DRAFT RECAP

Will Levis was projected top-5 by virtually every major analyst — Kiper had him at #2 to the Colts, Jeremiah at #4. He did not get picked until the second round. Every analyst who placed him in Round 1 took a miss. The group-think around Levis was the single biggest collective failure of the 2023 cycle.

The Colts took Anthony Richardson 4th overall, not Will Levis. Nearly every analyst had Levis to Indy. Richardson was mostly projected 5th–15th. The swap completely cascaded the QB order for anyone who had Levis early.

Bijan Robinson at #8 (ATL) and Jahmyr Gibbs at #12 (DET) — no analyst had both going that high. Robinson going top-10 was on some boards but far from consensus. Gibbs at #12 was a near-universal miss.

Jeremiah nailed 6 exact hits — the best of any major analyst. He correctly called Young (#1 CAR), Stroud (#2 HOU), Anderson to HOU at #3 (via trade), Robinson to ATL (#8), Witherspoon to SEA (#5 via DEN), and Forbes to WAS (#16). His NFL scouting background showed.

Brugler was the only major analyst to correctly project Houston trading up from #12 to #3 for Will Anderson Jr. He called the HOU/ARI trade — one of the draft defining moves — accurately. That is elite source-work, even if the QB order around it was off.

By his own admission and independent analysis, Kiper had his worst-ever final mock in 2023 — just 1 exact hit (Young to CAR). His Levis evangelism and multi-trade scenarios meant errors cascaded through his entire board. A wake-up call about overconfidence in single QB narratives.