Which teams have the most at stake in the 2025 NFL draft?

The NFL draft was created back in 1936 to ensure the league retains a degree of parity. That’s why the team who finished the previous season in last place get the first choice of the best talents emerging from the college game and the reigning Super Bowl champions pick last.

But it is not necessarily always the case that the team preparing to spend the first overall pick in a given draft are the most desperate for an injection of talent or a quick reversal of fortunes.

Other factors – such as expectations from ownership, rebuilding plans and the quality of players already on the roster – can mean that a high-picking team have the luxury of patience, while those owning lower picks might be operating with more urgency.

• Read next | 2025 NFL Draft: Cleveland Browns and New York Giants taking calls on second and third overall-picks

With that in mind, here are three teams who arguably have the most at stake heading into the 2025 NFL draft this week.

New York Giants

For the fourth time in the last five years, the Giants have a top-10 pick. That means that the four-time Super Bowl champions have been underperforming for longer than team president and co-owner John Mara is prepared to stomach.

Speaking to reporters at the end of the 2024 NFL season – which saw New York finish a dismal, joint-league-worst 3-14 – Mara confirmed that general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll would both retain their jobs. But he also made it clear that the Giants need to show clear improvement in 2025 if the pair will remain at the helm in the Meadowlands long-term.

And so the Giants – who will pick third – enter this year’s draft needing to acquire players capable of immediately impacting winning while also, ideally, finding a franchise quarterback to succeed short-term fix Russell Wilson, the 36-year-old former Super Bowl MVP who was signed to a one-year deal this offseason.

Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals were not a Giants-level dumpster fire last season. But given the array of talent they possess, the fact they finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs made for an extremely disappointing return for the 2021 AFC champions.

In Joe Burrow, they have one of the four best quarterbacks in the NFL and one who – with 4,918 passing yards and a league-best 43 touchdowns – performed to an MVP level last year.

The Bengals got historic production from Ja’Marr Chase last season, too. Burrow’s former LSU colleague won the Triple Crown by leading all wide receivers in yards, touchdowns and receptions.

Cincinnati made Chase the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback this offseason, as well as tring Tee Higgins to a deal that has made him by far the top-paid No.2 receiver.

With so much invested in their offensive weapons, and with uncertainty surrounding star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson’s future, the Bengals are reliant on the draft to patch up a defensive unit that ranked 25th in the NFL for points allowed last season.

Kansas City Chiefs

Listing the Chiefs here might seem like a bizarre choice. After all, their 15-2 regular season record was the joint-best in the league in 2024 and they reached the Super Bowl for the fifth time in six years.

But Kansas City were successful last season in spite of a series of weaknesses that were evident for much of the campaign, and which the Philadelphia Eagles exposed to devastating effect at Super Bowl LIX.

Their offensive line failed to adequately protect Patrick Mahomes, who was brutalised by the Eagles in the Super Bowl, pressured 16 times and sacked six times. The Chiefs then took a bizarre approach to remedying this issue during free agency by trading All-Pro guard Joe Thuney to the Chicago Bears and signing relatively untested left tackle Jaylon Moore from the San Francisco 49ers to a $30 million deal.

Furthermore, Rashee Rice’s ACL injury and legal troubles raise questions over whether Kansas City have a reliable No.1 wide receiver among their ranks, while iconic tight end Travis Kelce, at age 35, looked severely diminished for most of last season.

All this means that the Chiefs have needs at offensive tackle, receiver and tight end heading into the 2025 draft, where they will pick second-to-last.

Watch the NFL draft live and for free on DAZN

The 2025 NFL Draft begins on Thursday, April 24 at  8pm  on the East Coast /  1am  Friday in the UK.

This year's NFL Draft will be available to watch for free on NFL Game Pass on DAZN (excluding the US and China).

For more information and to watch for free,  click here .

NFL Draft schedule

• Round 1 : Thursday, April 24 (8pm ET / 1am BST)
• Rounds 2 and 3 : Friday, April 25 (6pm ET / 11pm BST)
• Rounds 4-7 : Saturday, April 26 (12pm ET / 5pm BST)