2023 NFL Draft Recap - Night One

The 2023 NFL Draft is here and that's my wheelhouse. If you're an NFL Draft obsessive, my podcast, The Season with Peter Schrager, has got you covered. Each week, I'm gonna empty my notebook on everything I'm hearing. I take great pride in my information, and I know that this podcast is the one that League decision-makers listen to. Mock drafts, amazing guests, it's draft season, baby. Let's go! Listen to The Season with Peter Schrager on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And now, move the sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks. 31 picks in the books. In the first round, the 2023 NFL Draft is complete. Welcome everybody to a round one recap here on Move the Sticks. Our guide Daniel Jeremiah, of course, in Kansas City, part of the broadcast on NFL Network. Rhett Lewis Bucky Brooks here with you on this edition of MTS, both of us on part of the MegaCast broadcast here on the NFL Family of Platforms. Bucky, a big part of the NFL channel on YouTube, and on your connected TVs, rolling with Mike Gamm and Lance Erline. Yeah, that was fun. Great work, my friend. I was a part of the NFL Plus broadcast with my friend Cynthia Freelner, Mark Ross, as we were trying to make the picks for the teams. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we hit on a few. We did, we hit on a few. And I effectively talked my GM, Mark, into making a couple of picks that I was pounding the table for. We'll get into those. We'll get into winners. We'll talk quarterbacks. We'll talk guys still sitting out there in round two. Will Levis hitting in hooker? Quarterbacks did not get picked. Bryce Young did go number one. I don't think we got to spend a ton of time on that, Buck. That was chalk. We thought that was going to happen for a while now. It did. But man, the Houston Texans, the one thing that I will take credit for, as you remember on the mock draft live show, you take credit for it. Well, you think a little bit. You feel like Nick and D'Vico were like, oh, the mighty red Lewis. No, sir. No, no, no, no. It was my forecasting the headline following night one. And that the headline was the Texans will win the draft on night one. Wherever they pick, whomever they pick, they will win the draft. And in my book, it was over at three as the Texans drafted CJ Stroud at number two, and then traded up from 12 to three with the Arizona Cardinals and nabbed Will Anderson. In my book, they got the best pure passer and the best defensive player in the draft. And they got cornerstones on both sides of the ball right there, Buck. What do you think? I mean, I loved it. I was surprised now. I mean, here's the thing leading up to it. I feel like we're chasing ghosts with the CJ Stroud thing and the Houston Texans. And you wanted it to Houston, Texas. We're going to overthink it when it came to quarterback. But at the end of the day, they did the good thing. They took CJ Stroud at two and it was smart for them to take him at two because if they take Will Anderson first, they may not be able to make the deal with the Cardinals. Someone else grabbed CJ Stroud. Right. They had to go quarterback first and get the quarterback first and they come back and get Will Anderson. And it made a lot of sense when you go back and you started looking at the comments that D'Amico Ryan said talked about in terms of guys, they liked the football character, all of the other stuff. I mean, he screamed. Will. Yeah. I was told that you guys, you know, if you listen to move the sticks leading up to this draft this past week, you guys sold me for sure. It was great. I mean, he was outstanding on. And so now you talk about a franchise that has two cornerstone players, the quarterback, the pass rusher, the work that they did a year ago, some of the free agents. It's still a very, very tough, not only division, but a tough conference where they should be a very competitive team. And you can see the foundation in place and then we only have to day one. Okay. So as I mentioned, DJ on the broadcast in Kansas city, let's hear his thoughts as those picks were made back to back at two and three by the Houston Texans. And he is a pure thrower. You talk about pocket ability. He has that. Any questions you had about CJ Stroud, though, they were answered in the game against Georgia in the playoffs. How about the pocket movement? Got a question whether or not he could move around reset, deliver the ball. He shows you that ability on time and rhythm. The ball comes out of the same arm slot. He's a rhythm passer and look at the ball placement where he's able to put it always on that upfield shoulder so you can run after the catch. Jalen Carter unblocked right in your face here. How do you get away from him? He does eyes up, deliver the ball down the football field. All these athleticism questions. He put them all to bed, making things happen outside the structure of the play and he might not be going for 40 50 yards. He's going to get you first downs with his athleticism. All right. Let's jump into Will Anderson in the video. Again, the elite character, elite, worth that work ethic leadership, all that stuff's great. But when he gets on the field, this guy has got power into work and plays the game in a manner that you see Khalil Mack play football run and pass. He's a complete player. He can dominate at the point of attack. He's done it for three straight years. When you watch him get after the quarterback, he's got incredibly strong hands. Talk about having shock in your hands. He's able to