The Carolina Panthers clinch the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft for the Chicago Bears
Week 17 was a pleasant one for the Chicago Bears. Not only did the Bears take care of business in thumping the visiting Atlanta Falcons, 37-17, but the Bears also wrapped up earning the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft.
Chicago improved to 7-9 after a 2-7 start to the season. They were officially eliminated from the postseason thanks to action elsewhere, but it’s still been a promising run to the finish for the Bears. And they’ll get to add the top pick in the draft to the mix, courtesy of the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina lost 26-0 to Jacksonville to fall to 2-14 on the year. The Panthers’ latest loss clinches the worst record for the season no matter what happens in Week 18. The top pick they earned was traded last offseason to Chicago so the Panthers could move up to select QB Bryce Young with the top pick in last year’s draft.
The New England Patriots may have just played themselves out of the No. 1 overall pick with their Week 14 win over the Steelers
In what was a game fans across the country were looking forward to (can you feel the sarcasm through your screen?) the New England Patriots faced off against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football. With both franchises facing a quarterback change going into the game, having Bailey Zappe and Mitch Trubisky manning the ships, it was a mystery as to how the game would ultimately turn out.
We once again saw some nice flashes from Zappe, who delivered a three-touchdown game and handed New England just their third win on the season.
The win comes off as bittersweet for most New England fans, who are certainly joyful anytime their team can capture a win, but also recognize the reality of what is at stake for the season. This Patriots team is not going to see Tom Brady walk through the doors of Gillette anytime soon, and their quarterback woes continue to be a migraine on the season. With that win, they may have played themselves out of the Caleb Williams sweepstakes.
It’s unrealistic to expect any franchise to tank games for a draft pick, especially a Bill Belichick one, but perhaps the hope was the quarterback play would continue to haunt them into a generational draft prospect. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, including the success of Caleb Williams at the next level. That being said, whenever you have a chance at a generational quarterback, you certainly want your team to be in a position to take it. Now with another win under their belt the first over pick is firmly in the hands of the Chicago Bears unless something miraculous happens over in Carolina.
Nathan Peterman is returning to the Chicago Bears, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
Chicago Bears fans haven’t seen the last of Nathan Peterman. The veteran quarterback is re-signing with the team, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
Veteran QB Nate Peterman is re-signing with the #Bears, per source.
A valued piece of the QB room, Peterman is now entering his seventh NFL season and second in Chicago.
Peterman signed with the Bears last offseason as their third-string quarterback behind Justin Fields and Trevor Siemian after stints with the Buffalo Bills and Las Vegas Raiders. He was elevated to the backup role after Siemian suffered an oblique injury prior to his start against the New York Jets in Week 12. Siemian was placed on injured reserve shortly after.
Peterman appeared in three games for the Bears in 2022 and started the season finale against the Minnesota Vikings, where he completed 11-of-19 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown in a 29-13 loss that helped the Bears secure the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. For the season, Peterman threw for 139 yards with one touchdown and one interception with a quarterback rating of 68.6.
Now back with the Bears for a second season, Peterman once again will be team’s third-string option behind Fields and new backup P.J. Walker, who signed a two-year deal earlier in the month after spending the last few seasons with the Carolina Panthers.
Here’s a look at the history of draft trades including the No. 1 overall pick.
The Indianapolis Colts find themselves in an interesting predicament when it comes to the 2023 NFL draft as they are one of the favorites to trade up to the No. 1 overall pick.
Currently held by the Chicago Bears, who are unlikely to draft a quarterback, there’s expected to be somewhat of a bidding war for the top spot. The thought process behind moving up to the No. 1 overall pick essentially is that if there’s a top prospect in the team’s eyes, go get him.
The package the Colts would need to send isn’t all that clear. Right now, the Bears have the leverage but moving back three spots to No. 4 overall still guarantees them one of the top defenders in Georgia’s Jalen Carter or Alabama’s Will Anderson.
