The draft is a highlight of the NFL off-season, as it serves as a window into the future of the NFL, and fans can watch the future superstars find their new homes in the league.
In most cases, the draft is somewhat of a mystery since fans have no conclusive evidence about who their favorite team thinks highly of. However, this off-season, it seems like the top few picks have been decided since the regular season ended.
The biggest question mark for this year’s draft has been what the Chicago Bears will do with the No. 1 overall pick that they received in a trade with the Carolina Panthers last season. At first, some believed they would keep their young quarterback, Justin Fields, but following the trade of Fields, it is almost guaranteed they will take Caleb Williams out of the University of Southern California, who has been thought of as the consensus No. 1 pick in this draft class for the past few years.
“The Bears have set themselves up to be a playoff team in the near future,” said Amanda Damrow, a sophomore mass communication major. “They just need to grab a great quarterback to lead them, and since Caleb Williams fell in their lap, they need to take this generational talent.”
Since the growing consensus is that Williams will be picked first, the remainder of the picks are what will truly make this draft interesting. After the first pick, the future teams of superstars like Marvin Harrison Jr., Brock Bowers, Joe Alt, Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels are still up in the air.
The buzz around teams trading up for these young stars has been circulating for some time now, especially following the off-seasons of teams like the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers, who are extremely depleted at certain positions.
“Well, as a Panthers fan, I think it mainly depends on what you have for that player once they get there,” said Michael Roberts, a junior accounting major. “When we traded D.J. Moore for the No. 1 pick, we set Bryce Young up for failure when we picked him. So, if you’re going to trade up, you need to make sure you still have players to build around them.”
Teams jumping up the draft order to take players has been a very consistent trend in past drafts. Teams like the Bills would need to trade away quite a bit of capital to be able to take one of the top prospects due to their successful past season. Jumping up from the 27th pick to a top-10 pick would take a lot, but in past years, the payout has been incredible.
One of the most notable players that may fall in the upcoming draft seems to be University of Washington QB Michael Penix Jr., who is extremely talented, but due to his injury history and age, may slip down, with some analysts predicting that he could fall out of the first round.
While slipping in the draft is not what a player wants to happen, fans have seen situations in which a late-round player turns out to be the best from a class. The most notable case being arguably the best player in NFL history, Tom Brady.
“Out of Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels, the sense is Drake Maye may be the QB that suffers from a slide in this class,” said Lance Zierlein, an NFL draft analyst.
The NFL draft will be the talk of the sports world for the next few weeks, but fans will have to wait to see who falls, who rises and which teams get a superstar — and possibly a franchise-saver — which can easily happen in round one or even in round seven.
