It feels like every year, whether they’re the best player or not, a quarterback goes No. 1 overall. That could be the case for the 2025 NFL Draft with the Tennessee Titans holding the top selection after a season of Will Levis and Mason Rudolph leading their offense, but former Penn State star Abdul Carter has a different idea for Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi.
“I feel like I’m the best player in the country,” Carter told Mike Florio and Chris Simms of PFT Live on Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “And the best player should be drafted No. 1.”
The last time a QB didn’t go first overall was in 2022 when the Jacksonville Jaguars selected Georgia defensive end Travon Walker. The Titans may follow a similar model of drafting an early edge rusher, but Tennessee isn’t affording the luxury of having selected Trevor Lawrence first overall a year ago as the Jaguars did.
In the lead-up to the draft, players will often say that they don’t care about being the first pick and they just want to end up in the right place; probably the right thing to say if you’re worried about your draft stock. Carter is taking a different approach, and it’s refreshing to hear.
“It’s very important for me,” Carter told PFT Live. “That’s one of the goals I made before the season. It’s something I’ve always talked about. It’s what I’ve worked for. I feel like I’m getting close to that. I’ve just got to keep working, keep putting the effort in and I’m going to accomplish my dream.”
That dream may be in jeopardy after a stress reaction was discovered in Carter’s right foot on Wednesday night. While the concerns of that new injury, one that could require surgery, may drop Carter down the draft board and out of consideration at No. 1, it shouldn’t. Carter was wrong about being the best player in the country, but he was right that he should be the first pick.
In 2024, six quarterbacks were selected in the first 12 picks. While that’s an incredible historical outlier, it illustrates the fact that QBs get pushed up the board. Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders appear to be the only two first-round quarterbacks in this year’s draft, and most evaluators would agree that the best QB this year, may have been the fifth or sixth QB last year. Yet, Ward or Sanders could be selected ahead of Carter, and that’d be a mistake.
I’m a bigger fan of Ward than I am of Sanders, but neither feels like a sure enough bet to pass on a game-changing edge rusher at the top of the draft. Travis Hunter was the best player in the country last year and rightfully won the Heisman Trophy, but his projection to the NFL is so unclear, which is why I’d give the nod to Carter at No. 1.
Hunter is an elite cornerback prospect and a first-rounder at wide receiver, the fact that he plays both positions is a bonus, but it also carries with it a series of questions that have never been answered at the NFL level. Can a player stay healthy playing both ways? How many snaps can he play on offense if he’s a full-time corner? Is he actually better as a full-time wide receiver?
Those are all good problems to have when you’ve added a generational talent to your roster, but in a league where keeping your job is the No. 1 job requirement, selecting a plug-and-play star defensive end seems to be the favorable option, and that’s before considering that Carter might be the better overall prospect because of his own positional versatility.
Outside of Happy Valley, it’s largely forgotten that Carter spent his first two collegiate seasons as a traditional off-ball linebacker and a damn good one at that. That’s not to say you’d extract much surplus value out of your defense by playing your best pass-rusher off the ball, but it is to say that Carter still has plenty of developmental upside as he continues to learn a new position. And it doesn’t hurt that he can drop back in coverage or spy a mobile quarterback from time to time.
Quarterback is the most important position and Travis Hunter is the best player, but in the 2025 NFL Draft, Abdul Carter should be the first overall pick.