rynoman12's 2024 Mock Draft 1.0 - Pre-Combine

Welcome to #MockDraftSZN everyone! With the Super Bowl wrapped up and the franchise tag window now open, let's start to think about what every team needs/wants/dream's about. You can see how terrible I did last season HERE, and decide if this is something you want to follow or not. I will try to do 4 total this year (now, post-combine/pre-free agency, post free agency, draft week). This is mostly just for fun and discussion. You can tell me how wrong I am about your favorite team whenever you deem necessary. As always, I will go over the highlights of the mock and will describe my thoughts on other picks in response to comments below. With that, let's get into the mock!

• Caleb Williams is going to go #1 overall. I think that is wildly believed at this stage and barring a bad combine/pro day performance, that will likely hold true all throughout the draft season. The bigger question here is who is going to take Caleb Williams #1 overall. As of right now, I have no reason to believe it won't be the Bears, but the combine will be telling as to how openly this pick is being shopped. 
• I currently have 4 QBs in the top 10 right now I think 4 in the top 11 is the most likely scenario. Williams/Maye/Daniels will go in the top 5 in my opinion, and the first mock has them going 1-2-3. I wouldn't be surprised to see New England trade out if Maye goes 2nd and leaves Daniels on the board, but for now I left them in. I think McCarthy at worst falls to the Vikings, and that seems to be the general consenus early, so teams know that's their jumping point. With Denver going to cut Russell Wilson and take on that historic dead cap, they will need a cheap rookie to build around, so they trade up to get the job done. 
• The Eagles are my early team to watch, as they have a ton of capital this year, with little capital next year. I could see them moving up or down in multiple rounds trying to replinish picks for 25 or being aggressive and getting their guy. The Eagles secondary was a known weakness last year, so I have them moving up in the first to get one of the better cover corners in this draft.
• I don't have a ton of trades mocked early just because it's hard to tell who might do what, but I do know Atlanta is going to need a QB next year. I'm not sure if that comes in FA or the draft yet, but 5 years of control on a guy like Bo Nix is intriguing enough for me to have them trade back into the first round to grab him. 

I know this is an unpopular opinion but I do not think J.J. McCarthy is top ten talent. Can he develop into a great QB? Absolutely, his build and athletic traits remind me of Joe Burrow. But he’s not polished enough yet to warrant a top ten pick, especially a trade up. At most I see him going to a mid-late first round team which has good pieces to help develop him. 
 

There’s a lot of recency bias around him, but I still consider him to be in the same tier or very slightly above Bo Nix. His stock should be better because of age of course.

QB283 said:

I know this is an unpopular opinion but I do not think J.J. McCarthy is top ten talent. Can he develop into a great QB? Absolutely, his build and athletic traits remind me of Joe Burrow. But he’s not polished enough yet to warrant a top ten pick, especially a trade up. At most I see him going to a mid-late first round team which has good pieces to help develop him. 
 

There’s a lot of recency bias around him, but I still consider him to be in the same tier or very slightly above Bo Nix. His stock should be better because of age of course.

I don't necessarily disagree with you that McCarthy is not a top 10 talent. The issue is there are a lot of QB needy teams and the best available QBs in FA/Trade is Fields, Cousins, and Wilson (Baker is there too but I expect him to stay in Tampa). After that you take a pretty decent drop off with FA QBs. I think someone is going to go up and get him because they are QB desperate. But we thought the same with Levis last year and he didn't go until round 2, so I could be wrong on that. That's just where the inital thought is at this moment.

Call me crazy but I feel like Chris Ballard is gonna do something he wouldn't ordinarily do and swing a trade to move up to 4 if Harrison Jr is still there. An offense with Harrison, Pittman, Downs, Pierce, Taylor, Woods, Moss, and Richardson would be crazy.

weplaythose said:

Call me crazy but I feel like Chris Ballard is gonna do something he wouldn't ordinarily do and swing a trade to move up to 4 if Harrison Jr is still there. An offense with Harrison, Pittman, Downs, Pierce, Taylor, Woods, Moss, and Richardson would be crazy.

Like you said, if he did it, it would be an uncharacteristic move by him to do it. I think if Bowers falls that far to them he would be thrilled. Bowers is the 2nd best pass catcher in this draft behind Harrison, and he would be a great target for Richardson.

QB283 said:

I know this is an unpopular opinion but I do not think J.J. McCarthy is top ten talent. Can he develop into a great QB? Absolutely, his build and athletic traits remind me of Joe Burrow. But he’s not polished enough yet to warrant a top ten pick, especially a trade up. At most I see him going to a mid-late first round team which has good pieces to help develop him. 
 

There’s a lot of recency bias around him, but I still consider him to be in the same tier or very slightly above Bo Nix. His stock should be better because of age of course.

10000% agree wholeheartedly

I think Jayden is gonna go number 2, who did kliff cinsbury (Ik I spelled It wrong) have before? Kyler Murray. And I could see Jayden Daniel’s being like a Kyler

I like this mock draft!!! I hope Quinyon Mitchell or Amarius Mims fall to us but it doesn’t seem likely

Where be my man Penix

i like what you did with my falcons, but instead draft adonai mitchell after trading up

Anyone else have some skepticism about Caleb Williams? Obviously the guy's talented, but he really doesn't seem to excel anywhere except for improvisation. He doesn't have the raw athleticism Jayden Daniels does, nor does he have the pocket poise of Drake Maye. He's also a smaller QB prospect, so durability may be an issue, and as we saw in this last draft class with Bryce Young vs CJ Stroud, usually the more stereotypical QB build performs better. 

Basically I think most teams are banking on him being the next Patrick Mahomes - style quarterback. My prediction is that he will struggle for at least the first year or two. Depends on how much the team is willing to build the team around his play style, or how well he can adapt to a more structured scheme.

Amungusbeest said:

Where be my man Penix

I just don't see him in the first round for now. I want to see his combine and pro day first before I throw him into the first round. Right now I think he's probably going to go in the top half of the 2nd round.

I think marvin harrison jr is going number 1 overall

You have Denver trading UP to get JJ Mccarthy, but I just saw a different mock today where they trade back a lot and still get him. 
 

I don’t know if I hate either of those moves 🤷