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Trade! Jacksonville will get the No. 2 pick out
Cleveland swaps first-round choices with Jacksonville and choices up a couple of extra choices as neatly.
The Jaguars don’t want a QB. Surely this subsequent pick out can be Travis Hunter.
Cam Ward picked first in NFL Draft
No wonder. The Titans weren’t going to enter subsequent season with Will Levis because the starter.
About the pick out …
Cam Ward, QB, Miami. After beginning his profession at FCS college Incarnate Word, Ward moved directly to Washington State and posted large numbers for 2 years earlier than deciding to visit the opposite nook of the contiguous United States for his ultimate yr. That’s the place he racked up best honors – first-team All-American, Davey O’Brien Award (country’s best QB), fourth in Heisman vote casting – and took good thing about the NCAA’s Covid rule to play a 5th yr and set a Division I report for profession passing touchdowns. But should you base your scouting on whether or not a participant sits out the second one part of a loss within the PopTarts Bowl, you will have a couple of questions right here.
Oh, goody. We get extra pre-draft festivities, as Goodell introduces the Green Bay gamers on level with him. And Lil Wayne.
And now they get to listen to speeches, beginning with Clay Matthews studying an alleged message from Donald Trump. Some cheers in the beginning, then some boos.
Finally, at 8:08 p.m. ET, the Tennessee Titans are at the clock. They have 10 mins to post their pick out, or a hollow rips within the space-time continuum.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has opted to journey a bicycle to the level, accompanied through some mythical Green Bay Packers gamers and enthusiasts. That is a Green Bay custom of which I used to be no longer mindful. Booing the commissioner may be conventional, and that’s proceeding this yr.
ESPN presentations us an empty sofa someplace in Texas this is it sounds as if the place they be expecting to look Shedeur Sanders. It’s a pleasing sofa, no less than.
The first particular person to jot down in this night is (we’ll presume) a long-suffering Raiders fan, Dan Aitch …
Sitting right here hoping the Raiders have the option to get Shedeur Sanders, to increase below Geno Smith.
About time the franchise made some severe strides ahead.
Not certain it’s going to, regardless that.
He writes once more so as to add …
… however I’ll fortunately take Ashton Jeanty.
I’m a bit iffy on Jeanty as a result of he didn’t face nice festival till the playoffs, and he didn’t do neatly then.
The Titans are it sounds as if no longer buying and selling the No. 1 pick out. They want a quarterback. Cam Ward is taking a look increasingly more prone to be the primary participant to make the stroll on level.
About two-way gamers …
Deion Sanders, who coached two-way hopeful Travis Hunter at Colorado, didn’t consider in specialization. His play as a shutdown nook within the NFL is what were given him into the Hall of Fame, however he was once additionally a deadly kick returner and from time to time a large receiver — particularly in 1996, when he stuck 36 passes (on an inefficient 67 objectives) for 475 yards and was once nonetheless an All-Pro cornerback. Perhaps no longer coincidentally, that was once the primary yr he wasn’t additionally taking part in baseball.
Most two-way collegiate gamers finally end up focusing closely on one aspect of the ball. Think Hall of Fame defensive backs Champ Bailey and Charles Woodson, who publish eye-popping numbers in school (Bailey’s final yr at Georgia: 744 yards and 5 touchdowns receiving, 52 tackles and 3 interceptions on protection) however had few sufficient offensive performs to rely on one hand. Adoree’ Jackson is the latest talent participant to do each, however he additionally has just a handful of offensive performs. Patrick Peterson and Eric Weddle additionally were given a couple of possibilities to turn their stuff on offense.
No participant picked his spots higher than linebacker Mike Vrabel — 10 regular-season receptions on 14 objectives, taken with touchdowns, along with two landing receptions in two other Super Bowls.
Vrabel flashed his versatility in New England, as did two offensive gamers who dabbled on protection — Randy Moss and Troy Brown, either one of whom performed school soccer at Marshall. Brown completed his school profession through intercepting a desperation move at the final play of the FCS championship sport.
Rather less a success in New England was once Rob Gronkowski, the stalwart tight finish who defended one move in his profession however wound up at the blooper reels as he fell down whilst flailing at Kenyan Drake on the finish of the “Miami Miracle” that noticed the Dolphins pull off a sequence of laterals for an out of this world last-second win.
Decades after William “Refrigerator” Perry scored a handful of touchdowns, together with one within the Super Bowl, a couple of large defensive gamers get the occasional goal-line alternative on offense. Dontari Poe has 3 profession touches — taken with touchdowns. That’s two 1-yard run and one 1-yard move.
There is one present function participant who sees time on offense and protection — the Chargers’ Scott Matlock, who had 362 offensive snaps at fullback and 137 defensive snaps at line of defense in 2024. He’s basically a blocker on offense, regardless that he did have 4 receptions for 28 yards final season.
