It’s mock draft SZN (season), as the kids say.
Sure, technically the bulk of mock draft season takes place in the roughly 100 days between the end of the college football season in mid-January and the NFL Draft in late April, but that hasn't stopped early speculation until now.
With the college football season rapidly approaching, it's not too early to take a look at what the next crop of prospects will be like, and the good news for Michigan football is that ESPN's Matt Miller released his first mock draft earlier this week ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft (held in Green Bay, Wisconsin), and the Wolverines were well-represented with three players mock-picked in the early part of the first round.
The first UM star to be selected? Cornerback Will Johnson was selected No. 3 by the Denver Broncos, which came as no surprise. After his freshman season, Johnson was ranked in the top 10 in several mocks that draft not just the best draft-eligible players, but the best athletes available.
Johnson, meanwhile, has developed into one of the best NFL-caliber cornerback prospects of the past decade and could be an obvious fit for Denver, where Miller said he could be in the realm of “the best player available.”
“Johnson's tape from his first two seasons at Michigan is some of the best I've seen of a cornerback,” Miller wrote. “The closest he comes to being a 6-foot-2 playmaker is fellow college prospect Pat Surtain II, who would likely line up on the other side in this scenario.”
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Johnson, a former five-star recruit out of Grosse Pointe South, was named an All-American and first-team All-Big Ten Conference selection as a sophomore. Playing in 25 games (16 starts), Johnson was named Defensive MVP in the College Football Playoff Final in January and finished his sophomore year with 27 tackles (one for a loss) and four interceptions (one for a touchdown).
If this happens, Johnson would become the Wolverines' highest drafted player since Aidan Hutchinson was selected No. 2 overall by the Lions in the 2022 draft and UM's highest drafted cornerback since Charles Woodson was selected No. 4 overall (by the Oakland Raiders) in 1998, coming off a Heisman Trophy campaign during the 1997 national championship season.
Miller said Michigan won't have to wait too long to hear the next player's name called: Star defensive tackle Mason Graham, who former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh called a “gift from the football gods” when he arrived in Ann Arbor, was expected to be selected seventh overall and reunite with J.J. McCarthy with the Minnesota Vikings.
“The interior of the defensive line will be a hot topic next year, and Graham is arguably the top overall prospect in this class,” Miller wrote. “His production won't be eye-opening thanks to Michigan's defensive line rotations and configuration — he's recorded three sacks in 2023 — but Graham's explosiveness and power are impressive.”
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The 6-foot-3, 318-pound Anaheim, Calif. native appeared in 13 games (13 starts) last season and recorded 36 tackles (7.5 for loss), three sacks, three quarterback hurries, one pass breakup, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery, earning him second-team All-American honors.
The last UM prospect to be mocked in the first round wasn't Graham's running mate Kenneth Grant, running back Donovan Edwards (who appeared on the cover of EA Sports College Football 25) or safety Rod Moore, who was projected to be a late first-round pick before suffering a knee injury in the spring.
The selection instead was Colston Loveland, who may have been Michigan's best offensive weapon this season. Miller selected him with the 14th overall pick to the Indianapolis Colts. Loveland is widely regarded as the best tight end in the nation after a stellar sophomore season in which he caught 45 passes for 649 yards (14.4 yards per reception) and four touchdowns.
Despite playing a run-heavy offense featuring the most decorated running back in team history and two receivers selected in the NFL Draft, Loveland still had 10 games with at least three receptions and seven games with at least 55 yards receiving.
“Who could resist the temptation to give Anthony Richardson more playmaking power?,” Miller wrote. “Tight end is one of the team's few question marks on offense, and Loveland should be a top-10 player on my preseason board thanks to his ability as a receiver and skilled run-blocking.”
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“The 6-foot-5 junior has the agility and speed to be an excellent open-field receiving option.”
It may seem like a stretch considering he'll be working with a new quarterback, but Loveland is now 763 yards away from passing Jake Butt's Michigan State record for career receiving yards by a tight end (1,646).
The Wolverines set a franchise record this spring with 13 selections in the NFL Draft, the second-most by a single team in a single draft, but only one of those selections, McCarthy, was a first-round pick. Barring something unexpected, Michigan is expected to have at least three first-round picks next spring, with the potential for more.
