Everyone knows that it is long passes, crazy runs, and ridiculous catches that sell tickets and drive up ratings, but an NFL football team, or any football team for that matter that they can only be as good as their defense. A team may score 30 points per game, but it won’t matter if they give up 31 points.
Don’t tell that to NFL owners and head coaches. Through the first 14 draft picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, all 14 were offensive players, even though teams like the Atlanta Falcons desperately need help on the defensive line.
UCLA’s edge defender Laiatu Latu was the first defensive player taken at 15th overall.
NFL Draft QB Heavy, But Not as Expected
Perhaps the most interesting part of the NFL Draft is how unpredictable it can be. No matter how much inside knowledge Mel Kiper or Adam Sheftner may have, when the draft actually comes around, almost all projections can be thrown out. Everyone knew that Caleb Williams would go first, and many even predicted that Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye would go second and third, but nobody saw Michael Penix Jr. being taken eighth overall, especially with J.J. McCarthy still on the board.
Six quarterbacks taken in the first twelve picks is a record in the modern draft era, and there are still plenty of teams who will be looking to add a quarterback, suggesting that this year may break the record of 16 quarterbacks taken in a single draft.
SEC, Big 10 Flexing Muscles Early
There has been a lot of talk lately about the SEC and Big 10 creating a Super League where essentially the SEC and Big 10 are the only conferences at the highest level of college football. When looking at future teams and their conference affiliations (USC in the Big 10), eight of the first players taken in the top ten played either in the future SEC or Big 10. The other two players were Drake Maye (ACC) and Joe Alt (Notre Dame).
For conferences such as the ACC, Big 12, or any G5 conferences looking to send a message that they are still relevant, these kind of statistics do not help. Of course, a single NFL Draft is a very small sample size, but in a world where college football is moving 100 MPH, these kind of stats can matter to recruits and transfer players.