The 2024 NFL draft is here! The Chicago Bears are widely expected to select former USC quarterback Caleb Williams as the No. 1 overall pick. Excitement is building around many other prospects including Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Marvin Harrison Jr., J.J. McCarthy and Malik Nabers. Here are key facts to know about the event.
One element of any NFL draft that keeps us all on our toes is the possibility of a trade — or more accurately, several of them — in the first round.
The reality is that almost any team could make a trade on Day 1, but forecasting the more minor moves is hard to do; they are often the byproduct of how the board unfolds once the event begins. Last year, we saw 43 total trades over the three days of the draft (a record for the common draft era, per ESPN Stats & Information), and seven of them happened during Round 1. There were nine trades in the first round the year before, too.
So who could move around on Day 1 this time around? Let’s look at teams that would be logical trade-up or trade-down candidates and pick apart the calculus behind those possible moves. We’ll start with franchises that might move up and go in order of these teams’ current first-round draft slot.
The Giants have not hid their interest in considering a quarterback in this year’s draft — Daniel Jones struggled last season before tearing his ACL — but it’s far from a certainty that one of the top four passers will be there at pick No. 6. There are so many factors the Giants must consider if they are indeed intent on a QB in Round 1, not the least of which is the cost. It sounds steep, but I would imagine that if they engaged the Cardinals at No. 4, for instance, that Arizona would start things off by asking for a 2025 first-round pick to make the deal happen. That’s a lot to move up two spots but might be what it takes if New York wants a quarterback that badly.
Interestingly, only three times in the common draft era has a team traded into the top five for a QB on draft day, most recently the Bears for Mitchell Trubisky in 2017, per ESPN Stats & Information. And New York currently has six picks total this year, tied for the second fewest in the league.
