1) It was a bad year to need to draft a young quarterback and it's been a long time since a crop of passers looked this weak.
Only one quarterback was selected in the opening round as Pittsburgh selected hometown product, Kenny Pickett.
Perhaps it was the local aspect that tipped the Steelers hand but Pittsburgh now is committed to a quarterback that threw more touchdowns in his senior season than his previous three combined and did it in a weak (ACC) conference.
I'm not saying I believe that Pickett is a guaranteed bust but Pittsburgh has certainly taken a gamble.
2) Former Browns executive Sashi Brown certainly made his template for drafting clear in his first draft in Baltimore.
Baltimore traded their top receiver in Hollywood Brown and their third-rounder to Arizona for the Cardinals first-rounder, traded down again with Buffalo, and yet I still like both of the players that the Ravens wound up with in Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton and Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum.
Brown's issue in Cleveland wasn't always his constant desire to move up and down the draft, it was his lack of evaluating talent.
Perhaps if Brown leaves that to someone else, Baltimore might still have a chance under his reign.
3) As for the other team in the division, the defending AFC champion Bengals, they came away with a player that should help them immediately with the selection of safety Daxton Hill of Michigan.
Hill can cover (he played some corner in college) yet he is the type of ball coverage safety that the Bengals could use with Jessie Bates as more of a strong safety type.
4) New Orleans and Washington have been two teams that seem to draft Ohio State players often and it made all the sense in the world that New Orleans and Washington would make a trade that resulted in Ohio State wide receiver Chris Olave as a Saint.
The Saints traded their third and fourth rounders to Washington to trade up but Olave is the safest bet in this draft at the deepest position.
Olave reminds me a lot of the player that he will be operating opposite of in New Orleans- former Buckeye Michael Thomas.
5) I'm not sure what the Atlanta Falcons are thinking but using their top pick (8th) on USC wide receiver Drake London does make me wonder.
London has great size (6'3) but London injured an ankle that ended his season and while London's speed isn't bad for his size, he's not a burner either and I wonder how much that will affect London.
I know the Falcons passing game badly needed a receiver with the absence of Calvin Ridley but all things considered Garrett Wilson or Chris Olave would have been far safer and despite his knee injury, Jameson Williams would have given Atlanta the electric deep threat that would have been worth gambling on.
6) I wonder about the number of trade-ups for players that didn't seem to make sense.
Detroit certainly needed a talent like Jameson Williams but it cost them their third-rounder and an eighteen spot drop in the second round in their trade with Minnesota.
Williams is a super player but I question players that are dependent on their speed coming off an ACL injury.
It's a risk worth taking for the hapless Lions but they paid a high price.
7) Then the Eagles trade up to take Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis, who is the top defensive tackle in the draft but isn't a pass rusher.
Davis will be a hell of a run stuffer and should play in the league for years but seems like the Eagles moved up for a player that they may have gotten at their picks.
8) Trading up comes with risk but then there are the same teams that fall in love with projection rather looking at production along with potential.
Those teams are often the sucker bet- I should know the Browns were one of those teams for decades but the Jacksonville Jaguars are firmly in that group.
Taking a talented but somewhat disappointing player in Travon Walker first overall is risky when Aiden Hutchinson has similar upside as a more productive player, although I'm sure Hutchinson isn't disappointed to be staying home with the Lions.
9) Houston gambled at third with LSU cornerback Derek Stingley over Cincinnati's "Sauce" Gardner.
Stingley's 2019 was tremendous and the talent is elite but Stingley hasn't been the same player in two seasons since and Gardner seems to be more of a sure thing.
I love Stingley's talent but he (and Travyon Walker) have the largest boom or bust quotient in the top ten.
10) The Jets did very well with the two first-rounders that saw them land Gardner and Ohio State's Garrett Wilson to give last season's top pick Zack Wilson a top young target to throw to.
Give the Jets credit as well for decisively moving back into the first round to tab Florida State pass rusher Jermaine Johnson, who was the one player that did slide farther than expected.
11) As for the Browns, both of my pipe dream players were selected in the round (Arkansas WR Treyon Burks 18th to Tennessee and Purdue DE George Karlaftis 30th to Kansas City) but there are a few players that are still available.
Georgia WR George Pickens and Houston DE Logan Hall both would be excellent players at positions of need and I could see Andrew Berry trying to move up to add either if the cost wasn't high.
12) But I would be sorely tempted if Michigan defensive end David Ojabo was still available at 44.
Ojabo would have certainly been a top fifteen pick if not for an Achilles injury and while Cleveland may not receive a lot of production this year from Ojabo, choosing him could pay huge dividends down the road.
If the Browns do have a deal quietly in place with Jadeveon Clowney already, Cleveland could do much worse than a gamble on Ojabo- Especially if Pickens and Hall would be off the board.
13) The NFL Draft is one of my favorite events of the year but it's getting out of control with all the assorted noise around the event.
I'd love to see some network (even a network without the rights to the draft) use a C-Span style broadcast talking about the players, the teams, and skipping all the singing, guest selectors, and pomp and circumstance to cater to the people that just want to talk and listen to football discussions.
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