Day 1 Winners & Losers of the NFL Draft

With an exciting Day 1 of the NFL Draft, we decided to give you our Day 1 Winners & Losers. Now we’ll do this for the entire Draft tomorrow night, so these could be totally different when its all said and done. But after Thursday night, here are Fanspeak’s Day 1 Winners & Losers of the NFL Draft:

WINNERS:

1. Jacksonville Jaguars:

The Jaguars were able to take the best player on a lot of scouts draft boards in OT Luke Joekel. He’s a sure thing, day 1 starter, that will be a bookend with fellow Tackle Eugene Monroe. Together they should protect any quarterback under center for the Jaguars.

Speaking of Quarterbacks, now without reaching or trading up back into the first round, are in a position to get the best quarterback with the first pick tonight on most scouts draft boards in Geno Smith.  Imagine Geno Smith under center with all the time in the world? The Jaguars may just be finding their identity as team in just the first 2 rounds of this draft.

2. Pittsburgh Steelers:

The Steelers did what they always do best, they didn’t reach, they didn’t trade picks away, they just stayed at their position and let the draft come to them.  They got tremendous value and filled a huge need to help fill the shoes of James Harrison. This pick puts the “Blitz” back in Blitzburgh.

3. New England Patriots:

Its hard to believe a team that didn’t make a single pick in Round 1 is one of our winners, but its true. The Patriots came into this draft with a low number of picks, especially in the mid rounds. And in a very deep draft, they did the smart thing, they stockpiled picks. The got four picks by giving the Minnesota Vikings one and can now go fill several needs and depth issues tonight and tomorrow.

LOSERS:

1. New York Jets:

The Jets offense was basically embarrassing in 2012. So what did they do? They took their two high 1st round picks and drafted defensive players, and not even at their biggest needs. Yes, they need to find a way to replace the void left by Revis, but they had some stopgap options for that. What they really needed was a dynamic pass rusher, guard, quarterback, tight end and passed up some premiere talents at those positions of need.

2. Minnesota Vikings:

If you read my 2013 NFL Draft Guide, you’d know that the Vikings picked 2 of the 5 guys I labeled as “Bust Alert” in WR Cordarrelle Patterson and CB Xavier Rhodes. Could these be talented players, sure, but there’s a heavy risk with both of these players. Especially the fact that they traded 4 picks to get Patterson.  Both of these players may not even be able to have a serious role this season. So risky picks plus trading away the world equals a draft day loser in my book.

3. Oakland Raiders:

Poor Raiders, they always seem to be synonymous with Draft Day Losers.  And while I applaud them for trading out of the #3 spot to get more picks, two things still bothered me. One, they didn’t get enough for trading back from the #3 pick from the Dolphins. They need as many picks as possible in this deep draft and would have liked to see them get a 2nd pick with that.

Two, the player they chose is a tremendous risk. CB DJ Hayden is a guy you root for as he overcome an extreme injury, near death experience to be drafted.  But he is not a sure thing, and the Raiders desperately need some sure things as they try to rebuild this roster almost from scratch. Risky pick that early in the draft, as there were several other “sure things” on the board when they picked Hayden.

Check out Fanspeak’s Best Available Players for Day 2 of the NFL Draft!