Every year, mock drafts are all the rage across the NFL community. There’s only one problem: They almost always predate free agency, which doesn’t make all that much sense. Why? Because the veteran market is where most clubs start when it comes to plugging immediate roster holes.
Yes, the draft is designed for the long term, which is why the smartest teams actually live out the notion of selecting the “best player available” rather than zeroing in on obvious positions of need. Yet in reality, teams always blend both need and talent evaluation when making picks in April. Which is all the more reason to wait for veteran free agency to kick off, to further inform teams’ actual draft-day needs.
On a related note, what if we just applied the mock draft format to free agency?
Good news: We’ve done just that, imagining where some of the best available veterans would end up if all 32 teams were allowed to “sign” them — not in order of lowest NFL standing, like the draft, but rather in projected salary cap space (via Over the Cap, as of Wednesday morning).
The exercise serves a dual purpose, much like actual mock drafts: showcasing the top available “prospects,” plus logical team fits based on need and resources.
We included all unrestricted free agents except for the following franchise-tagged players:
Without further ado, our 2025 NFL free agency mock draft: