NFL mock draft 2024: 2 trades, 4 QBs in the top 5 — but not for the Patriots in a 2-round mock

As the 2024 NFL Draft inches nearer, silly season is upon us.

Case in point; new Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh’s team holds the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft. He doesn’t need a quarterback with Justin Herbert under contract. If there’s a world where the top four selections are all passers, it’s the world he wants to live in. But there are only three blue chip QBs in this year’s prospect pool.

Fortunately, Harbaugh has a wild card. His former, national title-winning quarterback at the University of Michigan J.J. McCarthy. If he talks McCarthy up enough and sends enough rumbles and rumors through back channels, maybe someone will make him a top four pick. We know he’s doing the former and we heard, unexpectedly-but-kinda-expectedly that the Washington Commanders may have interest in McCarthy with the second overall pick.

Thus, take everything you hear with a grain of salt, especially when it comes to the unexpected rise of quarterbacks this spring. We’ve see it before with guys like Mac Jones (15th overall pick), Will Levis (second round) and Malik Willis (third) in recent years. McCarthy may float to a pick that more closely reflects his college accomplishments rather than his pro potential, but there’s a reasonable chance the whispers we’re hearing are all nonsense.

On to the latest series of mock draft picks. Yes, I have McCarthy in the top five anyway.