2025 NFL Draft: Matthew Golden, Jayden Higgins, Tez Johnson

This past weekend, the Underwear Olympics (aka the NFL Scouting Combine) took place in Indianapolis, allowing some of the top college prospects from around the country to shine in front of NFL brass.

Casual fans may be dismissive of the event, thinking it doesn’t fully capture what the players have put on tape, but NFL executives use this time to conduct interviews and make subtle changes in their draft board, allowing movement from key performances (or duds).

Though some of the top talent passed on performing individual drills in favor of their collegiate Pro Days instead, several players took this opportunity to shine and perhaps bumped their stock up from a Day 3 selection to Day 2, or vice versa.

2025 NFL Combine Winners & Losers

The 2025 draft class is highlighted by outstanding depth along the defensive line and running back, but each position revealed a few gems (or lumps of coal) this past weekend. Here are my thoughts on some of the players that made the most of their spotlight, and others that failed to seize the moment.

Derek Brown and Andrew Erickson were live on location for the combine and shared their biggest draft risers and fallers at quarterback, running back wide receiver and tight end.

NFL Combine Winners: Wide Receivers

Matthew Golden (WR – Texas)

Speed kills, and Matthew Golden has plenty to spare. Golden led all wideouts with a blazing 4.29 40-yard dash mark, just off the record pace his teammate Xavier Worthy set last year. Known primarily as a big play threat, Golden has a polished route tree that will enable him to succeed with multiple concepts. His ability to make defenders miss and blow past defensive backs in open space is noteworthy.

Mild-mannered and well-spoken, Golden performed well when catching the ball in drills and solidified himself as a top-20 selection in the upcoming NFL Draft. Any team looking for help at the position should strongly consider him with their top pick.

Jayden Higgins (WR – Iowa State)

To be fair, both Cyclone receivers (Higgins and teammate Jaylin Noel) were exceptional, but Higgins caught my eye early on by running a 4.47 40-yard dash with his 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame. Unlike the past several drafts where smaller wideouts and slot receivers headlined the position, the 2025 class is more well-rounded and has multiple options that can fulfill the “X” role outside the hash marks.

Golden’s huge catch radius offers quarterbacks a wide area to target. Higgins consistently showed great hands and contested catch ability downfield at Iowa State. My colleague Derek Brown has been leading the bandwagon on Higgins for a while, and I believe there is plenty of room left aboard the hype train. All aboard.

NFL Combine Losers: Wide Receivers

Tez Johnson (WR – Oregon)

I was excited to watch Tez Johnson run, after seeing multiple Oregon games where he made defenders look silly in open space because of his elusiveness after the catch. Host Daniel Jeremiah spoke highly of his ability to play fast and came away equally disappointed as I was with his 4.51 40-yard dash mark.

A 37-inch vertical jump and 1.53-second 10-yard split were somewhat offset by a strong showing at the three-cone drill (his 6.65-second mark led all wideouts), but this still felt like a disappointing overall effort by someone most analysts ranked within the top 15 at the position. Jeremiah seemed confident Johnson would perform better at his Pro Day, where he hopes to demonstrate that his extremely slight frame (just 5-foot-10 and 155 pounds) can hold up at the NFL level. Johnson has drawn comparisons to Los Angeles Ram Tutu Atwell, which is reasonable.