NFL Draft betting: QB Will Levis has become a surprising favorite to go No. 2 overall
Through the offseason, the consensus has been that there are four quarterbacks above the rest. All four are expected to go early in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft on Thursday.
The consensus for the top three has been debated, but most rankings have Kentucky's Will Levis as the No. 4 quarterback in the class. But that doesn't matter if the Houston Texans — or a team interested in trading up to the second pick — believe otherwise.
The Texans, who have the second overall pick, have a need at quarterback. The surprise in the latest betting odds isn't that a quarterback is favored, but which one.
At BetMGM, Levis is the favorite to go with the second pick. His odds are -145, which isn't lock territory but he's far ahead of anyone else.
There is a lot of intrigue with the second pick. Including which team will make the pick.
Will Levis now favored to go 2nd
Bryce Young is a huge -2000 favorite to go with the first pick, and the Texans are up next. Earlier this past week, Alabama pass rusher Will Anderson Jr. was the favorite for the second pick, which was surprising because the Texans need a quarterback.
So do teams like the Indianapolis Colts, which have the fourth pick and could be looking to move up.
Levis is the favorite to go second, and strangely he's the favorite in the odds for the fourth pick too. Oddsmakers believe he'll be in the top four somewhere.
Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud is safer than Levis. Florida's Anthony Richardson is an unpolished prospect with great tools, like Levis, but has even better measurables than Levis.
Yet Levis is gaining steam before the draft. There's a fallacy that players are moving up or down draft boards at this time of year. Levis isn't moving up. Teams formed their opinions on him a while ago. If the odds are accurate — and the betting market isn't always the best way to decipher how the first few picks of the draft will go — we're just figuring out that Levis was higher on at least some draft boards than we knew.
Which team will take Levis?
If Levis is the second overall draft pick, it will be debated for a long time. Mostly because he has not been that high on media mock drafts.
There are concerns about Levis. He didn't ascend to starter status at Penn State and transferred to Kentucky. He didn't have a great final college season. He was inaccurate as a passer. A team that takes Levis will be figuring that he can have a Josh Allen career arc, turning his impressive physical talent into high-end NFL quarterback play.
The Colts have been linked to Levis, though teams often mask their true intentions. But that has to be a reason Levis is favored with the second pick (which could be by the Texans or after a trade) and the fourth pick, which the Colts own.
The draft is less than a week away. And the fluctuation in the odds tells us that we're probably nowhere near knowing how the first few picks will shake out.
