What’s the right 2024 NFL Draft strategy? | Zero Blitz
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and Mike Golic Jr. of “GoJo & Golic" discuss what NFL franchises should be looking for in this year’s draft. Hear the full conversation on the “Zero Blitz”podcast and subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
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JASON FITZ: What do you do when you are just screwed at the quarterback position? And one of the arguments I've always made is just because you need a quarterback doesn't mean you desperately reach for one. You have to be patient. You have to build your whole roster. I'm a big believer in the power of the 53, not the power of 1, all of these different things.
But I feel torn this year because at some point you got to go all in. And it might mean you're trading up for somebody that isn't worth trading up for. But you can't trust it it's just going to come to you. So if you're a team like the Raiders and you're picking 11th or 12th or wherever it ends up being, you're team like the Broncos that's picking 13th or 14th, do you have to essentially say, all right, that's just the cost of doing business. I feel like this year's draft, to your point, you're going to have to overpay to move up to take somebody that probably shouldn't have gone to the end of the first round or you're just never going to get a quarterback.
MIKE GOLIC JR: The thing with this year's draft, and I was talking with someone about this the other day, is you're rich in a lot of resources that are incredibly valuable in the NFL. We've talked about quarterback and wide receiver. This is an insane offensive tackle class that you're going to be talking about at the top of the draft this year. And so if you're a team that's looking to build the other 53, and especially hit cornerstone pieces like that pass rusher, quarterback, pass protector, those are all the things that you usually try and build a roster around, drawing a line from the quarterback through what affects him most.
And if you've got that opportunity-- because it all comes down to we know the way these teams scout. You're always working on a spectrum. You have an eye on who are the quarterbacks potentially coming out next year, who are the free agents available to us next year versus this year, and how do we do that? And if you wind up having and saying, you know what, we see in Jayden Daniels and how he fits into our organization, we can't pass that up. We've got to have that guy because based on how we view him versus how we view the trajectory for any of the quarterbacks going back next year or the free agent class coming up next year, we can't do that. There's no price that you can't pay to get your guy if you believe it's your guy.
But if you're on the fence about it-- this is where I always think about the Dan Orlovsky line is you get in trouble when you pay good players great player money. And you can apply that to the draft and giving up big time draft capital for a player that's not worth it there, especially this year when you have a bunch of pretty talented pass rushers, but definitely you have an insane amount of quality pass protectors in this draft that you could stockpile there to start to build the landing spot for your quarterback of the future whenever it comes.
JASON FITZ: My favorite team has a bad offensive line. I genuinely believe there are not 32 capable starting left tackles in the NFL. So if you have the chance to get a left tackle or a right tackle, go get a damn left tackle or right tackle. They are so hard to find. And I believe that. But man, you can't go into next season with Jarrett Stidham as your quarterback. You can't go into next season with Aidan O'Connell as your quarterback. You just can't do that.