The NFL Draft is one of the biggest nights of the year for football fans and teams alike, as commissioners prepare to improve their squads for the 2025 season.
I’m a huge NFL fan, and have been ever since I lived in the US in my early 20s. That said, I’ve never really paid much attention to the NFL Draft, despite its importance.
This year, I’ve decided to educate myself on the top prospects beyond my favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles, and I’ve turned to AI to try and help me understand where and when each college footballer will be selected.
I previously attempted to predict the March Madness bracket using ChatGPT, and you guessed it, ChatGPT failed despite getting the final four correct. This time, I’ve decided to pit ChatGPT Deep Research against some competition in the form of Gemini Deep Research and Manus AI.
So without further ado, here’s what AI predicts will happen in the 2025 NFL Draft.
What's the NFL Draft? And how does it work?
If you're a fan of the NFL, you're more than likely up to speed on how the NFL Draft works. However, you might just be interested in AI and want to know how accurately AI research tools can compile reports for upcoming events.
If you fall into that second category, here are the basics. The NFL Draft consists of seven rounds, each containing 32 picks. That's 257 total selections.
For this experiment, I've asked ChatGPT, Gemini, and Manus to predict the first round, which consists of the 32 best players from this year's draft pool.
During the NFL Draft, there are often trades between teams that can impact the draft order. Teams will each focus on different positions, so if one moves up via trade, they may select a different player to the team that would've initially had that draft pick.
For fairness, AI can't determine which teams will trade during the first round, so I'll take that into account when I compare the predictions with the real-life results in a few days.
What does AI think?
My prompt was simple: "Can you predict the first round of the NFL Draft 2025, which takes place on April 24, 2025?"
Gemini and Manus began compiling their research almost instantly, while ChatGPT required further information, such as which particular analysts to prioritize and how I wanted the breakdown of its choices to look.
I decided to give ChatGPT as much freedom as possible, so it was as fair a comparison as possible with the other AI research models.
All three returned with in-depth analysis, highlighting each of the first 32 picks and why each team is likely to select each player.
While ChatGPT and Gemini were able to make selections purely from this year's draft class, Manus somehow managed to get mixed up and add players from last year's draft who currently play in the NFL to its selection process.
The predictions
In the list below you'll find AI's predictions of the NFL Draft 2025. While you'll notice some trends like all three models selecting Cam Ward as the overall number 1 pick, there's quite a lot of variety between all three predictions.
10 of Manus' 32 selections already play in the NFL, rendering the predictions incorrect from the get-go.
Interestingly, Shedeur Sanders, one of the biggest names of this year's draft can be found as high up as 3rd overall in ChatGPT's predictions and as low down as 21st in Gemini's. This will be one of the picks worth watching, as based on where he's selected it could impact how accurate the final results are.
I'll be updating this article following the 2025 NFL Draft and comparing the results between all three AI models. With so much variability, can AI research tools come close? Stay tuned to TechRadar to find out.
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