NFL Draft: Winners And Losers - Full Recap

2013-draft-logo-story The NFL Draft for the year 2013 is now over. For a brief moment now, every team is a winner. Everyone improved. Not equally in some cases, but, they have all added pieces. Surprises did come from the draft, trades, and unexpected picks. Some...questionable... picks were made. But, the teams did what they thought were best. On day 1 we were able to see some excitement, albeit not as exciting as last season. There was no RG3 or Andrew Luck. No, this year was the year of the big man. 17 picks in the first round were linemen, either defensive or offensive. Included in those 17, 7 of the top 10 picks. This wasn't a very 'pretty' first round. Most of the players picked will only have their names mentioned twice a game, on a good day. The offensive linemen hardly ever get mentioned. At the same time, ask any team if the big nasty fellas are important. Most of the time, they will be wildly important on a Super Bowl team. Ask Mike Vick if offensive linemen are important. Outside of those picks there were some skill players taken. Tavon Austin, Dee Milliner, DJ Hayden, EJ Manuel, Kenny Vaccaro, Eric Reid, Tyler Eifert, Desmond Trufant, Xavier Rhodes, DeAndre Hopkins, Cordarelle Patterson, and Matt Elam. There is the sum of QBs (1), WRs (3+1 TE) and DBs (7) taken in round one. No Manti Teo and no Geno Smith or Matt Barkley. That was an exciting round, certainly more excitement than I thought prior to the draft. The most curious story of round one was EJ Manuel, not Geno or Barkley. If you had to pick one QB to go in the first round, I certainly believe EJ wouldn't have been him. Still, I believe EJ is going to be a very productive QB. He is big and has a live arm. He also has the ability to move. Even though he doesn't have the talk behind him. He may be the best quarterback of the first 2 rounds. Good luck EJ! I don't want to break down each round individually, so, we will now move on to each team. I will give a summary of their picks and my thoughts. I will also attach a letter grade (A-F). Thanks for reading!
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Currently a sports journalism major! Sports I love are college football, NFL, and MLB. But, I can watch anything and everything! Thanks for reading. Follow me on twitter @DanJackTaylor