QUINIX Sport News: Aaron Rodgers breaks offseason silence, plus our consensus mock draft and teams that could trade down

Welcome to the Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter! 

Happy early Easter to everyone, but especially to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have decided to put all of their eggs in the Aaron Rodgers basket this offseason. I’m not sure that’s the basket I would be putting all my eggs in, but the Steelers are doing it. 

The only reason I’m bringing up Rodgers right now is because for the first time this offseason, he actually answered some questions about his future and we’ll be going over what he had to say. In non-Aaron Rodgers news, we’ll also be unveiling the mock draft of all mock drafts: The consensus mock draft. 

As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. 

1. The mock draft of all mock drafts: The consensus mock draft

With less than a week to go until the 2025 NFL Draft kicks off, I’m legally obligated to share at least one new mock draft with you every day until the actual draft starts, and today, we have the best one yet: It’s the consensus mock draft. 

Our Bryan DeArdo scoured the internet and compiled 12 mock drafts from multiple different media companies, including ESPN, NFL.com, and of course, CBS Sports. DeArdo then went full Dr. Frankenstein and cobbled these 12 mock drafts into one consensus mock draft. 

Here are the top-15 picks in the consensus mock:

1. Titans: QB Cam Ward (Miami)
2. Browns: CB/WR Travis Hunter (Colorado)
3. Giants: EDGE Abdul Carter (Penn State) 
4. Patriots: OT Will Campbell (LSU) 
5. Jaguars: DL Mason Graham (Michigan) 
6. Raiders: RB Ashton Jeanty (Boise State) 
7. Jets: OT Armand Membou (Missouri)
8. Panthers: EDGE Jalon Walker (Georgia)
9. Saints: QB Shedeur Sanders (Colordao)
10. Bears: TE Tyler Warren (Penn State)
11. 49ers: EDGE Mike Green (Marshall)
12. Cowboys: WR Matthew Golden (Texas)
13. Dolphins: OT Kelvin Banks Jr. (Texas)
14. Colts: TE Colston Loveland (Michigan)
15. Falcons: EDGE Shemar Stewart (Texas A&M)

If you want to see how the rest of the first round plays out — and trust me, you do — then you’re going to want to click here. 

For more draft coverage, you can hear Ryan Wilson every week on “With the First Pick,” our year-round NFL Draft podcast here at CBS Sports. You can find “With the First Pick” wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. 

2. Aaron Rodgers breaks silence: QB gives his first interview of the offseason

Over the past three months, there’s been a lot of speculation about where Aaron Rodgers might play in 2025 and for the first time this offseason, the four-time MVP finally sat down to answer some questions about his future during an interview with “The Pat McAfee Show.”

During a wide-ranging interview Rodgers touched on multiple topics, so let’s dive in: 

• Rodgers might play in 2025 or he might retire and there’s no timeline for his decision. Rodgers revealed that he’s spoken with multiple teams this offseason, including the Vikings, Steelers and Giants. However, the veteran quarterback said that he still hasn’t made a decision about where he’s going to play or if he’s going to play at all. Rodgers also didn’t give a timeline for making a decision. “I’m open to anything and attached to nothing. So yeah, retirement still could be a possibility.”
• Rodgers will play for cheap. If he does play, he won’t be expensive. The Super Bowl winning QB said he’d be willing to play for as little as $10 million. “I told every single one of the teams, it’s not about the money … I’ll play for [$10 million], I don’t care.”
• He’s mad at the Jets. Rodgers flew across the country to meet with them in February, but before they could talk about his future, new coach Aaron Glenn said the team wasn’t interested in keeping him. “The confusing thing to me is I went out there, I meet with the coach, we start talking,” Rodgers said. “He runs out of the room, I’m like ‘That’s strange.’ Then he comes back with the GM [Darren Mougey] and I’m like ‘all right.’ So we sit down and I think we’re going to have this long conversation and 20 seconds in and [Glenn] goes: ‘You sure you want to play football?’ And I said ‘yes,’ and he said ‘we’re going in another direction.'” You can see his full answer about the Jets here. 
• Steelers still in the running. Although Rodgers hasn’t made a deadline for when a decision might be coming, he does seem open to the idea of playing in Pittsburgh. He said he’s spoken with Mike Tomlin “many times” and that that the Steelers are “more [impressive] than I even thought from afar.”

Rodgers also talked about his wild visit to Pittsburgh, which included the fact that he rented a Chevy Malibu (We’ve got the full details on his visit here). If you want to check out everything that Rodgers had to say to McAfee, we’ve got that here.  

3. Browns seven-round mock draft: Cleveland lands Travis Hunter then goes for QB in third round

With the Titans expected to take Cam Ward, the first big decision of the draft is going to go the Browns when they go on the clock with the second overall pick. One of the Browns’ biggest needs heading into the draft is at quarterback, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll use the second pick on one. As a matter of fact, it would actually be a surprise if they did. 

