10 NFL Draft observations you can steal to impress your friends
By Josh Hill
New Orleans made the right call trading for Marcus Davenport
Speaking of teams that need to stick their landing with defensive ends they drafted, Marcus Davenport has a lot of pressure on him this year. New Orleans traded two first-round picks to land him in a spot many believed was a reach.
Don’t hate on this before the results are in, however tempting and easy it may be. The Saints have raised eyebrows with the pick, but the payoff could be a Super Bowl ring. Last year, New Orleans went from a team we expected to finish near the bottom of the league to one that very well could have won it all (Marcus Williams whiffed tackle aside). They made that turnaround thanks to an absolute home run of a draft class, so there’s credit built up to at least allow for time to see if this works.
If New Orleans drafted a guy they think can help win them a Super Bowl in 2018, and then deliver on that promise, there’s no price too high to have paid for that end result.
The Giants deserve credit for the Jets landing Sam Darnold.
When it happened — a month before the draft happened — we all laughed at the Jets. How could a team be so incompetent as to trade up with more than enough time for other teams to find a way to possibly jump in front of them and take their guy?
Turns out, New York is getting the last laugh. Credit, however, should go to the Giants and not the Jets.
When Baker Mayfield went No. 1 overall, panic likely set in at the Jets war room. All reports indicated Baker was their guy, and Darnold was available for the taking at No. 2 for either the Giants or the highest bidder. That would have left ether Josh Allen (LOL) or Josh Rosen on the board — someone they could have ultimately selected at No. 6 thus negated the need to trade up.
But when the Giants sprinted to the podium with Saqoun Barkley’s name on their card, the skies opened up for the Jets. David Gettleman could have blocked the Jets getting Darnold by trading with Buffalo, Arizona, or anyone else who wanted him at No. 2. Instead, he took Barkley and left Darnold for the Jets and only time will tell who came out on the better end of that.
Either way, these picks are linked history forever and let it be known who deserves the credit whichever way history breaks.