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Welcome to Stormcloud’s (unofficial) 1st round ranking of prospects you’d like to see the Chargers draft at pick 1.22!
Link –> 2025 NFL Draft 1st Round Ranking – Stormcloud.blog
I pitched the idea to Buck, and he liked it, so I went ahead and made it happen. If you guys like it, I’ll make it an annual thing. The idea is to get an easy overview of which prospects you’d like to see picked in the first round and who you’d hate (e.g., Buck hating Mike Green 😉). I hope this inspires further discussion and makes for interesting debates. I believe my own ranking has some hot takes. As a teaser, here is my own top 10 (color-codes are explained in the document), including 4 prospects most likely not available (“Miracle scenario”-group – marked here with a *):
- *Tyler Warren, TE
- Grey Zabel, OG/C
- Colston Loveland, TE
- *Will Johnson, CB
- *Jalon Walker, EDGE
- *Armand Membou, OT/OG
- Mykel Williams, EDGE
- Donovan Ezeiruaku, EDGE
- Tetairoa McMillan, WR
- Jahdae Barron, CB/S
Further information is found in the document, where I’ll guide you on what to do and how. This includes rankable prospects, groupings, and color-codes.
I have made a public Google Drive Sheets document – which means you are able to write in it. I hope you are able to contribute. If we get some rankings, I’d like to do a follow-up post just before the draft with some interesting data and takes (e.g., averages, most/least popular prospects, etc.) from your rankings.
Please post a comment:
- If you have contributed with your ranking, to incentivize discussion and engagement.
- If you disagree with any group in which a prospect has been placed.
- If you’d like to see other prospects added to the pool.
- If you have any questions.
- If you have any suggestions to make the document better (e.g., design, method, etc.) – all ideas are welcome to make it as good as possible!
Please refrain from making big changes to the document. Just add your name and ranking. I will keep the document updated and edited if it is used.
I think doing a Big Board would be simpler but it will be interesting to see how it all comes out.
Abdul Carter would otherwise be my favorite prospect to drop to 22, followed by Jeanty whereas Ward, Sanders etc wouldn’t make a Top 32 for the Chargers big board.
@duck07 I find it more interesting to see which prospects Stormcloud members want to be drafted, rather than a Big Board of who they believe to be the most talented. I will of course change the format, if more people agree with you. I appreciate your feedback 😊
@bolt_dk Well I want us to draft Abdul Carter at 22 then my next choice would be Ashton Jeanty. Using the “miracle” picks just makes it feel more confusing to me than a simple Chargers Big Board.
@duck07 I’m assuming it’s impossible for Abdul Carter to be available at 1.22, which is why i put him in the “Out of reach” group.
I believe there’s a miniscule chance Jeanty could be available, because he’s a RB, which is why I put him in the “Miracle scenario” group.
I don’t find it feasible or interesting to rank any prospects which won’t have chance to be available at 1.22 (i.e., “Out of reach” group). As i state in the document, you decide for yourself if you want to include players from the “Miracle scenario” group in your rankings, as I did.
I’m sorry that the format is confusing, that’s not my intention.
Let me know if any others also find it confusing.
This looks interesting. For the big board idea, maybe we can have a way everyone can make their own, lets say, top 20 realistic prospects to be available at 1.22. We can use a weeks worth of data to create a big board and then adjust it maybe once or twice before the draft? I’m just spit balling here for inputs sake. I will fully engage in this ranking doc. Thanks for putting together some interesting draft content!! You know I love it.
maybe we can have a way everyone can make their own, lets say, top 20 realistic prospects to be available at 1.22.
My idea with this list, is for everyone to rank their top 20 prospects available at 1.22. Isn’t that what you are suggesting here? If people write down their own rankings in my document, we can collect that data to make a consensus Big Board just before the draft?
People are also welcome and have total freedom to change their rankings as we get closer.
I’m just spit balling here for inputs sake. I will fully engage in this ranking doc. Thanks for putting together some interesting draft content!! You know I love it.
I appreciate the compliment and input! Let me know if anything is confusing and can be changed for the better!
