It’s finally time for one of my favourite events for each sport, the draft. No matter what sport it is, I always tune in just to see where the young prospects may land, and especially I tune in to see if my favourite team managed to land a valuable prospect. I enjoy the NFL draft a bit more though, as even though it is a total of seven rounds, there are so many stars that have been made from the late rounds. Think of Tom Brady. Not even a question that he is the greatest of all time, but did you know he was drafted in the second to last round? Insane. It’s hit or miss and you never know if your team will be able to uncover a hidden gem.
For the first time ever, the draft this year will take place in Detroit. Starting on Thursday April 25th, and will conclude on Saturday, April 27th. If you didn’t know, this year’s draft looks to be a little bit different, as it seems to be like we might see the most offensive players drafted in the first round then we ever have. Heck, we could even see the top three picks to kick off the night, all ending up being quarterbacks. That is how stacked the offensive prospects are. It gets even better because I think this is just funny, that the Carolina Panthers traded away this year’s first round pick and it ended up being the number one overall pick. Look away now Panther fans because ouch…
YOU’RE ON THE CLOCK ⏰
Who’s going in the first round of the NFL draft? 👀 pic.twitter.com/Ic9Z6jHjCG
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) April 22, 2024
There are more than thousands of college graduates that will be available this weekend for the star studded event, and look to fulfill their dreams by becoming a NFL professional football player. There could be many quarterbacks drafted early, with the highly potential first pick, former Heisman trophy winner, Caleb Williams. Williams has been rumoured to be the first pick for months now and now we will most likely see it happen tomorrow. He has put on a show for the USC Trojans and for a brief time in Oklahoma, but in the past 2 years of his career, he has thrown a total of 72 touchdowns and 8,000+ passing yards.
Caleb Williams is legit, at least in my opinion he is. He has got the stats to prove it and if you watched any of his game film then you would be left in awe. I talked about his passing stats, but this guy has the agility of a leopard. He set the school record for USC for the most rushing yards in a single season by a quarterback with 382 rushing yards and picking up double digit touchdowns, with ten. Williams will more than likely be the first overall pick and be rocking the navy blue and orange, Chicago Bears uniform. His ability to keep his team in the game when there is high end pressure is immaculate but his hero-ball mentality can be costly at times and put him in a pickle. The one contrast of that though is his ability to remain calm with his eyes and arm in the pocket, waiting to create, instead of just forcing it.
Caleb Williams has been dominant EVERY year as a starter⭐️ pic.twitter.com/MyEXeH9HOu
— PFF College (@PFF_College) April 24, 2024
Moving on to the other quarterbacks available in this hefty stock of the draft, the next pick will be J.J. McCarthy, at least in my opinion. McCarthy is the quarterback of the Michigan Wolverines who is coached by very talented and now back to being an NFL head coach, Jim Harbaugh. They are coming off a huge win, as they beat the Washington Huskies in the National College Football Championship 34-13. McCarthy came out of high school as one of the best five star recruits, but it wasn’t till last year where he really proved doubters wrong.
McCarthy was able to pick up some shiny goldware as last year he was able to become the Big 10 Quarterback of the year and was also a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, but fell short to who i was just talking about earlier, Caleb Williams. You can truly trust McCarthy with the ball in his hands and to remain in control, as he set a school record for the lowest interception percentage with 1.64% and set the school record by completing 67.6% of his career passes. He is a true iron man as in the season where they picked up the National Championship, he started every single game leading up to it. He needs to be careful that he doesn’t stay too long in the pocket as he tends to not be able to air out the ball fully and his scrambling ability is mediocre.
The last quarterback that I will be talking about is Jayden Daniels of the LSU Tigers. I know that Drake Maye and Bo Nix are out there too, but in my opinion, I feel like Jayden Daniel’s ceiling is way above the rest of them. Daniels is coming off an impressive season as he was able to launch 40 touchdowns. During the combine, he was able to land first place in the athleticism test, showing off his skill set to the NFL scouts in attendance. Daniels played a total of five years during his collegiate career, and he wasn’t just a tiger during his career, but he also spent a majority of time down in Arizona State as a Sun Devil.
Daniel’s is another quarterback that has a Hesiman trophy under his belt, as he grabbed that during his 2023 season. He was also another of the finalists for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, but he was cut short of picking it up. He led the entire FBS with 11.7 passing yards per pass attempt and even led in yards per rush with 8.4 and that’s the first instance since 1996 that someone led the FBS in both of those categories. If you thought Williams was agile, this guy is just built differently. He led all quarterbacks with a school quarterback record with a total of 1,134 rushing yards (now you know why his average is so high because wow) and it gets better as he is the only FBS quarterback in history to throw for 12,000 yards and rush for over 3,000 in his career. He is a speed demon on the field, but he will have to hit the weight room in order to improve, as he is a liability with a smaller frame, leaving his durability to be low.
Whether it be the Bears, Patriots, Commanders, or even the Broncos, any of these teams could select one of these talented quarterbacks. Luckily if you are the Chicago Bears though, you get first choice at any of these talented young prospects. Where are you gonna end up watching the draft? Are you going to watch all of the days? You know I will be as I just may have been counting down the days for a while now, I think I really just miss football. Free agency was already such a buzz with so much unexpected movement, so what’s in store for the draft? We will just have to wait and see. Be ready for next Monday the 29th though, as I will be breaking down the results of the draft and we will take a look at the biggest winners and losers of the draft.