Todd McShay: Why Dallas Turner projects as a top-five pick in the 2024 NFL Draft

The 2023 NFL Draft just ended and with that, the 2024 NFL Draft cycle has begun. Next year, just like this one, there are several top-tier quarterbacks expected to go high in the first round. However, they’re not alone, as ESPN’s Todd McShay is already projecting Alabama edge rusher Dallas Turner to go in the first-round pick.

McShay explained why he, for now, has Turner going fourth overall in his way-too-early 2024 mock draft.

“Turner is going to take over this Crimson Tide defense next season after Anderson graduated to the NFL,” McShay wrote. “He’s undersized at 240 pounds, but he’s quick and bendy off the edge.”

In his mock draft, Todd McShay predicts that Dallas Turner is going to be the first defensive player taken in the draft, behind Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Marvin Harrison Jr. Of course, this could change depending on the actual order of the draft.

CBS Sports agreed about Dallas Turner’s potential in its mock draft, predicting he’ll go eighth overall.

“Turner has 12.5 sacks and 17 tackles for loss over two seasons despite starting only 12 of the 28 games he appeared in. And he has at least 25 pressures in each of those years. Tennessee brought in Arden Key, but Harold Landry III is coming off an ACL tear and Denico Autry is playing on the final year of his contract.”

Dallas Turner will likely receive comparisons to Will Anderson, fair or not, throughout this process. In particular, he’ll have to prove that he can still produce as an edge rusher without Will Anderson to take up double teams.

On top of that, Turner is dealing with his own injury, having missed spring due to surgery.

Will Anderson on the future of Alabama’s pass rush

Will Anderson is going to go down as one of the best pass rushers in the history of the Alabama Crimson Tide. It would be easy to expect the team’s pass rusher to get worse now that he’s gone. However, Anderson thinks the pass rusher led by Dallas Turner is in a good place.

“Oh yeah I’m super excited, I was happy, I think this game was just one of the games where you just go out there and have fun for real, just smile all the time. That’s the thing, we just wanted to go out there and rush and have fun,” Anderson said.

“Dallas Turner, Chris Braswell, Keon [Keeley], the dude that they just recruited, Quandarrius Robinson, Jeremiah [Alexander], all of those guys are super talented, super good, I’m super excited to see what the future holds for all of them. They’re all gonna be really good and I can’t wait to see what they do next year.”