The 2025 NFL Draft is almost here, and Yahoo Sports experts Nate Tice and Charles McDonald are breaking down the top prospects position by position. Here are the edge prospects. Check out Nate and Charles’ consensus big board here, along with Nate’s final big board and Charles’ final big board.
Other prospect rankings: QBs | RBs | WRs
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1. Abdul Carter, Penn State
2. Mykel Williams, Georgia
3. Mike Green, Marshall
4. Shemar Stewart, Texas A&M
5. Donovan Ezeiruaku, Boston College
Here are the top five edge prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft. (Davis Long/Yahoo Sports)
1. Abdul Carter, Penn State
Charles McDonald: Carter is oozing with 10-sack potential in the NFL. He is an explosive, agile player who spent all last season knifing through offensive lines as he racked up a monster final season for the Nittany Lions. Carter has a slender build (250 pounds at 6-foot-3), but he’s often able to mitigate that with blinding speed — which allowed him to lead FBS with 24 tackles for loss last season across the regular season and CFP.
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Carter will be able to make an impact early with his speed while he gets stronger and puts on weight for the NFL. Carter is dealing with a foot injury right now that will sideline him from working out for the rest of the draft season, but that won’t stop him getting selected early.
Nate Tice: When a Penn State defender now gets the No. 11 jersey, he is inevitably going to get compared to Micah Parsons, which is unfair for any player and such a high bar. Still, Carter is about as close to that Parsons comparison as a player can get.
He is a twitchy pass rusher who can bend around corners and somehow stay on his feet despite contorting his body like Gumby. Carter is still adding layers to his usage of hands and how to keep blockers off-balance, but he has the package of length, quick-twitch athleticism, bend, play strength and effort level to give him the upside of an elite ace edge defender with double-digit sack upside in the NFL.
He also has prior experience as an off-ball linebacker and interior pass rusher to boot. He still has to work on discipline in the run game, and can rely on knifing inside on his pass rush (which allows QBs to escape the pocket) a bit too much. He also doesn’t have elite bulk, but that’s the trade-off with his ability to move. He plays hard and it’s difficult to find this amount of true pass rushing juice. His medicals are also throwing a wrench in his evaluation, as combine testing revealed a stress fracture in his foot, which must be monitored.
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Plus, he also does cool things with tape on his facemask.
2. Mykel Williams, Georgia
Nate Tice: Williams battled injuries in 2024, but the flashes and tools were still there when he was on the field. His production started to ramp up, too, with those tantalizing traits morphing into sustained impact on the game.
Like most recent defensive line and edge prospects from Georgia, it’s all about seeing what Williams does when he is on the field as part of Georgia’s deep rotation up front. After a part-time role at the beginning of his Georgia career, Williams’ package of traits and impact play is instantly apparent now with more extended snaps. In the run game, he is constantly blasting offensive linemen backward with his explosive strength and twitch. When rushing the passer he flashes an in-progress move set with real get-off.
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Williams has the size, athleticism, technique and competitiveness to be a good pass rusher from the edge for a defense down the road. But his ability to be a plus-run defender right away gives him a high floor to see the field early while he continues to develop his pass-rush arsenal.
He has upside as a true impact player against the run in a short amount of time. Williams has the size and versatility to kick inside for snaps to create matchup advantages. He showed that already in college where even dominated guards in the run game. He still has to show more consistency and diversity with his pass-rush moves, but Williams is an impressive player who should keep adding layers to his game with more playing time. He will benefit from more snaps on the outside at the next level when he can pin his ears back and go. Players like DeMarcus Lawrence and Montez Sweat are what Williams can project to at the next level — at least as far as play style — with just that little bit of upside for more as a pass rusher.
Charles McDonald: Williams doesn’t have the sexiest style of play, but he got the job done for the Bulldogs when he was healthy. Williams is a bruising, powerful defensive end who did a lot of dirty work in between the tackles for Georgia. He’ll most likely be kicking out to the edge full-time in the NFL.
