The NFL Draft: First Round

On April 27, the NFL held its annual draft — its biggest event of the offseason — in Philadelphia. After two months of mock drafts and speculation of where the top college players in the country would end up, the wait was over.

Draft night is always entertaining, especially in the first round as many teams tend to trade up and trade down to get the player they want or collect picks for future drafts. There are always surprises or shockers, and sometimes one pick can change the direction of the entire draft.

This year’s draft was loaded with defensive talent, headlined by Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett. Many draft and scout experts believed Garrett was the consensus number one pick. The 2017 class lacked a star quarterback that usually headlines every class.

This year was no different as the number one pick belonged to the Cleveland Browns. As it got closer to the draft, rumors were going around by the media that the Browns were contemplating selecting a quarterback with first pick instead of Garrett.

The night started off with a ruckus crowd in Philadelphia that had a gameday atmosphere, not surprisingly booing like crazy when commissioner Roger Goodell kicked off the night.

Cleveland was on the clock and with a report coming out a couple of hours before the draft the Cleveland had settled on selecting Garrett. There was no surprise when the Browns selected Myles Garrett with the first pick.

After the first pick was over that’s when things got interesting as the San Francisco 49ers were on the clock. The 49ers managed to pull off one of the steals in the draft as they traded their second pick to the Chicago Bears who owned the spot behind them in return they received third overall pick, third round pick, and fourth round pick and 2018 third pick.

The Bears traded up to select the first QB in the draft Mitchell Trubisky and the 49ers still got Solomon Thomas from Stanford University. Selections 4-9 came with not many surprises until the Buffalo Bills were on the clock with pick number 10 and traded their pick to Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs traded up 17 spots to come up to number 10 and you only do that for a QB.

That’s exactly what they did as they drafted QB Patrick Mahomes from Texas Tech.

Once Trubisky and Mahomes were off the board the Houston Texans felt they needed to trade up the first round to get their guy before he was gone. Houston traded up from pick 25 to number 12 with the Cleveland Browns to select Deshaun Watson QB from Clemson.

It wouldn’t be a draft without a top prospect tumbling down the first round and without a team making a questionable decision. This year head scratching decision belonged to the Oakland Raiders with the number 24 pick in the first round drafted cornerback Gareon Conley from Ohio State. The reason this is a really head scratcher pick is  because Conley is currently under rape allegations.

Linebacker Ruben Foster from Alabama is the player that fell far beyond many expected. Many thought Foster would be a top 5 pick this year, shoulder injuries and a diluted drug test was the cause of Foster’s fall all the way to the end of the first round. San Francisco 49ers who had extra ammunition from their trade from the Bears and traded back into the first round with the Seahawks to select Foster.

Other notable selections included Stanford stand out Christian McCaffery to Carolina Panthers, and the Los Angeles Chargers drafting Mike Williams from Clemson with the seventh pick giving Phillip Rivers another weapon.

The Browns got their quarterback DeShone Kizer in the Second round. Bengals known for taking chances with troubled players it’s no surprise when they drafted running back Joe Mixon. JJ Watts younger brother TJ. Watt was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers at number 30 overall

With the draft now over we’ll just have to eagerly await the start of the 2017 season to see what these prospects actually bring to their teams. Left to wonder if we’ll have another Dak Prescott this season.
Can McCaffery or Leonard Fournette do anything close to what Ezekiel Elliott did as a rookie last year. One thing is for sure we wont have to hear about another mock draft till next February.