Winners and losers on first blush from opening round … First impression of who did well at a draft and who didn’t often don’t age well with time, but its hard not to look back at last night’s proceedings and not come away thinking that Houston and Philadelphia may have stolen the show. The Texans, in particular, who have been floundering for years, may have finally righted the ship with the picks of QB CJ Stroud at #2 and DE Will Anderson at #3. And the move to get back up to the top of the board to take Williams, arguably the best ‘clean’ non-QB prospect available this year was the boldest move of the night and gives the Texans young leaders on both sides of the ball.
Meanwhile, there is no truth to the rumor that the Eagles are planning on changing their nickname to the Bulldogs of the North or some such after Howie Roseman and company selected two more former stars of Georgia’s fearsome two-time national championship defense. They moved up one spot to snare DT Jalen Carter, who had been considered to be possibly the best player in this draft, with the 9th pick, and then grabbed explosive edge rusher Nolan Smith when he fell in their laps at #30. Now to be fair, both guys were only available to the Eagles because of issues. Carter, of course, dropped after he plead no contest to a couple of driving offenses that stemmed from an accident in which two people were killed, while there were clearly some lingering questions about Smith’s health after he suffered a shoulder injury last fall. still, if those two guys end up healthy and willing to play, it will simply be a case of the rich getting richer in Philadelphia.
The other team we thought had a quietly very productive night was Seattle, which sat tight with its two picks but still came home with former Illinois CB Devin Witherspoon and Ohio State DE Jaxon Smith-Njigba, both of whom were considered to be the best prospects at their respective positions. and while there are 25 or so NFL GMs proclaiming this morning that ‘we couldn’t believe the guy was there’ it may well be true in the case of Las Vegas, who ended up with rising DE Tyree Wilson with the 7th pick, while New England had to be thrilled to get Oregon Christian Gonzlaez, a top 10 prospect, with the 17th pick.
At the other end of the spectrum, we still don’t quite understand Arizona trading up to the 6th pick from #12 (after trading down from the 3rd pick) to select Ohio State OT Paris Johnson. Maybe trade back up to get Texas Tech’s Tyree Wilson, who would have filled a huge hole in their defense, but there was a good chance Johnson would have still been there at the 12th pick, and if he wasn’t there were going to be players of near equal value at that position. There’s a reason the Cardinals are being talked about as the worst team in the league right now!
And we really hope RB Jahmyr Gibbs and LB Jack Campbell turn into really good players in Detroit. However, neither guy was rated anywhere near where they were selected at #s 12 and 18 respectively, and with 3 2nd round picks one would think that one or both would have still been available to the Lions at some point today. Plus neither position is considered to be real high value in the opening round. Meanwhile, the Eagles very good night may have gotten even better when Dallas their main NFC rival had another rather uninspiring draft. The Cowboys had made noises about adding some speed and explosiveness at either WR or TE to better compete with the likes of Philadelphia. but ended up with a run-stuffing DT in Michigan’s Mazi Smith, who is a nice player but is likely never ever going to catch Jalen Hurts or even Daniel Jones for that matter. Several other teams including Chicago at #10 (OT Darnell Wright), the NY Jets at #15 (DE Will McDonald), Tampa Bay at #19 (DT Calijah Kancey) and Jacksonville at #27 (OT Anton Harrison) each took players who weren’t rated quite that highly, but in the first three cases at least there is a lot of upside to the guys they took.
