Every year banners go up around downtown Indianapolis with pictures of the draft class’s biggest prospects ahead of the scouting combine. One year, it was Jadeveon Clowney; a few years later, it was Myles Garrett—the sort of create-a-player types who embody, maybe even more so than the headlining quarterbacks, what this particular week in the Midwest is about.
But in 2023? Good luck finding them.
“I think one of the themes is there’s a lot of exceptions in this draft, like undersized players or guys that don’t check every box,” said NFL Network draft analyst and former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah early Sunday morning. “There’s a boatload of intriguing players, but there are very few Patrick Surtains, Sauce Gardners, Trevor Lawrences, Joe Burrows. There’s just not the slam-dunk guys that I thought we’ve had over the last few years.”
So if you’re a drive-by fan of draft season, this isn’t the year for you.
If you, on the other hand, are a hard-core fan who loves the intrigue and uncertainty of it all, then buckle up—because 2023 will have plenty of that.
This week, we’re doing our annual precombine draft-class primer to get you ready for the two months ahead, with help from my buddies Daniel Jeremiah and Todd McShay, ESPN’s chief draft analyst, as well as scouts from across the NFL. I love this time of year because of how it brings together the college and pro games, and because these things affect every team at some level. And this year there’s a lot to chew on, for sure.
It won’t be about how great one prospect is. Instead, it will be about how everyone is looking for answers: on Bryce Young’s size, Jalen Carter’s makeup, Will Anderson Jr.’s ceiling, Tyree Wilson’s room for development, Peter Skoronski’s best position. On Anthony Richardson, well, in general.
It’s all going to make for a really interesting run-up to late April in Kansas City.
“Thank goodness, we have some good quarterbacks,” McShay said Sunday afternoon. “There’s Will Anderson, Jalen Carter, Tyree, and after that …”
After that, again, more questions.
With the help of DJ and McShay, we’ll try to bring you some answers here this morning.
