NFL Draft 2024: Second round mock draft

The first four selections of the 2024 NFL Draft went relatively according to plan. The Chicago Bears drafted Caleb Williams, the Washington Commanders drafted Jayden Daniels, the New England Patriots hope to have found their franchise quarterback in Drake Maye, and the Arizona Cardinals reaped the benefit of the QB run, selecting Marvin Harrison Jr.

Then everything started to unravel, albeit slowly.

Jim Harbaugh and the Los Angeles Chargers drafted Joe Alt out of Notre Dame, a move that was gaining steam over the past few weeks despite the Chargers’ needs at the wide receiver position. The New York Giants did not draft a quarterback, instead drafting Malik Nabers from LSU, and the Tennessee Titans drafted an offensive tackle as expected in JC Latham.

Then the Atlanta Falcons broke every mock draft, selecting Michael Penix Jr.

In all, six quarterbacks were taken in the first round, matching the mark set by the legendary Class of 1983. But while that class needed 27 picks to see the sixth quarterback taken — when Dan Marino went to the Miami Dolphins — the sixth QB came off the board at No. 12, when the Denver Broncos selected Bo Nix from Oregon.

Those six passers were part of a record 14-straight offensive players to open up the NFL draft. Ultimately, the first round was very heavy on the offensive side of the football, with just nine defensive players.

Now that we have caught our breath, how might the second round unfold?

Here is our best guess.

NFL Draft 2024 Second Round Mock

Pick	Team	Player	Position	School	Round One
Pick	Team	Player	Position	School	Round One
33	Buffalo Bills	Adonai Mitchell	WR	Texas	N/A
34	New England Patriots	Troy Franklin	WR	Oregon	Drake Maye, QB, UNC
35	Arizona Cardinals	Jer’Zhan Newton	DT	Illinois	Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Ohio State, Darius Robinson, EDGE, Missouri
36	Washington Commanders	Kingsley Suamataia	OT	BYU	Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU
37	Los Angeles Chargers	Ladd McConkey	WR	Georgia	Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame
38	Tennessee Titans	Cooper DeJean	CB	Iowa	JC Latham, OT, Alabama
39	Carolina Panthers	Jackson Powers-Johnson	C	Oregon	Xavier Legette, WR, South Carolina
40	Washington Commanders	Kool-Aid McKinstry	CB	Alabama	Jayden Daniels, QB, LSU
41	Green Bay Packers	Edgerrin Cooper	LB	Texas A&M	Jordan Morgan, OL, Arizona
42	Houston Texans	Ennis Rakestraw Jr.	CB	Missouri	N/A
43	Atlanta Falcons	Chris Braswell	EDGE	Alabama	Michael Penix Jr., QB, Washington
44	Las Vegas Raiders	Patrick Paul	OT	Houston	Brock Bowers, TE, Georgia
45	New Orleans Saints	Cooper Beebe	OG	Kansas State	Taliese Fuaga, OT, Oregon State
46	Indianapolis Colts	Keon Coleman	WR	Florida State	Laiatu Latu, EDGE, UCLA
47	New York Giants	Kamari Lassiter	CB	Georgia	Malik Nabers, WR, LSU
48	Jacksonville Jaguars	T.J. Tampa	CB	Iowa State	Brian Thomas Jr., WR, LSU
49	Cincinnati Bengals	Braden Fiske	DT	Florida State	Amarius Mims, OT, Georgia
50	Philadelphia Eagles	Tyler Nubin	S	Minnesota	Quinyon Mitchell, CB, Toledo
51	Pittsburgh Steelers	Zach Frazier	C	West Virginia	Troy Fautanu, OL, Washington
52	Los Angeles Rams	Max Melton	CB	Rutgers	Jared Verse, EDGE, Florida State
53	Philadelphia Eagles	Roman Wilson	WR	Michigan	Quinyon Mitchell, CB, Toledo
54	Cleveland Browns	Kris Jenkins	DT	Michigan	N/A
55	Miami Dolphins	Christian Haynes	OG	Connecticut	Chop Robinson, EDGE, Penn State
56	Dallas Cowboys	Payton Wilson	LB	NC State	Tyler Guyton, OT, Oklahoma
57	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Marshawn Kneeland	EDGE	Western Michigan	Graham Barton, OL, Duke
58	Green Bay Packers	Mike Sainristil	CB	Michigan	Jordan Morgan, OL, Arizona
59	Houston Texans	Ruke Orhorhoro	DT	Clemson	N/A
60	Buffalo Bills	Bralen Trice	EDGE	Washington	N/A
61	Detroit Lions	Adisa Isaac	EDGE	Penn State	Terrion Arnold, CB, Alabama
62	Baltimore Ravens	Ja’Lynn Polk	WR	Washington	Nate Wiggins, CB, Clemson
63	San Francisco 49ers	Roger Rosengarten	OT	Washington	Ricky Pearsall, WR, Florida
64	Kansas City Chiefs	Kiran Amegadjie	OT	Yale	Xavier Worthy, WR, Texas

The Bills get their wide receiver

Buffalo Bills fans were hoping to see the team land a wide receiver early in the NFL Draft.

Unfortunately, they will need to wait a little longer. With Buffalo trading down twice on Thursday night, including coming out of the first round completely, Bills fans will have to wait a few more hours to see their team land their next pass catcher.

But the Bills open the night by adding Adonai Mitchell out of Texas, a talented receiver who with a little polish can be Buffalo’s next WR1.

Some interesting slides end

One of the more fascinating bits of draft content each season is the Consensus Big Board compiled by Arif Hasan at his website Wide Left Football.

As the first round came to a close the three highest-ranked players left on the Consensus Big Board? Illinois defensive tackle Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton, Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean, and Alabama cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry. While all three players are recovering from injuries (foot surgery for Newton, a fractured right fibula for DeJean, and a foot fracture for McKinstry) all three ranked in the top 30 on the big board.

But all three went undrafted on Thursday night.

Expect those slides to end on Friday night, and in this mock draft all three come off the board relatively quickly.

Still no running backs … yet

Earlier this week Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports opined that the running backs might not start coming off the board until the third round, led by Jonathon Brooks from Texas and Florida State RB Trey Benson.

Judging by our projections, it would seem that we concur with that assessment.

What about the quarterbacks?

Thursday night brought a little NFL Draft history, as six quarterbacks came off the board in the first round, matching the number of quarterbacks drafted in the legendary 1983 NFL Draft.

However, while that year saw the sixth quarterback — Dan Marino, for those wondering — come off the board at No. 27 (the penultimate pick in the first round) Bo Nix, the sixth QB picked on Thursday night, was drafted at No. 12 by the Denver Broncos.

There are a number of reasons why quarterbacks were pushed up the board this year: The sheer number of needy teams and questions about next year’s draft class top that list. But another reason might be the large gap between those six, and the next tier of passers. For example, according to Hasan’s Consensus Big Board QB7, Spencer Rattler, ranks 88th overall.

So while he might come off the board later tonight, we tend to think it will happen in the third round.

Two teams double-dip at OL

Two teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints, entered the 2024 NFL Draft looking to fortify their offensive lines.

As you can see above, we believe that leads both teams to double-dip at the position.

On Thursday night the Saints added offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga, OT, Oregon State, but here we have them also adding to the offensive line at No. 45, with guard Cooper Beebe from Kansas State. Then there are the Steelers, who we have selecting center Zach Frazier out of West Virginia after adding offensive tackle Troy Fautanu out of Washington.