Mel Kiper Jr. opens up on gap between Drake Maye, Marvin Harrison Jr. at No. 2 on big board

While USC quarterback Caleb Williams is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, who slots in at No. 2 is a much more fluid picture. And per ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr., it’s possible Ohio State wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. could be the No. 2 pick and not North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye.

In Kiper’s eyes, Harrison could be the best out and out actual player in the draft class, but positional values will have a quarterback likely going No. 1 overall. That same positional weight might end up seeing Maye ultimately taken in the No. 2 slot, but Kiper isn’t for sure that the No. 2 player on his Big Board — Harrison — won’t come off the board second come draft night.

“Definitely we could. I think you could make an argument that Marvin Harrison Jr. is the best player in the draft and certainly the best player in most drafts, but you have Caleb Williams there,” Kiper said on ESPN’s “First Draft” podcast.

Kiper actually expected Maye to have a better season than the quarterback did in 2023, and anticipated it could be two quarterbacks vying for the No. 1 slot. But after Maye had an up-and-down season in 2023, Kiper thinks there’s enough separation that the discussion is more about Maye vs. Harrison at No. 2 than if Maye goes No. 1.

“I really thought, Field [Yates], Drake Maye would challenge Caleb Williams, but it didn’t happen,” Kiper said. “And you go back to the NC State game, you go back to the Virginia game, the Clemson game. There were some missed throws, some missed opportunities, errant throws, some inaccurate throws, where there were no reason for, that shouldn’t happen. But he had a new coordinator, new receivers, so you gotta factor that in. He’s young. Age of Drake Maye, he’s 21, turns 22 in August, so he’ll be 21 when the draft takes place. All those factors make me give him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, but I do think it’s going to be interesting.”

It’s actually to the point where Kiper thinks the discussion between Maye and LSU’s Jayden Daniels for QB2 and QB3 might be more worthwhile.

And he also offered some logic as to why Williams remains the unimpeached No. 1 prospect.

“Outside of the Notre Dame game with the three picks — it was kind of the big hiccup in his year,” Kiper said. “Kind of the game you say, ‘Let’s throw it out.’ It’s one game, it was a bad game for Caleb against Notre Dame. Things didn’t go his way but overall the last two years, he’s been phenomenal. So he’s cemented at No. 1.”