The 2023 NFL draft is scheduled to begin this Thursday in Kansas City. As always, there’s a lot of anticipation and speculation regarding the first overall draft pick. Industry insiders and sportsbooks alike seem to think that the smart money is on Alabama quarterback Bryce Young.
Currently, the Carolina Panthers will have the first pick in the 2023 draft, thanks to a trade with the Chicago Bears. Let’s break down the markets available for this year’s NFL draft odds favorite.
Current Bryce Young odds for NFL draft
First pick: -20000 / Second pick: +5000
According to odds from DraftKings Sportsbook, quarterback Bryce Young is far and away the favorite to go first in the 2023 NFL draft. Those odds have fluctuated with an anonymous Reddit post suggesting Will Levis would go first. But as of Wednesday morning, the odds are pointing more in favor that Young is the most likely choice.
Young won the Heisman Trophy at Alabama in 2021 and came into this past season as a favorite to repeat before ultimately finishing sixth in the voting. In January, Young declared his intention to forego his senior season at Alabama in order to enter the 2023 NFL draft. Right away, he was a likely top-five pick and began to seem like a more probable top draft choice after the Panthers traded their way into the first overall pick.
The Panthers finished 7-10 last season with Andy Dalton as their starting quarterback for most of the year. The team reportedly had not settled on a top selection when it traded multiple draft picks in this and two future drafts, along with receiver DJ Moore, to acquire the top pick.
Still, conventional wisdom held that the Panthers would use that spot to draft a quarterback, and Young has reportedly impressed in meetings with the coaching staff and in metrics like the S2 cognition test. The primary concern teams have expressed about Young is his size. At just five feet, 10 inches, Young is on the short side for an NFL quarterback. Then again, it was only four years ago that quarterback Kyler Murray, who’s also listed at the same height, went first overall in the 2019 draft to the Arizona Cardinals.
Other Bryce Young odds
Odds in this section are from DraftKings Sportsbook. These odds may have changed since this article has last been updated.
- Second quarterback in the draft: +1500
- Third quarterback in the draft: +4000
- Total quarterbacks drafted in the first round: Over 4.5, -110; under 4.5, -120
- Total SEC players drafted in the first round: Under 11.5, -215; over 11.5, +170
Top 2 quarterback picks — exact order with Bryce Young odds
Order for the 2023 NFL draft
After finishing with the worst record in the NFL at 3-14, the Chicago Bears began with the top draft pick for 2023. Chicago general manager Ryan Poles made little secret of his intention to trade that pick to the highest bidder, as the Bears committed to sticking with quarterback Justin Fields.
There were reportedly multiple suitors for the top pick, but Chicago ultimately made a deal with Carolina for four total draft picks and Moore. The current draft order for the top of the first round of the 2023 NFL draft looks like this:
- Carolina Panthers (acquired from Chicago Bears)
- Houston Texans
- Arizona Cardinals
- Indianapolis Colts
- Seattle Seahawks (acquired from Denver Broncos)
- Detroit Lions (acquired from Los Angeles Rams)
- Las Vegas Raiders
- Atlanta Falcons
- Chicago Bears (acquired from Carolina Panthers)
- Philadelphia Eagles (acquired from New Orleans Saints)