Cleveland has a total of 10 picks in the 2025 draft and Jeff Kerr decided to play the role of Browns general manager today. Here’s what he has the Browns doing with their first five picks: 

• Round 1 (Second overall): CB/WR Travis Hunter (Colorado)
• Round 2 (33rd overall): CB Trey Amos (Ole Miss)
• Round 3 (67th overall): QB Jalen Milroe (Alabama)
• Round 3 (94th overall): WR Kyle Williams (Washington State)
• Round 4 (104th overall): IOL Anthony Belton (North Carolina State)

If you want a full explanation for the picks or if you’re wondering how they’re going to use their final five picks, then be sure to check out Kerr’s full mock draft for the Browns here. 

4. NFL Draft: Nine teams most likely to trade down in the first round

In Thursday’s newsletter, we ranked the teams that are most likely to trade up during the first round of this year’s draft, so for today, we thought we would flip things around take a look at the teams most likely to trade DOWN. 

For the second straight day, Jared Dubin was in charge of making this list and here are three teams  that he could see trading down: 

• Cowboys. “Stephen Jones recently said the Cowboys were more likely to trade down than up, so we’ll include them here. If none of the receivers have come off the board yet and the Cowboys don’t feel that strongly about which one is the top guy, they could choose to move down a bit and take their pick later, while snagging more picks on Day 2 or 3.”
• Panthers. “The Panthers just have so many needs on their roster. If they’re not in love with the options at wide receiver or defensive end or even cornerback, they could be a good partner for a team looking to move ahead of the Saints for one reason or another. (Probably for their choice of the second quarterback off the board.)”
• Commanders. “The Commanders traded some of their draft picks to nab Deebo Samuel and Laremy Tunsil, so moving down to recoup some of those selections could make a degree of sense.”

You can see Dubin’s full list of nine teams here. 

5. Unconventional opinions for the 2025 NFL Draft

When it comes to the NFL Draft, there are a lot of things that almost everyone can agree on like the fact that Cam Ward will probably be the first overall pick. However, there are plenty of things not everyone agrees on and that’s where our unpopular opinions come in. 

Several writers here at CBS Sports have some unconventional opinions about this year’s draft, so we rounded them all up. 

Let’s take a look at three of the most interesting. 

• Pete Prisco: A Day 2 QB will end up being the best in the class. “There will be a quarterback taken in the second or third round who outplays those taken in the first round. One example: Kyle McCord, from Syracuse. Another possibility is Quinn Ewers, from Texas. I just don’t love this quarterback class at the top like most do.”
• Emory Hunt: Shedeur Sanders is the most pro-ready QB since Andrew Luck. “That’s pro-ready in the sense of how he plays the position from the pocket, how he’s weathered beatings, but also in how he’s been tutored by former pros (i.e. Tom Brady, Jeff Blake), how he’s been in the spotlight from Day 1 … starting at Jackson State, going to the worst FBS team in Colorado, and succeeding in both, all the while being Deion Sanders’ son.”
• R.J. White: Matthew Golden is the top receiver not named Travis Hunter. “The Texas product is capable of playing all over the field and creating matchup advantages, and his flaws are largely correctable by a good pro staff. Tetaiora McMillan has the size to win one on one, but I worry that better NFL cornerbacks will be more physical with him, not worrying about beating them with his speed.”

We’ve got a few more unconventional takes and you can check them out here. 

6. Extra points: Saints All-Pro retires at the age of 30

It was a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you. 

• Ryan Ramczyk decides to retire. The Saints right tackle has decided to hang up his cleats for good. After being selected in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft, Ramczyk instantly became an anchor on their offensive line. During his seven seasons on the field, he earned three All-Pro honors with one first-team showing and two second-team nods. However, a serious knee injury derailed his career in 2023 and because of it, he wasn’t even able to play in 2024. We’ve got more on Ramczyk’s retirement here. 
• NFL’s game in Brazil is being put up for bid. A new TV partner could end up winning the rights to the Chargers‘ Week 1 game in Brazil. The NFL is putting the game up for bid, and right now, the main contenders are YouTube TV, Warner Brothers Discovery (TNT Sports), and Amazon, according to the Sports Business Journal. If TNT lands the game, it would be the network’s first NFL game since 1997. The Chargers’ opponent isn’t set in stone, but right now, the Chiefs seem to be the leader in the clubhouse. 
• Bills reuniting with former first-round pick. After leaving Buffalo for a season, Tre’Davious White will be making a return this year. The defensive back has agreed to terms on a one-year deal worth up to $6.8 million. The former first-round pick spent the first seven seasons of his career in Buffalo (2017-23) during a span where he earned two trips to the Pro Bowl. 
• Rams to conduct draft from a fire station. After four straight years of renting out a mansion to serve as their NFL Draft headquarters, the Rams are changing things up this year by moving things to a fire station. And yes, you read that right: The Rams’ headquarters for the 2025 draft will be a fire station. We’ve got all the details here. 
• NFL Draft notebook. CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones has the latest information on the draft and you can check out his news and notes here. It’s the perfect way to go into the holiday weekend.