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Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Most Social Media Growth of 2024 NFL Draft Prospects
Now that the 2024 NFL Draft has come and gone, hundreds of pro prospects are officially settling into life as a professional athlete, which comes with a surge of popularity in players’ new hometowns. That surge allows certain draft prospects to gain an awful lot of social media clout in a short timeframe, with a handful of first round picks seeing the biggest bump in terms of follower counts after the seven-round event concluded.
Utilizing the personal Instagram accounts of each player selected during the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, we were able to secure the growth of each prospects’ social media from Wednesday, April 24th to Monday April 29th over the course of the draft weekend.
An early takeaway? The New England Patriots' fanbase is ready for Drake Maye.
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Top 10 Social Media Followers Added By NFL Draft Prospects
*rounded to nearest whole number
The top movers when it came to sheer volume of social media followers after this year’s draft were a pair of top end quarterbacks, in New England Patriots (and former UNC Tar Heel) QB Drake Maye (+110,200 followers) and Chicago Bears (and former USC Trojan) QB Caleb Williams (+87,000 followers).
Throw in first-round pick Xavier Worthy of the Kansas City Chiefs (+85,000 followers), San Francisco 49ers first-round pick Ricky Pearsall (+80,300 followers) and Bears wideout Rome Odunze (+76,100 followers) and you have the top five from this year’s draft class.
Rounding out the list in 2024 were quarterback J.J. McCarthy of the Minnesota Vikings (+65,000 followers), Malik Nabers of the New York Giants and Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos (+58,000 followers each), while Quinyon Mitchell of the Philadelphia Eagles (+56,400 followers) and Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels (+45,000 followers) rounded out the top 10.
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Top 10 Social Media Percentage Growth By NFL Draft Prospects
*rounded to nearest whole number
When broken down by percentage growth in Instagram follower counts after the draft, Pittsburgh Steelers draftee Troy Fautanu gained the most ground, with a 655% increase in followers after the weekend’s event in Detroit.
Throw in Mitchell of the Eagles (+613.04%), Jordan Morgan of the Green Bay Packers (+433.39%), Tyler Guyton of the Dallas Cowboys (+357.14%) and Graham Barton of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+169.44%) and you have the top end of the movers in this year’s draft, social media follower wise.
The rest of the chart includes Taliese Fuaga of the New Orleans Saints (+153.77%), Odunze (+120.99%), Pearsall (+116.89%), Maye (+115.03%) and Laiatu Latu of the Indianapolis Colts (+112.00%), illustrating how much of an impact getting drafted can have on one’s clout on Instagram.
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USA Today photo by Eric Canha.
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