Getty Image / Kevin Sabitus
USC quarterback Caleb Williams is considered by many to be the presumptive first-overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. That’s for good reason, as he’s incredibly talented.
But, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky is pushing back on the idea that Caleb Williams is a lock to go number-one overall to the Bears or a team that trades for the pick.
Orlovsky made the comments on the Rich Eisen Show.
Everyone thinks it's a forgone conclusion that Caleb Williams is going 1st overall but the ESPN analyst isn't so sure:#NFL #NFLCombine #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/vSrXhRQTAb
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) March 4, 2024
The only three that I’ve done in totality are Caleb (Williams), Jaden (Daniels_ and Drake Maye. After watching all that, I would take Jaden number one. I think that three things that make it stand out for me are number one, I think it’s ball placement versus is the best in the draft. We see that in the NFL on a consistent basis. We’re starting to see more and more of it… Every quarterback in the NFL is accurate. It’s the NFL, there’s 60 people on the planet that have those jobs. Everybody’s accurate. Accuracy is throwing it to your guy. Ball placement, throwing it away from the defense, He’s got the best on tape… The number two thing is when your offense and you as a passing game generate these explosive plays, what does it actually look like? Are you getting four or 5 20+ yard completions in college football because you throw a bubble out to the right or you had some trick play, or you ran around for nine seconds and threw a ball down wide open to a guy in the NFL. We know that’s not real life. Then, I think the third thing is pocket peace. I think Caleb has tremendous pocket reaction and his pocket. (His) suddenness is really good. Jaden has just this calm, this peace, subtlety movement wise, that I think is different than the others as well. So I will go Jaden one.
That’s the first pundit I think I’ve seen that has LSU quarterback Jaden Daniels as the top quarterback in the draft class. It’s understandable that he would be betting on the Heisman Trophy winner. He does have a lot of tools, and was phenomenal at LSU in 2023. The last Heisman winner to go number-one overall out of LSU, Joe Burrow, turned out pretty well.
But, I do still think it’s very likely that Caleb Williams goes number-one overall. With the Bears looking more and more likely to trade Justin Fields and keep that pick every day, it just makes sense. It seems Chicago and Caleb Williams have been linked together for quite a while now.