What GMs said about the former Maryland football stars following 2025 NFL Draft

The 2025 NFL Draft proved to be the most successful of the Mike Locksley era with the six selections marking the program’s most during the modern draft era and since 1986, highlighted by WR Tai Felton sneaking into day two as the last selection of the night. Maryland has now produced 13 NFL Draft picks over the last three years and 22 under Locksley.

Kaden Prather and Tai Felton became the first Maryland WR duo to be selected in the same draft since 1988, while Felton and Ruben Hyppolite became the program's first wide receiver and linebacker drafted since DJ Moore and Jermaine Carter were selected by the Panthers in 2018.

We take a look at what they’re saying about the newest Terps in the NFL:

Dolphins GM Chris Grier on Maryland

“That’s what Mike [McDaniel] for all entire fifth round, that’s all he kept talking about”

McDaniel: “I’m Terp’d out”

“And those guys and Locksley, Mike, I’ve known him a long time. He does a great job there finding players and Maryland kids end up playing in this league and are good football players. He finds those guys that love ball. They’re tough, competitive and so glad to have those two. They’re really good, quality people and good football players.”

Vikings Senior Vice President of Player Personnel Ryan Grigson on WR Tai Felton

“He’s a talented playmaker, productive that's also can really run fast, jump off the charts in the testing and things like that. So the plays that he's made this year – 96 catches 1,000 yards. His all-time receptions record at Maryland, where they've had a few guys, they've been pretty darn good at Maryland. So everybody was really excited about him. Coaches, scouts. [Kevin O’Conell], everyone. Special teams coaches. There's a lot this player can do, and he has the mindset to come in and be willing to do whatever it takes, really, to get on the field, just like he did at Maryland to earn a spot.”

“There's play speed and there's time speed, but we all sat in those rooms and you could feel this player speed on film, and he's also 6-foot-1. 4.3 is gonna jump out to most people whenever you see that time, and then when you see it also present itself on the field of play. That's another box checked. He was a 40-inch vertical guy as well. You know that it all showed up on the tape. And then also, something that I thought was unique about him was he's also good with the ball in his hand. He's just not a vertical speed guy. Can run routes. I think having Keenan coach him up and refine his game, he's gonna be able to do a lot of things for us in this offense. He really is a ball potential in a lot of different ways. But like I said, you know, he kind of earned his stripes in Maryland through special teams, doing some dirty work, playing gunner, running down on kickoffs. He's twitchy. But again, the 4.3 is something that's going to catch your eye. First thing that a scout always does is see if you see that on tape, and we all saw that when we sat and watched him.”

Bills GM Brandon Beane on WR Kaden Prather

“He's a big, straight line fast guy. Ronald Curry actually went out and worked a couple of the Maryland guys out and so RC spoke very highly of him during that and that made an impression on us of work habits and details. As I said earlier, when you're talking about size and how the card reads, it looks pretty good. He's got some things to work on which is why he's available. We also think with that he could, one of his ways to compete to make the roster could be to help on special teams as well.”

Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles on LB Ruben Hyppolite

“Someone we were excited about. A guy that is extremely smart, tough and one thing talking with [Dennis Allen] is we want to continue to add our team speed and he can fly. He's a low 4.4 player that's very active but again, we like the combination of the speed and the intelligence.”

Cowboys VP of player personnel Will McClay on DL Tommy Akingbesote

“I think what we tried to do with Jay Toia and Akingbesote, Tommy, is to get bigger, more physical, add more competition in there. The way Falucia's come in and talked about playing defense, we're going to be running after the football. We're going to be playing aggressive, physical football and we're going to ask guys to run and play fast. So we tried to get guys that were able to do that and bring that attitude and physicality that we need. And these guys fit that bill.”

Dolphins GM Chris Grier on DL Jordan Phillips

“Jordan Phillips, anytime we asked anybody about him they're like 'what's he doing? Oh he's probably in the weight room working out.' The guys working out...literally the first thing he said to me on the phone, I said ' you're a Dolphin'. He goes 'that's great coach, can I get the playbook right away?' Take it down, enjoy the day."

On lack of production

“One thing is he’s a really good run stopper, run player. What he’s asked to do, for them, he excelled in what he can do. We had some of our coaches worked at the East-West Game and he was there and really showed some stuff in the pass rush stuff when different stance, different techniques he was being taught down there. For us, we’re excited watching that and I know that coach Weaver was the first one who came to us in Austin and was like ‘hey watch this from East-West and what he was doing.’ He’s 20 years old. Has an unbelievable love for football. I think we do think there are some things we can unlock with him. And at the Senior Bowl, Mike Locksley was the one who told me ‘this kid will be an even better player in the pros.’ He said he’s so young still in what he can do. So we’re excited for him.”

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