The National Football League (NFL) hosts their draft every April, where the top collegiate athletes wait to hear their names called and have their dreams come true. The draft allows teams to address weak spots in their roster, and allows them to fulfill those spots with young players who possibly could make an early difference to a roster. Teams conduct extensive scouting on each and every possible prospect to ensure they are the right fit for their team. Here is an overall recap from the historic night in the NFL.
To begin the draft, it was no shock that quarterback Fernando Mendoza, out of Indiana, was selected first overall by the Las Vegas Raiders. Mendoza was predicted to land with the team as he had a historic season at Indiana, where he won the Heisman Trophy along with leading Indiana to a National Championship victory. Quarterback was a big need for Las Vegas after an underwhelming past season, now pairing up Mendoza with weapons Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers, the Raiders look to have a solid upcoming season.
The first interesting pick came early with the Arizona Cardinals selecting running back Jeremiyah Love out of Notre Dame. The Cardinals’ running back room is a bit crowded, but Love brings his own versatility to the offense and will add some firepower to the offense.
With the fourth overall pick, the Tennessee Titans selected wide receiver Carnell Tate out of Ohio State, who was arguably the best wide receiver in the draft. Pairing Tate up with former number one overall pick Cam Ward will be able to bring some help to an offense that struggled last season.
Picks five through seven would be dominant defensive players in edge rusher Arvell Reese to the New York Giants, cornerback Mansoor Delane from Louisiana State University (LSU), and linebacker Sonny Styles from Ohio State. All will come in looking to play huge roles in the turnaround of their respective teams’ defenses. It’s worth noting that the Kansas City Chiefs jumped from the ninth overall pick to the sixth to draft Delane to help fill a huge hole at corner.
But with picks eight through twelve going smoothly, the thirteenth pick was able to cause some immediate drama and was a huge shakeup in the draft. With the thirteenth overall selection, the Los Angeles Rams selected quarterback Ty Simpson out of Alabama. A complete shocker to the league, especially with the Rams’ return of reigning Most Valuable Player (MVP) Matthew Stafford. It is to be understood that Stafford is 38 years old and likely only has at most three years left in him, which made sense for the Rams to grab their option for the future after him. But, with offensive targets such as Makai Lemon and Kenyon Sadiq available, and Simpson being projected as a late first rounder to maybe a second-rounder pick, raised questions about the Rams’ selection being that they are in “win now” mode. Although it is a head scratcher, the Rams are a team that does an impressive job in developing players, and for a guy like Simpson, he will be in good hands and now has a bright future ahead of him.
Another interesting topic that arose was defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. out of Miami, a projected top ten pick that was still available at the fifteenth overall who ended up being selected at that spot to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Questions developed before the draft about his shorter arm length compared to most defensive ends, but Bain’s dominant reign in college showed enough for the Buccaneers to select him with their pick.
For the second half of the draft, a good amount of offensive weapons went off the board with tight end Kenyon Sadiq, wide receiver Lemon, wide receiver KC Concepcion, wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr., and running back Jadarian Price all being drafted in the last half of the first round.
Wide receiver Lemon now makes things interesting as he was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles, where it now seems that the team will move on from veteran star A.J. Brown. Along with this, the reigning champion Seattle Seahawks were able to draft their running back replacement in Notre Dame prospect Jadarian Price. Price will now look to have early usage as a rookie due to the departure of Kenneth Walker III and the injury recovery from Zach Charbonnet.
Overall, each of these prospects will now look to show off on Sundays for their new respective teams as they head into the next chapter of their football careers.