get underneath the wrist, pop it up and get home. He has a feel to go along with his suddenness. You over set, you get over your skis as a tackle. He feels it. He's going to counter underneath and get home with a sack. Think about the point of attack stack and shed. That's Jamari Sawyer started a bunch of games for the Chargers last year. Keep in mind he's playing against NFL players every week. And then you don't want to count from on the backside. He's going to be able to close that door with his speed and his effort. Hey, the Houston Texans aren't messing around guys. I love it. Fantastic work by the Texans and their entire personnel crew. And just to the way they maneuver the draft board to get those two marquee players in a draft that was not chock full of marquee players. Bucky again, I think, I think comes into play here. So Stroud Anderson and then at four. There's a lot of smoke about Will Levis. A lot of smoke. And it turns out it's Anthony Richardson. I feel bad. I feel horrible for Will Levis because I feel like he's been on a yo-yo ride. I mean, they're talking about him at two, then at four. And then for him to fall out the first round, you know, that's really unfortunate for him to watch that play out on national TV. But the pay for Anthony Richardson is one. I'll be honest. I am surprised. I'm only surprised because the player that we saw at Florida, we're talking about the potential, the upside. But I just didn't know if the Indianapolis Colts were for the trigger to do it. And so Shane Steichen takes his guy, Anthony Richardson. I think he'll use a similar blueprint to the one they use with Jalen Hertz. They'll move him around. They use him as a runner. And then the thought of Anthony Richardson playing alongside Jonathan Taylor in the backfield with what they will eventually add around those guys on the perimeter. Yeah. Softness is going to be challenging for opponents to defend because you talk about a dominant running attack if they can fix the offensive line and get back to doing some of the stuff that they did successfully doing the frame rate error. Seahawks went Devin Witherspoon after Richardson, Paris Johnson, first offense of Lyman Offward. We had kind of tied the Cardinals and Johnson together as, you know, as a match there. They got Kyle Murray's guy, the guy he had reportedly wanted. They end up trading back in a value that made more sense, right? And Paris Johnson's have gone to the Cardinals at six. Tyree Wilson, then now you get about 190 combined inches of wingspan there with the Condor, Max Grosby and another Condor like a wingspan in Tyree Wilson. Be John Robinson ends at eight. You know, it's kind of funny. It's like, that was kind of like the one pick that we kind of started the settle on. It's like, yeah, it's the only one we kind of find, Will. I guess the Falcons could take him. And when you ever hit coaching North Smith, who had more than previously with Derek Henry and Derek Henry flourished under his direction, the input be John Robinson, you know, the Falcons want to run the football. So now you take him and tell us yours. Could there are Patterson, you have a lot of running backs to throw at him. And if you're going to start Desmond Riddie, you're not going to put all that pressure on him, right, to carry the offense, then you ever run a game, just should be able to do it. And they've supported their offensive line and extended like a whole bunch of those guys. That's kind of a homegrown group up there that they have drafted heavily the last few years. But the first surprise of the night was, you know, the Bears trading out of nine in a spot where they could have taken a player they might have taken at one overall when they had that pick. They look, they trade out of the opportunity to take Jalen Carter, let the Eagles move up there and get a Georgia defensive tackle, a dominant one for the second straight year after Jordan Davis last year. And then the Bears take Darnell, right over Peter Skoronski over Broderick Jones. And so let me get your assessment of how that little sequence worked out. So this is interesting. The field effort you go taking Jalen Carter, that may complete since we had talked about that. He obviously had gotten assurances that he wouldn't fall out of the top 10, which is why the Eagles were in play in all of our minds. But now you surrounded with a bunch of his former teammates. You put him in a comfort zone where now he, the Kobe Dean, Jordan Davis, you, you, we talk about no list of us coming over later. It's like back to old times in terms of him being unlocked, we're surrounded by people that know him and can kind of help him kind of find his way while he's transitioning to the pros. Darnell right over Peter Skoronski is a surprise. But when you go back and watch the tape, best right tackle in the class, yes, have some nastiness and physicality and those things. And if the Bears are going to run the football like we think, he's a nice fit for them in terms of running the ball on the edges. Okay. And so then the Titans end up ending Peter Skoronski's weight. And look, they've invested now heavily in that offensive line. They need to, they had all kinds of injuries. Yeah. No Taylor Luan. He is no longer a part of the program. So you're talking about guys like Nick Petit Frere from Ohio State. You're talking about Dylan, Dylan Radens. And now, you know, you go get Peter Skoronski. I thought just a really solid job by Rand Carthon in his first year leading that personnel group as the GM. Now the first major shocker