What We Learned From Round 1 of the N.F.L. Draft
The Carolina Panthers surprised no one by selecting Bryce Young of Alabama. The Houston Texans began building their future. And a highly regarded quarterback wasn’t chosen at all. After months of workouts, measurements, interviews, speculation, prognostication and whispers about players rising and falling for inscrutable reasons, the top of the first round of the N.F.L. draft on Thursday night went roughly the way experts thought it would go at the end of the last college football season.
The Top Picks
The Carolina Panthers, who traded with the Chicago Bears in March to obtain the top pick, kicked things off by selecting Alabama quarterback Bryce Young. Young, the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner, stands just 5-foot-10 but possesses an impeccable scouting report, outstanding statistics and an exemplary off-field reputation, making him similar to the early 2010s version of Russell Wilson.
The Houston Texans — despite weeks of rumors that they preferred other quarterbacks, would not draft a quarterback at all or might just give up and try pickleball instead for a few years — selected Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud with the second pick. Stroud threw 85 touchdown passes in two seasons for the Buckeyes. He joins an N.F.L. team that has won as many games in the past three seasons (11) as Ohio State won last season. The Texans then provided the evening’s first surprise by trading the 12th overall pick (acquired from the Cleveland Browns in last year’s Deshaun Watson trade) for the third pick. The player they chose, however, was unsurprising: Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson, widely considered to be the best nonquarterback in the 2023 draft class.
After a handful of by-the-books selections, the draft settled into its familiar state of unpredictability. The Indianapolis Colts — who have relied on past-their-prime quarterbacks (Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan) or reclamation projects (Carson Wentz) since Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement before the 2019 season — selected Florida’s Anthony Richardson with the fourth pick. Richardson has the arm strength, athleticism and sheer size to rival Josh Allen but about as much experience (13 collegiate starts) as the intern who filled your office coffee machine with copy toner.
The Seattle Seahawks possessed two first-round picks because of last year’s Russell Wilson trade, which has become like an overflowing gift basket for them. The Seahawks selected Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon fifth overall and Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba 20th overall. Witherspoon finished second in the Big 10 conference with 14 passes broken up in 2022. Smith-Njigba caught 95 passes in 2021 but battled a hamstring injury throughout last season. He also lost his primary role in the Buckeyes’ passing game to the underclassman Marvin Harrison Jr., who is mentioned here to: a) get you excited about next year’s draft, and b) make you feel really old. The Arizona Cardinals, having traded down from the third pick to the 11th, then traded back up to the sixth pick, selecting Ohio State offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. to bulwark an offensive line ravaged by injuries in 2022. The Las Vegas Raiders selected Texas Tech defensive lineman Tyree Wilson with the seventh pick. Wilson’s arms are so long (nearly three feet) that when he spread them wide at the scouting combine, half of the press pool instinctively reached for their boarding passes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/sports/football/nfl-draft-recap-picks.html
