NFL Mock Draft: Broncos land Drake Maye, Cardinals build around Kyler Murray
By Hunter Haas
Drake Maye heads to the Broncos. Kyler Murray stays put in the desert. The Eagles and Chiefs get richer. All of this takes place in NFLMocks’ latest mock draft.
The 2023 NFL regular season is only three weeks old, and the draft order is far from set in stone. Look no further than the Arizona Cardinals, for example. Many analysts — myself included — wondered aloud if the franchise was actively tanking for the No. 1 overall selection. A 28-16 drubbing of the highly-touted Dallas Cowboys quickly put that talk to bed — at least for now.
The Cardinals also own a 2024 first-round pick from the Texans, thanks to a draft day trade involving the pick that became Will Anderson Jr. Even Houston is finding more success than most expected, throttling the Jaguars by 20 points in Jacksonville on Sunday.
If The Cardinals Aren’t Picking No. 1 Overall In This Mock Draft… Who Is?
So, if Arizona is trending upward, as is Houston, then who has become the front-runner for Caleb Williams next April? According to Tankathon, the Chicago Bears, armed with two Day 1 selections in 2024, sit in the driver’s seat. With all the hype surrounding Justin Fields in the offseason, this isn’t an outcome Bears fans were hoping to see.
The Broncos and Vikings round out the top three on Tankathon, with Denver in familiar territory. On the other hand, Minnesota has lost nearly as many games (3) in 2023 as they did the entirety of last season (4).
With aging signal-callers, these two franchises are firmly in the quarterback discussion at the 2024 NFL Draft. The good news? The amount of talent behind center is absurd at the collegiate level. It goes deeper than Williams, as upwards of eight different passers have popped up in mock drafts.
Because the season is still so young, I will use a mixture of the inverse Super Bowl odds and the current Tankathon draft order. That is a subjective way of predicting the order, but it provides more context than strictly using team records and betting odds.
With that disclaimer out of the way, the Chicago Bears… you are on the clock!