ESPN NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. released his second 2024 NFL mock draft on Wednesday, and much like his first mock last month, it is headlined by USC quarterback Caleb Williams going No. 1 overall to the Chicago Bears.
Kiper did not make any changes to his top four, as he still has LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels going No. 2 overall to the Washington Commanders, North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye going third to the New England Patriots and Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. landing with the Arizona Cardinals with the No. 4 overall pick.
The top 10 selections in Kiper’s 2024 mock draft 2.0 are as follows:
- Chicago Bears: Caleb Williams, QB, USC
- Washington Commanders: Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU
- New England Patriots: Drake Maye, QB, North Carolina
- Arizona Cardinals: Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Ohio State
- Los Angeles Chargers: JC Latham, OT, Alabama
- New York Giants: Rome Odunze, WR, Washington
- Tennessee Titans: Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame
- Atlanta Falcons: Dallas Turner, EDGE, Alabama
- Chicago Bears: Malik Nabers, WR, LSU
- New York Jets: Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia
Alabama offensive tackle JC Latham, who was not a top-10 pick in Kiper’s first mock, has shot up his board, as Kiper expects Latham to be the top offensive lineman taken in the draft by the Los Angeles Chargers at No. 5 overall.
In addition to quarterbacks going with the top three selections, Kiper has Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy going 12th overall to the Denver Broncos as well.
The 2024 NFL draft is as loaded as any draft in recent memory when it comes to top-end quarterback talent, and it happens to coincide with quarterback-needy teams picking near the top of the first round.
It can be argued that the Bears would be wise to trade out of the No. 1 spot, accumulate more draft picks and move forward with incumbent quarterback Justin Fields just like they did last season, but there has been a lot of smoke regarding Chicago moving on from Fields and choosing a new franchise guy.
While Fields has shown flashes of brilliance and shown himself to be an exciting, dual-threat signal-caller, he has yet to unquestionably establish himself as a quarterback who can win consistently and take his team to the playoffs.
That could prompt the Bears to move on from him and select the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner in Williams, who completed 67.5 percent of his passes for 8,170 yards, 72 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions, while also rushing for 21 scores in two seasons as the starter at USC.
After Chicago, both Washington and New England undoubtedly have a hole under center, and it would be fairly surprising if either of them pass up the opportunity to take a quarterback.
Listed at 6’4″ and 240 pounds, Maye is more of a prototypical NFL quarterback than Daniels, who is a slighter 210 pounds on his 6’4″ frame.
However, Daniels is coming off a historic season at LSU that saw him complete 72.2 percent of his passing attempts for 3,812 yards, 40 touchdowns and four picks, along with rushing for 1,134 yards and 10 touchdowns en route to winning the Heisman Trophy.
Maye is a dual threat in his own right, rushing for 449 yards and nine touchdowns last season, plus he completed 63.3 percent of his passes for 3,608 yards, 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
It represented a drop-off from the previous season when he threw for 4,321 yards, 38 touchdowns and seven picks, and while that could potentially result in Daniels going ahead of Maye, it stands to reason that the Commanders and Patriots would be happy with either prospect given how poor their quarterback play has been in recent years.
Latham, who is Kiper’s biggest riser, was a first-team All-SEC selection in 2023. Most draft experts have ranked him behind Notre Dame’s Joe Alt and Penn State’s Olumuyiwa Fashanu at minimum at the offensive tackle position, but Kiper went out on a limb and sees him surpassing both highly touted prospects.
Other movement of note in Kiper’s second mock includes Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze and LSU wideout Malik Nabers switching spots. In his first mock, Kiper had Nabers going sixth overall to the New York Giants and Odunze going ninth to the Bears, but he has since flip-flopped them.
Kiper also has supremely talented Georgia tight end Brock Bowers tumbling a bit. Last month, Kiper projected Bowers to go fifth overall to the Chargers, but now he expects the New York Jets to land another weapon for quarterback Aaron Rodgers by taking Bowers 10th overall.
