NFL Draft kicks off strong
May 18, 2017
The first round of the 2017 NFL Draft featured several trades and a few surprising selections. The Cleveland Browns ended up with three first-round picks, and the Chicago Bears surprised most observers by trading up to the No. 2 spot to draft a quarterback, even though they paid a lot of money for one in the off-season. Here is a look at the winners and losers of the draft starting on April 27th.
With the first pick in the draft, the Cleveland Browns selected Myles Garrett, a defensive end and a physical specimen from Texas A&M. He is a 6-foot-4, 270-pound pass-rushing beast who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.64 seconds and has a 41-inch vertical leap. He has especially long arms, does not bother with social media, and is as likely to be found reading a book as he is listening to music or watching a movie. He was projected as the No. 1 pick in almost every single Mock Draft, so it came as no surprise that the best player in the draft was selected first. Along with other first round picks Jabrill Peppers and David Njoku, Garrett will attempt to bring his youth, experience, and excitement to a Browns team that only managed to win one game last season.
With the second pick in the draft, things took a turn for the worse. The 49ers agreed to swap top picks with the Bears in exchange for third- and fourth-round picks in this year’s draft and a third-rounder in 2018. Most fans were expecting the Bears to pick up top prospects like Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey or fellow Cardinal DE Solomon Thomas, but Chicago selected Mitchell Trubisky, a one-year starter in college and a player who is considered to be much more of a project than a Day 1 star. Trubisky was arguably the worst pick of the draft because the Bears surrendered their third pick, along with picks No. 67, No. 111 and a third- rounder next year to move up just one spot. They gave up too much just to pick up a high-risk player, and on top of that, the Bears head coach was not informed of the organization’s plans to draft a QB so early in the draft. The Bears will need to strengthen the relationship between the front office and the rest of the team before the upcoming season.