The 2016 NFL Draft - Round One - What We Learned

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

In many ways, the NFL Draft is just as exciting to watch as any NFL game, simply because of the mystery and surprises surrounding any given pick. You simply have no idea what a team is going to do when they are on the clock and this year's Draft is no exception to that rule. So with Rounds Two and Three awaiting us tonight, let's look back at the first night of the Draft and discuss what we learned from Round One. 

​The Rams and the Eagles found their Franchise Quarterbacks.
Perhaps the first real surprise of the draft, is that everything went as expected, with Jared Goff and Carson Wentz going number one and two respectively in the draft. There was no drama here, just two franchises going after a quarterback of the future. I think it's safe to say we can expect Goff to be the day one starter in Los Angeles come kickoff weekend but Wentz has an interesting road ahead of him before taking the field. He'll compete with Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel out in Philadelphia and the competition in Philly will be the one to watch because while the Eagles brass are pleased as punch with this move, Bradford is as angry as they come, and that should make the battle to be the starter a little more heated come Training Camp. Either way, the Rams and the Eagles have their man, gave up the farm to get him and here's to hoping both QB's pan out for their respective franchises.

The San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys dropped a pair of surprise picks last night.
The Chargers are a team in need of an offensive overhaul. The Cowboys are a squad desperately in need of offensive depth. So imagine my surprise when I hear Joey Bosa's and Ezekiel Elliott's names called at picks three and four respectively. Considering how bad the Chargers were on offense last year and the fact that the Cowboys need a quality backup QB behind Tony Romo one would think that O-Line and QB would have been the picks here. I'm not saying either team made a poor choice here, since defense does win championships and a solid run game will take pressure off of Romo, I'm just simply surprised that both of these teams decided to roll the dice in this fashion, and I am certain any surprise or concern around these picks will fade away the instant Bosa makes a game changing sack or Elliott takes it to the house because both of these players are extremely dynamic and will make an impact right away. 

Laremy Tunsil had one strange night...to say the least.
Normally the stories that find incredible focus on draft night are the ones involving the unfortunate player who travels to the draft, is expected to go within the top five or the top ten and ends up sitting there for way longer than expected as team after team goes with someone else. That did happen again last night, to a few players in fact; but Offensive Tackle Laremy Tunsil's dive in the draft had one hell of a twist. This young man, who at one point was considered to be a top five draft pick sunk to thirteenth overall courtesy of a strange set of events when someone hacked his Twitter feed and posted an image of someone wearing a gas mask, taking a hit from a bong. It is by far the craziest thing on Draft night that I have ever seen, and it really is a shame that someone decided to do something that malicious on such an important day. Thankfully the Dolphins ended his free fall and hopefully this little incident is long forgotten come September. 

The Denver Broncos solved their Quarterback Quandary at last.
It's been an unnerving offseason at the quarterback position for Broncos fans. Peyton Manning retired. Brock Osweiler bolted. Few seem happy or at least satisfied with the trade for Mark Sanchez and the trade with Colin Kaepernick never came to fruition. Yet despite the beads of sweat forming over the collective foreheads in Broncos Country, John Elway once again came through to save the day with a lovely draft day trade with the Seahawks to jump up from 31 and snag QB Paxton Lynch. Lynch is the prototypical QB that Elway has been searching for since his return to Denver, and oddly enough had in Osweiler; and really the question on everyone's mind is...when will he start? After all Lynch does need some work to perform well in a pro style offense, but if Mark Sanchez falters, it won't be long before the new kid is under center. But in the here and the now, this does indeed solve Denver's problems at quarterback in the short term and Lynch's selection should make for an interesting season in the Mile High City.

The Cleveland Browns are playing it safe and smart so far. 
I made mention the other day that this could be the epic draft that Browns fans have been waiting for and so far Cleveland is doing all the right things. Yesterday they made two moves of note. First they traded down again from the eighth pick to the fifteenth; where they selected Wide Receiver Corey Coleman from Baylor, in the process snagging a few more picks to bring their total to twelve for this draft...and rumor has it they are trying to trade down again to potentially acquire more picks and well...this is pure genius. This is exactly what Cleveland needed to do. Not only did they kick off the draft by getting RG3 a brand new weapon to throw to, now they are hoarding draft picks like a squirrel hoarding nuts for the winter and it's quite frankly the best thing they could have done. They have so many needs to address, and using rookies to either fill them right away or groom behind a few veterans is the most absolute sound idea I've seen come out of there in a long time. Can't wait to see what they do with the rest of their picks over the next two days.

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