Craig Hoffman's scouting report on the Top 4 quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL Draft

There are nearly two weeks before the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft gets underway and we expect quarterbacks to be among the first three – and possibly four – picks of the opening round.

Craig Hoffman provides an in-depth scouting report on the top four QB prospects, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and potential fit with various teams. He also offers his insights into each player's skillset and how it translates to the professional level.

We start with Caleb Williams, the USC passer is "going to go No. 1 overall because he should go No. 1 overall," Hoffman said. "Is the best creator in this draft and would be the best creator in any draft that Patrick Mahomes is not in. Can throw from any arm angle, the pros of that are he can do that. The cons of that are, he has a bit of a tendency to do that too often."

Drake Maye was the next QB discussed and he has the prototypical size – 6-foot-4 – and "just a tank in the pocket" and he has a "howitzer of an arm, can throw the ball all over the place," Hoffman added. "That [arm strength] is offset by a tiny bit, a little bit of an elongated and slower release. The mental side of of the game is very interesting, the offense he ran at North Carolina is critically panned, aka it was donkey do-do. Just a lot of reads that don't translate to the NFL level."

And his distrust in some of the offense and the line translated into some "flawed" footwork. "His footwork is very inconsistent," Hoffman said, "When it's right he fires lazers. He has some really, really bad misses on occasion."

Conclusion on the Tar Heel passer: Raw materials are good – plus he is an elite, elite scrambler – and the upside is there, but can you fix the footwork and mechanical issues?

That transitions to Jayden Daniels, the Heisman Trophy winner last year out of LSU: "Unbelievable senior year," Hoffman said, of the 40 touchdown to four interception year. "Now he doesn't have quite the arm strength of the other guys we're talking about here... he has a very good arm, more than adaquate and he does use that arm tremendously well when it comes to the deep ball. It might seem like conflicting information, but we're talking about velocity and zip compared to loft and touch."

Daniels is an "elite runner," and has shown tremendous speed running away from defenders with multiple long touchdowns. But he is not a good scrambler – somebody who ran to throw. He ran to run, Hoffman said.

There is a lack NFL throws on his tape and he struggled with throws over the middle, but there is a comfortability at throwing outside the numbers and is a very experienced player as he spent five seasons in college.

The quick scouting report on Michigan's JJ McCarthy: He appears very coachable after winning the national title with Jim Harbaugh, he has a really good arm and he's got really good mobility, but he was not asked to do a lot in college. The stuff he did do will translate to the NFL and there's no gigantic red flag outside of a lack of evidence that he can layer throws which is important, but that's something that could come with a higher throw volume, Hoffman said.

After getting into all of that, Hoffman turned the program over to Washington fans to have their say. Listen to that below: