The 1st round of the 2024 NFL draft is tonight at 7 p.m. This year’s draft should be more interesting than most, due to the six possible quarterbacks to be taken off the board in round 1. Most fans see the top three teams (Chicago, Washington, New England) as locks to take QBs, but after that the rest are up for grabs. In most drafts there are typically 3-4 top QB prospects taken in the 1st round but due to this year’s QB class, some star prospects at other positions could fall to later picks. This is great news for teams lower on the draft board who need to fill holes but already have a franchise quarterback. With the depth in this draft class, fans are speculating more than ever.
The Chicago Bears hold the 1st overall pick which they acquired in a trade with Carolina from last year. The Bears quarterback last season was Justin Fields who had a rocky year; granted with a weak supporting cast. Bears fans all over the country were lobbying to keep the young QB and draft a wide receiver in this year’s draft to help him out, but the front office had other plans. Since the Fields trade, it is common knowledge around the NFL that the Bears will select Caleb Williams 1st overall. The USC superstar quarterback has had some flak from the media in the past year for some of his off-field antics, but his generational raw talent is just too good to pass up, and the Bears dealing the only starting quarterback on their roster makes this look more and more like a done deal.
The top six QB prospects consist of Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Bo Nix, JJ Mcarthy and Michael Penix. Four of them are guaranteed to go very early in the draft but the next two could very much go anywhere from mid to late first round. As previously mentioned, with the amount of quality QBs, more teams will be able to find solutions in other areas. For example, my beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers pick at 26th overall in which they will have plenty of options to pick from including top edge prospects or interior offensive line due to the earlier teams using up their picks on QBs.
In conclusion, this year’s draft has all of the potential to be one of the most shocking and mind-boggling drafts in recent memory. It isn’t every year that a draft class is this stacked, so a lot of teams will get some great young talent on Thursday night. To the right is my own mock draft on how I see things playing out.