Now being presented … gamers who’re attending the draft as a result of they’ve a good likelihood of being drafted this night within the first around. It’ll be lovely awkward in the event that they’re no longer.
Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty is probably the most historically dressed. Will Johnson looks as if he plans to unharness an R&B ballad. Georgia’s Malaki Starks is in neon crimson.
The nationwide anthem is being carried out on classical guitar – oops, no, he’s making a song now. Hey, Chris Stapleton isn’t a foul function type for anthem performances.
An replace from Green Bay, web site of the draft …
Travis Hunter has jumped onstage to bounce with the band.
He have shyed away from harm.
To QB or no longer QB …
No place in trendy sports activities has as a lot have an effect on on a group’s possibilities because the quarterback.
Barring the ordinary system play, the QB touches the ball on each offensive play. And the location’s significance has simplest greater through the years as passing has greater. Teams averaged 25-ish to 28-ish passes a sport within the 1970s. Last yr, it was once 32.7 makes an attempt in step with sport, and that’s down from greater than 35 a couple of occasions within the 2010s.
And QBs are anticipated to be correct. The general final touch proportion within the NFL broke 60% lower than 20 years in the past and is now getting as regards to a wholesome two-thirds.
That’s no longer all. The “dual-threat” quarterback is not an anomaly. QBs wish to be cell. If no person’s open, take off and run.
Teams could make it to the Super Bowl with out an elite operating again. Or a shutdown cornerback. They typically can’t make it with out an elite QB to any extent further. The days of Brad Johnson vs. Rich Gannon are long gone. Now it’s Jalen Hurts vs. Patrick Mahomes. Matthew Stafford vs. Joe Burrow.
The panelists discussed underneath (neatly, two of them) consider the primary pick out can be Travis Hunter, who’s bidding to be the primary professional two-way participant within the NFL since … um … his school trainer, Deion Sanders? (We’ll get to that.)
But that is the NFL, which stands for “No Fun League.” Hunter might be transformed right into a cornerback like each different two-way collegian (together with Sanders, for probably the most section).
That mentioned … does this draft have an elite QB? Is Cam Ward in the similar magnificence as Jayden Daniels or Caleb Williams? Or Drake Maye or Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix, for that subject?
Probably no longer.
So the following absolute best factor is take somebody who can take the opposite QB down once conceivable.
I’ll accept as true with Graham. Abdul Carter will pass first.
Preamble
In about an hour and alter, we’ll listen, “With the first pick in the NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans select … Cooper Flagg, from Duke.”
What? Wrong draft? Oh.
Right – that is the grandfather of all drafts, the ordinary US custom that goals to instill a way of parity amongst groups in order that the worst group in a given yr will get the primary likelihood to fortify through watching upon the gifted gamers leaving school and deciding on a Joe Burrow or a JaMarcus Russell first.
The NWSL has began what may just transform a motion through disposing of its school draft. That turns out a few years clear of going down within the NFL.
In different phrases, that is the most important night time for professional soccer between the Super Bowl and the primary 2025 regular-season sport. Enjoy.
(And wouldn’t Flagg be a greater pick out than some? He may just most probably throw lovely neatly.)
Beau can be right here in a while. In the intervening time, right here’s who our panel of writers assume must be the No 1 general NFL draft pick out this night:
Travis Hunter, CB/WR. Any group choosing No 1 general wishes a quarterback. And Cam Ward is the highest quarterback prospect within the magnificence. But the No 1 pick out must be Hunter, the electrifying hybrid nook/receiver. Whether he can play each techniques within the league is an open query, however anywhere he traces up, Hunter can be a gamechanger at a top rate place. Oliver Connolly
Travis Hunter. I’m really not solely offered on any of the quarterbacks on this magnificence, in order that’s that out the window. Instead, I might simply and fortunately flip the cardboard in on soccer’s model of Babe Ruth or Shohei Ohtani: a man who can play two a very powerful positions – cornerback and extensive receiver – at an insanely prime degree. My comp for Hunter as a receiver is DeAndre Hopkins; my comp for him as a cornerback is Darius Slay. Think about how unheard of this is in soccer historical past, and make the transfer. Doug Farrar
Cam Ward, QB. This is the NFL draft, other people. You get the highest pick out, you draft the most productive quarterback at the board – and this yr they don’t come higher than 6ft 2in, 219lb University of Miami senior, a Davey O’Brien award winner (for the country’s best school QB) and Heisman Trophy finalist. It’s no longer on the subject of stats with him; it’s the utter nonchalance with which he piles them up. Andrew Lawrence
Abdul Carter, Edge. The likelihood so as to add an edge defender who attracts comparisons to Micah Parsons is an exceptional alternative to turn into Tennessee’s protection. The Titans must reconsider their technique at quarterback, and most likely wait to pick out a brand new offensive cornerstone from subsequent yr’s richer skill pool whilst they’ve the danger to provide their limp move rush an enormous spice up. Graham Searles
You can learn their complete checklist of predictions right here:
