NFL Draft Watch: LSU QB Jayden Daniels on the rise, Blake Corum now RB1

Every week during the college football season, Yardbarker will post a brief look at 2024 NFL Draft prospects and how their play over the weekend either helped — or hurt — their draft stock. 

Jayden Daniels | QB | LSU | PFF big board: No. 7 QB, No. 48 overall

The 2024 quarterback conversation may start with USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye, but it certainly doesn’t end there. Sure, both are the prizes of the 2024 class, but whichever team drafts Daniels is also getting one heck of a signal caller.

In LSU’s 52-35 drubbing of Florida, Daniels had arguably his best game in five seasons as a college QB. He threw for 372 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another 234 yards and two scores as the Gators had no answer for him. 

The 6-foot-4 senior leads the nation in touchdown passes (30), and he ranks third in passing yards (3,164) and seventh in completion percentage (71.4). Daniels not only is in the mix to be the third quarterback drafted in April, he may just be a top-15 pick when it’s all said and done.

Terrion Arnold | CB | Alabama | PFF big board: No. 6 CB, No. 34 overall

Arnold began the year projected to be a Day 2 pick, somewhere in the mid-second to early-third round. But with the season he’s having, his draft stock is on the rise, and his performance against Kentucky on Saturday may have elevated him to the back of the first round.

Arnold totaled four tackles, a tackle for loss, an interception, a pass defensed and a forced fumble in the Crimson Tide’s 49-21 romp of the Wildcats while allowing five receptions on nine targets for just 38 yards. 

He leads Alabama in passes defensed (nine) and interceptions (three), and he’s allowed a completion percentage of just 56.1%. Kool Aid McKinstry gets most of the attention in Alabama’s defensive backfield, but Arnold may be a late-round steal for someone at the end of Round 1.

Blake Corum | RB | Michigan | PFF big board: No. 2 RB, No. 61 overall

With Texas’ Jonathon Brooks suffering a season-ending injury on Saturday, Corum did himself a favor with his performance in Michigan’s 24-15 win over No. 10 Penn State on Saturday. The 5-foot-8 senior rushed for a season-high 145 yards and two touchdowns in his best game November of last season before tearing his meniscus.

Of the players in contention to be the first running back off the board in April — a group that includes Notre Dame’s Audric Estime, Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson, Florida State’s Trey Benson and Wisconsin’s Braelon Allen (see below) — Corum did the most to help his case as the new emerging RB1.

Braelon Allen | RB | Wisconsin | PFF big board: No. 6 RB, No. 89 overall

Allen had only three carries for three yards and a reception for eight yards in Wisconsin’s 24-10 loss to Northwestern on Saturday before leaving the game with a leg injury that’s been bothering him since the end of October.

With Brooks likely returning to school next season, the No. 1 running back spot in the 2024 draft class is wide open and Allen missed a golden opportunity to launch himself to the forefront of that conversation. 

While it’s possible that no RB gets taken until Round 2, it’s likely Allen is looking at going in the third round.