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The NFL is all about quarterbacks. Every single year we talk about how you can't win without one and if you're going to be great, you better have one. Cliches abound. But it was REAL apparent on Thursday night when the league tied a record for most quarterbacks taken in the first round (six) and did it in the first 12 picks of the 2024 NFL Draft.

Just wild stuff to see live, but it was exacerbated by the Falcons freaking everyone out and then the Broncos' weird decision looking totally normal.

Time will tell how this plays out for the six teams who drafted first-round quarterbacks -- coaching matters, as does the personnel around them, but there will be busts. There will likely be home runs too. 

Whatever happens, we will always remember the 2024 draft for the insane run of quarterbacks up top. It produced a ton of winners and losers so let's break them down.

Winners

Caleb Williams

You'd think whoever is chosen as the No. 1 pick is a winner because you're the top guy in the draft. But being the top guy comes with, usually, playing for an awful football team. The Bears are a different story, though. Chicago is arguably the best situation for a No. 1 overall pick in NFL Draft history, thanks in large part to the Panthers gift-wrapping the top pick this year. Chicago looks like a much better landing spot than most normal teams picking first overall, adding D.J. Moore in the trade with Carolina, grabbing Darnell Wright with one of the picks they got from Carolina and then using their own ninth overall pick this year to snag Rome Odunze. Oh, and Chicago also traded for Keenan Allen this offseason. That's a sick wideout corps and there's an improving offensive line, plus a good offensive coordinator in Shane Waldron. The bar is very low for the Bears and quarterbacks but Williams is set up much better than any of his predecessors. 

J.J. McCarthy/Vikings

Highly rumored to end up going third overall to the Patriots, you could make a case for the former Michigan quarterback losing because he almost fell out of the top 10 in the draft. However, I'll push the bull case here -- the Vikings, with Kevin O'Connell coaching and Justin Jefferson on the roster, are a much better landing spot. Go to New England and you find yourself, a Michigan alum, the second guy trying to do the impossible and replace Tom Brady. Instead he's just got to replace Kirk Cousins (more on him later) in Minnesota and gets to do it with a coaching staff that nearly made a playoff run with four different quarterbacks starting last year. McCarthy *wins* wherever he goes, just like his old coach, and he's got a pretty great setup to play right away and potentially win. I'm including the Vikings here too because they were able to get McCarthy without trading away their second first-round pick or next year's first-round pick (they did give up a lot of 2025 draft capital for what it's worth), but they also snagged Dallas Turner with their second selection in the first round. Quite the haul for Minnesota. 

Kyler Murray

The Cardinals have been extremely trade happy under Monti Ossenfort, so it would have hardly been surprising if they were willing to swap out of the No. 4 spot and move down to acquire more picks. I still think they would have if they'd been offered enough, but it's clear teams weren't willing to pay the price to move up and as a result the Cardinals stood pat, took Marvin Harrison Jr., and theoretically picked up their new version of Larry Fitzgerald. Kyler Murray's been getting the support of the team publicly all offseason, as people wondered if a new regime might move on. It's clearly not the case and the Cards leaned into it on Thursday night by adding Harrison to a wide receiver room that was sorely lacking in talent. 

Daniel Jones

Like it or not, Daniel Jones is the quarterback for the Giants in 2024. Many people expected New York might trade up and grab another signal-caller or simply draft one at sixth overall if someone fell. Three viable candidates were available when the Giants picked and instead they went with Malik Nabers, the explosive playmaker out of LSU. This is by far the best weapon Jones has had since the Giants drafted him with the sixth overall pick in 2019, a full five years ago. He got a massive contract following a really strong 2022 season but last year was a disappointment. With Nabers in tow, it's possible we see a bounceback from Jones, assuming he can get healthy to start the season. 

Losers

Kirk Cousins

Let's be clear: Kirk Cousins is still starting for the Falcons in 2024, assuming he's healthy. And Kirk Cousins just got paid $100 million. Kirk Cousins has two fully guaranteed years on his deal in Atlanta, despite coming off a midseason and late-stage-of-his-career torn Achilles in 2023. But it's not insane to be a little miffed if you're Cousins after watching the Falcons draft Michael Penix Jr., with the eighth overall pick on Thursday. And it turns out, Cousins was pretty surprised! 

You can easily make a case the Falcons are fine taking a quarterback with that pick given Cousins is coming off the injury, his age and the desire to set the team up for the long haul. But Penix might be 28 by the time he starts for Atlanta, assuming Capt. Kirk is healthy. That's a top-10 pick on a guy who had an over/under of 32.5 for his draft slot until the day of the draft when it dropped to 21.5. I'm not saying it's a bad pick -- if he's a good quarterback it's a great move. But it's perplexing when combined with the Cousins signing and will certainly be a focal point of some controversy for the next few weeks.

Bo Nix

It's almost impossible to fathom Nix going as a top 15 pick just a few years ago, but he reinvented himself when he bounced to Oregon in the transfer portal and exploded with a monster season. Now he's the presumptive Broncos starter ... made only more insane by the fact he's once again sharing a QB room with Jarrett Stidham. Auburn 2019 all over again! Nix could end up being awesome and I'm always hesitant to question Sean Payton, because I believe he's one of the best offensive minds of the last 20 years. But drafting Nix at 12 is wild! I can't help but think back to 2011, when a slew of stud NFL players -- future Hall of Famers -- were drafted below the likes of Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder. The Broncos are gobbling dead cap space thanks to the Russell Wilson disaster, they're short on draft capital and they're in a really difficult division. Payton got a free pass for last year but if Nix isn't great out of the gate people will start asking questions. For Nix, getting to work with Payton is huge but the expectations are freaking massive now. 

Panthers

This feels unfair because the Panthers have served their time on the whole "giving up the first overall pick" thing but there's a bunch of different reasons to beat on them a little bit more here. For starters, we're one pick -- a 2025 second-round selection -- away from knowing what they swapped with the Bears in totality. And it's shaping up to be an all-time bad move. Right now the Panthers have given up Caleb Williams, Darnell Wright, Tyrique Stevenson and D.J. Moore for Bryce Young. That's bad enough. But then you see Carolina trade up from the first pick in the second round to the last pick in the first round for a wide receiver (the Bills traded out, they were the competition right?!?). Xavier Legette is a very nice pick and the Panthers got Bryce another weapon. That's good. But they shouldn't be trading up in any circumstances during a draft where they gave away the first overall pick. Also, this apparently happened in Charlotte today (or this week):

Dilworth's is a FANTASTIC Charlotte establishment. And they're not wrong with the sign. Tepper popping his head in to complain is the sort of bizarre thing that he has no business doing. Take a picture with it while you're walking with Dan Morgan and tweet it out ironically, Dave. C'mon!