NEWS AND NEAR NEWS

49ers name new director of scouting … San Francisco has promoted veteran scout Josh Williams to the post of director of scouting and football operations. Williams, who has been with the 49ers since 2011, was a national scout the past two seasons.

Broncos sign QB Nix … Denver has signed QB Bo Nix, the 12th pick overall in last month’s draft, to a fully guaranteed, 4-year $18.7M contract that comes with a $10.4M signing bonus. Like all first-round picks, Nix’s contract has a team option for a fifth year. Nix is the first of the 6 QBs taken in the first dozen picks in this year’s draft.

WashComs 2nd rounder to have foot surgery … Washington figured it had something of a steal in the 2nd round of last month’s when the Commanders were able to nab Illinois DT Johnny Newton with the 36th pick overall after he slipped out of the first round because of a foot injury. Newton ultimately had to have surgery on the foot and as a result was not able to work out for teams until just a couple of weeks before the draft. Now the team has confirmed that Newton will require the same surgery on his other foot with no announced timeline for when he will be able to play again.

Pats promote de facto GM Wolf to de facto GM … New England has confirmed the team’s worst kept secret and promoted Eliot Wolf to Executive VP of Player Personnel. Wolf had been the Patriots’ director of scouting the past couple of years and ran the team’s 2024 draft preparations after the departure of former head coach Bill Belichik. In the new job in which he will be GM in everything but name Wolf will have overall direction of the personnel department, the management of the salary cap, and control of the 53-man roster.

That did not take long! Bears name #1 pick starting QB … Even before they stepped on the field for their rookie minicamp, Chicago named Caleb Williams, the first player selected at last month’s draft as the team’s starting QB heading toward the season.

Texans get vet Rams TE for late round pick swap … Houston has acquired veteran TE Ben Skowronek from the LA Rams. As compensation the teams will swap late round picks in 2026 with the Rams getting the Texans’ 6th rounder, while the Rams get the Texans’ 7th rounder to complete the deal.

Panthers 1st to sign 2024 draft class … Carolina has become the first team to sign their entire2024 draft class including WR Xavier Legette, their first round pick whom the Panthers traded up to acquire at the end of the opening round.

Jets, Chiefs lead early 8th round signings … Roughly half the teams around the NFL have officially announced their post-draft undrafted rookie free agent classes. And based on our unofficial list of the top undrafted free agents following last week’s draft, the NY Jets and Kansas City have done pretty well for themselves. The Jets in fact signed former Miami DT Leonard Taylor, the top undrafted player on our list, along with former UConn DE Eric Watts, who came in at #7. For their part, the Chiefs signed #5 LB Curtis Jacobs of Penn State, #9 OT Ethan Driskell of Marshall, #11 Florida State DT Fabien Lovett and #22 RB Emani Bailey of TCU. Here is the full list of top undrafted rookie signings as of today. Hopefully, more teams will be formally announcing their undrafted rookie signings in the next day or so, particularly those teams that completed their minicamps this past weekend.

Tips for betting on the NFL … We don’t normally advocate that folks bet on the NFL or any other sporting event for that matter; however, we do realize that many do and for those that do, whether you’re a seasoned bettor or a newcomer to the sports betting scene, with the 2024 NFL season now just over 100 days away they’ll want to sharpen their skills and and strategy. This guide delves into essential tips that can transform your betting game from basic to brilliant. Prepare to approach NFL betting with a renewed perspective and tactics honed for this season’s unique dynamics. Read more.

Ravens, Cowboys projected to lead comp pick parade in 2025 … The compensatory picks for the 2025 draft won’t be formally determined by the league’s Management Council formula until after the upcoming season is over, but several sources have become pretty good at projecting which teams will be awarded which comp picks. One of those is projecting that both Baltimore and Dallas will be awarded the maximum 4 extra picks with the Ravens getting bonus picks in the 4th and 5th rounds and a pair in the 6th, while the Cowboys are projected to get three in the 5th round and another in the 6th. At the same time, the LA Chargers, Miami and San Francisco are each projected to get three comp picks. Another 5 teams – Buffalo, Cleveland, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Seattle are projected to get two comp picks each, while Green Bay, Minnesota, New Orleans, the LA Rams and the NY Giants get one each. Here is the full report.

