On Friday, NFL Hall-of-Famer Kurt Warner sent a clear warning to teams interested in drafting Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels: Be careful about buying into their college football hype.
Unlike last year, the 2024 NFL Draft has a lot of promise because five different quarterbacks have the potential to go in the first round, or early in the second. And there is a lot of hype around the top three signal callers in this class, Williams, Maye, and Daniels.
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Over the last few months, the consensus opinion is that USC Trojans star Caleb Williams will be the first one taken off the board. However, Maye and Heisman Trophy winner Daniels have built a lot of momentum in recent weeks. Teams like the Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders, and New England Patriots need a franchise QB and seem to be likely landing spots for the trio of QBs.
Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels could go to the aforementioned teams in April, however, St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals great Kurt Warner believes picking any of them is a huge gamble based on what he has seen so far on their film, and there is little guarantee one of them can become the next CJ Stroud.
Kurt Warner has major concerns about current college QBs like Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels
“I know many of you LOVE college football, but as I start to dive into these college QBs, it’s hard for me to even watch: very few play on schedule, the pass concepts are a mess most of the time, they run the same play over & over, a million bubble screens, can’t find many concepts that translate to next level and then ppl are asked to figure out how good they will be at next level!? Nearly impossible in my mind,” Warner wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The four-time Pro Bowl went on to explain how much of a gamble it is to use top picks on quarterbacks because he had no idea Stroud would be as good as he was in his rookie seasons. After all, there was little evidence of what he showed in the NFL on his college football highlight reel.
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“For me, CJ Stroud is a great example – obviously really good in college & OSU runs more pro-style concepts than most but they didn’t ask him to process & get the ball out as quickly as he did last year in HOU – so I had no idea he would be so good at processing so fast,” he exclaimed. “He’s better in the NFL than what we got to see in college, but many times you just don’t know until you know!”
With seventh-round pick Brock Purdy becoming a top star in the league, and 2023 top pick Bryce Young having a terrible rookie season, it further shows how first-round QBs are far from a guarantee at the next level.
