NFL draft 2024 winners and losers: Chicago shine as Denver disappoint
Winners
Chicago bears. Anyone with an internet connection could have called Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams first. But Williams’ arrival is a victory in itself for the Bears, who have been in the QB wilderness for decades. Chicago fans will expect Williams to be the team’s best quarterback ever, and that won’t be unreasonable of them considering his sublime talent and the team’s arid history at the position. General manager Ryan Poles has also done well to surround Williams with one of the best groups of receivers in football. Poles traded for Los Angeles Chargers star Keenan Allen earlier this year, and he then used the ninth pick to add Washington’s Rome Odunze to a group that already included the talented and productive DJ Moore. Maybe the Bears won’t have a big win in 2024, but they should be more fun to watch than before. And for the first time in a while, there is a foundation on which the club can build a Super Bowl team.
Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings lost their quarterback, Kirk Cousins, to the Atlanta Falcons in free agency. They were set to spend 2024 in misery, with veteran disappointment Sam Darnold coming in as a stopgap. If Vikings fans have to watch Darnold, it should only be for a few games. Michigan’s JJ McCarthy coincidentally moved to the 10th pick, and the Vikings traded up to take him as their signal caller of the future. McCarthy is a hotly debated prospect. He won the national championship at Michigan, but the Wolverines would let him throw the ball very little in a run-obsessed offense. When he pitched, he was more good than great. But he’s only 21 and has a ton of athleticism, and Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell has a solid track record with his QBs; McCarthy becomes his newest student. And after another first-round pick, Minnesota got a very capable edge rusher in Alabama’s Dallas Turner at No. 17. McCarthy may be the future, but Turner should be a good NFL player right away.
Pittsburgh Steelers. Speaking of luck in the way the draft unfolded, the Steelers got a ton of it when Washington offensive tackle Troy Fautanu was available to them with the 20th pick. Pittsburgh has two gaping holes in their offensive line, one in the middle (where they have virtually no one) and the other on the left side (where they start one of the worst players in the league). In Fautanu, they have a talented and critically versatile big man who can add some misery to what has often been an underperforming line. Adding someone like Fautanu was a must if the Steelers hoped to give new quarterback Russell Wilson a chance, and other teams’ decisions allowed Pittsburgh to address the issue. The Steelers’ good draft continued when West Virginia center Zach Frazier was up for grabs in the second round. Meanwhile, Michigan receiver Roman Wilson, a third-round pick, could play a lot as a rookie in a position group where the Steelers lack depth.
Losers
Atlanta Falcons. Spending the eighth overall pick on a QB not expected to be taken until the late first or even second round? Hey, we all make bold decisions sometimes. But do it immediately afterwards Guarantee $100 million to an established veteran playing the same position? And without talking to the quarterback beforehand? The Falcons’ decision to sign Michael Penix Jr. from Washington, a 24-year-old with a big left arm and a similar injury history, looks more bizarre in that context. Cousins’ will be playing at age 36 this season, so it’s not unreasonable to plan for three years down the road. But for the Penix decision to pay off, the Falcons must have been the smartest guys in the room. That hasn’t historically been the case for the men running this particular franchise, which might explain why long-suffering Atlanta fans seemed disturbed by the Cousins-Penix two-step.
Denver Broncos. Grabbing Oregon quarterback Bo Nix at No. 12 was a little less weird than what the Falcons did with Penix, but only a little. Nix is ββalso an old prospect himself at 24 years old. He developed into an excellent college QB toward the end of his five-year career, but that’s exactly the problem: It took Nix a long time (and a nice age advantage over his competition) before he became useful at Oregon, where the coaching staff helped hitting him with a barrage of quick, short throws that allowed his teammates to make plays with the ball. How much development he still has ahead of him in the NFL is a fair question, which is why most thought he, like Penix, wouldn’t play until later in the first round or even the second round. It’s not easy to see Nix becoming an above-average starter, but now the Broncos need him to. In the meantime, they’re paying Wilson nearly $40 million while he plays elsewhere this season. It smells of questionable asset management from a team that has missed the playoffs eight times in a row.
Defensive players. The first fourteen names mentioned in the first round on Thursday were all offensive prospects. The drought didn’t break until UCLA edge defender Laiatu Latu joined the Indianapolis Colts at No. 15. That was by far the worst stretch of futility for defensemen in the post-1970 NFL merger, as 2021 (when the first defenseman taken was the No. 8 pick) represented the previous low point. Why was 2024 so exceptional? A league-wide hunger for even passable quarterback play contributed to this, as six QBs fell off the board in the first twelve picks. An unusually strong wide receiver class (led by Marvin Harrison Jr., now of the Cardinals) and the presence of an elite tight end, Brock Bowers (who went to the Las Vegas Raiders), also played a role. The run on offensive players was mainly a run on pitchers and catchers. But that won’t make the lost revenue any better for defenders who have slipped off the checkerboards.