Cian McKeown, Staff Writer

The NFL draft will begin on Thursday as all thirty-two teams converge in Detroit to pick the best players from the college game. The consensus first-overall pick will surely be Caleb Williams, the generationally talented gunslinger from USC. 

Williams is a former Heisman Trophy winner who is the first superstar prospect to have played most of his college career in the NIL, meaning name, image, and likeness. This means that until 2021, college players were not allowed to be paid for using their name, image, and likeness in advertisements and endorsements. This has changed the way NFL prospects approach the pre-draft process, with reigning Heisman Trophy winner and Quarterback from Lousiana State University Jayden Daniels declining to be measured and engage in workouts at the NFL Scouting Combine in March. 

Essentially, suppose you’ve already been a player who’s been compensated like a professional athlete. In that case, you will be less willing to jump through hoops to be treated as such by another organization. Some have complained that top prospects are too arrogant, but the truth is having a stable income allows players to bet on themselves more during the draft process. 

In the NFL, the quarterback position is always at a premium, especially during the draft season when a team has come off of a dreadful year and is looking to shake things up with a brand new signal caller. In the first round of this draft alone, there are plenty of opportunities to do so. From blue-chippers like Daniels and Williams, as well as those with stacked resumes. Such as Michigan Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who is coming off an undefeated national championship season, or University of Oregon standout Bo Nix, who was a Heisman runner-up and currently holds the record for most games started in a college career, with a whopping sixty-one. 

Some believe the North Carolina QB Drake Maye will leapfrog Daniels to become the second-overall draft pick to the Washington Commanders. Maye is an interesting prospect because he has very solid size, speed, athleticism, and arm talent which allow him to be less polished in fundamentals like footwork and pocket presence, thus creating a lower floor and a higher ceiling. However, this means that if Maye lands in a dysfunctional organization that might not necessarily know the best way to develop him, he may end up being a bust. This is very attractive to teams that are wowed by highlight films and believe they are up to the task. 

To a lesser extent, Maye presents a similar parable for teams at the top of the draft to one they faced in 2021 with BYU phenom Zach Wilson. 

Wilson was able to lean on his athleticism and scrambling ability(when a quarterback leaves their initial stance behind the center and runs around to evade defenders) to make plays against weaker competition in college. This has resulted in a tumultuous career for Wilson thus far and he has been deemed a draft bust by most with a career win-loss record of 13-21. 

Other standouts from the quarterback class include the captain of the national champion runner-up Washington Huskies, and Micheal Penix Jr., former favorite and current sleeper Spencer Rattler from South Carolina. 

But enough about the quarterbacks, the first round of this year’s draft is also stacked with a smattering of future stalwart wide receivers, offensive linemen, and defenders. The most talked about non-quarterback of this draft is easily Ohio State superstar Marvin Harrison Jr., the son of hall-of-fame pass catcher Marvin Harrison, who put the league on notice as Peyton Manning’s top target in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Harrison Jr. looks to be almost more talented than his father, becoming the first player in Ohio State history to register two seasons with more than 1,000 receiving yards. 

There are a few evaluation question marks with Harrison, as he did not attend the combine and therefore the lack of information about key measurables could make some teams timid, but the consensus seems to be that Harrison is so good that they simply shouldn’t care. He is poised to be drafted within the first ten picks, perhaps third overall to the New England Patriots. Although even after the departure of Bill Belichick, six-time Super Bowl champion head coach/general manager, who was never prone to taking the flashy or obvious choice in the draft, it would seem out of character for them to pick Harrison. 

This is all In addition to the fact that it could be a better choice for the Patriots to broker a trade with another team to acquire more draft picks and move down in the draft order, to better fill out their broken roster, or trade up to take one of the top two quarterback prospects. If the Pats chicken out, the Arizona Cardinals will be waiting to scoop Harrison up at pick number four.

  Other talented wide receivers in the class include LSU standout Malik Nabors and his teammate Brian Thomas Jr., Washington Huskies quick-footed slot threat Rome Odunze, as well as his PAC-12 conference rival Troy Franklin from Oregon. Not to mention the University of Texas Austin speedster Xavier Worthy, who set the combine record for the fastest 40-yard dash time, completing the drill in 4.21 seconds. Notable defenders from the class include edge rushers Dallas Turner and Jared Verse from Alabama and Florida State respectively. The first round of the draft also has a myriad of talented defensive backs including Cooper Dejean from Iowa, Toledo’s Quinyon Mitchell, and Terron Arnold from Alabama. 

The truth about the draft that analysts sometimes neglect to mention is that it is, in essence, one large gamble, no amount of game film or scouting can account for how a college player would perform on an NFL roster, as the differences between the professional and college game are vast. These include the level of competition, scheming, and even some rules. 

NFL football is much more of a mental game, with more pressure from outside sources like the media and huge fanbases across the country, there is truly no telling how players will withstand the scrutiny. That is why my advice is to simply sit back and watch the circus because, on draft day, all bets are off.