ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. makes the case for LSU QB Jayden Daniels at No. 2 overall in Mock Draft 1.0

With the college football season already coming to an end and the NFL getting closer to its finish line, the attention now starts to shift to the 2024 NFL Draft, which kicks off on April 25. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. is clearly ready for the draft, dropping his first Mock Draft of the offseason with the release of Mock Draft 1.0 on Tuesday morning.

The vast majority of evaluators project USC quarterback Caleb Williams to be selected No. 1 overall with North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye being selected right behind him with the No. 2 pick. But not Kiper.

Kiper instead forecasts LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels being selected No. 2 overall by the Washington Commanders, explaining his rationale on ESPN’s ‘Get Up’ Tuesday morning to host Mike Greenberg.

“He was remarkable, and I went to Herm Edwards. Herm compares him to Randall Cunningham, I know Lamar Jackson comps are gonna be out there, but Herm said he’s Randall Cunningham. I’ll take that,” Kiper said.

“I think the dual-threat ability Greeny to what he did this year and last year. The great thing about Jayden is he is aggressive with his legs, he’s aggressive with his arm, but he doesn’t turn the ball over and to strike that balance is really rare and really impressive to me,” Kiper explained. “And I think when you look at Jayden Daniels, the way he can attack a defense, the fear factor player he is, defensive coordinators don’t want to have to scheme to try to handle this guy.”

Daniels had a dazzling 2023 season, taking home the Heisman Trophy after throwing for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdown passes with just four interceptions while also rushing for 1,134 yards and 10 scores.

Daniels had the best season of his college career by a long shot, showing improvement in his second year with the Tigers after spending the first three seasons of his career at Arizona State. Meanwhile, Maye took a step back last season after an impressive redshirt freshman year that had some believing he could compete for the top pick in the draft ahead of 2023.

“And Drake Maye didn’t have that super, unbelievable season that he needed to have. He had some struggles against Virginia, NC State, a couple games where he’s throwing some picks, not really making precise and accurate throws that you gotta make,” Kiper said. “But Drake also had a new coordinator, he didn’t have Josh Downs, didn’t have Tez Walker early in the year, so you can excuse away some things.”

Maye threw for 4,321 yards and 38 touchdowns in 2022, but just 3,608 yards and 24 touchdowns. Also throwing a few more interceptions and rushing for 250 fewer yards after being the Tar Heels’ leading rusher in 2022.

He also lost his two top wide receivers to the NFL Draft last offseason along with his offensive coordinator. While Daniels got a second season under offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and had two 1,000-yard wide receivers that Kiper projects being selected within the first 15 picks in his mock draft along with Daniels.

With that said, Kiper is still a believer in Maye at large, and it will be surely interesting to see evaluators continue to compare the two ahead of the draft with Williams seemingly being a lock for the No. 1 overall pick.

“Bottom line is I’m not gonna hate on Drake Maye, I really like Drake Maye. But you’re talking about the second overall pick right now, I think Jayden Daniels right now has the edge going into this whole draft process leading up to late April.