of the night comes from the Detroit Lions who traded out of six down to 12 and ended up selecting Chamere Gibbs, the running back. I feel like you're a little disappointed. I feel like the Detroit Lions. I'm not a, I am not a Lions fan, but I am a way back from way back. From way back. You're right. You're right. There was, there's some history there. I feel like I feel like it's a little disappointed because in essence, what the Lions did, if they were going to pick a running back, they could have sat at six and taken B-John and taken B-John. However, they fall to 12 and they take Chamere Gibbs and the grades aren't necessarily identical, but I understand in theory what the Detroit Lions are doing because there's been a lot of conversation about where they have David Montgomery. They have DeAndre Swift, but DeAndre Swift hasn't really done anything. He's been hurt. He hasn't performed to the level of expectation. Look, Jimmy Gibbs to me is a better version of DeAndre Smith in terms of what he can do out the back wheel and those things. And so now in the passing game, man, we're cooking with gas. Ben McDonald, we got to get him some weapons. Like we're trying to check it all over the yard. It just, it just felt like at that point, the names that were on the board, you know, Lucas Van Ness still felt like a premier player to me and yeah, look, I get it. You know, you took Aiden last year, you got James Houston, but it felt like there was some opportunity there to, I mean, Broderick, you know, I know you got your good at the tackles. It's just interesting that that was the position that they chose, you know, as a premier player as a top 12 pick. And then, and then look, they're back on the board at 18. Yeah. And they go Jack Campbell. And look, you won't find a bigger fan of Jack Campbell. I think he's fantastic. And 18, it shocked me a little bit. I mean, it only shocked me in terms of how much they love right. Rico, Malcolm Rodriguez coming from Oklahoma State, how much they talked about him and Hart Knox, how much he played last season. But then you get Campbell. So we got two of them. I mean, down here play, but he fit, he fits the culture. He fits Dan Campbell and what he wants to do. I'm just, I mean, I'm a little surprised. I'm a little surprised at that one. Okay. Thank you. I'm surprised. Talking about getting weapons for the offense, like the run on receivers could have started at 18 too. Yeah, but last year we drafted Jameson Williams the first round. You know, he's going to miss some serious time. Yeah, but we can't go back to the draft because he decided that he was going to gamble. No, I get a silly. All right. All right. Well, we traded away Jeff Acuda. Yeah. We could, at any of those times, we could have taken Emmanuel Forbes or Christian Gonzalez. We could have been like, well, I mean, that would have been with the junior Gibbs pick. I mean, free agency though, free agency. Like we saw some guys. All right. All right. I mean, it looked, it's all food for thought, but I just, it just, it just, it, those struck me as an interesting combo. It's setting up nicely for the Packers to reclaim the division. It's set up nicely. It's a joy and love to reclaim, to take the Packers back and reclaim the division. If they were playing in like 1992, like this, you know, like Rodney Pete, Rodney Pete would have loved these picks. And Jack Campbell, look, Chris Billman is all over. He's probably Wayne Fonc would have loved these picks. We go crazy. We go crazy. We go crazy. I lied. I just thought it was interesting. It is. Okay. How you feel about Lucas Van Esqu going to the green way Packers? I love Lucas. I love the player. So I love the pick. I, I, I kind of thought, I kind of thought that maybe, maybe the tight end, I might have gone there in Dalton, concade. He ends up going to Buffalo Bills if they traded up. We'll get to that here in a minute. But let's get into the fact that Christian Gonzalez had been getting some serious steam towards being the first corner off the board and in the top 10, not only does he not go in the top 10, but he's the third corner off the board behind a manual Forbes who essentially goes to Washington to try to recreate, uh, to recreate Josh Norman there for Ron Rivera. Well, yeah, that's what you get. You get it. It's so funny. Like I've made the comparison that he is a little bit like Xavier and Howard, but then when you look at the nose unorthodox cover style, which is very reminiscent of how Josh Norman played a position for so many years. Christian Gonzalez going to the Patriots, to me, we talked about it. Kind of reminds me a little bit of Stefan Gilmore when he came over from the Bills. Stefan Gilmore was a more of a bump and run corner at Buffalo, but when he goes to the Patriots, he does a little bit of everything. My thing with Christian Gonzalez, he has a great toolbox. He has all the size and attributes that you look for. But will he eat enough gunpowder to be tough enough to play for Bill Belichick? You've been up there. You've seen those prides. No, we better believe that. Yeah. Is he going to thump enough to kind of earn his right way onto the field? Yeah. Um, okay. So let's talk about a few other things here. We hit some of those surprises. I think I'm not surprised by anything that happened in the bottom 20, you know, the bottom six, seven picks. The fact that Mazzy Smith, Anton Harrison, Brian Brzee ends up getting their name called doesn't surprise me at all, especially in that range. I thought the fact that Nolan Smith was available at 