A major staple of the NFL offseason has just concluded: the NFL Draft.  Months of preparation for the selections was ultimately realized when Commissioner Roger Goodell stepped onto the stage on April 25.  The first selection of the night shocked few, as the Arizona Cardinals selected Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray.  However, last year’s first round selection Josh Rosen still sat on their roster.  It was the start of another wild draft, and it will go down in history for the various moves made throughout all seven rounds.

The pick that followed Murray’s selection was no surprise to anyone, as the San Francisco 49ers took edge rusher Nick Bosa out of Ohio State.  Next on the clock was the New York Jets.  While many people expected them to trade down and out of the number three overall slot, the Jets stood still.

“I was surprised to see them not trading down, given they do not have any glaring roster holes that would need to be addressed with a high profile player,” said junior Justin Tawil.

The Jets obviously thought otherwise, as they selected Alabama interior rusher Quinnen Williams.  Many analysts regarded Williams as the best player in the draft, and he drew excellent comparisons to all pros in the NFL today.  In 15 games for the Crimson Tide, he put up eight sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss (TFL).  TFL is a very important statistic for interior rushers, and Williams proved his dominance as a one year starter with the Crimson Tide.  Jets fans are optimistic that he will bring a dominant force to the gang green defensive front.  They have lacked a true power inside since the departure of Damon Harrison, and Williams can fill that roll with more speed as a rusher as well.  The tandem of Williams and Leonard Williams will be scary for opposing quarterbacks in the AFC East this season.  

Perhaps the biggest shock of the night came when the Giants found themselves on the clock at number six.  It was obvious that General Manager Dave Gettleman was looking to take a quarterback.  The real question was which quarterback.  Many sources linked the Giants to Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins.  Other reports stated that while they liked Haskins, the team was infatuated with Duke’s Daniel Jones.  The team also had a few links to Missouri’s Drew Lock.  However, the rumors surrounding Jones ultimately proved true.  With the sixth pick in the draft, big blue selected the Duke quarterback.  A confused fanbase back at home rang with boo’s and other remarks, as many saw Haskins as an obvious choice.  

“I was completely confused at first,” said Tawil.

However, while Jones’ stats may not look as appealing as Haskins’, he did have a team of much lower talent.  Playing in a powerhouse like Ohio State, it was easy for Haskins to put up 50 touchdowns when he was playing with the best players in the country.  Jones still managed to bring a less-than-impressive Duke program to a bowl game last season, even though a large portion of his incompletions were accredited to drops by receivers.  While it is easy to look at Jones’ numbers and call him the inferior signal-caller, it is important to understand the entire scenario.  There is no way to tell what Jones will become in the NFL, as there is also no way to determined Haskins’ career at this point.  What could be said, though, is that the logic behind choosing Jones’ may have made more sense than what fans initially thought when looking in retrospect to the program he was surrounded by.  

Other quarterback movements on draft night included when the Cardinals did finally move Rosen.  This came when they traded last year’s first round selection to the Miami Dolphins for a second round selection.

The Giants made two more selections in the first round. With the thirteenth pick, which the Giants got in a draft night trade from the Seattle Seahawks, the Giants selected Deandre Baker, a cornerback out of Georgia. Finally, with the seventeenth pick, a pick the Giants got from the Cleveland Browns, the Giants took Dexter Lawrence, who is a defensive tackle that went to Clemson.

The NFL draft is a time of speculation, overreaction, and early judgements.  While each fanbase may be happy or upset with their team’s selection, there is truly no way to know what each player will become until they hit the field in September for the start of the 2019/2020 NFL season.  Until then, fans will continue to ponder if their team made the “right move.”  Of course, only time will tell.