3. Mike Green, Marshall
Charles McDonald: Raw talent and athleticism is enough to get most teams to draft a pass-rush prospect highly — and Green fits the bill there. One quick survey of his 2024 season shows a player who’s still figuring out some of the intricacies of playing defensive line, which makes sense considering he didn’t become a full-time player on the edge until college.
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Green may mess up how he plays the mesh point on an option play every now and then, but the burst and speed he has coming off of the edge will have defensive line coaches pounding the table for him. Even though he doesn’t have the most refined skill set yet, he led the nation with 17 sacks and put up a good fight in the run game against heavier offensive tackles.
Nate Tice: Green is a competitive and bendy pass rusher who can get after the QB as well as anybody else in this draft class (he recorded 17 sacks in 2024, which led the FBS). Although he didn’t play the highest level of competition, Green did dominate it, which is exactly what you’re hoping to see out of a prospect who plays in a non-Power 4 conference. He was also an impact defender when Marshall played Ohio State early in the season.
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Green doesn’t have ideal size (6-foot-3, 251 pounds, 32-inch arm, 8½-inch hand), but he is twitchy and explosive and plays with the effort and want-to to help compensate for any size mismatches. Green is disruptive against the pass and run, and has as much pass rushing upside as any player in this class. Green is maxed out in terms of size, and larger/strong offensive linemen will be able to overwhelm him at the next level, but his effort and bend will easily translate to the next level. And I do think he will be able to make enough explosive plays against the run to offset some of the negatives.
Teams are also going to have to be comfortable with previous off-field concerns.
4. Shemar Stewart, Texas A&M
Nate Tice: Stewart put on a show at the combine, which wasn’t a total surprise given what he flashes on film. Stewart’s natural talent cannot be taught, and he was very disruptive this season in terms of generating pressure despite finishing with only 1.5 sacks (and 4.5 sacks in three years at College Station).
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Finishing is something that Stewart still needs to work on, as he will often run right by the QB or ball carrier after he beat his blocker. His feel for the game is not something that seems to come natural for him.
But again, Stewart’s tools are eye-popping. He’s explosive in a big frame (6-5, 267 pounds) and has the length (84 3/4-inch wingspan) and strength to keep blockers at bay while he figures out how to attack, and he still plays hard. He’s also devastating when he gets to attack on twists and defensive line games. Stewart just needs a lot of refining and honing in on his talent (his pass rush arsenal is quite limited right now, too).
He’s the classic traits-laden edge prospect who carries risk, but the NFL is always about the high-end traits. Top five-type talent, Day 2-type production, I split the difference and put him at 17.
Charles McDonald: Athleticism has never been a question for Stewart, but the production hasn’t matched the skill set just yet. That’s a bit more excusable at defensive line where teams are trying to find the most athletic guys they can to get after the passer — and it may get Stewart drafted as high as the top five when this is all over.
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Stewart has rare traits. It’s going to be up to his next defensive line coach to help him finish the plays he begins to create. Through-the-roof potential here.
5. Donovan Ezeiruaku, Boston College
Charles McDonald: Ezeiruaku is another player in this class who should be a strong addition to a team trying to bolster its pass rush. He isn’t the biggest pass rusher out there (6-2 1/2, 248 pounds), but he’s quick, explosive and has a nice array of moves to get home. He had a fairly similar combine performance to former Boston College edge rusher Harold Landry, who is a decent comparison for him moving to the pros.
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Nate Tice: Ezeiruaku doesn’t have overwhelming size, but he’s long (34-inch arm length) and is a disruptive pass rusher with a devastating swim move. He is a productive player who can consistently affect the passer and has twitchiness and enough length to overcome his lack of ideal size. He can still get smothered by larger offensive tackles, especially in the run game.
While this might limit Ezeiruaku’s every-down projection at the next level, everyone loves pass rushers, and Ezeiruaku plays hard, is disruptive, has a pass rush arsenal already and gets after the QB in a hurry.
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