The 2023 NFL Draft may have just wrapped up at the end of April, but football fans are already buzzing about the 2024 draft class, which is likely to include Caleb Williams and Drake Maye, two top quarterback prospects projected to be the top two picks.
Even though we’re still months away from the start of the 2023 regular season, talk of teams tanking is already circulating in the football world. In a recent mailbag to his readers, NFL insider Albert Breer suggested that he expects tanking to be a big issue in the upcoming season.
The reason? Breer says the teams who get off to a rough start and don’t yet have their franchise QB could quickly see the value in jockeying for the top pick, knowing just how high scouts and draft analysts perceive next year’s QB class, led by Williams and Maye.
Williams and Maye are already viewed as superior prospects when compared to the 2023 class led by Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Anthony Richardson, and the chance to land a generational prospect doesn’t come around often.
In turn, Breer anticipates seeing several teams try and position themselves for a chance to land the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in an attempt to drastically alter their franchise’s landscape. We’ve seen how quickly a player like Joe Burrow can transform a team, taking the Cincinnati Bengals to an organization earning the first overall pick to a Super Bowl appearance within just two seasons.
In other words, expect the tanking conversation to reach a fever pitch in 2023, perhaps even leading to more discussions at the league level about whether a preventative measure should be put in place in an effort to curtail a team from trying to lose more than they win.
While a team will never ever admit to trying to lose instead of win, don’t be surprised if we see several questionable decisions throughout the season from some of the worst teams in football.
Whether it pays off with a selection of Williams or Maye won’t be known until next April. Even then, there’s no guarantee either player actually pans out in the NFL, which is why tanking is always a risky path to take. But that won’t stop teams from trying to land who could be the next face of the NFL.
Related: 2024 NFL mock draft: See where Caleb Williams, Drake Maye land