UNC Football: Todd McShay releases 2024 NFL Mock Draft
By Jordan Falls
ESPN Analyst Todd McShay has released his 2024 NFL first-round mock draft and UNC Football has a familiar name in the top five.
Last weekend’s 2023 NFL Draft saw four UNC football players drafted, none higher than the third round where Josh Downs went 79th to the Indianapolis Colts. The 2024 NFL Draft is expected to be very different for the UNC football program as they are expected to have their first top-five draft pick since Mitchell Trubisky went second overall to the Chicago Bears in the 2017 NFL Draft.
ESPN analyst Mel Kiper released his top-five NFL prospects for 2024 earlier this week and now his counterpart with ESPN, Todd McShay has released a similar list with his 2024 first-round mock draft that includes current UNC football star quarterback Drake Maye.
Here’s my Way-Too-Early 2024 Mock Draft. Two warnings I give every year: 1. I did not generate the draft order, so save the complaints. 2. Most importantly, I have had VERY MINIMAL TIME TO STUDY THESE PLAYERS, so please take it FWIW. https://t.co/08QCRTGGan
— Todd McShay (@McShay13) May 4, 2023
McShay ranks Maye as the third-best overall player in the 2024 NFL Draft class. Surprisingly, McShay predicts that the Washington Commanders, current home to former UNC football quarterback Sam Howell, will make a trade with the Indianapolis Colts and draft Maye. This is what McShay has to say about the prediction for Maye to the Commanders:
"Maye is 6-foot-4, 220 pounds and has a massive arm. Not only did he throw 38 touchdown passes last season, but he also ran for seven scores and almost 700 yards. Washington might be comfortable with Sam Howell and Jacoby Brissett at the moment, but the former is a fifth-round pick with one career start, and the latter is a 30-year-old veteran backup on a one-year deal. I understand the Commanders passing on quarterback down the board at No. 16 in 2023, but if they have a chance to get someone like Maye next April, it could change things for the franchise. Washington was outside the top 20 in nearly every passing metric last season."
Outside of Trubisky getting drafted in the top-five in 2017, the only other top-five pick that UNC football has seen this century was Julius Peppers in 2002 when he also went second overall. The Tar Heel fan base saw last season just how good Maye was and how he single-handily willed the team to victory in several games and to their first ACC Championship game appearance since 2015.
While the NFL is excited about the future and can’t wait for Maye to be part of a loaded 2024 NFL Draft Class, UNC football fans still want to cherish him for one more season and hope that he can do even more in his second, and likely only, season as a Tar Heel. Could Maye prove on the field next season just how valuable he is and jump to become the first-ever UNC football player to be drafted No. 1 overall?
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