Carolina Panthers Week 15 win makes NFL Draft order way more interesting
The Carolina Panthers won in Week 15 of the 2023 NFL Season, which makes the top of the 2024 NFL Draft order much more interesting. I promise you that no player on a losing team cares about draft pick status, and that was clear with the Panthers' players on Sunday. They took down the Atlanta Falcons in an ugly, low-scoring game in bad weather.
Honestly, on a side note, this is a horrid, horrid loss for the Falcons and Arthur Smith. This team has decent talent, but they don't have a franchise QB in the building which is hurting their team greatly. Anyway, the Panthers came into this game with just one win, but they left with two! Carolina still possesses the worst record in the NFL, but instead of having the worst record in the NFL by two games, it's down to one.
And those three-win teams are the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals, who pick second and third overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, respectively. All of a sudden, the 2024 NFL Draft gets more interesting. The Bears own the Panthers first-round pick, so the draft order currently sees the Bears picking first, Patriots picking second, and the Cardinals picking third.
There's also no guarantee that Chicago would take a QB with that pick, and no guarantee that the Cardinals would use their pick on a QB because of Kyler Murray. It is very likely that the Patriots would take a QB, but right now, the race has gotten much more tighter for that top pick, which would likely be used to take USC quarterback Caleb Williams.
The Panthers end their season facing the Packers, Jaguars, and Buccaneers.
The Patriots end their season facing the Broncos, Bills, and Jets.
The Cardinals end their season facing the Bears, Eagles, and Seahawks.
It doesn't seem likely to me that the Patriots or Cardinals end up picking first overall, as I think the Panthers lose out and the Pats and Cards both have one winnable game left on their schedules. However, this does seem like a very uncertain year at the top of the 2024 NFL Draft.