Some teams won and some teams lost, that's just the way it goes in sports. The NFL draft was no exception as many teams had themselves great drafts and others are left scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong. Here are the winners and losers of the first day of the draft.
Winners:
Cleveland Browns: The Browns walked away with Justin Gilbert, Johnny Manziel and another first round pick in 2015. That is an incredible haul of talent that could possibly change the direction of the Cleveland franchise. The Browns did a ton of wheeling and dealing to end up with this draft class, but they come away from day one the biggest winner.
Minnesota Vikings: The Vikings are another team that wheeled and dealed their way into a superb draft class. The Vikings were rumored to take a back seat this draft considering they had three first round picks last season, but it yielded the opposite results. The Vikings struck out on Johnny Manziel, but landed both Anthony Barr and Teddy Bridgewater while giving up minimal draft picks. The Vikings have to be happy with their takeaway in round one.
Louisville: While schools like USC, Texas and Notre Dame had a whopping one player go in the first round, Louisville had three players go in the top 32 picks. Calvin Pryor, Teddy Bridgewater and Marcus Smith all went in the first round. Charlie Strong did a great job with these players and Texas should be encouraged by what he did with lesser talent in the college game.
Losers:
Arizona Cardinals: The Cardinals walked away with the worst first round pick of the bunch in Deone Bucannon. Bucannon was a guaranteed second day pick that the Cardinals reached for when other quality safeties were still on the board. In the pre-draft talks the word was that only two safeties were grading out as first round prospects, but the Cardinals grabbed one anyway.
Miami Dolphins: The Dolphins were desperate for offensive line help, but to reach this early in the draft seems irresponsible. The Dolphins loved Zack Martin and Ryan Shazier so having both of theses players gone by No. 19 must have knocked Miami down a bit. I don't love this pick, but he does fill a need.
Derek Carr: Carr was the subject of all the smokescreens and lies that occurred in the first round and now he has to wait hours to hear his name called. Carr was rumored to be ranked ahead of Bridgewater and even Manziel by some teams, but those rankings were apparently leaked lies that have hindered Carr and left him looking for answers in the second round.
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