Josh Kingsley
As expected I slept through the beginning of the draft. The factor I didn’t recall when considering my plan was the 6am Friday flight. I was up and around by 3:30 Bergen time to shower, final pack and check out of the hotel. The draft was roughly 1/3 through but I caught up quickly. I’ll start with top 12 picks.
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Biggest Wins
The Arizona Cardinals wanted to move and they did, netting a ton of new picks. Houston grabbed a couple great prospects at #2 and #3, but AZ made out like bandits for the trouble. The Cardinals doubled down on the moving… trading the newly acquired #12 to the Lions. We now know their GM knows how to accumulate draft capital. Time will quickly tell if he knows how to use it. From ArizonaSports.com, here’s their draft picks now:
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Chicago Bears pulled a similar move trading the #9 to the Eagles. Most mocks had Jalen Carter going to the Bears at #9, but apparently they didn’t like him enough to refuse the trade. The vaunted Eagles DL took the best interior player, which makes them my third early winner.
My final, and probably biggest, winner was the RB position. Running back value has plummeted over the past 5-10 years, but made a massive comeback in the 2023 draft. I don’t believe the Falcons or Lions addressed their top needs, but here we are. The running back position may be entering a bull market. However, it is possible that poorly run teams made poor picks. Pick #8 – RB, Bijan Robinson (out of Texas) by the Atlanta Falcons and #12 – RB, Jahmyr Gibbs (out of Alabama) by the Detroit Lions.
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Biggest Losses
QB Will Levis gets the nod here. He projected as high as 4th to Indy (and there were rumors the #1 Carolina Panther’s had told him he’d go first overall), but fell out of the first completely. Atlanta, Detroit, Tennessee and many others passed up on his big arm. The Lions, Rams, Seahawks and Raiders immediately jump as early second round pickers, so the wait may be short. A three count of QB in round one strikes me as alarming.
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Biggest Almost Surprise
I hit the hotel lobby at 4:00 AM for our bus to the airport. My first comment was the lack of WR picks. About 10 minutes later my boss looked at his phone and let me know three WRs just went off the board. A bunch almost fell but ultimately didn’t. Add in the Kincaid pick by Buffalo and it was five premium pass catchers off the board in the run of 20-25. I’m not happy my favorite prospects, Johnston and Kincaid, are in Charger and Buffalo blues, but I expected them both off Veach’s radar and had time to make peace with it.
Hyatt is still on the board, but I suspect Pittsburgh (#32), Arizona (#33), Detroit (#34) or Indy (#35), will grab him. They all have offenses to make work with big talent holes.
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My Right and Wrong
I missed big on the prediction of Veach trading up, but got the position of Edge right. That pass catching run probably made it possible to sit and wait for Felix. The top half run on OT made it untenable to trade up for that position. Anudike-Uzomah is a great addition to the team. The dude works hard, fits a need, and is from KC. It all worked out great.
That’s all for me for Round One. Now, I just need to figure out how to kill the rest of my delay in Schiphol, AKA the Amsterdam airport. This place is a massive circus, but I have time and they sell beer. At 9:00 AM. See you after Round Two.
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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom
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