Longtime ESPN NFL Draft guru Mel Kiper is at his best, in his element, this time of year, and Kiper – who has been parodied on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” impersonated by several comedians and even somewhat good-natured made-fun-of for his pompidou hairstyle – was embracing the draft before embracing the draft was cool.
Here’s Kiper in one of his first appearances on the annual broadcast, and you’ve got to admit, he’s had staying power.
At any rate, Kiper has unveiled his first mock draft of what will be at least three or four versions, and Sports Illustrated ran its top 10 here: 2024 NFL Mock Draft: Mel Kiper’s First Round Picks – College Football HQ (si.com).
We’re of course spoiling absolutely nothing by telling you that Kiper’s No. 1 overall pick, to be made by the Chicago Bears, is Southern Cal quarterback Caleb Williams. That’s everybody’s No. 1 pick, at least those who are in the know, so to speak.
The wild card, naturally, is Williams’ attitude about the Bears. Will he attempt to pull a John Elway, or an Eli Manning, and wiggle out of actually going and playing in Chicago, whether or not they draft him?
That’s to be seen. But Kiper still has him being drafted there, topping the list.
We’ll let you figure out who they are, or (duh?) read the article, but Kiper has three quarterbacks going in the top 10, and four in the first round overall. For a draft that was supposed to be so quarterback-heavy (remember, “Uncle” Colin Cowherd has been saying for two years that THIS was the class to get a quarterback), it’s somewhat shocking that Kiper only predicts four will go in round one.
The Bears draft twice in the first round (at No. 1 and No. 9), and there don’t appear to be any shocks, at least in this first Kiper draft, of well-known or expected-to-be-high selections dropping, for any reason.
That’ll likely come in Kiper Mock Draft 4.0.
To see the full mock draft, you’ll need to be an ESPN Insider (do they still call it that?) and go here (2024 NFL Draft News), then give that Kiper headline a click.
