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Unlike some NFL Drafts, there are a multitude of varying opinions of what will happen after QB Caleb Williams (UCS) goes off the board as the No.1 over-all pick to the Chicago Bears via Carolina.
The Draft odds at FanDuel.com say the first four picks will be QB's with Jayden Daniels (LSU to Washington) as the second pick, followed by Drake Maye (UNC to New England) and JJ McCarthy (Michigan to Minnesota).
The latest mock draft at pff.com keeps that exact same order for the top 5 picks. After that, it's wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. (Ohio State to LA Chargers), WR Malik Nabers (LSU to NY Giants) and OT Joe Alt (Notre Dame to Tennessee Titans).
Everyone seems to agree that those are the three strongest positions available in this year's group - quarterback, wide receiver, and offensive tackle.
The quarterback position features a lot of names we've come to know as the transfer portal NIL money-chasers.
Williams followed head coach Lincoln Riley and not only failed to produce the national title that the Trojan faithful thought was coming, but only finished 18-8 with him as the starter.
Maye originally committed to Alabama before flipping to UNC where his father Mark played QB from 1983-1987 and his brothers Luke and Beau played basketball
Daniels enrolled at Arizona State in January of 2019 and played 3 seasons before transferring to LSU for the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.
McCarthy, a lifelong Ohio State fan, felt he was spurned by the Buckeyes and committed to rival Michigan instead.
Other top QB's in the draft include Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr, Spencer Rattler and Jordan Travis.
Nix played 3 years at Auburn before finishing his college career with two seasons at Oregon.
The oft-inured Penix was at Indiana from 2018-2021 before transferring to Washington for the final two years of eligibility
Rattler was the consensus No. 1 QB in the 2019 recruiting class and signed with Oklahoma. He was the preseason favorite to win the Heisman with Oklahoma in 2021, but that quickly went south when Caleb Williams replaced him during the Texas game despite Rattler's 6-0 record at that point. He wound up transferring to South Carolina by November.
Travis spent a season at Louisville before spending 5 years at Florida State where his collegiate career ended with a serious leg injury versus North Alabama in the eleventh game of the regular season. It wound up shamefully being used as the excuse by the college football playoff committee to remove FSU from the Final Four playoff, denying all of the other players the right to get their just reward for an undefeated season.
How many quarterback will go in the first round? Six isn't out of the question with Nix and Penix joining the group, but it's also very likely that no more QB's will join the first four. We do expect Nix to be the 5th QB selected, followed by Penix and Rattler.
Five other offensive tackles will likely join Alt in the first round - Taliese Fuaga of Oregon State, Olu Fashanu of Penn State, Toy Fautanu of Washington, JC Latham of Alabama and Amarius Mims of Georgia
The first-round receivers joining Harrison and Nabers should include Rome Odunze of Washington, Brian Thomas Jr of LSU, AD Mitchell of Texas, Ladd McConkey of Georgia, and Xavier Worthy of Texas. That would make for a heft haul of 7 wideouts.
The NFL Draft begins Thursday night with the first pick expected to be made around 8:15 eastern time. The second and third rounds will be held on Friday (ESPN), beginning at 7, with rounds four through seven taking place on Saturday beginning at Noon (NFL Network).
The draft will be aired through conventional means by multiple ESPN networks, as well as ABC and the NFL Network. It will additionally be streamed by those partners, as well as Fubo, Sling, YouTube, and Hulu+Live TV.