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Now halfway through the 2024 NFL season, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. did a redraft of this past April’s draft during Thursday’s First Draft and bumped quarterback Jayden Daniels to No. 1 overall ahead of Caleb Williams.
The Chicago Bears quarterback only dropped one slot to No. 2, followed by Drake Maye, Marvin Harrison Jr., Joe Alt, Malik Nabers, JC Latham, Michael Penix Jr., Rome Odunze and Bo Nix.
That left his redraft identical to the actual draft from Nos. 3-9 in terms of the order of players selected, with Nix bumping out J.J. McCarthy at No. 10.
Daniels getting the bump up over Williams is no big surprise. The Washington Commanders’ rookie has been brilliant, throwing for 2,147 yards, nine touchdowns and two interceptions while completing 68.7 percent of his passes and taking 20 sacks. He’s also rushed for 464 yards and four scores and led his team to a 7-3 record.
Williams has faced his fair share of struggles in Chicago, meanwhile, throwing for 1,785 yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions across nine games, completing 60.5 percent of his passes while taking an NFL-worst 38 sacks. The Bears are 4-5 in his starts and rank 24th in points, 30th in total yards and 31st in third-down conversion rate.
One of the most interesting decisions from Kiper was to keep Harrison at No. 4 and Nabers at No. 6, rather than flipping them. The former has had 33 catches for 499 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games this year, while the latter has posted better stats (61 catches for 607 yards and three scores) in fewer games played (eight).
Nabers has also made some ridiculous catches, hinting at an upside that might just be higher than Harrison has shown:
Finally, Nix has earned his promotion into the top 10 over the injured McCarthy, throwing for 1,968 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions, completing 63.6 percent of his passes and taking just 17 sacks while leading the Denver Broncos to a surprising 5-5 record.
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