So who’s #1 … The drama over who will be the first pick overall at the 2023 draft, now just 24 days away, probably won’t be over until Carolina actually gets on the clock with the #1 pick on the 27th. Prior to their back-to-back pro days, the sense around the league was that the Panthers were actually leaning toward CJ Stroud of Ohio State over Bryce Young of Alabama. Stroud is just so much closer to prototype QB size. But Young showed just how smooth and instinctive a passer he was at his pro day, such the buzz around the league is that it is going to be hard for any team to pass on him. I guess the one thing we can pretty much take to the bank these days is that Young-Stroud, in whichever order, will be the first two players off the board on the 27th, meaning in many ways that the draft really starts at #3 with Arizona on the clock, at least for now.
It is also kind of interesting to note that while there is a pretty set consensus on who the top 5 QB prospects are for the year’s draft (although there is still some quibbling over the exact, there doesn’t appear to much agreement at all as to which QBs come next. One player who seems to have joined that mix is Aiden O’Connell of Purdue, who reportedly worked out privately for Dallas last week and has workouts/visits planned with as many as a half dozen other teams. If that is indeed the case, O’Connell would be in that mix along with the likes of Tanner McKee of Stanford, Jake Haener of Fresno State, Clayton Tune of Houston, Georgia’s Stetson Bennett, Jarren Hall of BYU, TCU’s Max Duggan and UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson for that spot, although it is still unlikely any of those players are selected much before that latter part of the second day. For now, though, here is our updated ranking of this year’s QBs.