@bolt_dk This works as a big board for all. Love this idea. As I keep watching more and getting an idea of who might be drafted I might toggle a few names around in mine.
@evolz3737 Please feel free to change as much as you want. That’s why I made it open to edit for anyone with the link.
I posted my big board with colors. Hopefully it makes sense. My Blue players are only 2 guys.
@evolz3737 Thank you for your contribution! Quite some differences from mine and some similarities, which is great.
I’m glad it was understandable.
I’m curious as to why you’d like Emmanwori (almost) as much as Barron. Could you elaborate?
@duck07bolt_dk I think Emmanwori is Derwin lite. He is just a physical specimen with outrageous athleticism. He can cover, play in the box and play the deep third. He would be an absolute devastating chess piece for Minter. I view Barron more like a better coverage version of Brian Branch. He just makes plays in the secondary, but I don’t necessarily view him as an outside shut down CB. There really isn’t that blue chip CB in this draft quite frankly. I would rank Emmanwori higher if I thought he would be there at 1.22 and if I thought that position was more of a need. If he were there at 1.22 and we took him, there will be no argument from me as he will easily be the BPA unless there is a real unforeseen drop from one of the elite too 10 projected players.
Great idea @bolt_dk!
I’ve been quiet the last couple weeks on Stormcloud because I’m feverishly trying to get through final tape evals of at least the Top 75 prospects.
This weekend we’re doing a crossover podcast with Guilty as Charged where we jointly attempt to set the Chargers Draft Board. I’ll post it sometime on Sat evening US time.
After that, I’ll engage with this properly and update the Google Doc 
@alisterlloyd Awesome. You know I will be listening. I probably watched about 40 players but only have enough evaluation written down for about 20. I completed 15 write ups already and it feels like a ton. I can only imagine 75!!! I will probably finish around 65 really studied with hopefully 25 or 30 write ups. Godspeed my friend on your way to 75.
Fantastic! And thanks to you guys who are spending the time evaluating the tape and giving us your insights!
My listing skipped a number of great players because I felt there was NO chance they’ll be there at 22 (and I sincerely doubt a trade up, except possibly for TE Warren).
I also did not list prospects who I simply do not want to be drafted at 22. Some of them might be in play if we trade down and some I’d hope might fall to 55.
And at 22, I feel fairly certain we will be able to choose between one or more prospects I listed as blue or green.
@kathmandusteve Thank you for participating!
My listing skipped a number of great players because I felt there was NO chance they’ll be there at 22 (and I sincerely doubt a trade up, except possibly for TE Warren).
That’s completely okay. It would be difficult for everone to agree on which players are gonna be available at 1.22. That’s why at decided to group them to the best of my ability to have a sort of guide for everyone to make use of.
I also did not list prospects who I simply do not want to be drafted at 22. Some of them might be in play if we trade down and some I’d hope might fall to 55.
You rank whichever players you are comfortable with! Comments are for explaining and expanding on your thought proces after ranking the players.
An editing mistake has occurred, resulting in the deletion of prospects ranked #2.
@evolz3737 and @kathmandusteve , you need to update your rankings, sorry.
@bolt_dk, Thanks! I think we’re good. I recall only having 3 in the blue dream category and I believe Erick only had Warren.
I did change a couple and added Scourton who I’d missed earlier. As you can see, it’s either Edge or Offensive weapon in my Love categories.
@kathmandusteve Steve, with Edge seeming to be an position you are rating highly on your board, why did Mike Green fall into the red tier for you?
@evolz3737 Erick, you probably know more than I, but some podcasters point to character issues/events that might take him out of the Chargers’ board, including Matt “Money” Smith.
@kathmandusteve Oh from a character concern I get it. I mentioned as much in my profile piece. I just wonder at what point, if any, talent overtakes character? The reluctance of this organization to draft character concern players dropped him into bottom orange territory, but from a pure talent perspective he would have been in the green in front of Harmon. I wonder if the character concern is more a function of the ownership or if that was a Telesco hang up? It will be interesting to see if the issue with character is still as big a part of the prospect evaluation and selection under Hortiz going forward.
