2017 NFL Draft Round 1 Recap - tubaSimulator's Blog

tubaSimulator's Blog

2017 NFL Draft Round 1 Recap

Posted on October 16, 2017 at 11:37 AM.

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Many of us had QB Dillon Reece going #1 overall but instead the Express got their home crowd going by selecting a highly rated linebacker out of Texas A&M.

San Antonio: Maybe the Express are happy with RGIII or maybe they have a different QB on top of their wish list but either way, the Express secured themselves a pass rusher they hope can have an immediate impact and be a guy they can build their defense around. Rashad Herndon certainly has the skills to get to the QB; he's deceptively fast and can beat a blocker with every pass rushing move in the book. He needs to develop an NFL understanding of reading an offense, but Herndon is a safe pick who we expect will have an immediate impact.

As we predicted, the Chargers couldn�t pass on the opportunity to draft one of the top 2 OT prospects in this year�s draft and got a good one in Julius Kendall out of USC. The Jaguars pulled of the surprise of the evening when they went for QB Dillon Reece at #3, bringing in competition for Blake Bortles who threw for 4,050 yards last season but also threw as many picks as touchdowns and only lead the Jags to 4 wins.

At #4, the Cleveland Browns also chose to go QB. That�s the 5th time the Browns pick a QB in the first round since Tim Couch was selected in 1999. Cody Kessler had a decent rookie year but the Browns felt they couldn�t pass up on the opportunity to get a guy like Eric Stanford out of Oklahoma.

The projected 1st overall pick, WR Kareem Bowie (Oregon), fell to the New York Giants at #6 after the 49ers picked up OLB Joseph Hill (Florida State). The Jets added a DT with their 7th overall pick by selecting Cecil Reinhart (Tennessee). Many had Angelo al-Jabbar (Oklahoma) as the top DT prospect in the draft, while others didn�t feel comfortable with him because of his pro day. Al-Jabbar instead fell to the Buccaneers at #10 after back-to-back OT picks with Oakland picking Dwight Curran (Texas A&M) at #8 and Detroit selecting Norman Posey (Penn State) at #9.

Cleveland�s 2nd pick of the day came at #16 and they elected to go pass rusher with OLB Tavarius Clement (UCLA). He should fit their defense and could be an immediate upgrade. Miami decided to go local at #19, selecting OG Sherwin Vance out of Miami University before the Bengals rounded out the top 20 by selecting DE Brandon Bridgewater out of Pittsburgh with DE Bram Milner, projected to go 9th overall, still on the board.

The third QB went to Houston at #23 when they selected Chase Youngblood out of USC before we finally hit on our 2nd mock draft pick when Baltimore, looking for a replacement for Steve Smith Sr. who retired, went with WR Gabriel Dantzler from Nebraska.

We also had Denver selecting a QB in the first round for the 2nd year in a row, but picked the wrong QB. Last year�s 1st rounder Paxton Lynch out of Michigan couldn�t beat Trevor Siemian in training camp and the former 7th round pick got the start. He looked decent last year and lead the Broncos to the playoffs, but without too many positions in need of upgrade for the Broncos, they felt they could get a possible franchise QB with Nick Koutouvides from USC.

In our mock draft, we had Buffalo reaching into the 2nd round to get the top C of the draft, Gary Sulak (Wisconsin) � and they did.

Then we had the Vikings doing the same, reaching into the 2nd round to get the top C left in the draft, DeMarco Elliott from Stanford. And they did.

DE Bram Milner, projected to go in the top 10, had been sitting patiently in the green room all day without being picked but finally him and his family could breathe a sigh of relief when Atlanta selected him with the #31 pick. That�s great value for the Falcons.

To close out the evening, the Super Bowl champions Pittsburgh Steelers, in need of a replacement for James Harrison, clearly read our mock draft, thought we had the right guy and followed our advice by selecting OLB Kevin George (Texas).

Three players projected to go in the first were not selected but are expected to go early in the 2nd round. WR Luke Sullivan (Auburn) was projected to go 18th, while QB James Cave (Ole Miss) and WR Gabriel Rolle (Penn State) were ranked #31 and #32 but seeing as neither the Steelers nor the Falcons were in need of a WR or QB it was always likely they would slip out of the 1st round.

Mock Draft Result: 5.5/32*
*We're gonna give ourselves half a point for predicting a QB to Denver even though we got the wrong guy!

2017 NFL Draft � Round 1
Pick	Team	Player	College	Pos	Ht	Wt
1	SAT	Rashad Herndon	Texas A&M	OLB	6'3''	257
2	SD	Julius Kendall	USC	OT	6�6��	306
3	JAX	Dillon Reece	Michigan St.	QB	6�6��	228
4	CLE	Eric Stanford	Oklahoma	QB	6�5��	232
5	SF	Joseph Hill	Penn State	OLB	6�1��	235
6	NYG	Kareem Bowie	Oregon	WR	5�11��	202
7	NYJ	Cecil Reinhart	Tennessee	DT	6�1��	305
8	OAK	Dwight Curran	Texas A&M	OT	6�6��	326
9	DET	Norman Posey	Penn State	OT	6�5��	306
10	TB	Angelo al-Jabbar	Oklahoma	DT	6'3''	302
11	NO	Demontray Parmele	Florida	CB	5�10��	194
12	CHI	DeMarcus Forbes	UCLA	CB	6�4��	212
13	IND	Curtis Tant	Texas A&M	OG	6�4��	341
14	ARI	Malcolm Luzar	Wisconsin	OT	6�5��	308
15	WAS	Prennis Seward	UCLA	DT	6'3''	313
16	CLE(1)	Tavarius Clement	UCLA	OLB	6�5��	252
17	TEN	Malcolm Edmonds	Oklahoma	OLB	6�1��	241
18	GB	Jacob Staat	Alabama	OG	6'3''	314
19	MIA	Sherwin Vance Herndon	Miami	OG	6�4��	308
20	CIN	Brandon Bridgewater	Pittsburgh	DE	6�7��	310
21	DAL	Montrey Sowell	Wisconsin	WR	5�11��	190
22	KC	Tavarus Sayers	LSU	DE	6�7��	296
23	HOU	Chase Youngblood	USC	QB	6'3''	235
24	SEA	Cory Roan	Penn State	OT	6�6��	308
25	TEN(2)	Rashaun Blackwell	Nebraska	FS	6�0��	195
26	BAL	Gabriel Dantzler	Nebraska	WR	6�4��	221
27	CAR	Jeffrey Gruder	Texas A&M	WR	5�10��	198
28	DEN	Nick Koutouvides	USC	QB	6�6��	235
29	BUF	Gary Sulak	Wisconsin	OC	6�4��	292
30	MIN	DeMarco Elliott	Stanford	OC	6�2��	309
31	ATL	Bram Milner	Florida State	DE	6�5��	266
32	PIT	Kevin George	Texas	OLB	6�4��	241