s just start here. The number one thing that needs to be said at the top. Jeanty has had a great year and clearly is dynamic. Has contact balance and overall balance on his side. Unless he’s going to be inducted into Canton, you can’t justify taking him in the first round so that’s out of the question to me.

His stance is odd. I’ve really never seen anything like it before. Before the snap it’s almost like he’s a frozen in place straight up in down. No stagger to the knee bend at all. It sure works for him so I’m not going to make anything of it but it is worth noting that it’s odd and unconventional.

Early in the game, UNLV was getting after him. Getting hit a ton in the backfield. The linebackers coming down hill fast and focus is on him. Clearly has power to him game it’s not all finese. Cordination on point. Feels like he has a plan to him. Clearly talented. Some of these cuts he makes it’s almost like he has turbo cheese and eats the mushroom power up in Mario Kart. Jolts through with positive vision.

This was Jeanty’s worst statistical game by a mile. 33 carries for 128 yards and a score. He felt every last one of them. Was gassed and nicked up by the end of this one. They made him work for all of it.

Ok, let’s get to the point. Jeanty is better than where I had him ranked in the preseason. That’s why the season continues to serve as the learning and information process. I’m also not ready to declare him as the guy at the running back position. He’s in the mix but no way you can say he’s head and shoulders above some of these other freaky former five stars. I think that’s where we stand now.

Malachi Nelson not starting says a lot. It’s not like Maddux Madsen is a world beater. Nelson is a former highly recruited QB prospect who now couldn’t beat out Miller Moss and still can’t see the field. It’s a head scratcher but we can’t ignore it. Maybe time to write him off already.

UNLV

There are levels to this sport. It’s the only thing I can think about when watching this UNLV team. Barry Odom brought this team back from the dead. Missouri couldn’t wait to run this guy out of town. The hardest thing to do with the draft is to tier things in your mind. What is the true level of some of these guys? What’s the gap between good and great?

Remember when I talked about Jalen Catalon having a resurgence with UNLV? Ditto for linebacker Jackson Woodard. Another former Arkansas guy who is wrecking the game in a good way. 14 tackles, 1 TFL, and just did a hell of a job tackling Jeanty. You can’t ignore this. By the way, he’s got four picks already and almost had a couple in this one too. Looks good dropping in coverage. You can tell this is a former SEC athlete. Catalon and Woodard both look like draftable players.

Washington

I do kinda like this running back Jonah Coleman. He’s a Fisch transplant from Arizona. Junior back at 5-foot-9, 229. Finished with 19 carries for 104 yards. He’s the only reason this game was somewhat competitive. Looks better than the guys U Dub has had in the past. Looks like he has some size/speed elements to him. It’s a loaded RB draft class and this is a guy we may have to add to the list.

Indiana

I’m not sure what really needs to be said here. The guy who stood out the most was this DB D’Angelo Ponds (not draft eligible) who made two picks in the game. Coach Cig took him with from James Madison, which is the case for a lot of players on this team.

This Hoisers team is far less dangerous without Rourke under center. We got to see how things operate with Tayven Jackson. Far less pretty throwing the ball. He can run but that’s about it. Rourke is legit and they clearly miss him despite the double digit win. They need him back to be the best iteration of themselves.

Missouri

This team is BROKEN . 34-0 beat down. LSU raided this staff in the offseason and I can’t but think it was under-talked about. It sure looks like the trickle down effect is real. Brady Cook is clearly hurt but keeps trying to play. Drew Pyne has no business playing SEC caliber football. Luther Burden did virtually nothing (not like this mess is on one receiver). I started tuning this game out the longer it went on. It was like watching a guy take a few uninspired hacks at a flimsy tree. Didn’t take much to break the whole damn thing with a C+ effort from Bama. That’s what really happened here.

Alabama

Again, the Stock Report notes are supposed to serve as the information process. I’m just not sure what we really learned from this game. This is a tape you can probably throw in the trash. Spend more time on another game that matters.

Jihaad Campbell is a beast and Jalen Milroe remains an incredibly flawed passer and predictably only scored via his legs. Bama finally realized that maybe they should run the ball more despite having mediocre running back talent based on their previous standard. Ryan Williams deserves all the hype but Germie Bernard is damn good too. Tyler Booker on the offensive line is a stud.

Think that about covers it?

Florida State

DJ U remains out of the lineup and the two bums who tried to replace him in this one also looked terrible. For as much as I’d like to give props to Shyheim Brown, he’s really good at missing tackles. Then again, how much can we really take away from this team? They’re clearly a mess in all facets of the game. What’s more clear is that the transfer class from last year was the only reason why they were good. Patrick Payton is in witness protection along with the Chicago Bears fans. Nowhere to be found and haven’t seen one moment where he’s justified the hype. What do you even say about this team?

