NFL Draft Fan Survey: How Optimistic is Your Franchise's Fanbase in 2024?

Look away, Panthers, Broncos and Browns fans …

With the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit edging ever closer, you'll find varying levels of optimism throughout the NFL's 32 franchise fanbases. Here at Sportsbook Review, we crunched the numbers to find out which fanbases are the most and least hopeful ahead of the draft this week, and compared those results to our optimism survey from last year's draft.

We surveyed 2,000+ ardent football fans across North America and asked them to score their level of draft optimism for their respective franchises out of 10.

Most Pessimistic NFL Fanbases

(Source: Sportsbook Review survey)

Everything is finer than the mood in Carolina

You could probably forgive Carolina fans for hitting rock-bottom heading into the 2024 Draft.

Less than 365 days after brimming with optimism over having the No. 1 overall pick, they've landed with a thud at the bottom of our 2024 confidence survey, scoring just 4.75 out of 10. It's easy to see why: Not only did the Panthers watch (possible) future franchise QB Bryce Young get thoroughly outplayed by No. 2 pick C.J. Stroud, Carolina finished with the NFL's worst record but had surrendered its 2024 first-rounder in a 2023 trade with Chicago.

(More on the Bears shortly.)

With Denver general manager George Paton recently ranked dead last in an NFL.com list of the top GMs in the league, it's no surprise that the Broncos also find themselves among the five most pessimistic fanbases with a 5.05 optimism score. Denver has ranked in the bottom-four in draft optimism in each of the first two years of the Sportsbook Review survey.

The Browns ranking third-last on this list isn't all that surprising when you consider the franchise's spotty history, and the team is coming off what most experts consider to be a hum-drum showing in 2023. Shockingly, this is actually one spot higher than the Browns found themselves prior to that draft. (Being a Browns fan really is rough.)

The Giants continue the trend of down-bad franchises with pessimistic NFL fanbases, ranking fourth-lowest in confidence at 5.59 – a 13-spot drop from their 2023 showing. New York actually owns the sixth overall pick in this week's draft, but after finishing 27th in NFL.com's 2023 Draft Class rankings, fans are in full-on "show-us" mode.

The Dallas Cowboys round out the top 5, with supporters of The Star likely still surly from last year's unceremonious playoff exit at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers. It certainly doesn't help that the Cowboys had a positively ugly 2023 based on rookie-year contributions, with only five of their eight picks seeing the field.

Most Optimistic NFL Fanbases

Bears Fans Wild For Williams

The NFL is just a better league when the Chicago Bears are good – and after years of struggles, they might finally be on the path back to their glory days.

Bears fans are certainly optimistic about the team's draft fortunes, securing the No. 1 spot in our confidence survey with a whopping 7.28 score out of 10. Having the first pick helps – and there's little doubt that standout quarterback Caleb Williams is the guy – but Chicago also has its own pick, slotted in at No. 9.

The next two teams are no strangers to the top end of this list. The Lions sit second in the confidence rankings at 7.21, two spots up from their 2023 finish. Detroit has drafted seven players who have made at least one Pro Bowl over the past four seasons, earning a huge amount of goodwill from its long-tortured but finally-rewarded fanbase.

The reigning Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs take the third spot on this list, and that's actually down one from 2023. The Chiefs haven't exactly dominated recent drafts – having selected just two Pro Bowlers since 2018 – but when you win three NFL titles over that same span, you could probably draft Olympic ice dancers and be given a pass.

Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco comes in next on the list, rising nine spots from 2023. Perhaps 49ers fans are hopeful that their beloved football franchise will turn quantity into quality; San Francisco has 10 picks in the 2024 draft, including four in the third round.

The Steelers round out the top five on the optimistic side of the ledger, coming in exactly where they were last year. Pittsburgh actually owns the distinction of seeing the smallest difference in year-over-year scores, with a 6.71 in 2023 and a 6.72 this year.

Biggest Movers

We've addressed just how dramatically Carolina plummeted, but the Panthers weren't the only team to see a major dip in draft confidence.

The New York Jets (down 18 spots) and Jacksonville Jaguars (down 17) saw the biggest drop among AFC teams; the Jets have just one pick in the first 71 selections, while the Jaguars have eight picks this week but have drafted just one Pro Bowl participant (Trevor Lawrence) in the past four years.

The Houston Texans were the biggest risers on the "most optimistic" side, rising a whopping 17 spots. Perhaps Texans fans are just warming to a regime that turned the No. 2 and No. 3 picks in 2023 into Offensive Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud and Defensive Rookie of the Year Will Anderson.

The Bears (up 14 spots), Miami Dolphins (up 13) and Las Vegas Raiders (up 12) were the only other franchise to see double-digit rises. The Raiders' move is particularly significant, as Vegas fans were the most pessimistic in the league last pre-draft season.

Methodology: We surveyed 2,005 NFL fans in both the United States and Canada and asked them to score their optimism rating on their NFL team drafting, out of 10.

Follow-Up: We’ll be surveying the same demographic above after the draft to determine how the NFL Draft has impacted fans’ optimism on their team for the upcoming season.