With the Super Bowl behind us, the NFL media industrial complex is turning its attention to the next major event on the calendar: the 2024 NFL draft.
It should be an eventful draft for former LSU players as three of them are widely projected to go in the first round. The one everyone will have their eyes on is quarterback [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag], the 2023 Heisman winner.
Perhaps no player in college football boosted their draft stock more this season than Daniels, who is now universally viewed as a top-five pick. He could go even higher, however.
In the first post-Super Bowl mock draft from CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson, Daniels is the second player (and quarterback) off the board, joining the Commanders with the second pick. He’s one of five quarterbacks projected to go in the first round.
No player did more for their draft stock in the fall than Jayden Daniels, who went from possible Day 3 pick to first-round prospect. He reminds me of Lamar Jackson, and it’s not crazy to think that, five years from now, we’ll look back and say that Daniels was the best player in this class.
Wilson also has [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] being selected in the first round. He has the former heading to New York to join a Giants offense in desperate need of help at pick No. 6.
Offensive line could be a consideration here, but the Giants opt for Nabers, a big-play receiver who is a threat to take it to the house every time he touches the ball.
Thomas, meanwhile, is likely to go later in the round. Wilson projects he will be taken 26th by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he would join an already loaded receiver corps.
Baker Mayfield had to go to Tampa to rediscover his game, and he’s playing some of the best football of his career. If the Bucs bring him back, they can focus on other parts of the offense, specifically, wide receiver. Brian Thomas flew under the radar for LSU, which is what happens when you play alongside Malik Nabers and Jayden Daniels. But he a legit first-round talent who won consistently on vertical routes and dominated at the catch point.
Only time will tell how accurate these projections prove to be, but one thing is clear: All three of these players are widely viewed as first-round caliber prospects.
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