Mykel Williams

2025 NFL Draft Rumors: Saints, Packers, Falcons, Revel

March 27th, 2025 at 10:13pm CST by Ely Allen

The Saints continue to stay busy having visits with 2025 NFL Draft prospects, according to multiple reports from Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football.

Last night, the team hosted several Georgia players for dinner, including a top defensive end prospect in Mykel Williams as well as wide receiver Arian Smith. They also reportedly had dinner this week with Pittsburgh tight end Gavin Bartholomew, a likely Day 3 prospect whose name has not been making the rounds this early in the process. Lastly, the team was in Knoxville today reportedly meeting with some Tennessee players, including running back Dylan Sampson and defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott.

Underhill adds that the team has been doing a ton of work during the pre-draft process on running backs. Even though lead back Alvin Kamara had a career-high 950 rushing yards in 2024, combined with 543 receiving yards, the sheer depth of this year’s class of running back prospects nearly ensures that quality backs will be available into the fourth or fifth round. Dane Brugler of The Athletic has eight running backs listed in his top 100 prospects list, so it makes sense that New Orleans is doing its homework on the position.

Here are a few other rumors concerning possibilities in the 2025 NFL Draft:

The Packers currently have eight picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, but if general manager Brian Gutekunst has anything to say about it, they could be angling for more. According to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, when asked about not having many picks this year, Gutekunst added the addendum “yet” to the end of the statement, indicating that he would have some interest in acquiring more picks via trade. Green Bay currently sits at No. 23 overall in the first round. It’s been posited that many teams from pick No. 20 on are looking to trade back out of the first round due to a lack of elite, top-end talent in this year’s class, as opposed to the tremendous depth the class seems to provide. Unfortunately, due to that same issue, there are going to be few, if any, takers willing to give up precious draft capital to move up into the first round.
One trend we seem to be seeing shows the Falcons as likely candidates to go defense in the first round of the draft. Josh Kendall of The Athletic selected safety Nick Emmanwori in the site’s beat writer mock draft, and the other players he says he considered with the pick, safety Malaki Starks, linebackers Jalon Walker and Jihaad Campbell, cornerback Will Johnson, and edges Mike Green and Shemar Stewart, all reside on the defensive side of the ball. Kendall bases this belief that the team will go defense off of new defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich wanting to build a new, uniquely hybrid defense.
Lastly, Ryan Fowler of The Draft Network reported today that the Cowboys will be hosting East Carolina cornerback Shavon Revel for a top-30 visit next week. We know that Revel is attempting to make a comeback from a torn ACL that ended his final collegiate season after only three games and that he is projected to be back in time for training camp. What makes this an interesting visit is that, according to Clarence Hill Jr. of All City DLLS, Revel’s ACL repair surgery was performed by Cowboys team doctor Dan Cooper, likely giving the franchise a uniquely exclusive insight on his prognosis and recovery.

Panthers Interested In OLB Mykel Williams?

March 23rd, 2025 at 3:21pm CST by Adam La Rose

The Panthers have not done much to add along the edge so far this offseason. Patrick Jones represents the only free agent signing so far, and while further moves could be coming the draft looms as a means of making a long-term investment.

Carolina owns the No. 8 pick in next month’s draft, and the flashes shown by second-year quarterback Bryce Young and the team’s offense at the end of last season led the team to focus on defensive additions earlier this month. Deals for the likes of safety Tre’von Moehrig along with defensive linemen Tershawn Wharton and Bobby Brown should help the Panthers improve the league’s worst total and scoring defense from 2024.

With little having taken place on the open market regarding the edge rush group, the likes of Jadeveon Clowney and D.J. Wonnum will remain key figures in that regard. Jones – who notched a career-high seven sacks last season – will also be counted on to improve Carolina’s 32 sacks from 2024. A number of options will be on the board when the Panthers use their first selection in the draft, though.

With that in mind, Joe Person of The Athletic writes Carolina has a “real interest” in Mykel Williams (subscription required). The Georgia product is one of several edge rushers viewed as strong candidates to be selected in the first round, and he will be among the top options left when Abdul Carter hears his name called (which will no doubt happen before the Panthers are on the clock barring a trade up the order). Williams is among the prospects likely to be considered at No. 8, Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda adds.

A former five-star recruit, Williams’ size (6-5, 260 pounds) and athleticism give him some of the highest upside amongst edge rushers in the 2025 class. He posted 4.5 sacks in each of his first two seasons with the Bulldogs, but a lingering ankle injury limited his production in 2024. Williams recorded five sacks and nine tackles for loss, figures short of what many other Day 1 prospects managed but enough for a second-team All-SEC nod. Still, a top-10 selection will be on the table if Carolina’s interest in him holds through the rest of the pre-draft process.

