- Dallas Cowboys need help on both lines: A top-heavy roster has been hindered by struggles from each of their past two first-round draft picks.
- Houston Texans are a team in transition: The promise of 2023 disappeared at the end of 2024, and they are desperate for help in front of quarterback C.J. Stroud.
- 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF’s best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025’s top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Nailing the NFL draft can be a cheat code for football teams throughout the NFL. If teams can find some key starters on rookie contracts, it gives them more flexibility to be aggressive in free agency, and if they find the right players, it can turn their franchise around.
The draft is important for everyone, but some teams are more desperate for a good draft than others, so here is our look at five teams that need to get the 2025 NFL Draft right.
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Draft Position Rankings
Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals made their biggest splash this offseason by locking up both star receivers in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins long term. Both were important moves, but after a quiet free agency period, they need to be complemented by a strong draft, with needs on both sides of the trenches.
Cody Ford and Cordell Volson are currently slated to start at both guard spots, but neither earned a PFF grade above 60.0 in 2024, and they combined to allow 80 total pressures over the course of the season – though most of Ford’s snaps came at left tackle. On the defensive side of the ball, Trey Hendrickson was the only defensive lineman to earn a PFF grade above 71.0 last season, and with questions around his future, this is a unit desperate for an injection of talent.
New England Patriots
The Patriots will feel confident that they have found their next franchise quarterback in Drake Maye, who ended the 2024 season with a 70.1 PFF grade that ranked fourth among rookie quarterbacks, but these next two drafts are critical to how they build around him, particularly on offense.
The offensive line has major question marks, with the left tackle spot set to be manned by Vederian Lowe at this point, with the 2022 sixth-round draft pick by the Minnesota Vikings earning a 54.0 PFF grade in 2024. That’s why they have been regularly paired with players like LSU’s Will Campbell and Missouri’s Armand Membou in 2025 NFL mock drafts. They have issues at wide receiver, too, though, and while they brought in Stefon Diggs recently, a disappointing rookie campaign from Ja’Lynn Polk, where he averaged just 0.35 yards per route run, means that they might need to look to add another early-round wide receiver in this class.
Houston Texans
After a 2023 season that saw the Texans, with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, look like the next contender to emerge from the AFC, 2024 saw them stumble along throughout the season before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs. Their offensive line already looked to be a problem, and after trading away left tackle Laremy Tunsil, the Texans need to make moves to ensure they put a functional unit in front of Stroud in 2025.
As things stand, the only projected starter on the offensive line who earned a PFF grade above 65.0 last season is left guard Tytus Howard, and it would be entirely justified if the Texans used multiple early draft picks at either tackle or on the interior.
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys want and expect to compete for Super Bowls, yet they find themselves picking 12th overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. While they have talent at key positions, as wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and edge defender Micah Parsons are two of the best players in football, they need to get better in the trenches.
Zack Martin‘s retirement leaves a hole on the interior of the offensive line, while a rookie season from left tackle Tyler Guyton that saw him earn a PFF grade of just 49.4 prompts questions on whether or not they got that selection correct. Seemingly missing on former first-round draft pick Mazi Smith at defensive tackle hasn’t helped either, as the former Michigan standout has earned a PFF grade of below 50.0 in each of his first two seasons in the league, so the Cowboys need defensive interior help, too.
Miami Dolphins
When you have a quarterback who ranks sixth in the NFL in per-year salary, you expect to be competing for division titles, and while the Dolphins did finish second in the AFC East in 2024, they were a long way off from truly competing for the division. Like most of the teams before them on this list, they need to get better in the trenches if they are to take a serious step forward.
The retirement of left tackle Terron Armstead, who earned an 89.4 PFF grade in 2024, wasn’t unexpected but still leaves them with work to do on an offensive line that finished 2024 as the 15th-ranked team in PFF’s offensive line rankings. The interior of their defensive line is not in great shape either, and they have struggled to adequately replace the Christian Wilkins loss in free agency last year, so don’t be shocked to see them look to address that very early in the draft this week.
This news was originally published on this post .
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