@evolz3737 Don’t know, I think there are different kind of character issues, some more likely to affect the team than others.
I certainly wouldn’t want the Chargers to become like the Chiefs and make a habit of taking abusive, self-centered, dangerous individuals on a regular basis. Yeah, they get them in lower rounds and some (like Tyreek Hill and Kareem Hunt) seem to help them on the field — But, the whole team gets tarnished with a rep by continually taking low-life human beings.
@kathmandusteve I understand, but I just want to see one Super Bowl before I die. If it takes a few unsavory characters to finally make that happen, I’m sure I can look the other way. And as we have seen, a strong, winning culture can really check any issues at the door. Maybe Harbaugh has more of an appetite for it than past coaches? After all the Ravens aren’t an organization of choir boys.
@smith I went to Florida with 2 friends to see the game. We went to the game without tickets. My “maniac” friend found some sketchy scalper dude who wanted S450/ticket for nosebleed seats. My other friend was totally against giving $1350 to a dude that looked like he’d been sleeping outdoors. I was the deciding vote. So….
We left and watched the game in a bar in Ft Lauderdale.
@bolt_dk Bolt, curious as to why you did not have Connerly or Simmons on your board, but had Membou so high? Was it your intention to slide him inside?
@evolz3737 Yes that would be my intention. I tried to look up which OT’s are viewed as capable guards. It is not my personal opinion, as I don’t watch film myself.
I landed on Campbell, Simmons, and Connerly as “only” tackles and Membou and Banks as possible guards.
In the case of Membou, I would put him at RG and slide Becton to LG as he has played LT before. I’m currently debating my ranking of Membou – I’d probably end up sliding him down. I do value getting a quality IOL, which is why I have Grey Zabel so high. Zabel can instantly solve C or LG, IMO.
@bolt_dk I think right now and as we get closer to the draft Membou is getting closer to cementing himself as OT1 in this class. I don’t see any way he makes it out of the top 12 and is probably the first OL drafted. I don’t think he will be drafted that high being viewed as a Guard which is why I didn’t include him on my list at all. I also didn’t include Campbell for the same reasons. He will not make it to 1.22 and I consider him entirely as an OT. Zabel made my list in orange because I do not think he is a slam dunk Rd1 C and with the FA signings we made he will probably not be in consideration at 1.22, but he will not last until 2.55. He would need to be involved in a trade up or down scenario during the draft to land with us IMO.
@evolz3737 I also believe Membou has an extremely low chance of being available – just like Walker, Johnson, Warren and Jeanty. That’s why I grouped those together.
Only rank the players that make sense to you. I chose to include these players in mine, but I could just as well have excluded them and had Zabel as my #1.
@bolt_dk love what you’ve done here!
Hopefully I’ll soon have some time to review and provide input. Sale of my farm closed yesterday….yay!!! So hopefully things will begin to wind down a bit.
Congratulations on selling the farm, but does that mean someone else just “bought the farm”? Tough luck for them!
I posted my picks. I’ve been very busy, so have not had time to do all the research most of you guys have done (so my picks could suck).
Last year, I was on the Nabers or trade down train. I didn’t think there was any way the Chargers would use the 5th pick on a RT & didn’t like the pick at the time. I was very wrong.
This year, I think the focus of the first pick needs to be interior OL, DL or TE. That moved the RBs, DBs and WRs down on my list.
Haven’t seen much discussion on other transactions in the division, but the Raiders paying 35 year old Geno Smith is a head-scratcher. He’s an OK QB, but, at best, he’s the 3rd best QB in the division (not sold on Nix).
The Raiders would be better off stacking losses and draft capitol and drafting a QB next year (Arch Manning?). I said the same thing about the Broncos when they traded for Wilson. They should have stacked losses & picks, then maneuvered to draft CJ Stroud. This is less of a fuck-up, but still not the right strategy, in my opinion. Since I fuckin’ hate the Raiders, I’m in favor of their commitment to mediocrity.
@kevdiego Honestly they have been so terrible for so long that they will probably rub themselves raw to hover around .500 for a few years.
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