2024 Road to the Draft – Part 14
April 19, 2023
By Noonefromtampa
Draft Time
We are now less than a week before the draft. Well, the pick is in from the mock draft experts and the Washington Commanders, with their first selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, select Jayden Daniels, quarterback from LSU.
Daniels rose from third place with just 8.43% of the selections in my first draft article back in January to first place with almost 53% of the selections.
Now, we just have to wait for the real event next Thursday to see if that really happens. Maybe Adam Peters has a big surprise in store for Commanders fans.
Draft Data
The mock draft count is 361 this week, up 37 from last week. The Commanders will have the 2nd overall pick in the first round.
The freshness distribution of the mock draft data is that 53% of the mocks tracked have updated in the last three weeks.
The position picked by descending frequency is:
| Position | Picked Count | Picked % | Last Week % | % Change |
| QB | 348 | 96.40% | 95.99% | 0.41% |
| OT | 7 | 1.94% | 2.16% | -0.22% |
| Edge | 3 | 0.83% | 0.93% | -0.09% |
| WR | 3 | 0.83% | 0.93% | -0.09% |
| CB | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| TE | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| IOL | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| DL | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| LB | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| RB | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| S | 0 | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Grand Total | 361 | 100% |
The players mock picked to the Commanders at the 2nd pick are, in descending frequency:
| Player | Position | School | Picked Count | Picked % |
| Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU | 192 | 53.19% |
| Drake Maye | QB | North Carolina | 127 | 34.90% |
| Caleb Williams | QB | USC | 17 | 4.71% |
| J.J. McCarthy | QB | Michigan | 13 | 3.60% |
| Joe Alt | OT | Notre Dame | 5 | 1.39% |
| Marvin Harrison Jr. | WR | Ohio State | 3 | 0.83% |
| Olumuyiwa Fashanu | OT | Penn State | 2 | 0.55% |
| Dallas Turner | Edge | Alabama | 2 | 0.55% |
| Laiatu Latu | Edge | UCLA | 1 | 0.28% |
| Grand Total | 361 | 100.00% |
This week Jayden Daniels moved over 18% ahead of Drake Maye, his largest lead of draft season.
Accurate Mockers and Famous Dudes
| Site | Author | Player | Position | School |
| CBS Sports | Chris Trapasso | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| CBS Sports | Ryan Wilson | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| Draft Countdown | Shane Hallam | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| ESPN | Mel Kiper | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| NFL.com | Daniel Jeremiah | Drake Maye | QB | North Carolina |
| NFL.com | Lance Zierlein | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| San Diego Union Tribune | Eddie Brown | Drake Maye | QB | North Carolina |
| Sharp Football Analysis | Brendan Donahue | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| Sharp Football Analysis | Ryan McCrystal | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| Sporting News | Vinne Iyer | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| Sporting News | Tyler Forness | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| The Athletic | Ben Standig | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
| The Athletic | Dane Brugler | Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU |
Brendan Donahue, Eddie Brown, Shane Hallam, Ben Standig, and Lance Zierlein have been some of the more accurate mockers over the last five years. On the other hand, you have Mel Kiper; he still has hair.
Next week on draft day, we will have the official Noone Mock Draft to lead into the real draft.
As always, I hope you had some fun reading these columns and they will return next year. Maybe we will have a lower round one draft pick to argue over. Who knows…
Sources: nflmockdraftdatabase.com, nfldraftbuzz.com, overthecap.com, sports-reference.com