The 2025 NFL Draft is officially in the books and what a memorable draft it was. Green Bay hosted the draft for the first time ever and while there was some criticism, I thought it turned out quite well. As for the Big 12, there were plenty of shocking moments, both good and bad.
Here are the four top takeaways from a Big 12 perspective on the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Great Fall of Shedeur Sanders
Forget about being the biggest storyline in the Big 12, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders was the biggest talking point from the entire weekend after falling to the fifth round where he was selected by the Cleveland Browns with the 144th overall pick.
I know I haven’t been covering the draft for decades, but I have never seen a player who was projected to be first round pick fall all the way to the fifth round. In fact, Mel Kiper said it was the first time in his 40+ years of doing this that a player with a first-round grade fell this far.
Related: Top 5 Big 12 Football Steals of the 2025 NFL Draft
As for the reason why Sanders’ stock plummeted, I’ve seen the same rumors as you. But what I do know that he was a great college quarterback. He broke countless school records at Colorado and was the Big 12 offensive player of the year last season.
Outside of Cam Ward from Miami, who was taken as the number one overall pick, I didn’t think there was a better quarterback prospect in this draft. Yet even the team who drafted Shedeur took a quarterback ahead of him with Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel selected by Cleveland in the third round. It still makes zero sense to me.
High-End Talent
While the Big 12 didn’t have the most first round picks, they did have two players taken in the first eight picks of the draft. On Thursday night, Colorado’s Travis Hunter was selected second overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars while Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan was taken eighth overall by the Carolina Panthers.
The SEC and Big Ten each had two players taken in the top eight and the Big 12 matched that with two of their own. Of course, the Big Ten and SEC went on to have more players taken in the first round, but it was pretty great to see the conference represented so well early on in the draft.
Cyclone Alert
One thing that isn’t getting a lot of attention is the fact that Iowa State had the most players taken in the first four rounds of the draft from the Big 12. Wide receiver Jayden Higgins was selected by the Houston Texans early in the second round. Higgins ended up being the fourth-highest pick in Iowa State history and second-highest in the last 50 years.
Then, Iowa State had two more players taken in the third round when defensive back Darien Porter was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders while wide receiver Jaylin Noel is reuniting with his teammate Jayden Higgins in Houston.
Finally, offensive lineman Jalen Travis was taken by the Indianapolis Colts in the fourth round. Iowa State had four draft picks, which was tied for the most in the Big 12. One thing that really jumped out was the fact that there were only 11 schools to have at least four players taken in the first four rounds and Iowa State was one of them.
Final Breakdown
Thirteen Big 12 schools had at least one player taken in this year’s NFL Draft. The only schools to not have a player selected were Baylor, BYU, and Houston. There was a total of 31 players selected from the Big 12 and here is the final breakdown by school.
Colorado (4)
Iowa State (4)
Arizona (4)
Oklahoma State (4)
Kansas State (3)
TCU (2)
UCF (2)
Texas Tech (2)
Kansas (2)
Utah (1)
West Virginia (1)
Arizona State (1)
Cincinnati (1)
Overall, I would say it wasn’t a bad weekend for the Big 12. Funny enough, the conference also had 31 players taken last year in the draft as well. Hopefully, they can top that number next year.