Since the 1967 merger, there have only been 12 trades involving the top selection. Four of them involved teams moving up to draft a quarterback, and there have only been two trades since 2000. Three of them involve the Colts.
So before we propose our own trades, let’s take a look at the history of trades involving the No. 1 overall pick.
Bears fans celebrated Lovie Smith and the Texans victory that gave them the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
The Chicago Bears entered Week 18 with the opportunity to secure the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. At 3-13, the Bears just needed to lose to the Minnesota Vikings and have the 2-12-1 Houston Texans, led by former Bears head coach Lovie Smith, get a victory against the Indianapolis Colts.
The Bears did their part, losing 29-13 to finish the season 3-14. All that was left was to watch the Texans try to come back against the Colts after blowing a double-digit lead.
Thanks to an improbable fourth and 20 conversion to score a touchdown and then get the go-ahead two-point conversion, Houston secured the 32-31 win that gave the Bears the top draft pick. It’s the first time since 1947 Chicago will hold the keys to the first overall selection.
Watching the back-and-forth game between the Texans and Colts was stressful for Bears fans, but they rejoiced when it was all said and done. With the top draft pick and the most cap space in the NFL this offseason, the Bears will be very active in the spring. Fans couldn’t contain their excitement while thanking Smith and the Texans for getting the job done.
Few bettors saw Jackson Holliday going No. 1 overall
After whiffing on the top picks in the NBA, NHL and NFL drafts earlier this year, there was plenty of pressure on sportsbooks to avoid going 0-4 when the MLB Draft rolled around on Sunday.
So despite being the the consensus top player in this year’s class, Druw Jones was not selected No. 1 overall by the Baltimore Orioles. Jackson Holliday (+900) was.
And neither bettors nor sportsbooks really saw it coming.
Betting on the Major League Baseball draft is a much different beast than putting a wager on who goes No. 1 in the NBA, NFL or NHL.
Unlike the latter leagues, where the consensus best prospect tends to be the top pick more often than not, MLB’s bonus pool complicates what would otherwise be pretty straightforward calculus for general managers.
In 2012, MLB rolled out a hard cap for draft bonuses as they pertained to the top-10 rounds in the draft. From then on, teams were given a draft bonus pool allotment that was the total of the slot values for all of their top-10 round picks. Teams can divide that bonus pool among those top-10 round picks however they choose to….
Since the advent of the bonus pool system, teams have gotten clever about how they approach their top-10 round selections. If a team believes it can select a first-round talent in a later round, it may select a player with its first-round pick who is willing to sign for under slot value to save money for the later pick.
That last section is absolutely crucial. And it’s why Druw Jones, the consensus best player in this year’s class, may not hear his name called when the Baltimore Orioles step up to the podium with the first pick on Sunday.
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What’s up y’all. It’s Prince here for Layup Lines, and I want to admit something here as we get ready for tonight’s NBA Draft: I’m not a fan of drafts.
That’s right, I formally declare myself a member of Team No Drafts. I’m just not a fan of the concept. But that’s an argument for another day. The reality is that drafts exist. And as they are, they can sometimes make for decent television – which is why they’ll probably always be here.
But you know what ruins that television product? When you already know what’s going to happen. And that’s my most immediate issue with the NBA Draft. When the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets make picks 1, 2 and 3 tonight, there will be little to no suspense. We already know what’s going to happen thanks to Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA insider for the network that broadcasts the draft.
Now, you may be thinking, “But there’s still 55 more picks to be made – 11 more in the lottery.” And you’re right. But many of those will also be reported on Twitter before they happen – likely by Woj and his fellow insider Shams Charania.
