Top 10 Best Draft Picks Of 2024

As we continue the process of putting a bow on the 2024 season, weโ€™ve been taking a look back at the past year here at NFL Trade Rumors, breaking down the top ten best roster moves of the season and the top ten worst.

Bucky Irving

Today itโ€™s time to look at the draft. Itโ€™s far too early to sound the panic alarm on any particular rookie who may have struggled in 2024, so we wonโ€™t be doing a look at the worst picks. However, Year 1 success is a very strong indicator of a playerโ€™s outlook and several teams look like theyโ€™ve already found gold.  

Hereโ€™s a look at the ten best draft picks of the 2024 season: 

10 – Buccaneers drafted RB Bucky Irving No. 125 overall

Tampa Bay took the shifty Irving in the fourth round to pair with incumbent RB Rachaad White in the backfield. However, by the end of the year it was Irving who was the lead back and White the complement. The rookie brought a much-needed explosive element as both a runner and receiver to the Buccaneersโ€™ backfield, but it was his ability to run so much bigger than his size that really set him apart. At 5-10 and 195 pounds, Irving was credited with 62 forced missed tackles by PFF, and the service charted him with an average of 3.93 yards per carry after contact โ€” the best mark of any back in football. 

Pretty great return for a fourth-round pick. 

9 – Raiders drafted TE Brock Bowers No. 13 overall

Las Vegas didnโ€™t have to do any extraordinary digging to unearth Bowers, who was obviously going to be a star dating back to his freshman year at Georgia. Still, they got him all the way down at pick 13, so some credit should go to GM Tom Telesco. Bowers was every bit as good as advertised. He finished his rookie year with 112 receptions for 1,194 yards and five touchdowns, finally breaking the rookie tight end receiving yards record that Mike Ditka held for over 60 years. Bowers also broke the record for most receptions by a rookie. 

8 – Ravens drafted RT Roger Rosengarten No. 62 overall

Baltimore replaced three of its five offensive line starters this past offseason, which is no easy task. Yet the unit has still been a massive part of the Ravensโ€™ success thanks in big part to nailing the pick of Rosengarten. The rookie has been eased in at right tackle, starting 14 of 17 games and playing 84 percent of the snaps in a platoon with veteran OL Patrick Mekari. But as the season got on, Rosengarten cemented his hold on the job. He was No. 2 among all tackles in ESPNโ€™s run block win rate. PFF graded him as the No. 44 overall tackle which is a quality debut. 

7 – Steelers drafted C Zach Frazier No. 51 overall

Frazier was part of Pittsburghโ€™s emphasis on rebuilding the offensive line this offseason and so far is looking like a home run for an organization that has a long history of quality centers. In 15 starts, Frazier was the No. 17 interior offensive lineman in ESPNโ€™s pass block win rate at 95 percent. PFF graded him as the fifth-best center in all of football. There might be questions at other positions in Pittsburgh, but center certainly isnโ€™t one of them. 

6 – Broncos drafted QB Bo Nix No. 12 overall

If all the quarterbacks in last yearโ€™s draft class were flavors of ice cream, Nix would have been just plain vanilla. It was hard to find a lot of people really excited about him as a prospect despite his solid, jack-of-all-trades skillset. When Denver took him as the sixth quarterback off the board, a lot of people thought it was a desperation pick. 

Turns out, a quarterback who can do a lot of things competently ends up being a pretty solid and underrated quarterback. Nix took a couple of games to find his groove but settled in to lead an upstart Broncos team to a 10-7 record and a playoff berth while accounting for 34 total touchdowns. A strong case can be made that he was the second-best rookie passer this year. The fit with Broncos HC Sean Payton was perfect and Payton deserves a ton of credit for mining a quality quarterback for Denver out of a tough situation. 

5 – Eagles drafted CBs Quinyon Mitchell & Cooper DeJean No. 22 and No. 40 overall

Iโ€™m squeezing in an extra pick here because these two players really should be viewed in tandem. The Eagles had one of the worst secondaries in football in 2023 and needed to do a major revamping of the unit. Mitchell and DeJean were their biggest outside additions. Now Philadelphia is No. 1 in the NFL in total defense, No. 2 in scoring defense and No. 1 in passing defense โ€” thanks in big part to the two rookies. 

