2024 Road to the Draft – Part 7
February 27, 2023
By Noonefromtampa
Updates
The NFL Combine begins this week, and if you’re excited to see potential quarterback prospects that the Commanders might draft throwing the ball around, well, it’s not going to happen. The big three (Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels) will only throw at their school Pro Days after the Combine. If you love to watch huge men run around in essentially their underwear (and I know some of you do), the NFL Network will have coverage starting 3 P.M. on Thursday (DL/LB) and Friday (DB/TE) plus starting 1 P.M. on Saturday (QB, RB, WR) and Sunday (OL).
Draft Data
The mock draft count is 203 this week, up 16 from last week. The Commanders will have the 2nd overall pick in the first round.
Here is the freshness distribution of the mock draft data:
| Age | Age % | Count of Age |
| New | 22.39% | 45 |
| 1 Week Old | 17.91% | 36 |
| 2 Weeks Old | 19.90% | 40 |
| 3 Weeks Old | 8.96% | 18 |
| 4 Weeks Old | 6.47% | 13 |
| 5 Weeks Old | 6.97% | 14 |
| 6 Weeks Old | 9.45% | 19 |
| 7 Weeks Old | 5.47% | 11 |
| 8 Weeks Old | 1.49% | 3 |
| 9 Weeks Old | 1.00% | 2 |
| Grand Total | 100.00% | 201 |
60% of the mock picks were generated with the last two weeks which makes the data content fresh.
The position picked by descending frequency is:
| Position | Picked Count | Picked % | Last Week % | % Change |
| QB | 188 | 92.61% | 93.05% | -0.44% |
| OT | 10 | 4.93% | 4.28% | 0.65% |
| WR | 3 | 1.48% | 1.60% | -0.13% |
| Edge | 1 | 0.49% | 0.53% | -0.04% |
| TE | 1 | 0.49% | 0.53% | -0.04% |
| CB | 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 | 203 | 100% |
Offensive tackle was the bigger gaining this week moving up 0.65%.
The players mock picked to the Commanders at the 2nd pick are in descending frequency:
| Player | Position | School | Picked Count | Picked % |
| Drake Maye | QB | North Carolina | 114 | 56.16% |
| Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU | 46 | 22.66% |
| Caleb Williams | QB | USC | 28 | 13.79% |
| Joe Alt | OT | Notre Dame | 6 | 2.96% |
| Olumuyiwa Fashanu | OT | Penn State | 4 | 1.97% |
| Marvin Harrison Jr. | WR | Ohio State | 3 | 1.48% |
| Brock Bowers | TE | Georgia | 1 | 0.49% |
| Laiatu Latu | Edge | UCLA | 1 | 0.49% |
| Grand Total | 203 | 100.00% |
Jayden Daniels held steady this week in the 22% range, still in second place, ahead of Caleb Williams.
Thoughts
The NFL recently announced that the salary cap will jump over $30M for the 2024 season. While this mostly positive for Washington, which will have one of the highest available free cap space numbers across the league, it may also enable teams who were previously constrained be able to sign an additional player that they otherwise would have had to allow leave in free agency. Also, players and their agents are being informed of upcoming franchise or transition tags that will be coming soon. So, people hoping to sign Tee Higgins are going to be disappointed.
Free agency will probably have the biggest impact on three position groups in the draft for Washington, offensive line, linebackers, and edge rushers. The ability to address the deficits in these areas will afford the Commanders more flexibility on draft day.
Sources: nflmockdraftdatabase.com, nfldraftbuzz.com, overthecap.com, sports-reference.com
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