The 2024 NFL draft came to a close on Saturday with 41 players from 11 of the ACC’s 14 current football playing members being taken during the 3-day extravaganza in downtown Detroit.

They’re all excited, blessed and thankful for the opportunity. And they’re all confident in their ability to help their new teams improve and win championships.

Accomplishing that goal will be tougher for some than others, depending on the situation they were drafted into.

Clemson’s run-stopping defensive end Ruke Orhorhoro, for instance, is going to have his work cut out for him if the Atlanta Falcons took him in the 2nd round with hopes of improving their anemic pass rush. Other new ACC draftees will start their professional careers with teams that are a much better fit for their skill sets and personalities.

Here are the 5 I think are the best:

DE Jared Verse and DT Braden Fiske, Los Angeles Rams

I loved Verse going to the Rams as soon as the pick was made at No. 19 overall in the 1st round Thursday night. They needed a disruptive force on the defensive line to replace the newly retired Aaron Donald and no one in college football has been as disruptive over the past 2 seasons as Verse.

But I love it even more now that LA has doubled down and taken Verse’s defensive line sidekick with the Seminoles. Fiske was the perfect complement to his All-American teammate in his 1 season at FSU after transferring from Western Michigan. Between them, they recorded 15 sacks, 21 tackles for loss and 16 quarterback hurries in leading the Seminoles to a 13-0 record and ACC championship.

They already have great chemistry, which should help speed up their adjustment and allow them to wreak havoc on NFL offenses the way they did in college.

LB Payton Wilson, Pittsburgh Steelers

Concerns about his health and durability helped drop Wilson, a 1st-round talent, into the 3rd round. But while that fall was disappointing and cost the Butkus and Bednarik Award winner plenty of guaranteed money, he should be thrilled about his selection by the Steelers.

Wilson is a quintessential Steelers-type player. He’s a throwback who plays, in his own estimation, as if his “hair is on fire” and aggressiveness that has evoked comparisons with Steel Curtain linebacking legend Jack Lambert.

He makes tackles by the dozen, runs down speedy receivers from behind and has a knack for being in the right place at just the right time. Especially when the game is on the line. Wilson is a high-energy playmaker who should fit like a glove in Mike Tomlin’s defense and become a fan favorite in blue-collar Pittsburgh. If he stays healthy, he’ll be the steal of this draft.

LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Philadelphia Eagles

Like Wilson, it took a lot longer than expected for Trotter’s name to finally come off the board. And like his former ACC Atlantic rival, the former Clemson star couldn’t have hand-picked a better team to end up with.

In his case, it’s more than just the Eagles’ style of play or their need at his position. It’s the fact that his father and namesake was also a linebacker who played 7 seasons in Philadelphia and is a member of the franchise’s Hall of Fame.

Trotter Jr.’s selection in the 5th round wasn’t some kind of legacy pick. His college resume includes 12 sacks, 28 tackles for loss and 4 interceptions over the past 2 seasons, stats that helped earn him back-to-back 2nd-team All-American selections. Before the draft Trotter Sr. said he would still root for his son if he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, even though he wouldn’t wear a jersey of the Eagles’ bitter rival.

After Saturday’s selection, it’s a conflict he won’t have to worry about.

WR Tez Walker, Baltimore Ravens

After all Walker went through just to get onto the field for North Carolina this season, it was a victory for him just to hear his name called in the draft. The fact that he was taken by the Baltimore Ravens in the 4th round turned out to be a bonus.

The former Tar Heels star, who sat out the 1st 4 games because of an eligibility battle with the NCAA, joins a team desperate to provide MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson with a full array of offensive weapons to help get them over the hump and into the Super Bowl.

Walker, with the speed to get downfield and the sure hands to make tough catches in traffic, gives Jackson and the Ravens an explosive deep-threat complement to star slot receiver – and fellow ACC product – Zay Flowers.

QB Jordan Travis, New York Jets

In the words of that great musical quarterback Mick Jagger, you can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need.

It’s the 1st thing that came to my mind the moment the Jets made Florida State’s star quarterback their 5th-round pick on Saturday.

Travis didn’t get what he wanted after suffering a broken leg that derailed both his and his team’s College Football Playoff hopes. The injury kept him out of the Senior Bowl and Combine, and almost certainly cost him several rounds in the draft. As a result of that disappointment, though, he may just have hobbled into the best situation of any quarterback taken after the 1st round.

Given his physical situation, he wasn’t going to be in a position to play right away no matter where or when he went. So why not go to a team where he can take his time rehabbing, be mentored by a future Hall of Famer and be groomed to take over whenever Aaron Rodgers decides it’s time to call it quits.

It’s always safer to draft a quarterback that you want rather than a quarterback you need. In that respect, Travis to the Jets is a win-win for both the player and the team.