Mitchell has been outstanding as the boundary corner opposite veteran CB Darius Slay, allowing less than 55 percent of the passes thrown in his direction to be completed. DeJean had a slower start as he recovered from some injuries in the summer but after a month or so, he was also a fixture in the starting lineup as the nickel corner. His run support has stood out in particular but DeJean has been a quality all-around player with three tackles for loss, half a sack, a forced fumble and six pass breakups. Neither player picked off a pass in the regular season (Mitchell got one in the wildcard win over the Packers) but both look like bright pieces of the future. 

4 – Jaguars drafted WR Brian Thomas Jr. No. 23 overall

Just the selection of Thomas alone would have been enough to get the Jaguars on this list. The fourth receiver off the board in a year where three were top-ten selections, Thomas outperformed everyone picked ahead of him with 87 catches, 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns while appearing in all 17 games. He looked like a real deal No. 1 receiver, with size, speed and a better-than-advertised route tree. 

The gravy on top is that Jacksonville got Thomas after trading down, swapping picks with the Vikings to slide six spots in exchange for a fifth in 2024 and third and fourth-round picks in 2025. It was outstanding value, and this move is honestly likely one of the reasons why the Jaguars havenโ€™t fired GM Trent Baalke

3 – Rams drafted DE Jared Verse No. 19 overall

Los Angeles made Verse the fourth defensive player off the board back in April, and now he seems poised to win Defensive Rookie of the Year after helping lead a revival of the Ramsโ€™ defense. The unit is still young and thereโ€™s progress still to be made but the trajectory of Verse and the defense as a whole over the course of the season has everyone in Los Angeles feeling optimistic. 

As for Verse, his stats donโ€™t jump off the page with 4.5 sacks, 11 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. But as often happens, sacks donโ€™t tell the whole story. Verse ranked 14th in the NFL in pass rush win rate at 18 percent per ESPN, and PFF charted him with 84 total pressures which tied for first place in the entire NFL. Not only has Verse been the best rookie defender, heโ€™s been one of the best edge rushers in the NFL, period. 

2 – Chargers drafted WR Ladd McConkey No. 34 overall

There was a big debate pre-draft about whether the Chargers were making a mistake by taking OT Joe Alt ahead of the top three receivers. After Los Angeles did indeed take Alt, who was exactly as skilled as advertised as a rookie, Chargers GM Joe Hortiz reminded fans that there were other receivers in the class. He backed that up by hitting a home run with the McConkey selection. 

McConkey had no issues sliding in almost from the jump as the Chargersโ€™ top pass catcher. He finished his rookie year with 82 receptions, 1,149 yards and seven touchdowns, better than almost any other rookie wideout including plenty who were drafted before him. McConkeyโ€™s sterling playoff performance (nine catches, 197 yards and a touchdown) both put a fine point on how well the Chargers did in identifying him as the pick at the top of the second round and how much work they still need to do to shore up the rest of their receiving corps. 

1 – Commanders drafted QB Jayden Daniels No. 2 overall

Most rookie quarterbacks get judged on a curve. For as promising as Nixโ€™s rookie campaign was, he was 18th in the league in adjusted net yards per attempt, 19th in total QBR and 20th in EPA per play/CPOE composite. Basically, he played like a slightly below-average quarterback over the course of the full season compared to his peers. 

No such adjustment is necessary for Daniels. In those same metrics, Daniels was 14th, fourth and eighth, as well as fifth in overall PFF grade. He completed 69 percent of his pass attempts for 3,568 yards, 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions while adding 891 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. In other words, he was a top-ten quarterback statistically from the jump. Factor in how he elevated a Washington team that no one expected to be competitive into 12 wins and a playoff win, and itโ€™s easy to see how Daniels is running away with Offensive Rookie of the Year. Washington has a star, and it shouldnโ€™t be controversial to say Daniels would go No. 1 if the draft were held today.

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