Now, I don’t necessarily blame those guys for breaking the news they’re privy to. The game is the game, and it isn’t limited to the NBA. But that doesn’t mean I have to like the game. It robs the draft of a lot of intrigue. But hey, maybe while they’re at it, they’ll drop a few trades on the timeline to spice things up.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
We’ll get a little more familiar with the prospects in tonight’s draft as they’re featured on the broadcast and as we see them take the floor in the months and years to come. But my colleague Bryan Kalbrosky’s interview series is great place to start your introduction.
His conversation with France’s Ousmane Dieng went live today, and while the 19-year-old has a lot of room to grow, he more than earned his projected lottery status as a pro in Australia.
“It was difficult at first. Australia is really far from France. But it made me grow as a man. I’m more mature and more mentally strong. It helped me a lot. I was the youngest player in the league. I had to earn my minutes. I had to earn my position with the team. I was a hard worker. With grown men and pros, everything is faster and quicker. It was more physical. The players are so good. I had to make decisions quickly. I progressed a lot.”
Dieng, who named Kobe Bryant as one of the first players he watched, said he hopes to be an MVP one day. It’ll be fun to see how these players with such high hopes and dreams pan out in the future and which ones develop into the stars people believe they can be.
Chicago Sky (-190) vs. Los Angeles Sparks (+4.5, +155), O/U 173.5, 10:30 PM ET
In their first game since dropping 104 points in the largest comeback win in WNBA history, the Sky face a Sparks squad that simply bleeds points. Only one team allows more points than LA’s 87.3 opponent average, and the Sparks play at a pace that allows them to score too. So I’m looking for this game to hit the over. These teams scored 176 points in regulation of their first meeting, which went to overtime.
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NBA bettors are on edge watching the odds shift in real time
Draft season—both in the NBA and NFL—remains a perplexing time for sportsbooks. Information flows in so many directions. Fans can find out news before the house can and whispers are sometimes meant to be overheard.
There isn’t an odds-making algorithm for smokescreens which is why its common to see sportsbooks take a loss on these events. Some states with legal sports betting, like New York, don’t even allow wagers on the draft because it’s not an actual sporting event.
The last 48 hours of NBA news speaks to that line of thinking, and it all has to do with Jabari Smith, Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren—the presumptive top three picks on Thursday.
Smith and Banchero, in particular, have seen wild fluctuations in their draft odds. We’ll get into the potential reasons for this in a moment. What you need to know first is that bettors everywhere are trying to gain even more of an edge than they already have.
Even after ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Smith, Holmgren and Banchero are expected to be selected in that order, sportsbooks like FanDuel continue to see significant movement in odds for those players that would otherwise suggest Woj’s report isn’t rock solid (which seems like a bold strategy).
As team boards finalize today, the 1-2-3 of the NBA Draft is increasingly firm, per sources: Jabari Smith to Orlando, Chet Holmgren to Oklahoma City and Paolo Banchero to Houston.
Projecting Joe Burrow’s 2020 passing statistics and how they match up with the over/under betting odds.
The Cincinnati Bengals drafted former LSU Tigers QB Joe Burrow No. 1 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft on Thursday, making him their franchise quarterback.
Now the question is how he will perform in his rookie season.
BetMGM has futures bets for how many total passing yards he will have in the 2020 regular season.
Rookie quarterback stats history
Twenty-one rookie quarterbacks have had more than 3,000 passing yards in a season. Only 10 have had more than 3,500 passing yards. Only three surpassed 4,000. The record is held by Andrew Luck, who had 4,374 passing yards as a rookie in 2012. Cam Newton had 4,051 in 2011 and Jameis Winston had 4,042 in 2015.
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Burrow is one of the most decorated passers to enter the NFL. His 2019 season was incredible with 5,671 passing yards and 60 touchdown passes. It was arguably the best season for a college quarterback ever.
However, since only three rookie quarterbacks have ever thrown for at least 4,000 yards, and considering Burrow is joining a Bengals team that was the worst in the league a year ago, the best bet for his passing yards is to take the UNDER (-110). Expect him to be somewhere around 3,500 to 3,600 for the season.
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