Daniel Jeremiah held his annual conference call about the NFL Combine, and as usual, he shared some interesting insights on several prospects.
Earlier today, the NFL Network’s Lead Draft Analyst Analyst, Daniel Jeremiah, held his annual Conference Call with the media about the NFL Combine and the 2024 NFL Draft. He was asked questions about several prospects and the options some teams had in the draft, including the Chicago Bears.
If you want to read through the full transcript, you can check that out here.
The first question of the call was about the last few quarterback classes and how they compare to the consensus number one QB in this class, USC’s Caleb Williams.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Yeah. It’s a good question. It’s a good quarterback draft. Caleb to me is a top guy, and when you look at him specifically and his evaluation trying to stack him up with guys from the past, I think just talent, if we’re just looking at pure talent, you can put him up there with really any of the guys we’ve had just in terms of arm strength, athleticism, the creativity that he has, the play-making ability that he has.
Now, he is not as clean or as polished as some guys we have had over the last few years. Obviously Stroud was kind of ready-made and just came out there and hit the ground running. I think there’s still some more growth and some cleaning up to do with Caleb’s game, but talent-wise it’s pretty special.
I’ve made the comment about him, and you’re going to have Patrick Mahomes’ name come up. Look, you don’t want to compare somebody to the best player on the planet, but just in terms of how he kind of plays with the creativity and a little flare, and in all the different types of throws he can make in terms of driving the ball, layering the ball, extending plays, all those things, there are some similarities there. Pat needed some time to clean some things up and got a chance to sit for a year.
Obviously I don’t think Caleb is going to be afforded the same luxury in that department, but I think you can put a plan in place where you put more on his plate the longer that he goes. Mahomes’ situation at Texas Tech I thought was very similar to Caleb’s situation at USC. I think people have to get it out of their head comparing Caleb and having in your mind that this is like the Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush USC days. Those days are long gone. Pat’s last year in Texas Tech they were 128th in scoring defense. This year USC was 121st. He was constantly chasing points. I thought that led to some of the bad habits that creeped in a little bit this year. One of the numbers on him. The other one is he lost eight games at USC. They gave up an average of 43 points in those games. He was 12-0 when they managed to allow less than 34 points. So it’s tough to play quarterback when you are chasing points like that constantly.
Jeremiah was asked a Bears-specific question about what he thinks about the decision they have in front of them with the first overall pick.
Q. When you take into account the talent level with Caleb Williams that you already mentioned and then also factoring in the Bears’ somewhat unique situation with Fields on the roster, in your mind is there a clear-cut right or wrong thing there? Is that a tradeable pick? Is that not a tradeable pick because of the talent level of Caleb Williams? How does that sort of play out in your mind?
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Well, I’ll be careful with my words. I think I used the phrase “no-brainer” at one point in time, which maybe that was too strong. I lean heavily in favor of taking Caleb Williams. Unless you have got the offer of all offers, which is a combination of picks and players that it’s literally too good to turn down. It would have to blow me away to move off of that pick.
Again, same thing I said a minute ago. There aren’t perfect players. Caleb is not a perfect player. Caleb is going to require some patience and assembly there, but the ability is off the charts and what he can be is something that’s extremely exciting. I was talking to Orlovsky about this the other day. You see some of these young quarterbacks have a chance to transition and be successful, and part of the formula seems to be, hey, we’re not asking you to play quarterback every snap. In other words, let’s give you — we’re going to give you ten completions in the game where we’re going to get smoke screens. We’re going to get some regular screens, some shallow crosses, some stick routes. We’re going to bake in ten completions for you that’s going to be easy for you.
You’re not going to have to sit back there and really go deep and sort through things. Then I’m going to ask you to make five or so — four or five plays with just your ability. Go out there and create and make some things happen. Go run for a first down. Then you’re talking about seven or eight plays where you have to sit back there and really play quarterback and see coverage, work the progression, be on time, all those things. I think sometimes you look at the quarterbacks who failed. I think they’ve been thrown out there and like, hey, let’s throw the ball 40 times a game, and here’s you having to do that on a down in and down out basis.
I think you have to be smart of how you get him going and get him up and running, but I think the upside there, the tools there are pretty dang elite.
While I hear the argument of build up the whole roster and think about the whole team. I’m, like, yeah, I know one or two Super Bowls every ten years you’ll get a Nick Foles magic carpet ride with an unbelievable team. The rest of them seem to be won by Patrick Mahomes’ and Tom Brady’s of the world, the elite, elite guys. If you have a chance to go out there and get one of these guys who can be elite, I think you have to take your shot if you are the Bears.
Two popular names that many mock drafters have going to the Bears at nine overall are Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze, whom Jeremiah calls his favorite player in the whole draft, and LSU receiver Malik Nabers.
He was asked a question about the Cardinals’ options at four overall if Ohio State wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. was off the board, and Jeremiah said you could make a case that the top three highest-graded players in this draft are Harrison, Odunze, and Nabers. He said all three are outstanding and he believes they’ll all be number one receivers whereever they go.
Odunze will be close to 220 pounds. I think you’re going to see him run in the low 4.4s, and he has unbelievable tracking skills to go up and get it and combat catches, physical. If you are in Arizona and you see him, I think you’ll see similarities to Fitzgerald in terms of how he attacks the ball and goes and gets it.
And then Nabers is a stick of dynamite. He is super, super explosive. Just get the ball in his hands and let him go. I think there’s more to him in terms of a route runner. I think he’ll get more opportunities to show that at the next level, but he is ultra, ultra explosive.
He went a little deeper into his thoughts on why Odonze is his favorite player.
DANIEL JEREMIAH: Sure. I like big, fast, physical, smart, tough guys who can go play above the rim and who have some route polish to them. As a player I love what he has from a skill set standpoint. I think all of it translates. I think when you look at big games in the NFL, especially going to the postseason, I think some of that space disappears. You have to have guys who can win with bodies around them. He can do that. That’s not to say he can’t run. You’ll see it when he gets to the combine, he can run too.
There’s that side of it. I love there’s a bounce and an energy to him that I love. I love the fact that even though you might have to coach some of this out of him, he hates running out of bounds. You’ll see the competitiveness in him. When he is on the sideline, he tries to get everything he can get. He is a real, real competitive football player.
Some of the stuff that I hear talking to sources and connections up there is that the guy is incredibly bright. He is a great leader. He knows every spot on the — in the receiving room. He can play anywhere. He has been training with Ricky Proehl, and Proehl said he is as smart of a receiver as he has ever been around. Those things are great.
Even a little story from my buddy Brock up there, he told me that he is such a good kid. They had an event where they had a fishing tournament fundraiser thing that they did. So he met this fishing captain. Never fished a day in his life. He goes out there with this guy and has a good time and asked the fishing captain for his number afterwards. The fishing captain didn’t think anything of it. Whatever, this guy is never going to call me. Brock said that he ran into him months later, this fishing captain, and he said that Rome Odunze and him go out fishing all the time, and he is the nicest guy in the world, just a great dude. It’s almost too good to be true with everything I hear about this kid. I love the way that he plays.
Jeremiah also discusses the top offensive tackles in the class, Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, the other quarterbacks, what the Washington Commanders could do with the second overall pick, Oregon center Jackson Power-Johnson, the USC wideouts, what other teams could do, and so much more.
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