The next crop of talent out of Tennessee football is headed to the NFL.

Four former Vols were selected in the 2025 NFL Draft and more have signed as undrafted free agents.

Here's the best plays while with Tennessee for each of the selections.

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I was split between two plays for James Pearce Jr.'s best moment as a Vol. The one I didn't choose was his pick-six vs. Iowa in the Citrus Bowl to cap off the 2023 season.

The one I settled on was his strip of Graham Mertz at the goal line in 2024.

With the game sitting in Florida's favor by the score of 3-0, the Gators had the ball at Tennessee's 1-yard line. With Mertz trying to punch it in himself, he was stuffed on first down.

Pearce came up huge, though. He knocked the ball loose and recovered it to keep the Gators out of the end zone. This proved to be critical with the game going to overtime tied at 17 and Tennessee winning 23-17.

Omarr Norman-Lott made it a habit to live in opponents' backfields. With 9.5 sacks over two seasons with Tennessee, one stands out as the best.

In the same game Pearce left his biggest mark, Norman-Lott made his presence felt. With 19 seconds left in the first half, Florida was at Tennessee's 15-yard line.

However, Norman-Lott exploded into the backfield with the help of Boo Carter. The pair took down Mertz for a sack to force the Gators' kick unit to hurry onto the field. The result was a substitution infraction that let the clock run out.

Due to the sack, Tennessee trailed just 3-0 at the break in a game that the Vols won in overtime.

Dont'e Thornton Jr. showed off his big-play ability in a critical moment during the Vols' 2024 season.

During a road trip to Oklahoma in a game dominated by headlines surrounding Josh Heupel, the score was knotted at three a piece late in the first quarter.

Following the Sooners' field goal to tie the game, the Vols took a false start. Then, Nico Iamaleava hit Squirrel White for a gain of 14 yards.

On 2nd-and-1, Thornton stepped up. He caught a 66-yard strike that he ran the majority of after the catch. His top-end speed gave Tennessee a lead it never gave up despite not scoring another touchdown.

Nobody has rushed for more touchdowns in a single season at Tennessee than Dylan Sampson.

The rush that broke the record has to stand as his best moment.

With less than five minutes remaining in the game and leading by only three points, the Vols got the insurance points they needed. Sampson punched in his second score of the game from six yards out to make it a 28-18 margin.

It took a group effort, too, as practically the entire offense was pushing him across the goal line.

The rush not only etched his name in the record books for UT, but also secured the win over the Wildcats.

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