With the NFL combine underway in Indianapolis,  free agency nearing in March, and this year's NFL draft another month out, we're taking a closer look at what has become of the Jacksonville Jaguars' draft selections from 2025.

The Jags took nine players last year, starting with cornerback/receiver and Heisman Trophy-winner Travis Hunter as the No. 2 overall pick.  

The team then took back-to-back picks in the Round 3 -- defensive back Caleb Ransaw at No. 88 and at No. 89 offensive lineman Wyatt Milum. The Jags' first choice in Round 4 was running back Bhayshul Tuten out of Virginia Tech as the 104th overall selection.

We continue our Class of 2025 retrospective with the Jaguars' 107th overall selection, linebacker Jack Kiser, the oldest and most experienced of Jacksonville's draft picks last year.

Jack Kiser played for six years at Notre Dame, both at linebacker and on special teams. He started all 16 of the Irish's regular-season games in 2024 as well as their run through the college football playoffs, where Notre Dame reached the championship before falling to Ohio State.

Kiser hails from Royal Center, Indiana, situated roughly an hour and a half southwest of South Bend. A tiny town of 800, its high school, Pioneer, won back-to-back state championships in 2017 and 2018, with Kiser playing both quarterback and safety.

He was the third defensive player chosen by Jacksonville, following Hunter, who plays both sides of the ball, and Ransaw, who had been a cornerback at Tulane, but was moved to safety once in the Jaguar fold.

Selected fifth in the draft's fourth round -- amid Day 3's speed rounds, Kiser was described as "intangibly rich" by the Jaguars' then-new general manager James Gladstone.

"He has been the driving force and the brainpower on the defensive side of the ball for Notre Dame," Gladstone said after the Jags drafted Kiser. "What the future could look like for him is bright."

For Kiser, being a part of the next-generation Jaguars team is a great fit.

"My physical traits don't really stand out compared to everybody -- I check the boxes," Kiser said after Day 3 of the draft. "But it's those intangible traits that I think really set me apart. It's my mental game, it's how I take care of myself, it's my preparation and that allows me to surpass people in different ways."

At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, Kiser immediately gave Jacksonville added depth and experience. 

Kiser logged respectable minutes in the Jags' first 14 games, mostly on special teams, but filling in on defense more as the season wore on. He suffered a hamstring injury ahead of Week 16 and was placed on injured reserve to end his season.

The Jaguars' linebacker corps had plenty of depth, experience, speed and consummate skills for pass-rushing and disrupting offenses throughout the 2025 season. Even better, the linebacker unit was one of the consistently heathiest squads last season. 

It's not likely to remain intact, however. Devin Lloyd, arguably the leader of the LB group, had the most dominating season of his career ... and likely not returning to Jacksonville for 2026. The 27-year-old ball-hawk is expected to command top dollar in free agency, with estimates in the ballpark of $20 million per year.

Still, the dominating presences of Lloyd -- who earned second-team All-Pro and Pro-Bowl honors -- and eight-year veteran Foye Oluokun, who led the team in tackles (with 143 combined and 69 solo), along with the scrappy Dennis Gardeck and backup Ventrell Miller, provided templates for Kiser to follow as his rookie season turns into his sophomore season. And that development is likely to mean more playing time, more snaps at his position as Jacksonville's linebackers and secondary adjust to what are sure to be a lot of offseason changes in 2026. 

"I'm really proud of the group," Oluokun said in a postseason interview. "We know we're the best line in the league, and we've got to prove that week in and week out -- starting this offseason. It's not going to be given to us -- we've gotta go take everything, how we did this year. We've got to go prove it again."

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Coming up in our "Whatever Happened to Jags' Class of 2025" series, we'll look at Jacksonville's selections from Round 6, Auburn linebacker Jalen McLeod and safety Rayuan Lane III out of Navy.

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