Detroit is on the clock for 2024 NFL draft: 6 names to know

With Saturday evening’s selection of Toledo defensive end Desjuan Johnson (who also starred at Detroit East English Village) at No. 259 by the Los Angeles Rams — aka "Mr. Irrelevant" — it became official: The 2023 NFL draft is over, and Detroit is on the clock for 2024.

Yes, the Motor City will be hosting the NFL’s premier offseason event on April 25-27, 2024, at various locations around downtown (but mostly Campus Martius and Hart Plaza, the only spots with enough room to host approximately 125,000 fans, assuming the turnout for Kansas City’s weekend party can be replicated).

And while April 25, 2024, is a long ways away — 362 days as of Saturday, to be exact — it’s never too early to start getting ready for the NFL draft. (Although perhaps a Detroit Lions team favored to win the NFC North for the first time will take our minds off it for a few months this fall.) With that in mind, here’s a few names to know ahead of next spring.

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The pundit: Mel Kiper Jr.

The O.G. of draft pundits, Kiper has been dishing out praise and put-downs to prospects on ESPN telecasts since 1984, meaning 2024 will be his 41st draft on the network. He’s not always right — he had Kentucky quarterback Will Levis projected as a top-five pick; Levis ended up in the top five … of the second round, when he went to the Tennessee Titans at No. 2 in the round and No. 33 overall — but he stands behind his picks.

One notable example: After the Indianapolis Colts passed on a QB with the No. 2 pick in 1994’s draft, Kiper ripped the franchise — and then-GM Bill Tobin — for sticking with Michigan’s own Jim Harbaugh under center. Tobin fired back with the eternally memorable, “Who the hell is Mel Kiper anyway?” Unfortunately for Tobin and the Colts, Kiper was partially correct, as Indy’s pick, Nebraska linebacker Trev Alberts, lasted just three seasons in the NFL (though that was due more to injuries than talent). The QB Kiper suggested, Trent Dilfer, did indeed go on to win a Super Bowl (with the 2000 Ravens), but he was hardly a franchise-changer. (Alberts, meanwhile, is now the athletic director at Nebraska, while Harbaugh, of course, is coaching at Michigan.)

The commish: Roger Goodell

The 2024 draft will be Goodell’s 18th as the emcee of the NFL draft after he was hired as the league’s commissioner in September 2006. His appearance in Detroit — assuming he gets an extension of his contract that expires in March 2024 — should revive a tradition we’re were used to seeing on the ice come June, back in the day: Booing the commissioner. But rather than raining boos on NHL commish Gary Bettman, it’ll be the NFL’s boss getting the good-natured ribbing.

He has even grown to encourage it, as he did back in 2017 when the draft was in Philly, telling the crowd, “Come on, Philly, come on. …” Don’t feel too bad for the commish as he’s getting booed, however: Goodell pulled in more than $120 million for two years of work from 2019-21.

The No. 1 pick: Caleb Williams

Williams followed coach Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to sunny Southern California and, yeah, it worked out OK: The Washington, D.C., native passed for 4,537 yards, 42 touchdowns and five interceptions in his first season at USC (though the Trojans’ return to respectability was derailed by losses in the Pac-12 title game to Utah and the Sugar Bowl to Tulane).

Along the way, he won the Heisman Trophy in a landslide — his 2,031 points were more than the next two players (TCU’s Max Duggan and OSU’s C.J. Stroud) combined. And while a couple decades ago, a Heisman win was far from a guarantee of NFL draft success — we see you, Joey Harrington — the past four QBs to win the award (Bryce Young, Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield) have all gone No. 1 overall. No wonder Williams is already a heavy betting favorite for No. 1: DraftKings put him at minus-500 (meaning you’d have to bet $500 to win $100). No other player has negative odds, and Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy is plus-8000 — a $100 bet would win $8,000.

The defenders: Storm Duck, Kool-Aid McKinstry

The draft is about getting to know new names and faces, and, well, some names just capture your imagination. These are two All-Americans in the name category, at least, as well as potential first-round talents.

Duck, a 6-foot, 205-pound cornerback is somehow on his third school in roughly five months; after earning second-team All-ACC honors as a senior at North Carolina last season — with three interceptions and nine passes defended — he transferred to Penn State in time for spring ball. And then, last week, he announced he was transferring again, back to the ACC and Louisville. How he didn’t end up with Oregon through all of that is, frankly, a mystery.

McKinstry, meanwhile, has been a bit more settled, as he’s entering his third season at Alabama after making the SEC’s All-Freshman team in 2021 and second-team AP All-American in 2022. Sadly, “Kool-Aid” isn’t his legal name — it’s actually Ga’Quincy — but merely a nickname handed down from his grandmother after he “came out smiling” at birth. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t paid off, though: McKinstry was the first Alabama player to sign an NIL deal, joining up with, yep, Kool-Aid. As he tweeted afterward, “Sooooo does this mean I get to shout OH YEAH if I want when I walk into a new room?”

The lineman: Olumuyiwa Fashanu

Every draft has its star offensive lineman who gets brought up as a franchise-builder after the star quarterback by those in the know. The Lions themselves landed 2021’s example, Penei Sewell, with the No. 7 pick; he’s paying off so far. In 2024, that stud on the line should be Penn State’s Fashanu. A 6-foot-6, 323-pounder from Waldorf, Maryland (just outside of Washington) who attended the same high school as USC’s Williams, Fashanu could have been a first-round pick in the 2023 draft, with some services ranking him as high as No. 8 in the class.

He instead opted to return to Happy Valley for another season, with a plan to get his degree in supply chain and information systems over the summer and then work on his masters as the Nittany Lions fight for a Big Ten East title (and maybe more): “The way we ended the season last year, with the Rose Bowl victory, and that being in a New Year’s Six bowl,” Fasanu told reporters in February. “I mean, that’s awesome, but, not only myself but everyone here right now, we know we can go much farther than that.”

Fashanu is still raw, with just eight starts at left tackle after an injury cut his 2022 season short, but he still made second-team All-Big Ten while not allowing a sack over 281 passing snaps. “He’s only played 600 snaps, but the thing about those 600 snaps is he’s played really well,” Penn State offensive line coach Phil Trautwein told The Athletic earlier this year. “If it’s 2,000 snaps total or whatever it is of him being consistent then he’s again probably going to be talked about as the No. 1 tackle in the draft.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2024 NFL draft coming to Detroit: 6 names to know