PBR Teams Draft primer: Mavericks look to build with pick No. 2, Moreira red-hot after impressive combine
With the 2025 PBR Teams New Rider Draft less than a month away, let's take a look at what some of the major players are up to.
By Darci Miller
FORT WORTH, Texas – This time last year, the New York Mavericks were brand new to the PBR Teams scene. The proverbial paint was still drying on the team logo, and the squad had just selected its first six riders in the expansion draft.
A year later, much has changed. The Mavericks closed out their inaugural season with an 11-17 record, surviving the Ride-In Round to qualify for the PBR Camping World Team Series Championship before ultimately finishing eighth overall.
The boys in blue and gray have spent the 2025 Unleash The Beast season competing in the Monster Energy Team Challenge, presented by Camping World, taking on the rival Florida Freedom in three head-to-head matchups. With the series split 1-1, the Mavericks have held their own against the 2024 juggernaut and will look to take the series win this weekend at the PBR Tacoma (Sunday, April 27, at 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS).
“I know we’re an expansion team, but I like to say we’re just a new team,” Mavericks general manager Chris Pantani said. “The league is only three years old, and we came in during year three. So, from our standpoint, we had the expansion draft, where we could actually start building our roster, and then added to it through free agency as well as the draft. And I think we did a very good job in adding to the team at that point, really going through the talent. Our coach, Kody Lostroh, the 2009 World Champion, has some great insight into the young talent. That’s important to build a program that can compete.
“At the end of the day, there are some teams that are stacked with champions and everybody else. But at the end of each event, bulls can’t read buckles. It’s going to be how these kids ride. We have to build a team that we want that has cohesiveness and consistency. That’s how we strive to win.”
It’s with this attitude and a year of competition under their belt that the Mavericks move forward into year two.
In February, Pantani and Lostroh were among the group of coaches and GMs who made the trek to Icem, Brazil, for the first-ever PBR Teams combine outside the U.S.
The Mavericks have the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming PBR Teams New Rider Draft on May 20, so their time spent in Icem took on added importance.
“From our standpoint, yeah, you want to be able to find that diamond in the rough, whether it’s through a combine like this, through free agency, through someone on the UTB tour,” Pantani said. “We have to be watching every single ride, every single event, to make sure that when we’re called on the clock, we have the best pick possible.”
In addition to two days of the combine for draft-eligible riders, there was also a day for free agents to show their stuff. That has already paid off for the Texas Rattlers, who recently signed Winy Paulo dos Santos to their protected roster for 2025.
“There’s definitely some surprises in the talent pool here,” Pantani said. “There’s probably a half a dozen riders that we think are ready to compete. Maybe not at the Teams level, starting at the Velocity Tour and moving up, but there’s definitely some talent in the area. We have our eye on a couple of key individuals.”
With most established talent already on team rosters, this draft will take on a particularly international flavor. Any one of the riders present in Icem could end up in a new jersey come the season-opener at Wildcatter Days on July 11-13.
Selling riders from rural Brazil on the Big Apple might be a challenge, but Pantani is in good humor over the task.
“New York in the fall is amazing,” he said. “We have the Yankees that play, we have the Giants right down the river. From our standpoint, it’s going to be super easy. In fact, when we landed, the first thing I saw was New York Yankees hats all over Brazil. So New York is very strongly represented, and the Mavericks will be next.”
RIDER SPOTLIGHT
While the Mavericks’ first selection in the draft will only be revealed on May 20, one rider getting a lot of buzz these days is Jhon Carlos Moreira.
The 19-year-old from Confresa, Mato Grosso, had only competed in one PBR Brazil event when he arrived in Icem. But he quickly went from an unknown quantity to a hot topic, riding three bulls across the two days and amassing an aggregate score of 253.75 – the highest of the week.
Since then, Moreira has been on an absolute tear. In three PBR Brazil events this month, he’s an astonishing 12-for-13 with two event wins and a second-place finish.
He’s quickly climbed the PBR Brazil rankings to No. 1, and it’s looking likely that his name will be called on May 20.
Moreira started riding calves when he was 9, and he moved up to bigger bulls at 17 when he moved to the state of São Paulo.
He did so in defiance of his father.
“My father used to ride bulls, but he never came to São Paulo state, these big events,” Moreira said with Jeremias Moraes translating. “I used to watch my father ride a lot of bulls for other stock contractors, and I started liking it. But my father didn’t like the idea of me riding that much, so I had to go to other places to ride. My dad couldn’t see me ride. But when my dad saw potential in me, he started being okay with it, and now he helps me a lot.”
While things between Moreira and his father were complicated for a while, the two have since gotten back on track.
“I have a good relationship with my father because I’m very thankful to my father,” he said. “Everything I learned was from my father, and every time I go to the rodeo, to an event, I ask for my dad’s blessing and my dad blesses me. So I’m thankful for everything.”
Moreira has been an avid PBR fan for most of his life and lists three-time World Champions Silvano Alves and Adriano Moraes, two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme, and both Paulo Crimber and John Crimber as some of his inspirations.
“I've watched PBR ever since I was young,” Moreira said. “If I’m eating lunch, I put PBR on. If I’m having dinner, I put PBR on.”
Moreira says it’s been his dream to ride in the United States ever since he first started watching the PBR. He’s closer than ever to making this dream a reality.
“I get a little nervous, but it’s a good nervous because I’m very happy,” Moreira said. “If a team picks me, I’m going to be very thankful for everything.”
