Two Years Later, The 2024 QB Class Still Won't Sit Still: Who Really Won the Lottery?

You know what I love about football? It's the one sport where you can't hide. You can make excuses about a lot of things, but when you're a quarterback in the National Football League, the tape tells the story. Two years ago, we had one of the most fascinating quarterback drafts in recent memory, and everybody and their brother had an opinion about who should go first overall. Now we've got some actual evidence, some real football to evaluate, and let me tell you, this is where it gets interesting. Because a redraft two years later isn't just about who threw the most touchdowns or had the highest completion percentage. It's about which of these young men actually made their teams better, which ones showed you something special, and which ones have you wondering if maybe you missed something on that first evaluation.

Let's start with the baseline here, because this matters. When Caleb Williams walked up to that podium in New York, he was the consensus number one overall pick. The Chicago Bears owned that pick, and if you remember anything about that draft night, you remember the energy around Caleb. Here was a guy who had won the Heisman Trophy, who had been the story of college football, who had movie star looks and the arm talent to match. The Bears had been searching for that franchise quarterback for what felt like forever, and a lot of people figured they'd finally found their guy. That's the expectation when you're the first overall pick in a historic quarterback class. You're not just supposed to be good. You're supposed to be the answer.

But here's the thing about the National Football League that nobody in college fully prepares you for, no matter how many film sessions you watch. The speed of the game is different. The complexity of defenses is different. The margin for error is completely different. When you're a young quarterback in the NFL, every mistake you make gets magnified about a thousand times because you're playing against the best defensive minds on the planet. These aren't college coaches scheming against you. These are guys who have forgotten more about football than most coordinators will ever learn. That's the environment Caleb stepped into, and it hasn't been all sunshine and roses, has it?

Now let's talk about Jayden Daniels, because this kid has been something special to watch. The Washington Commanders made a move to get to number two, and they were looking for their own franchise quarterback. Jayden came in with tremendous athleticism, great size, arm strength that jumps off the tape. He also came in with a humility about him, a willingness to learn and compete that showed up immediately. In his rookie season, Jayden showed flashes that made you think, "Yeah, this guy is going to be really good." He had moments where you saw the poise, the decision making, the ability to extend plays and make something happen when the structure broke down. Those are the things you can't teach, my friend. That's just football intelligence and competitive fire.

Then you've got Drake Maye, and this is where it gets really interesting because Drake was available at number three for the New England Patriots, and there was legitimate debate about whether he should even be in this conversation. Some people thought he should go number one. Some people thought maybe you wait on a quarterback in that draft. But Drake came into the NFL with all the tools you could possibly ask for. The arm angle is tremendous. The mobility is elite. The size is perfect for the position. And the most important thing, the thing that really matters when you're evaluating quarterbacks, is that he competes like crazy. You can see it in his eyes. You can see it in the way he goes about his business. That's something you either have or you don't, and Drake Maye has got it in spades.

So here's where the redraft conversation gets spicy. If you're redrafting this class today, two years in, what are you actually looking for? Are you looking for the guy with the highest ceiling? Are you looking for the guy who's given you the most to like right now? Are you looking for the guy who fits best with your roster and your coaching staff and your offensive system? Because here's the truth that nobody wants to say out loud but everybody knows: sometimes the most talented guy in the draft doesn't turn into the best player because of circumstances, because of coaching, because of the offense he's in, because of a thousand different variables that have nothing to do with how talented he actually is.

Caleb Williams is still incredibly talented. He's got that arm that can make throws from different platforms, that can fit balls into tight windows, that can make plays off-schedule. But the Chicago Bears have asked him to do a lot of heavy lifting early in his career, and sometimes the supporting cast around him hasn't been at the level you'd want for a young quarterback trying to find his footing. That's not entirely his fault, and it's not entirely the Bears' fault either. It's just the reality of a team in transition. Some of those interceptions he's thrown, some of those decisions that have looked off? That's going to happen with any young quarterback. The question is whether he's learning from them and moving forward, or whether there's something deeper there about processing information or decision-making under pressure.

Jayden Daniels, though, he's had something working differently. The Commanders have given him some weapons, some structure, some coaching that's allowed him to operate in a rhythm. When you watch Jayden play, you see a guy who's operating with some confidence, who's making his reads, who's getting the ball to his playmakers in rhythm. That doesn't mean he's always perfect, because nobody is in their second year in the NFL. But there's something about his trajectory that feels different. There's a calmness there that you don't always see in young quarterbacks, especially in their first year or two.

Drake Maye has been working with one of the most respected coaching minds in football in Bill Belichick's regime, and even though the Patriots have struggled as a team, you watch Drake and you see a young man who's constantly improving, constantly learning, who's embracing the process. He's had his share of struggles, sure, but the way he's handled adversity, the way he's stayed engaged and committed to getting better, that matters. That matters a lot when you're trying to figure out who your franchise quarterback is going to be.

Here's what I keep coming back to, and this is the thing that makes this redraft conversation so fascinating: football is not a video game where you can sim forward and see what happens. It's a game of growth, development, opportunity, and sometimes just plain old luck. The quarterback who's the most talented on day one is not always the quarterback who becomes the best player by year five or year ten. Sometimes the guy who's got a little bit of that competitive chip on his shoulder, who's landed in the right situation, who's been around good coaching and good people, that's the guy who ends up leading a Super Bowl championship.

When you look at the 2024 draft class redraft conversation, you're not just looking at which guy threw for the most yards or which guy had the best completion percentage in year two. You're looking at which guy showed you growth, which guy showed you the ability to handle adversity, which guy showed you that he understands what it takes to be a starting quarterback in this league. That's bigger than one year. That's bigger than even two years. That's about trajectory, and trajectory is everything in this game.

For fans of the teams that made these picks, this matters more than you might think. It matters because your quarterback's success or failure is going to determine whether you're watching playoff football in January or whether you're golfing in April. It matters because when you've got a young quarterback under a rookie contract, you've got a window of opportunity where you can build a winning team around him before his salary eats up your cap space. It matters because being a fan is about believing in your guys and rooting for them to succeed, and there's nothing better than watching a young quarterback grow into his role and become the face of your franchise.

This redraft conversation isn't really about who should have gone first. It's about who's become the best player, and that's still being written. That's the beautiful thing about football. The story isn't over yet.