ESPN Report: The Team Owner Says Lions Coach Is The Worse Coach He As Ever See…
The week of practices at the 2024 Senior Bowl is complete, and we had NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler and college football reporter Pete Thamel down in Mobile, Alabama, talking to execs, coaches, scouts and players for the latest on this 2024 NFL draft class and what lies ahead.
Which prospects are rising on teams’ boards? How is the class shaping up at quarterback and other offensive positions? We dig into all of that — along with some NFL coaching move rumors and buzz — as Jeremy and Pete empty their reporting notebooks. Here are seven big things we heard over the course of the week.
The 1983 NFL draft will long reverberate in draft lore for its record six first-round quarterbacks, bookended by John Elway at No. 1 overall and Dan Marino at No. 27. Could that record finally have some company?
There are six quarterbacks who have a chance to get picked on Day 1 this year. USC’s Caleb Williams, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and UNC’s Drake Maye all seem destined for the top five, while the next tier consists of three possible first-rounders in Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, Oregon’s Bo Nix and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. McCarthy, fresh off a national championship with a 27-1 record as a starter, appears to be a first-round lock. Both Penix and Nix — who had up-and-down weeks at the Senior Bowl — are coming off prolific college seasons; Penix led college football in passing yards with 4,903, while Nix was second at 4,508.
But there’s also a tailwind that could impact where these signal-callers are picked. The 2025 quarterback crop, at this stage, looks poor in terms of depth. Georgia’s Carson Beck, Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders are the early headliners, and then there’s a drop-off in proven contenders.
“It won’t be anything close to this year,” said a veteran NFL scout.
Another scout said, “There’s no sure-thing sophomore quarterback. There’s always a riser or a one-year wonder, so it may not be that bad.”
The sophomore class point is interesting. ESPN’s top five quarterbacks in that 2022 recruiting class — Texas A&M’s Conner Weigman (No. 27-ranked recruit), Clemson’s Cade Klubnik (No. 29), Alabama’s Ty Simpson (No. 34), Ole Miss’ Walker Howard (No. 42) and Penn State’s Drew Allar (No. 51) — have yet to establish themselves as no-brainer early draft picks. Weigman and Allar have put together the strongest college careers of the bunch, but they need a lot more high-end tape before entering the first-round conversation. (On the riser front, I wonder if South Florida’s Byrum Brown will make a leap.)
Could that have an impact on executives’ thinking this year? If a solid quarterback is available in the mid-to-late parts of Round 1, could he get picked partially because there might not be a comparable quarterback in a comparable spot next year?
“Smart teams look ahead to next year’s class to assess this year’s decision,” said a front office executive. — Thamel
Teams are starting to line up the imaginary dominoes, trying to forecast how the top of the draft will shake out. Most people I talked to in Mobile expect the Chicago Bears to make the pick at No. 1, presumably for Williams. That leaves the Washington Commanders (No. 2) and New England Patriots (No. 3) with the ability to control the draft, though both might take quarterbacks at their respective spots, too. Maye and Daniels are considered the next quarterbacks up.
The Las Vegas Raiders (No. 13) might be a team to watch. New coach Antonio Pierce is a big fan of Daniels from their days together at Arizona State, and word is that Pierce evaluated offensive coordinators with the loose possibility of Daniels in mind. People around the league are keeping an eye on the Minnesota Vikings at No. 11, too. They did a lot of quarterback homework last offseason and could eventually target one high in the draft with free agent Kirk Cousins’ future in Minnesota uncertain. But moving from No. 11 into the top three would cost GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah a ton of draft capital. — Fowler
