It was an very interesting first day of the draft to say the least, with seven trades (3 in the Top 10), a handful of surprising, not first round talents taken in the Top 32, and loads of great values still available by early Day Two.
Here are some of my notes from Day One.
–Matt Kalil was a surprise in my opinion, and I’m scared he may be set up to have a chance for failure in Minnesota. He’s undersized and doesn’t fit their usual mold, but if he can add 10+ pounds and keep his athleticism in pass protection, he’ll make Christian Ponder very happy.
-Jacksonville did well getting Justin Blackmon. Even though I don’t think he’s an elite receiver, they couldn’t leave Blaine Gabbert with his current options, and it’d be too risky to try and hope a few top guys would be there in the 2nd (though that’s what happened).
-The Bucs getting Mark Barron was a bit of a stretch, as I thought that Stephen Gilmore would be an ideal fit, but scooping up Doug Martin makes up for missing out on Trent Richardson. Martin is similar to Greg Schiano’s old running back, Ray Rice.
-Dallas made the absolute right move in getting Morris Claiborne. They don’t have many needs, and can add OL depth and a pass rusher in the 3rd-6th rounds easily. Claiborne and Carr give turns one of the NFC worst secondaries into maybe one of the best.
-Buffalo got lucky with Stephen Gilmore, securing up the secondary in an already loaded defense. Look for them to go offense with most of the rest of their draft, especially looking at Rueben Randle/Alshon Jeffery in the second round to complement Stevie Johnson.
-Kansas City taking Dontari Poe was a curveball, and obviously Pioli thinks he can be a Haloti Ngata type player. While I agree, he’ll need a lot of development, and for a win-now team that could have used an impact starter (a la David DeCastro), it was a unique yet Pioli-style pick.
-Arizona gets a GREAT complement to Larry Fitzgerald in Michael Floyd, but they wanted an offensive tackle. Curious to see if they trade up to secure Jonathan Martin the 2nd round, as he was also a target of theirs.
–Bruce Irvin and Harrison Smith to the Seahawks/Vikings were the two biggest reaches with the best chance to fail in my opinion. Irvin has been productive at a variety of spots in college, but he’s a one dimensional speed rusher with lackluster moves, and may never be an NFL starter. Smith is very limited, but the Cover 2 scheme could be ideal for the minimal zone coverage ability yet instincts to be maximized in that scheme.
-Seven pass rushers when in the first round, which isn’t all that surprising. The NFL is a pass rushing league now, and this will continue to be the trend. That being said, there aren’t a whole lot of value rushers in the 2nd-3rd round available.
–Brandon Weeden to Cleveland is a GREAT pick in my opinion for the Browns, and should be the opening day starter for the Browns. Give him one off-season, and he’ll be the man in Cleveland. If they can get a solid receiver in the 2nd (very possible), this team could give the Steelers/Ravens/Bengals some headaches next season.
–Dre Kirkpatrick to the Bengals, Melvin Ingram to the Chargers, and especially David DeCastro to the Steelers were the best values on our board, while Irvin to the Seahawks, Shea McClellin to the Bears, and Harrison Smith to the Vikings were the worst values.
–AJ Jenkins to the 49ers is surely a surprise and higher than I expected, but as I (and CBSSports.com Dane Brugler) discussed pre-draft, receivers are hard to project after the obvious top guys. I didn’t think the 49ers would look WR here, but he makes Kyle Williams’s, Ted Ginn’s and Randy Moss’s chances of making the team a little more interesting.
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