Sports

NFL Draft’s first round highlights

Stuart Dezenhall Contributor
Font Size:

Thursday night’s first round of the NFL Draft was officially a snoozefest.

A few trades, no big names, no shiny new quarterbacks or running backs, and a ton of big guys that do the dirty work but won’t find themselves on any highlight reels.

Draft analysts and prognosticators have told us this was a meat-and-potatoes draft filled with offensive and defensive lineman but very few game-changing skill players. Boy, were they right. Not a single running back got picked and nobody drafted seemed to draw once-in-a-lifetime-player reviews.

Former Notre Dame linebacker and big-time sucker Manti Te’o finds himself in the same place as the sun rises the day following the first round — not on an NFL team.

Only one quarterback got picked — E.J. Manuel went to the Buffalo Bills — but there weren’t any of the bigger names like Geno Smith or Matt Barkley.

Offensive tackles Eric Fisher, Luke Joeckel, and Lane Johnson were picked first, second, and fourth overall, indicative of where the strengths of this draft lie.

The best back-to-back picks had to be Ezekiel “Ziggy” Ansah and Barkevious Mingo going to the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns, respectively.

Can you say announcer’s dream? Assuming they can pronounce both names, that is.

Lastly, the best analysis of the night came from Monday Night Football announcer and former Super Bowl winning coach Jon Gruden who, after former Alabama guard Chance Warmack was selected by Tennessee, reacted to teams complaining about Warmack’s slow 40-yard dash sprint time.

Gruden said what everyone else is always thinking: If you don’t like his 40 time, don’t make a 320 pound guard who will never once in his NFL career have to run 40 uninterrupted, unimpeded yards.

Well played, Chucky.

Follow Stuart on Twitter