NFL Draft 2024, one of the biggest sports events every year, is one of the most exciting events that happens in the sports world every single year. Hands down one of my favorite events, but was this years’ any more exciting than years before, or was this one of the worst draft years?
With all of the mock drafts that were coming out after the college football season, I think every person who knows a lot about football and college football pretty much knew that USC QB, Caleb Williams was going to be the number 1 overall draft pick to the Chicago Bears via the Carolina Panthers. So with Caleb Williams going number 1 overall, that wasn’t a big surprise, but the fact that there were 3 quarterbacks taken in the first 3 picks was a large surprise.
The Commanders drafted LSU QB and Heisman winner Jayden Daniels after trading former 5th round draft pick Sam Howell to the Seattle Seahawks, and with the number 3 overall pick the New England Patriots drafted former North Carolina Tar Heel QB Drake Maye.
A student who chose to stay unanimous had this to say about the draft ¨It doesn´t really make a lot of sense as to why some of these teams did what they did when it came down to who they picked. Now I get it, Caleb Williams needed to go to Chicago and so did Rome Odunze, but what were the Falcons thinking when they picked (Michael) Penix Jr.; like they literally just signed Kirk Cousins and then they pick Penix? I also am a little confused as to why Brock Bowers went in the first round, he is pretty good but there was definitely better picks the Raiders could have made.¨
The biggest surprise was the Atlanta Falcons drafting former Washington Huskies QB, Michael Penix Jr. 8th overall. With all of these mock drafts that were coming out, many people thought that Penix Jr. was going to be a mid to late 2nd round draft pick or early 3rd round draft pick, but the Falcons saw something in Penix that couldn’t be passed up. But at the same time this is kinda confusing because this offseason the Falcons signed former Vikings QB Kirk Cousins, and now they draft a QB, it was a little puzzling. As a big fan of Penix, I wanted him to be drafted by my team, the Seattle Seahawks, I knew that I liked what I saw in Penix in his time in Washington, and wanted that to continue in Seattle, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.
One of the teams that had a pretty notable draft haul was the Chicago Bears. They were looking to rebuild already after they traded who was supposed to be their franchise QB, Justin Fields
to the Pittsburgh Steelers, again a very confusing thing especially after the Steelers had just traded for Russell Wilson. I mean if you keep Fields in Chicago at least for two years, you draft Caleb Williams, let him learn the way the Bears run things and then let him play but nope, the Bears knew what they wanted. This year’s draft class for the Bears included the top QB Caleb Williams, and the number 2 receiver in the draft, Rome Odunze from Washington.
One other crazy thing from this year’s draft was Brenden Rice, the son of Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, was drafted this year, but in the 7th round. Rice was a pretty solid receiver at USC, and you would think with being a weapon for Caleb Williams, and having the last name of one of the best football players ever would increase your draft stock, yea not the case at all. Brenden was drafted 225th overall by the Chargers. He feels that he has so much to prove this season, and that he needs to prove to all the teams that passed up on him that they were very wrong and he is worth it.
The most similar draft class to this year’s was the 2021 draft class. This year’s quarterback class was the most hyped since…2021 where there was a so-called generational prospect who was inevitable number 1 pick for years and hasn’t lived up to the hype, Trevor Lawrence, a strong armed white boy who played questionable competition all throughout college, Zach Wilson, a Heisman finalist who is a talent runner, and whose passing numbers were propped up by great receivers, Justin Fields, and a guy with unspectacular traits who just happened to be the quarterback for a National Championship team making him look a lot better than he actually is, Mac Jones. So this draft class could either be a bust like the 2021 quarterback class, or could actually live up to the hype.
The 2024-2025 NFL Season will be very interesting.
