The 2019 NFL Draft hype has been building for months. Let’s take a look at who came out a winner and who came out a loser after the first round.
The first round of the 2019 NFL Draft is in the books and we have our winners and losers of that first day. Some teams really impressed and others made fans, and experts, shake their heads in disbelief.
If you were a fan of the Cardinals, you were likely happy with your team’s first pick but if you were the Giants, well, not so much. The Cardinals picked the exciting Kyler Murray No. 1 overall while the Giants reached for Duke’s Daniel Jones as the possible replacement for Eli Manning.
There were surprising picks all day — see: the Raiders — and there were also some obvious ones such as the Lions taking yet another tight end in the first round — their third such pick in the past decade.
But which teams won the day and which are considering major losers?
We will start off with noting the winners from the first round because these are a little bit more obvious.
Winner 3: Arizona Cardinals — Kyler Murray (No. 1)
With the first pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, the Arizona Cardinals selected Kyler Murray. Many speculated for months that Murray would be selected by the Cardinals. However, those talks really only started up once Kliff Kingsbury took over the head coaching job in Arizona.
In October of 2018, nearly nobody had Murray even in the first round (by the way, I did). So, to see the 5-foot-10 quarterback go from not even playing professional football, to being the No. 1 pick in the draft, he definitely earns a winner spot.
Winner 2: New England Patriots — N’Keal Harry (No. 32)
How in the world do the Patriots keep getting better? Well, the answer is that everyone is concerned with themselves, not with the team who is consistently playing for the Super Bowl trophy.
While maybe drafting a wide receiver like N’Keal Harry didn’t make sense for 31 other teams (OK fine, not everyone had a first round pick), it made plenty of sense for the Patriots to improve the area of their team that is the weakest.
With Josh Gordon being incredibly unreliable and Rob Gronkowski retiring, Tom Brady has only Julian Edelman to pass to — Edelman was the Super Bowl MVP last season.
Harry led Arizona State in receptions over the past three years and averaged 13.6 yards per catch. He does an incredible job creating space for himself from his routes alone. However, standing tall at 6-foot-4, Harry serves as a big target who can fill Gronkowski’s role in the red zone.
Winner 1: Daniels Jones, Duke
With the sixth pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, the NY Giants selected Daniel Jones from Duke? Well, I have to admit, Jones was not at all on my personal radar as a potential quarterback to go in the first round. Even ESPN’s Todd McShay had him ranked at the 59th best prospect overall. So for him to be selected that high, he is definitely a winner.
Jones started three years for the Blue Devils. In that time, he finished with a 60 percent completion rate, 52 touchdowns and 29 interceptions. Those are solid numbers, but not sixth pick overall numbers worthy.
Ultimately, Jones will be earning a lot more money that he probably expected to. At the same time, the expectations will be much higher as well.
Ideally, Jones will have the opportunity to sit behind Eli Manning as he attempts to squeeze out a few more good years before retirement. This will allow Jones to get the Aaron Rodgers special, learning from a future Hall of Famer, and then taking over a franchise.
Loser 3: New York Giants
Wow. This has got to be the biggest shock of the night. Despite the handful of the good things I just said about Daniel Jones, this was a terrible use of a top-10 pick. So much more could have been done with such a valuable pick.
They could have traded for Antonio Brown.
I mean, I guess it’s possible that the New York Giants’ front office knows something that the rest of the world doesn’t know, but I doubt it.
I would agree that New York needed a quarterback. However, it appears as though Dwayne Haskins or Drew Lock (more on him in a bit) would have been much better solutions to the Giants’ problem. Jones has above average numbers playing in the ACC’s Coastal Division. Haskins had spectacular numbers playing in the Big Ten, was a Heisman Finalist and has won multiple big games. Lock started four years in the SEC.
Sooner or later, Giants fans are just going to stop showing up to games.
Loser 2: Drew Lock, Missouri
How can a quarterback go from leading the NCAA in touchdowns with 44 in his junior year to going undrafted in the first round with two much less experienced quarterbacks being selected before him? Yeah, I don’t know either.
In 2017, Drew Lock threw for just short of 4,000 yards in a season and took a terrible Missouri team to a 7-6 winning record. Lock played in 50 games for an SEC team, making him the most experienced quarterback in the 2019 NFL Draft. Not only does he have the experience, he performed at an outstanding level, in the tough conference in college football, with a not-so-great offensive line, and even worse offensive weapons surrounding him.
Lock not going in the first round is a disappointment, unfortunately, making him a huge loser — in the NFL Draft sense of course.
Loser 1: DK Metcalf, Ole Miss
After running a 4.33 40-yard dash at the combine, and shirtless pictures being shared extensively throughout the internet, D. K. Metcalf gained the second most attention for an offensive player leading up to the 2019 NFL Draft. Kyler Murray was No. 1, of course.
But despite all the video of him crying tears of joy at the combine, appearing on ESPN television shows, and much more of the sort, the Ole Miss wide receiver was not able to secure a spot on an NFL team after the first round.
There were two wide receivers drafted in the first round and two tight ends, so one could argue that offensive skill players, excluding quarterbacks, were the real losers in this first round.
Metcalf is no longer crying tears of joy, but rather is likely in the gym with the motivation to prove everyone wrong for passing on him.