The story of the 2024 NFL draft began with the trade that brought Alabama edge-rusher Will Anderson Jr. to the Houston Texans with the third overall pick. To make that move with the Arizona Cardinals, the Texans gave up their 12th overall pick in 2023, as well as the 33rd overall pick this year (which the Cardinals flipped to the Tennessee Titans so the Titans could take Kentucky quarterback Will Levis), as well as a first- and third-rounder in the 2024 draft.
That first-rounder in the 2024 draft, per Pro Football Focus’ 2023 season simulations, could leave the Cardinals in a spot usually never seen. The 1992 Indianapolis Colts are the only team in any major professional sport to ever have the first two picks in a draft (they took defensive lineman Steve Emtman and linebacker Quentin Coryatt), but that’s where PFF has the Cardinals in their 2024 Mock Draft Simulator.
Were that to happen, the Cardinals would be in a position to take a near-generational quarterback and receiver, which is what we have them doing with the first two picks.
This 2024 mock is also good news for the Green Bay Packers, who pick up the first-round pick from the New York Jets for Aaron Rodgers, based on Rodgers playing at least 65% of the Jets’ offensive snaps in 2023. Here, Green Bay gets its future franchise quarterback with the assumption that it isn’t Jordan Love, and there’s a double-down for the team’s next great offensive tackle.
Not a bad haul in all, and here’s an all-too-early version of how the first round of the 2024 NFL draft might go.