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The football world is year round. A full 365 days and every four years we get an additional day for football fans to follow the storylines, transactions, and happenings in the NFL universe. We reached a key moment on the NFL calendar that brings hope for all 32 teams. The NFL Draft!
Round 1 of the NFL Draft is exciting because it starts to answer some of the big questions fans have for the team. We all think we know what our teams need to do to positions it for a Super Bowl run. But we do not necessarily know if those running team are preparing for a run this year or stocking for the future. The draft answers the questions that may have been left wide open after the main wave of free agency.
For instance, the Pittsburgh Steelers came into the first round with an obvious need that many fans were hoping to get clarity on. Are the Steelers going to put all their eggs in the Aaron Rodgers basket or would they invest in quarterback talent that they may need to develop. While there are still 6 rounds left, the Steelers added talent to their bolster the defense line.
The biggest take away for round 1 was the New York Giants added talent to both sides of the ball and potentially found their quarterback of the future. They seem to enter the day or week with a mission of finding a solution to the most important position in sports. After failing to secure a trade to the very top of the draft, the re-entered the round to get Jaxson Dart at 25, using their 4 pick on the top defensive talent in Abdul Carter.
The Jacksonville Jaguars made the only impactful trade of the draft, in terms of assets moving, elevating to the 2nd pick to secure a generational prospect in Travis Hunter. The Jags need to infuse more talent to a roster that severely disappointed the last couple years despite having top of the draft talent the preceding seasons that achieved a compelling comeback playoff victory.
I enjoyed going into a NFL draft knowing that my Philadelphia Eagles have good depth throughout the roster and just needed to add behind the starters to replenish the talent. And I believe we did just that by adding Jihaad Campbell to bolster our linebackers, where we might not see Nakobe Dean early in the season, depending on his recovery time.
Overall, I think teams made picks that built on their needs. Every know and then you have a draft where a team makes a pick and you scratch your head about where their priorities are. Fans may not always like the safe pick versus the more perceived glamorous pick, but the first round is about finding a starter than can be there for a decade.
The interesting question the New York media market put forth was questioning the pick of Jaxson Dart over Shedouer Sanders. As some expected the Giants would take Shedouer early on, but the passed and then re-entered to take Dart instead.
Shedouer Sanders was rated the second best quarterback talent in this draft that pundits said was not as robust as other years, which is why there were only 2 picked a year after almost every pick was a QB. Undoubtedly, Sanders has the potential to make many quarterback needing teams that passed on him regret their mistake. Some team is going to invest in him and, like other quarterbacks that slid, he will probably land in a better spot longterm.
The narrative for Giants fans really should not be Dart versus Sanders. The front office picked who they felt fits their system and talent that their coaches are used to developing. The real puzzling decision is how a team like the Steelers passed on a talent that even in the worst case scenario, when they could have developed Sanders while still pursuing the last go round of Aaron Rodgers.