Gregg Covers Sport

Night one of the NFL Draft usually brings excitement, trepidation, expectation and surprises. This years edition in Green Bay was no different. Sure the first seven selections were the expected ones, but the teams selecting them changed. Despite not hearing his name called by the Commissioner, Shedeur Sanders still dominates the conversation around the night, just where will his slide end? Lets take a look at three winners and two losers from the events of night one, casting one eye forward to night two tonight.

Winners

Jordan Love and the entirety of Green Bay

It would simply be rude to start anywhere else. If you’re finally going to select a wide receiver in the first round for the first time in 23 years, doing it in the first draft that your franchise has ever hosted is the time to do it. For years, Packers fans have been crying out for the franchise to use their top selection on a true weapon for their star quarterbacks. This year the stars just seemed to align. Matthew Golden, a wideout with ‘gold’ in his surname, walked out of the draft ‘green room’ wearing a green & gold suit jacket to collect his Packers jersey in front of a sea of green and gold. I’m sure the collective roar let out by the crowd at Lambeau Field when Golden had his name called out by Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy could be heard all the way down in Austin, Texas, where last year he torched SEC defences with his blistering speed. Jordan Love should be ecstatic, he’s been given something by the Packers that Aaron Rodgers never was, a first-round receiver. What a vote of confidence that is.

This is also a win for me, as I had the Packers taking Golden in my mock draft, so I’ll give myself a pat on the back.

Atlanta Falcons Defensive Coordinator Jeff Ulbrich

The Atlanta Falcons came into this draft with a glaring need to improve their pass rush. After spending their last four first round picks on offensive skill positions (QB in 2024, RB in 2023, TE in 2022, and a WR in 2021), the Dirty Birds almost had no choice but to take Georgia LB Jalon Walker with the 15th overall pick. The value was too good to turn down, with Walker 5th on Daniel Jeremiah’s prospect value board, and it was a match made in heaven. However, they weren’t satisfied finishing the night there.

Catching everyone by surprise, they traded their second-round pick (46), seventh-round pick (242nd) and their 2026 first rounder to the Los Angeles Rams for the right to pick at 26, also receiving a third-rounder (101) to soften the blow of the heavy price tag. Tennessee edge rusher James Pearce Jr, a two-time first-team All-SEC selection, was the player they took, and it was the player they had targeted ever since they’d hung up the phone congratulating Walker. Time will tell if the price they had to pay was worth it, but defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has two shiny new pass rushers to help him revamp the Falcons pass rush.

Cleveland Browns

I am putting the Browns here with a huge caveat. If Travis Hunter turns in to the generational talent on both sides of the ball that many project he could do, then no amount of justifying here is going to excuse the Browns for trading out of a position to take him. However, as it stands, I don’t have an issue with the trade they made. Yes selecting Travis Hunter would’ve met a need at both corner and wide receiver, but they managed to trade down three spots, netting a 2026 first-rounder and pick number 36 in the second tonight amongst other picks, and still managed to find value. DT Mason Graham was 4th on Daniel Jeremiah’s prospect board, and he fills a big need for the Browns, giving them a scarily quick athlete in the trenches to accompany future Hall-of-famer Myles Garrett in chasing down, amongst others, Lamar Jackson.

With Cleveland now possessing two of the top four pics in the second round tonight, as well as two in the 3rd round, they’ll be able to address a wrath of needs, including potentially at QB, with a certain Shedeur Sanders still available.

Speaking of Shedeur…

Losers:

Shedeur Sanders

As with the winners, there is only one place to start with the losers. Where Sanders, the Colorado QB who threw for 4,134 yards and 37 touchdowns last season, would be drafted was one of the hottest topics heading in to last night’s first round. Many felt that, if the really QB-needy teams passed on him early on in the draft, then there were only two positions that he could possibly go. Number nine to the New Orleans Saints, or to the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 21st pick. Once the Saints took Texas OT Kelvin Banks Jr. and the Steelers selected DT Derrick Harmon out of Oregon, Sanders hopes of being selected in the first round looked dashed. Some teams prioritised taking talent at other positions of need with their top pick, especially given next year’s class projects to be much deeper and stacked at the QB position.

There was still one last cruel twist to the night to be had for the son of ‘Prime-Time’ Deion Sanders.

When the New York Giants traded with the Houston Texans to jump back in to the first round, everyone knew it would be for a QB, but would that next signal-caller be Sanders? The answer was no. Instead, it was Ole Miss’ Jaxon Dart who went off the board as QB2, and all the guests at Sanders’ draft party in Texas could do was watch as a night that promised so much faded into disappointment. Sanders should go early on Day 2, potentially to the Browns, or even possibly the Las Vegas Raiders at pick 37, who’s co-owner Tom Brady is said to be a huge fan of the young prodigy’s skill set. Only time will tell.

Wide-receivers

Unless you were one of the four premier wideouts talked about extensively over the last couple of months, Hunter, McMillan, Golden or Egbuka, you knew that there was a slim chance of hearing your name called on Thursday night. Not since 2019, when only N’Keal Harry and Marquise Brown were selected, have four wide-receivers or fewer been taken in the first round. Teams much preferred bolstering their play in the trenches, where the depth in quality was much more abundant. 13 of the 32 picks made in the first round were used on either offensive or defensive linemen, and another four were used on edge rushers. The next receiver off the board could well be Luther Burden III to Tennessee with pick 35, but there could be very few receivers who hear their name called even on Day 2, backing up the suggestions that this receiver class just isn’t as deep as previous years.