Ravens first to sign 2024 draft picks … Baltimore became the first team to sign any of its picks from last weekend’s draft as the Ravens came to terms with 5 rookie selections including CB Nate Wiggins their 1st round pick. Also signing with the Ravens were OT Roger Rosengarten, a 2nd round  selection and 4th round CB TJ Tampa, along with C Nick Samac and DB Sanoussi Kane, a pair of 7th round picks.

Post-draft reading … For those still suffering a post-draft letdown, here are several draft-related articles for folks that have not seen them yet including one at ESPN with a discussion of next year’s QB class, another from USA Today with some stats on the success rate of different positions taken in the first-round, and a piece at CBS Sports about what the punditry got wrong at last week’s draft. Have a great day!

Giants Report: Thoughts on the draft … We kind of wanted several days to chew on last weekend’s draft before commenting too extensively, especially as it relates to the Giants. On balance, though, we thought the Giants had an outstanding draft, although of course the players chosen still have to play to their potential, but there’s a lot of potential there! Read more

CFL’s Elks make vet LB top pick … As expected, Edmonton chose former Cincinnati LB Joel Dublanko with the first pick overall at last night’s CFL draft of Canadian players. Dublanko actually came late to the process; he was a 2022 grad at Cincinnati and was in a couple of NFL camps last summer before playing the 2023 season in the USFL, but was granted late eligibility for the CFL draft when he was deemed eligible for the CFL draft  because his father is a Canadian. Ottawa with the 2nd pick overall chose Auburn WR Nick Mardner while Saskatchewan selected Boston College OG Kyle Hergel with the 3rd pick. Hergel has signed as an undrafted free agent with New Orleans, but is considered to be a long shot to make the Saints’ roster this fall. On the other hand, most of the CFL’s top prospects who were selected at last weekend’s NFL draft weren’t selected until the later rounds. In fact, OG Isaiah Adams, the CFL Scouting Bureau’s top overall prospect, wasn’t selected at all last night after he was taken in the 3rd round of the NFL draft by Arizona. Meanwhile, OG Giovanni Manu was a 5th round pick by Winnipeg, while TEs Tanner McLachlan and Theo Johnson went in the 6th and 8th rounds respectively to Calgary and BC.

Draft hilites Growing dominance of power schools … One of the underlying stories from the past two drafts has been the growing dominance of the of the so-called Power-5 programs. This past weekend, for example, 87% of all players selected at the 2024 draft were from a Power 5 school or Notre Dame. And that is up from 80% just a year earlier. Surprisingly, the difference was accounted for almost exclusively in adramatic drop in the number of players selected from non-Power 5 conference teams. In fact, just 19 players were selected this year from the so-called group of 5 conferences, literally half the number from the previous year when 36 prospects from the other FBS conferences had been selected.

Still, 94% of all players selected last week were from an FBS school, while barely 6% – just 14 players in total – were from outside the FBS ranks and just 11 were from FCS or lower U.S. programs. In fact, the FCS/DII total was roughly half the figure it was just two years ago when 23 players selected in 2022 came from outside the ranks of FBS programs. Maybe the only modicum of solace for the smaller schools is the fact that two players from their ranks – Houston Christian DE Jalyk Hunt and Yale OT Kiran Amegadjie – were second day picks with Hunt going to Philadelphia and Amegadjie to the Chicago with 3rd round picks.

At the same time, 3 international players were selected on Saturday including UBC OG Giovanni Muni, whom Detroit actually traded up in the 4th to acquire, and OG Travis Clayton, a former English rugby player who was taken in the 7th round by Buffalo. For the record, Muni was just the 7th Canadian from a Canadian university ever selected at the NFL draft, and the first since Dr. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif who was selected by Kansas City in 2014. Also for the record, a total of 4 Canadians were selected this weekend along with Muni including OG Isaiah Adams, a 3rd round pick by Arizona, and TEs Theo Johnson (a 4th to the NY Giants) and Tanner McLachlan (a 6th by Cincinnati). That tied last year’s record of 4 Canadians being selected in a single draft year. The other ‘international’ player selected this weekend was CB Qwan’Tez Stiggers, the CFL defensive rookie of the year last fall with Toronto, who was selected in the NY Jets in the 5th round.