Pauline’s latest mock draft (along with that of ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr.) has the Panthers looking to Georgia with their top pick but instead selecting hybrid linebacker/edge rusher Jalon Walker. He will be worth watching closely as Carolina continues to line up top-30 visits over the coming days, but the same is also true of Williams.

Georgia Defensive Stars Declare For Draft

January 12th, 2025 at 11:05pm CST by Ely Allen

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before, but the University of Georgia is set to produce multiple first-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft, specifically on the defensive side of the ball. Bulldogs linebacker Jalon Walker, safety Malaki Starks, and pass rusher Mykel Williams all took to social media last week to announce their declarations to enter the draft. All three players were five-star recruits in an incredible 2022 signing class for the Dawgs, with Williams ranking as the 10th highest rated signee in school history at the time.

Walker, out of Salisbury HS (NC), was 247Sports’ third-best linebacker and 26th-best overall recruit in the class. As a true freshman, Walker played sparingly on special teams and as a reserve insider linebacker. While getting slightly more time as a reserve insider linebacker in his sophomore campaign, Walker still found a way to lead the team with five sacks. Finally earning a full-time starting role as a junior, Walker set a career high in tackles (60) while leading the team with more career highs in tackles for loss (11) and sacks (6.5). Walker was awarded the Butkus Award for the nation’s best linebacker this year.

Now, Walker is almost certainly going to be a first-round draft pick, the only question remaining is: at what position? ESPN’s Mel Kiper and Field Yates and The Athletic’s Dane Brugler all view Walker as the top off-ball linebacker in the draft, with Kiper and Brugler rating him as the ninth- and seventh-best prospect, respectively, overall, touting his sideline-to-sideline capabilities with his elite pass rushing abilities adding versatility to his portfolio. ESPN’s Matt Miller and Jordan Reid, though, have Walker ranking third amongst edge rushers alongside Williams, predicting that Walker’s elite pass rushing ability will land him as an outside linebacker or defensive end in the NFL.

Williams, out of Hardaway HS (GA), was even higher ranked than Walker coming out of high school, with 247Sports listing him as the second-best defensive lineman and the seventh-best overall recruit in the nation. After an initial commitment to USC, Williams made a flip late in his senior year, deciding to go to Athens, instead.

As a true freshman, Williams led the team in sacks (4.5) despite only making two starts in 15 appearances of the team’s championship campaign. While Walker led the team in that stat each of the past two years, Williams was second on the team in both 2023 (4.5) and 2024 (5.0). Williams started 10 of 13 games as a sophomore, but after failing to take much of a step forward, Williams would only earn five starts this season, getting out-snapped by players like Chaz Chambliss, Damon Wilson Jr., and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins.

We’ve seen plenty examples before to show that physical tools and potential can easily outweigh a lack of production in college, and that seems to be the case with Williams. Despite his inability to show more consistency and production at Georgia, Williams’ speed, power, and bend are viewed as top-tier traits that could make him a scary weapon on an NFL defense. Kiper and his colleagues and Brugler consistently have Williams ranked as the second- or third-best pass rusher in the draft behind only Penn State’s Abdul Carter and sometimes behind Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr. Kiper lists Williams as the 16th-best overall prospect, while Brugler slots him up at eighth.

Perhaps saving the best for last, Starks was the jewel of Georgia’s recruiting class that year out of Jefferson HS (GA), ranking as the top athlete and the fourth-best overall prospect, according to 247Sports. Starks made the biggest impact of the three as a freshman, starting 14 of 15 contests. In the championship-winning campaign, Starks tied for the team-lead in passes defensed (7) while finishing second on the team with two interceptions. He finished second in both categories as a sophomore, as well, with three interceptions and seven more passes defensed. While his ball-hawking took a backseat this past season, Starks took the team-lead in another category with 77 total tackles.

While Kiper lists Starks below Walker as the 13th best overall prospect in the draft, he and his colleagues all list Starks as the top safety prospect in the class. Brugler has Starks ranked as the fourth-best overall prospect. Starks projects so highly because of his high football intelligence and his versatile ability to make plays all over the field. He has a build closer to that of a Brian Branch than a Kyle Hamilton, but he possesses the ability both pros have to make tackles in the box, close quickly in coverage, and finish plays with good hands. It may take him a moment to live up to that comparison, but the potential is absolutely there.

While there has been a large number of perceived “busts” out of Georgia in the last few years, Starks, Walker, and Williams won’t be coasting off of the boosts often applied to winners of a national championship like Travon Walker, Quay Walker, Devonte Wyatt, and Lewis Cine, who perhaps have not lived up to their relative draft stock. Regardless, Georgia is on a three-year streak of producing multiple first-round picks, and that trend will likely continue as Starks, Walker, and Williams prepare for April.