Miami

I know this was a walk in the park game for Miami. Florida State has one win all year. I’m a Cam Ward slut. I’ll admit it. I love him and don’t care who knows it. There was almost no scenario Miami was losing this game. Throw everything out the window. If I have the first pick in the draft right now, I don’t know how you turn the card in for anyone else. He elevates the team and nobody is better in this class at making the second play. End of story. Still have a lot of time to go and things can change but I don’t anticipate that to be the case with Ward.

Damien Martinez is just coming to life. At the start of the year, he was the bell cow. Was a lot of meh. Now he’s in this complimentary role with Mark Fletcher as the starter (who had a brutal fumble in this game). Boy oh boy Martinez looks good. Big, hard to tackle, faster than he should be for his size. 15 carries for 148 yards and two scores. He’s just dragging dead corpses on a team who has already mentally quit. Not like I ever left the Martinez island but I feel a lot better about what I’m getting.

Back with our weekly installment of power ranking the Miami target tree: Xavier Restrepo, Elijah Arroyo, Isaiah Horton, Sam Brown, Jacolby George.

LSU

It was a tale of two halves. Garrett Nussmeier was playing his tail off. Then Texas A&M made the QB change. The momentum flipped and LSU basically fell into a black hole and died. Not that they’re out of anything in real life. Just talking about what it felt like watching it.

I still love Nuss. Not afraid to admit it. Give Mike Elko credit. That guy was pulling some cheese. Basically playing magic tricks out there. Just look at Nussmeier’s face on some of these. He’s shocked the play went wrong because he never even saw the guy that picked him off. I thought Elko was brilliant and deserves his flowers for forcing those errors.

He’s still in wild, wild, west mode far too often. Out there looking for duels firing shots off the hip with no regard. 405 yards and 8.1 yards per attempt is very nice. The three picks not so much. Just tools wise, I like him the more I see him. Ball comes out of the hand with some nice zip. He’s accurate. Confident and makes throws that wow you. Smart too. They talk about how he’s a coaches son on every broadcast.

I was getting ready to give so much credit to the LSU defense. Once again they look better without Harold Perkins. This Whit Weeks looks more than capable filling in as the primary linebacker. He got credited with seven sacks in the game. Not sure that was super indicutive of what happened but he was around the ball a lot. Bradyn Swinson had a nice game rushing the passer. Still like this Sai’vion Jones. It’s just hard not to think about anything else other than when Marcel Reed went into the game, they went from great to terrible in the blink of an eye. I don’t get paid enough to dig into it any further. Maybe one of these X’s and O’s guys out there has that answer.

Big fan of Kyren Lacy. Just sucks he drops the ball all the time. Mason Taylor had a bad drop too but did score one in the red area. Aaron Anderson had this monster play. As we noted recently , he starting to emerge here as a threat. More so happy that Chris Hilton is starting to get going who had two grabs for 36 yards. He can run and should start to provide more after coming into the season banged up.

Texas A&M

This was a Connor Weigman stinker. The guy we saw against Notre Dame re-emerged. 6/18 for 64 yards. Made zero plays with his legs. The worst part is they went to alternative and essentially scored on every single drive after.

I know Le’Veon Moss scored twice. He just doesn’t blow me away. Forget about the fumble. I’ve been leaning towards yes than no. Now I’m not really sure. Not saying he’s terrible. He’s definitely emerged as the guy there. I just want to know what the expectations are. How early you pulling the trigger here? Now we start getting to dangerous territory. What’s the narrative? What’s his own identity? Can kinda catch. Is he elite at anything? What’s the 40 time going to be here? Certainly won’t be off the charts crazy good. 6-foot, 215. Looks like a B on the report card to me. Still have time but I can’t imagine he will rank super high on my 2025 list… if he’s even on it and it’s not a 2026 list.

LSU has NFL tackles. Thought Nic Scourton had a good game but wouldn’t say he wrecked the game. This is another one. Starting to sound like he’s getting first round grades. That’s for sure not the next coming of Micah Parsons so you better be careful.

Expecations. Sometimes all it takes is the right hire. Who is responsible for what? I see smart with Mike Elko.

Quick Hitters:

Are we sure Emeka Egbuka isn’t the third best receiver on his own team?

Is Diego Pavia draftable? If my life is on the line, I take him over Trubisky no question about it. Which is another reminder that I’m only person in America who nailed what Trubisky would become.

Kaytron Allen should be drafted. He’s going to be way better than several picked ahead of him for simply being the second best running back on Penn State.

Quinn Ewers therapy session!

Am I more nervous than I was before? Yes

Does it look like he’s worried about being hit and shaky in the lower half? Also, yes.

Do I still think he has what it takes to become a quality starting NFL quarterback? Still, yes.

Should he now move into the wildcard category? Probably…

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