Before the college football season even begins, scouts from every NFL team are hard at work evaluating the upcoming crop of talent. Most of the early round draft picks selected the next spring were identified at least a year in advance as players to watch.
Occasionally, however, star players sprout up unexpectedly. Take the Cincinnati Bengals‘ 2024 first round pick Amarius Mims, for example. Scouts traveling to the University of Georgia could see the talent, but Mims entered last year with just two career starts. Nevertheless, the 6-foot-8, 340-pound right tackle flashed the upside to ultimately earn the No. 18 overall selection.
[2025 NFL mock draft: Ashton Jeanty surges up board, Travis Hunter remains No. 1]
Two years earlier, the Detroit Lions gambled the No. 12 overall pick on Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams based largely on a breakout campaign in which he led the SEC in receiving yardage (1,572) and touchdown receptions (15). Williams was virtually unstoppable in 2021, but that only came after transferring to Tuscaloosa, following two seasons stuck behind fellow future first round wideouts at Ohio State.
Frankly, describing prospects as “risers” is often an overused expression in NFL draft coverage. Normally, this is a case of the media simply catching up to prospects that scouts have liked for a year or more. However, like in the case of Williams, today’s more liberal transfer policy has provided the stage for players to turn breakout campaigns into dramatic leaps up draft boards. And, in other cases, players enter the season with impressive statistics but lacking key traits or success against quality competition, leaving scouts more skeptical than certain about their chances at NFL success.
The following is a list of 2025 NFL Draft prospects producing at a high level, and raising their stock as a result.
Derrick Harmon, DT, Oregon
While quarterback Dillon Gabriel and a host of “other” skill position stars are generating most of the attention for the top-ranked Ducks, the 6-foot-5, 330-pound Harmon has emerged this fall as Oregon’s top-rated NFL prospect.
Harmon is no stranger to scouts. He registered a combined 70 tackles, including 3.5 sacks, over the past two seasons at Michigan State prior to transferring to Oregon. This shade of Nike green seems to be fitting Harmon even better in Eugene than in East Lansing, however, as he is on pace to shatter his previous career highs in every conceivable category, having already set personal bests in sacks (three), tackles for loss (seven), forced fumbles (two) and passes broken up (four).
Harmon registered three stops, and both forced and recovered a fumble in Oregon’s dramatic home win over Ohio State, and these statistics don’t come close to capturing how disruptive he was in the middle for the Ducks. Harmon is a virtual boulder inside, capable of eating up double-teams and collapsing the pocket. I have him going 27th overall in my latest mock draft, and he’ll be higher than that in the next one.
UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers found out why Derrick Harmon has emerged this fall as Oregon’s top-rated NFL prospect. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Ahmed Hassanein, DL, Boise State
Like the aforementioned Harmon at Oregon, Hassanein is being overlooked by many throughout the country simply because at Boise State, all eyes are understandably trained on superstar running back Ashton Jeanty. The Broncos, however, are no one-man show, with the 6-foot-3, 270-pound Hassanein one of this year’s best stories on and off the field.
Hassanein is the first Egyptian-born player in FBS football history. That fun fact might get him a curious look from NFL scouts, but it is his combination of agility, power and instincts that will maintain their attention. Given that he’s only been in the game since 2019, he shows remarkable awareness of blockers and the ball, winning with pad level, heavy, active hands that he uses to rip himself free of blocks, and impressive core strength.
Critics will point out that Hassanein is already well known in the scouting community. After all, he recorded 12.5 sacks a year ago, earning First Team All-Mountain West honors. Nevertheless, Hassanein still generated low grades from NFL scouts entering the year. Now, he is well on his way to proving that last year’s breakout campaign was no fluke, and he has the look of a top-100 prospect, at minimum.
