Ryan Garza / USA TODAY NETWORK
Night one of the 2024 NFL Draft is in the books. How might night two unfold?
The first four selections of the 2024 NFL Draft went relatively according to plan. The Chicago Bears drafted Caleb Williams, the Washington Commanders drafted Jayden Daniels, the New England Patriots hope to have found their franchise quarterback in Drake Maye, and the Arizona Cardinals reaped the benefit of the QB run, selecting Marvin Harrison Jr.
Then everything started to unravel, albeit slowly.
Jim Harbaugh and the Los Angeles Chargers drafted Joe Alt out of Notre Dame, a move that was gaining steam over the past few weeks despite the Chargers’ needs at the wide receiver position. The New York Giants did not draft a quarterback, instead drafting Malik Nabers from LSU, and the Tennessee Titans drafted an offensive tackle as expected in JC Latham.
Then the Atlanta Falcons broke every mock draft, selecting Michael Penix Jr.
In all, six quarterbacks were taken in the first round, matching the mark set by the legendary Class of 1983. But while that class needed 27 picks to see the sixth quarterback taken — when Dan Marino went to the Miami Dolphins — the sixth QB came off the board at No. 12, when the Denver Broncos selected Bo Nix from Oregon.
Those six passers were part of a record 14-straight offensive players to open up the NFL draft. Ultimately, the first round was very heavy on the offensive side of the football, with just nine defensive players.
Now that we have caught our breath, how might the second round unfold?
Here is our best guess.
The Bills get their wide receiver
Buffalo Bills fans were hoping to see the team land a wide receiver early in the NFL Draft.
Unfortunately, they will need to wait a little longer. With Buffalo trading down twice on Thursday night, including coming out of the first round completely, Bills fans will have to wait a few more hours to see their team land their next pass catcher.
But the Bills open the night by adding Adonai Mitchell out of Texas, a talented receiver who with a little polish can be Buffalo’s next WR1.
Some interesting slides end
One of the more fascinating bits of draft content each season is the Consensus Big Board compiled by Arif Hasan at his website Wide Left Football.
As the first round came to a close the three highest-ranked players left on the Consensus Big Board? Illinois defensive tackle Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton, Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean, and Alabama cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry. While all three players are recovering from injuries (foot surgery for Newton, a fractured right fibula for DeJean, and a foot fracture for McKinstry) all three ranked in the top 30 on the big board.
But all three went undrafted on Thursday night.
Expect those slides to end on Friday night, and in this mock draft all three come off the board relatively quickly.
Still no running backs … yet
Earlier this week Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports opined that the running backs might not start coming off the board until the third round, led by Jonathon Brooks from Texas and Florida State RB Trey Benson.
Judging by our projections, it would seem that we concur with that assessment.
What about the quarterbacks?
Thursday night brought a little NFL Draft history, as six quarterbacks came off the board in the first round, matching the number of quarterbacks drafted in the legendary 1983 NFL Draft.
However, while that year saw the sixth quarterback — Dan Marino, for those wondering — come off the board at No. 27 (the penultimate pick in the first round) Bo Nix, the sixth QB picked on Thursday night, was drafted at No. 12 by the Denver Broncos.
There are a number of reasons why quarterbacks were pushed up the board this year: The sheer number of needy teams and questions about next year’s draft class top that list. But another reason might be the large gap between those six, and the next tier of passers. For example, according to Hasan’s Consensus Big Board QB7, Spencer Rattler, ranks 88th overall.
So while he might come off the board later tonight, we tend to think it will happen in the third round.
Two teams double-dip at OL
Two teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints, entered the 2024 NFL Draft looking to fortify their offensive lines.
As you can see above, we believe that leads both teams to double-dip at the position.
On Thursday night the Saints added offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga, OT, Oregon State, but here we have them also adding to the offensive line at No. 45, with guard Cooper Beebe from Kansas State. Then there are the Steelers, who we have selecting center Zach Frazier out of West Virginia after adding offensive tackle Troy Fautanu out of Washington.
