NFL Draft 2015: 5 teams that screwed up Day 1
By Will Osgood
Looking at the five teams who had the worst first night of the NFL Draft.
With the final rounds of the draft wrapping up, the first-round of the 2015 NFL draft is officially in the books and selections have been introduced to the media by their teams. Things went pretty much chalk from the onset. Jameis Winston went No. 1, Marcus Mariota 2.
Dante Fowler to the Jacksonville Jaguars was expected by many. Amari Cooper at four to the Oakland Raiders was predicted by many.
It wasn’t until the fifth pick where things went slightly off the rails. Nonetheless, new Washington Redskins general manager Scott McCloughlan made the smart pick in selecting offensive lineman Brandon Scherrff.
Picks six through eight all made sense. And then pick No. 9 happened. The New York Giants went in a rather unthinkable direction. Sure the move was reported by some, but it was still surprising.
We’ll get to that pick momentarily. But first, it’s appropriate to mention that this was one of the few drafts where it was incredibly difficult to look at any pick and say, “Man I just don’t get it.”
Most picks were logical. Few teams “won” the draft’s first-round, while few “lost” it. All in all, it was a fairly by the book round.
Every team could have improved. Even the bad moves–listed now–are relative in scope. They’re really only the worst moves, but not necessarily terrible selections.
They are mostly moves which seemed desperate, not idiotic, per se.
They are moves, though, proving certain teams were all in, targeting one player instead of taking a strict best player available approach, which is okay. Two of those two teams–the Broncos and Chargers–probably are all in next year, given that they have veteran quarterbacks and seemingly small “windows” to win.
Going all in makes sense for those two franchises. The other three were made by franchises who probably are not all-in for 2015, so they were head scratchers to a degree.
Next: The worst pick of the night