Also to absolutely no one’s surprise, the SEC once again had the most players of any conference selected at the 2024 draft. Indeed, it was the 18th straight year in which the SEC had the most players selected in a draft. Overall, the SEC had 59 players taken at this weekend’s draft, down slightly from 62 in 2023 and 65 in the previous two years, but still well ahead of the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC which were bunched with 43, 42, and 41 picks respectively, while the Big XII followed with 31. In contrast, among the other conferences, the Sun Belt had 6 picks, the American Athletic had 5, and CUSA had 3, while the Mountain West and MAC had only 2 apiece. Note, though, that the MAC’s Quinyon Mitchell, taken 22nd overall by Philadelphia, was the only non-Power 5 player taken in this year’s opening round.

However, while the SEC once again led all conferences in picks at the 2024 draft, national champion Michigan actually had the most players selected from any one school. Indeed, 13 former Wolverines were selected this past weekend, the 4th highest total from one program ever. Michigan was followed by Texas with 11, Alabama, LSU and Washington with 10 apiece, Georgia, Oregon and Penn State with 8 each and Notre Dame and Southern California with 7 each. In fact, those 10 schools accounted for over 35% of all players drafted this past weekend. In the end, one can see  why the NFL is quietly pushing the idea of a ‘super’ conference format for college football to ensure that the top prospects play other top prospects every week.

Don’t trade on me … Anyone who got the sense that there didn’t seem to be all that many trades at this year’s draft weren’t dreaming. There actually were significantly fewer trades than in recent years. This year, for example, there were 28 trades made during the draft, compared with 43 last year. Indeed, it used to drive us a little batty when teams would trade up 10 spots or so in the 7th round. Really? It appears, though, that somebody forgot to tell Philadelphia GM Howie Roseman about the plan as Trader Howie, as our Pigskin Paul Guillemete used to affectionately call him, and his Eagles tied an NFL record with 8 individual trades this week. Included in those trades were a trio that netted the Eagles three mid-round picks in 2025. In particular, the Eagles got a third rounder from Miami, a 4th from Detroit and a 5th from Houston in separate deals. That trade with the Lions for a 4th next year is particularly interesting as we wondered if it might actually be for the Eagles original pick in that round which they sent to Detroit last year in the deal for RB D’Andre Swift. Carolina, though, got the highest 2025 pick over the weekend as the acquired the LA Rams pick in the second round in 2025, while Jacksonville got 3rd and 4th rounders from Minnesota in the deal in which the Vikings moved up in the opening round to snare DE Dallas Turner at #17. For the record, it was also a pretty good deal all-around for the Jags who were able to take WR Brian Thomas with the 23rd pick, a guy they liked had targeted with their original selection. What’s interesting about the whole deal is that so far no first round pick in 2025 has been traded and we are not sure the last time that a future #1 wasn’t swapped before or during the draft. Meanwhile, for those that missed it during the draft, the NY Jets acquired a 6th round pick in 2026 from Denver in exchange for DE John Franklin-Myers. Here is the updated list of trades already in the books for 2025 and beyond as we have them.

The grades are in … The one thing we have learned in this business is that you really can’t grade a draft until at least deep into its first year of play in the NFL and that it may actually take several seasons. And that was confirmed big-time last year, for example, when Detroit’s draft was generally being panned and it did was produce a handful of pro bowlers that helped out mightily in getting the Lions to their first conference championship game in over three decades. That said, those at a higher pay grade than ours here and here and here and here have taken at a shot of giving out preliminary grades to last weekend’s picks, but they don’t mean a whole heckuva lot. We will say, though, that we did particularly like what several teams did this past weekend including Arizona, Philadelphia, Chicago, Jacksonville and the LA Rams; however, give us a shout back sometime around November 1st and we’ll talk more!

The other thing we also advise readers is that when it is time to actually evaluate team’s 2024 drafts, don’t conflate grades. The grades today are simply who made good picks based on the consensus of where those players were rated on boards around the league. On the other hand, the grades 2-3 years down the road will be based on which players actually worked out or didn’t. And there really isn’t much connection between the two. Good picks bust and bad picks turn into stars and how that works in reality is 98% luck and the rest is pure chance.

2025 Draft just 365 days away!! … For the record, the 2025 draft is just 363 days away, so to help wile away the time, here is our annual way ‘way-too-early’ projection for next year’s draft. And while its done with more than a little tongue-in-cheek – so please don’t anybody write in asking “what we are smoking because the Buckaroos would never take a …” – it will give people some early idea on what players might be available next year and where they might go based on current thinking, although obviously is going to change between now and April 24th, 2025. Hang in there everybody!!

