College Football Championship 2025: Top NFL Draft Prospects in OSU vs. Notre Dame

A handful of potential first-round picks will be on display in the College Football Playoff National Championship.

The Ohio State Buckeyes have one of the top wide receivers in the 2025 NFL draft class as well as an edge-rusher who could be chosen in the first round.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish's best pro prospect comes from their secondary.

Irish quarterback Riley Leonard is a fascinating prospect as well, but his draft status is dependent on how quickly quarterbacks are chosen in April.

Xavier Watts is one of two members of the Notre Dame secondary who could be chosen in the first round.

The other player, cornerback Benjamin Morrison, is out for the season.

Watts and Morrison check in as the Nos. 22 and 23 prospects according to Bleacher Report's NFL scouting department.

Watts is the second-ranked safety and rated as the best safety in zone coverage.

The senior will have a tough task on his hands in the National Championship against Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and the rest of the Ohio State passing game.

Smith would likely be a high first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft if he was eligible. If Watts plays well in coverage against Smith and Co., it could boost his stock a bit more ahead of April.

Riley Leonard finds himself in an interesting spot in the quarterback draft class.

The overall prospect group at the position is not remotely close to as strong as it was a year ago.

That could help someone like Leonard, who is rated as the No. 5 quarterback in the draft class by the B/R NFL scouting department.

Leonard has only thrown for 2,606 yards this season, but he played well in a 223-yard outing against Penn State in the Orange Bowl.

Leonard is as strong of a runner as you'll see in the quarterback class. He ran for a career-best 866 yards this season.

The need for quarterbacks is always high across the NFL, and if Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward go one-two, it may push Leonard and others up the draft board a bit based on team needs across the NFL.

Ohio State's defense is loaded with top prospects.

Edge-rusher J.T. Tuimoloau is the best draft-eligible player on that unit.

The senior more than doubled his sack total from a year ago. He has 11.5 sacks, a huge step up from the five he recorded as a junior.

Tuimoloau is expected to play a huge factor on Monday in either pressuring Leonard, or stopping him from being a threat with his legs.

Ohio State's other CFB Playoff opponents already felt the havoc Tuimoloau can wreak. He had two sacks against both Oregon and Tennessee and 1.5 sacks versus Texas.

Tuimoloau currently checks in as the No. 39 overall prospect on the B/R NFL scouting department big board.

He is the No. 7 edge-rusher in the draft class, but if there is a high demand for defensive prospects, he could sneak his way into the first round, especially with another strong performance in a high-profile game.

A lot of the focus in the Ohio State passing game is on Jeremiah Smith.

However, Emeka Egbuka has been a strong pass-catcher for a few years now and will be on NFL radars this spring.

Egbuka is rated as the No. 12 overall prospect by the B/R NFL scouting department.

The senior is 53 yards away from his second 1,000-yard season in three years. He needs one touchdown to break his current career high of 10 end zone trips.

Egbuka is viewed as the third-best wide receiver in the draft class behind Arizona's Tetairoa McMillan and Ole Miss' Tre Harris.

A handful of teams in the middle of the first round might need a wide receiver come April, like the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals depending on what happens with Deebo Samuel and Tee Higgins.

Pittsburgh and the Los Angeles Chargers at Nos. 21 and 22 are probably the floor for Egbuka's draft stock because both teams will need help at the position for 2025.