Draft eve buzz … Less than 24 hours to go as we speak until the 2023 actually starts. as noted earlier today it is the silly season in the NFL, but here is the latest that appears to have at least some rationale behind it … With less than 24 hours to go until they have to make the 1st pick overall, Carolina head coach Frank Reich says the Panthers have not told the player they’ll be taking that he’ll be the top pick. Most observers assume that that player will be Alabama QB Bryce Young, but the league was thrown for a tizzy earlier in the week when an anonymous social media reported that Kentucky’s Will Levis had told people that he’d been told he’d be the surprise #1 pick. Levis’ response though was to tell people ‘not to believe everything they’ve heard on the internet’. Meanwhile, Carolina is likely keeping the pick under wraps at the behest of the league so there’ll still be some suspense when the Panthers get on the clock just after 8 PM ET tomorrow night … While Alabama’s Young looks to be a lock to be the first player selected tomorrow, things just seem to be going from bad to worse for Ohio State QB CJ Stroud. Stroud, who had been very much in consideration to be the #1 pick until very recently, has seen his draft status questioned in the last couple of weeks. And it certainly won’t help that his S2 test score, which wasn’t very good, was leaked to the media in the past day or so. The S2 test measures a player’s ability to process information, a trait that was already in some question with Stroud. Stroud’s response was that he is a football player, not a test taker, but it still isn’t going to help … There is a growing sense around the league that Houston may just sit tight with tomorrow’s second pick and take Alabama DE Will Anderson, rather than trade the pick. In fact, there are some rumblings out there that neither Houston nor Arizona, which has the 3rd pick, have yet to be blown away by offers for the 2nd or 3rd picks. The problem for them maybe that the teams that one would expect to be looking to trade up have pretty similar grades on the three remaining top QBs and want to wait to see how things play out before committing to a trade … Sort of interesting that there are some whispers out of Arizona that if the Cardinals can’t find a partner to trade down with AND Bama’s Anderson is already off the board they could select Ohio State OT Paris Johnson at that spot despite a monster lack of edge rushers and Texas Tech’s Tyree Wilson still available … Couple of guys observers are saying people shouldn’t be too surprised to see go in the late first-round are TCU G/C Steve Avila and Syracuse G/T Matt Bergeron; the other guy who is getting some late first-round buzz is Alabama RB Jahmyr Gibbs … At the same time, a couple of names that have emerged late as legit late round prospects are OT Jake Witt of DII Northern Michigan and Appalachian State CB Steven Jones (and by all means cue the ‘sounds like a great fit for the Cowboys’ quips!). Witt is a rangy 6-7, 300-pound athletic freak who started his career as a TE and ran a 4.9 40 at his pro day while posting a remarkable 37-inch vertical. Jones, on the other hand, is smallish (5-9, 180 with barely 30-inch arms) but he was one of the more productive cover guys in the country the past couple of year including 2021 when he had 5 interceptions, three of which he returned for scores, as he made several AA teams … One other late breaking thing to watch for this weekend according to sources could be a possible trade for Washington DE Chase Young after the Commanders declined to pick up his 5th year option.