That’s a wrap; THE end, finished!! … The 2024 draft came to a fitting close just before 7 PM ET this evening when the NY Jets selected former Alabama S Jaylen Key with the 257th and final pick of the draft. Of course, that makes him ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ for the year. And while the actual draft is in the books, there won’t be much rest for NFL personnel people, though, as teams are already calling around looking to sign the top undrafted prospects that weren’t selected this weekend. And there are still a lot of really talented prospects on the board including QBs Sam Hartman, Austin Reed, Kedon Slovis, and Carter Bradley; RBs Kendall Milton, Cody Schrader, Emani Bailey, Dillon Johnson, Daijan Edwards, Frank Gore, Michael Wiley, and Carson Steele; WR Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint; TEs Brevin Spann-Ford and Jack Westover; OTs Jeremy Flax, Theo Benedet, Ethan Driskell, and Andrew Coker; OGs Javion Cohen, Javontez Spraggins, and Brady Latham; Cs Drake Nugent, Jake Sundell, and Will Putnam; DEs Nelson Ceaser, Eric Watts, Zion Tupuola-Fetui, Trajan Jeffcoat, Gabriel Murphy, Taylor Upshaw and David Ugwoebu; DTs Leonard Taylor, Gabe Hall, Fabian Lovett, Keith Randolph, and Brett Johnson; LBs Curtis Jacobs, Steele Chambers and Aaron Casey; CBs Beanie Bishop and Johnnie Dixon; and safeties Beau Brade, Akeem Dent, Ro Torrence, and Kenny Logan who are all among the prospects at the top of the updated GBN Big Board ranking of the top remaining players. See you next year!!

It is on to the final day of the 2024 draft … The second and third rounds of the 2024 draft came to a close last evening when Washington, with a pick acquired from San Francisco selected former Rice WR Luke McCaffrey with the 100th and final pick of the third round. However, as usual there wasn’t much rest for NFL personnel people as teams were burning the midnight oil again last night re-stacking their boards and setting priorities prior to the start of the fourth round, which gets underway at Noon ET this afternoon with Carolina on the clock with 101st pick.  The busiest teams of the third day, though, look to be Buffalo and Philadelphia which have a league high 8 later round selections each, while Green Bay has 7. At the same time, 10 teams including the LA Rams, LA Chargers, NY Jets, New Orleans, San Francisco, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Denver, Jacksonville, and Tennessee have 6 remaining picks apiece. At the other end of the spectrum, Chicago which did clean up in the opening round with the selection of Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze has just one lonely third day pick. Here is the updated selection order for the 2024 draft, as well as the current picks by team file.

And there are still some very good players still on the board heading into the 3rd day of the draft including WR Troy Franklin, TE Ja’Tavion Sander, S Jaden Hicks, CBs TJ Tampa and Kris Abrams-Draine, RB Jaylen Wright, DEs Brandon Dorlus and Mo Kamara, DT Mehki Wingo, and LBs Jeremiah Trotter and Cedric Gray. Meanwhile, other players still available include QBs Spencer Rattler, Joe Milton, Michael Pratt and Sam Hartman; RBs Will Shipley, Braelon Allen, Bucky Irving and Audric Estime; WRs Tez Walker, Javon Baker, Johnny Wilson and Brendan Rice; TEs Theo Johnson, Cade Stover, Tanner McLachlan, Jared Wiley, and Jaheim Bell; OTs Christian Jones, Javon Foster, and Ethan Driskell; OGs Christian Mahogany, Tanor Bartolini, and Javion Cohen; Cs Sedric Van Pran, Beux Limmer and Drake Nugent; DEs Cedric Johnson, Myles Cole, Nelson Ceasor, Brennan Jackson, Austin Booker, Eric Watts and Javon Solomon; DTs Leonard Taylor, Justin Egboigbe, Gabe Hall, and Jaden Crumedy; LBs Jaylon Ford, Tommy Eichenberg, and Nathaniel Watson; CBs Kalen King, Josh Newton, DJ James, Nehemah Pritchett, and Jarvis Brownlee; safeties Beau Brade, Dadrion Taylor, Demerson, and Jaylin Simpson; and P Tory Taylor. Here is the full list of players still available on the updated GBN Big Board.