When the Carolina Panthers made a blockbuster trade with the Chicago Bears centered around the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, many people assumed they did it with a specific player target in mind. Carolina’s brain trust has been coy about things, saying there were still multiple players they were considering. They even went as far as to say they could trade the pick again.
That would be unprecedented, and frankly, very unlikely. The Panthers traded for the No. 1 pick so that they would have their choice of quarterbacks in this year’s draft class. Which quarterback will that be?
Right now, the odds-on favorite according to David Purdum of ESPN is Bryce Young. The Alabama product is listed at -1400 odds at Caesars Sportsbook. But, his stranglehold on that spot has seemed to weaken as we approach the draft.
On Tuesday, there was a large number of bets placed on Kentucky quarterback Will Levis to be the No. 1 overall pick on Thursday night. Purdrum shared that his odds of being the first player selected went from 40-1 to 4-1 over at DraftKings.
What could cause such a drastic swing? Draft markets are always volatile as any tidbit of information can swing people’s opinions. Everyone makes mock drafts and predictions, so what stood out this time? It was a Reddit post that claimed Levis was “telling friends and family Carolina will in fact take him on Thursday.”
“Given the nature of the draft, we drastically cut the price based on this action and eventually came to a price where the bets stopped,” a DraftKings spokesperson told ESPN. “We are still seeing some small bets trickle through at the current price, but the speculation is all the action was off the back of a Reddit post.”
Earlier this week we heard that the Indianapolis Colts had set their sights on Levis as the player they wanted to select at No. 4. It would seem the report that surfaced weeks ago that Levis was plummeting because of poor interviews is no longer relevant as his stock is skyrocketing.
Gamblers are looking to get in on that action, as DraftKings isn’t the only book that took a lot of action on Levis. FanDeul and Caesars also took action, but no eye-popping amounts of money were wagered.
“There’s definitely been an uptick in the number of bets on Will Levis this morning, but no huge bets,” a Caesars spokesperson told ESPN.
This will certainly be something to keep an eye on with just over 24 hours until the 2023 NFL Draft gets underway. For weeks it looked like it would come down to Young or C.J. Stroud as the No. 1 pick for the Panthers, but Levis is looking to burst onto the scene with a late push.