Ahmed Hassanein is proving that his 12.5-sack campaign in 2023 was hardly a fluke. (Photo by Marc Sanchez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Mikail Kamara, Edge, Indiana
Concerns about the level of competition likely made scouts hesitant to give the aforementioned Hassanein his due entering the season. That may also be the case for Kamara, who is leading the Big Ten in both tackles for loss (15.5) and sacks (9.5) for the upstart Hoosiers after previously starring at James Madison. With the possible exception of quarterback Kurtis Rourke (a rising NFL prospect, in his own right), most of the Hoosiers remain relatively anonymous to college football fans, despite the fact that Indiana is undefeated at 9-0 and currently ranked No. 8 in the latest AP Poll.
At just 6-feet and 265 pounds, Kamara lacks the height and length scouts would prefer in an edge rusher. However, he explodes off the snap with enough burst to beat offensive tackles with a speed rush, and he’s cat-quick laterally, dipping and ripping his way through the traffic to harass quarterbacks on a consistent basis. Kamara slips through the grasps of would-be blockers as if his jersey were lathered with Crisco.
A third-year junior with two more seasons of eligibility remaining if he wants to use it, Kamara will be facing a tough decision at the end of this campaign. The Hoosiers face the defending national champion Michigan Wolverines on Saturday. Michigan clearly isn’t the same this year, but plenty of scouts will be on hand to evaluate their celebrated defenders. Don’t be surprised if Kamara and his Hoosiers steal the spotlight.
Mikail Kamara’s explosiveness makes up for the fact that he lacks the height and length scouts would prefer in an edge rusher. (Photo by Adam Ruff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Garrett Nussmeier, QB, LSU
While his last name pushed him lower in this article, any list of rising NFL draft prospects is incomplete if it fails to include Nussmeier, who ranks behind only Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders as the most likely quarterback to earn a first round selection in the 2025 NFL draft.
Nussmeier, a fourth-year junior, has yet to start 10 games at the college level, but he’s already showing the pocket movement and precision of a much more experienced signal-caller, deftly sliding up into the pocket to avoid pass rushers while keeping his eyes downfield.
Of course, the spatial awareness and precise passing that Nussmeier has put on tape to this point will lose a lot of its luster if he isn’t effective in this week’s key matchup with rival Alabama. The week after in The Swamp against Florida will also draw the interest of every NFL team as each of Nussmeier’s two losses as a starting quarterback over his career have been on the road.
Nohl Williams, CB, California
As bizarre as it is to list a player at Cal-Berkeley as one of the fastest rising NFL prospects in the Atlantic Coast Conference, that is precisely the case with Williams, who not only leads the ACC, but the entire country, with six interceptions.
Snagging interceptions is nothing new for Williams, who snared two of them for Cal last year and five more over the previous three seasons at UNLV. And at a little over 6-feet and nearly 200 pounds, he possesses NFL-caliber size, as well. His experience shows, with a keen awareness of developing routes. Further, he possesses soft, receiver-like hands, as demonstrated by the fact that his 13 career interceptions have come on only 20 PBUs — an almost unheard-of level of efficiency for a defensive back. Even better, Williams’ vision shows up after the ball is in his hands, as well, as he returned an interception against Miami’s Cam Ward for a touchdown in Cal’s narrow 39-38 loss to the Hurricanes earlier this year, and he returned a kickoff 80 yards for a score in the season-opening win against Cal-Davis.
Cal has quietly emerged as a consistent developer of NFL-caliber defensive backs. Six of the past seven Golden Bears draft picks, in fact, are defensive backs. Along with edge rusher Xavier Carlton (another underrated NFL prospect), Williams will be added to that list in the spring.
Cal’s Nohl Williams possesses soft, receiver-like hands that have helped him grab 13 career interceptions. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)
Rob Rang is an NFL Draft analyst for FOX Sports. He has been covering the NFL Draft for more than 20 years, with work at FOX, Sports Illustrated, CBSSports.com, USA Today, Yahoo, NFL.com and NFLDraftScout.com, among others. He also works as a scout with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. Follow him on Twitter @RobRang.
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