Field Yates ranks Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter and the top 25 NFL Draft prospects of 2025 | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumors

With Colorado in the spotlight this season, quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Travis Hunter continue to garner a lot of positive attention ahead of the 2025 NFL draft.

In a ranking of the 25 best players of the 2025 class, ESPN’s Field Yates currently names Sanders and Hunter as top 10 prospects.

Sanders ranks No. 7 on Yates’ list, largely because of his “surgical passing from the pocket with a cannon arm and incredible accuracy,” after completing 69.3 percent of his attempts last season.

Hunter is the ninth best player in the class.

“There is no more natural playmaker in college football than Hunter. The dual threat for Colorado makes the hard things look easy from both his wide receiver and cornerback positioning,” Yates wrote.

Yates is an outlier among draft analysts in putting Sanders ahead of Hunter. The cornerback-wide receiver hybrid currently sits at No. 2 on the consensus big board. Sanders isn’t far behind at No. 6.

Hunter’s ability to play both sides of the ball may make him the most unique prospect in the 2025 class. He was on the field for more than 100 snaps in seven of the nine games he played last year.

Hunter is the top prospect in the 2022 recruiting class. He caught 57 passes for 721 yards and five touchdowns as a receiver, while intercepting three passes and recording two tackles for loss as a cornerback in his first season at Colorado.

Considering how well Hunter played on both sides of the ball in college, NFL teams will have to do a lot of evaluation to determine what they want his primary position to be. It seems like a waste of his ability to limit himself to just one position in the pros.

Sanders’ evaluation is also interesting because his highlights can look as good as any other quarterback in this class, but he also tends to make a lot of negative plays.

There were concerns about the number of hits Sanders was taking last year. Some of that was due to a leaky Colorado offensive line that struggled with pass protection. However, there were also plenty of times when Sanders decided to hold the ball longer than necessary.

“While I admire his willingness to exhaust himself on every down,” NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah wrote in July, “Sanders’ tendency to never give up and hold on to the ball results in far too many sacks.”

Sanders still finished last season with 3,230 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and three interceptions. The overall picture looks very good, despite some flaws when you really look at it.

Colorado is hoping incoming players Jordan Seaton (the No. 1 offensive tackle in 2024, according to the 247Sports composite rankings) and Texas transfer Payton Kirkland can provide better protection up front.

While it’s a cliché that a quarterback shouldn’t be afraid to take what the defense gives him, Sanders must show he’s capable of doing so to maintain his value.

The raw talent and performance Sanders has shown suggests he could be a high first-round pick in 2025. He can cement that status with a few tweaks to his game.

Sanders and Hunter will get their first taste of the season on Thursday when Colorado opens the 2024 season against North Dakota State.