First-round NFL Draft picks who landed in the best and worst situations

Aside from the questionable decision-making from the Atlanta Falcons front office, there weren’t too many surprises during the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday.

There were plenty of teams that drafted for need and others that gambled on upside and potential. Here are three players who landed in the best situation and three who landed in the worst.

Best situation: Caleb Williams, QB, Chicago Bears

Williams could be coming into arguably the best situation a No. 1 pick ever has. He’ll have an excellent stable of running backs in D’Andre Swift, Khalil Herbert and Roschon Johnson, and he has arguably the best trio of wide receivers the Bears have ever had in D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen and No. 9 pick Rome Odunze. 

Not to mention he has two starting-caliber tight ends in Cole Kmet and Gerald Everett, plus a solid offensive line that features 2023 first-round pick Darnell Wright. Bears GM Ryan Poles has put Williams in the best position he can to succeed as a rookie.

Worst situation: Jayden Daniels, QB, Washington Commanders

Daniels may just be the most talented quarterback in this draft, but he’s going to be playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league. Washington surrendered the second-most sacks (65) in addition to 252 pressures and 177 hurries. 

The only upgrade the Commanders made on the O-line was adding center Tyler Biadasz from the Cowboys in free agency. It's not clear who Washington’s two tackles will be, but any combination of Sam Cosmi, Cornelius Lucas and Trent Scott isn’t a winning one. It’s a good thing Daniels is mobile and can throw on the run because he’ll be doing that a lot as a rookie.

Best situation: Byron Murphy II, DT, Seattle Seahawks

Under Mike Macdonald, the Baltimore Ravens defense was one of the top units in the NFL last season. Now, the first-year head coach gets to rebuild Seattle’s defense around a player who many considered to be the best defensive player in the draft. 

Murphy was a wrecking ball at Texas. He led the team with 45 pressures and 36 hurries, and he ranked second on the team with five sacks. 

At 6-foot-1 and 297 pounds, he’s also big enough to stuff running lanes and be the anchor of an intimidating defensive line that also features Dre’Mont Jones (6-foot-3, 281 pounds), Leonard Williams (6-foot-5, 300 pounds), Jarran Reed (6-foot-3, 306 pounds) and Johnathan Hankins (6-foot-2, 320 pounds). 

Worst situation: Michael Penix Jr., QB, Atlanta Falcons

Through no fault of his own, Penix Jr. went from being a player most were rooting for to go in the first round to becoming the most polarizing player of Thursday night. 

Many Falcons fans were enraged that the team used a top-10 pick on a mid-first-round talent at a position they didn’t need (Atlanta signed Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract in the offseason), making Penix Jr. the bad guy in the court of public opinion.

Aside from the extenuating circumstances, Penix Jr., who turns 24 next month, is facing the prospect of potentially sitting behind Cousins for a while and not starting until he’s 28. 

Sure, the Falcons had a decent supporting cast (RBs Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier, TE Kyle Pitts and WRs Drake London, Darnell Mooney and Rondale Moore), but in terms of seeing playing time, Penix Jr. got a raw deal.

Best situation: Xavier Worthy, WR, Kansas City Chiefs

While Rashee Rice’s legal issues are unfortunate, it also opened the door for the Chiefs to add the fastest player in the history of the NFL Combine and give Patrick Mahomes the game-breaking weapon he’s been missing since the team traded Tyreek Hill to Miami.

Worthy is a downfield threat with blazing speed who can burn defensive backs with just a few steps. Mahomes is the top QB in the league, and he’ll be even more dangerous with a home-run threat now in his arsenal. Rice saw 102 targets as a rookie last year; imagine the damage Worthy could do with a similar target share.

Worst situation: Tyler Guyton, OT, Dallas Cowboys

Not only are the Cowboys asking Guyton to switch from right to left tackle — a position he has only 74 offensive snaps at over the last four years — they also want him to replace Tyron Smith, an eight-time Pro Bowler and five-time All-Pro who was a member of the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team. 

That’s a lot of pressure to put on a rookie, especially one who has only two years of starting experience in college on the opposite side of the O-line.