30 was a pretty big surprise, which are thought there. I thought he might be available in the twenties. I didn't know he would get all the way down to the end, but what a great pick by the Eagles to backstop how I'm ready for the player that has comparable skills. So now, you know, we love to talk about the Eagles and their red shirt plan where they take young players, draft them up, but they sit them behind a veteran so they can sit there and learn the game without the pressure of having to produce right away and assess them up for success. Better where he gets an opportunity to have how some red get his mentor to watch him every day to take some of the things from the game, see if he can implement them. You know, for the Eagles, they invest in the front lines and Jalen Carter, Nolah Smith, in the same hall, that is unbelievable. All right. So we get Daniel Jeremiah's thoughts on the Eagles first, first round pick. And that, of course, was Jalen Carter trading up to number nine to make that happen. So essentially blocking out anybody else that was trying to move into that top 10, perhaps to make that pick and get a sliding Jalen Carter and then you team him up with Nolan Smith. So Georgia again, as winning the day in Philadelphia, but let's go back to DJ's thoughts on Jalen Carter here. You talk about the quickness, the leverage and the power and I don't say it lightly when I say Quinn and Williams, that's the type of player. Look at the knockback that he has here against Oregon. A little forearm shiver there to reset the line of scrimmage. The quickness, the suddenness, I wrote my note, this guy like teleports from one gap to another. I don't know how he got there, but he somehow gets there. Look at you. Take his quickness again, watch him stack shit and then make a tackle. Another example of the change of direction quickness quarterbacks trying to get away from him. Good luck. He is an outstanding finisher once he gets into the backfield. How about fullback? You think that they might have some fun next Sir Yani with this one? That's a three for that's a three for one special with him at the fullback position. So to me, when I look at Jalen Carter, guys, that defense was stacked last year in rap report. He was the best player on last year's Georgia defense. Interesting, right? Especially when you consider it a Georgia Bulldog win number one overall in that draft. And now you maybe get the best player there out of that Georgia team at nine for the Eagles. And then they come back at 30 with Nolan Smith. Interesting. Let's talk a bit about the other. We've talked, we've hit about these teams that are that have had the multiple picks. The Seattle Seahawks haven't touched on. You guys talked about it on the podcast this this week leading up to the draft going back to the 2010s, trying to recreate that defensive dominance. They get Devin Witherspoon to go along with Tariq Wolin. And then they come back and look, I know we had thought about wide receiver here. I didn't think that was a glaring need for the Seahawks, but the fact that they were able to get arguably the best wide out in the draft at number 20 in JSN. You throw him in the slot with Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. That might be the best wide receiver corner in the league. Yeah, it might be. And it's a perfect fit because you put him in the slot with Lockett and DK on the outside guys who win routinely on vertical games. And now you have this guy zipping across the field on all kinds of crossing routes facing one-on-one coverage because you still have to defend Kenneth Walker Jr. and Gino Smith in the pocket. It's just a very, very interesting thing to put together. And so remember, these are kind of bonus picks for the Seattle Seahawks. They get them for Russell Wilson. They didn't know they were picking in the top five. They didn't know that they would have another pick later that would give them an opportunity to kind of reset the franchise or franchise that went to the playoffs. So yeah, you, John, you said pretty, you feel great about what you walked away with after day one. Any other day one winners that strike you that we haven't hit on yet that you were a big fan of in terms of pick position and team? Don't know if I'm a big fan, but I think one of the things that stood out in me at the Baltimore Ravens going back to the wide receiver market to get Zay Flowers. Who's been likened to Steve Smith by Steve Smith has an opportunity to play in Steve Smith's old stomping grounds. What does that look like? The last time they took a little receiver, it was Hollywood Brown. Hollywood Brown didn't like it, didn't really fully embrace what it is they do. Will Zay Flowers embrace what they do on the outside if they ask them to be a little more active in the running game as a blocker? All right. We want to get, before we get on here, we want to get you our best players available going into day two and quarterback will be among the names at the top of that list. Four players left in the green room. Before we get that, let's take a quick break here. I'll move the sticks. Dan Hans is here with Mark Sessler and Greg Rosenthal from the Around the NFL podcast. The 2023 NFL draft is almost here and Around the NFL has you covered with three shows a week leading up to the big night. We got to top prospects. We got to big mysteries. We got it all. Dan will be joined by draft experts leading up to the big night to help us predict how this draft will unfold, which is hard to do because this year's draft is unpredictable. I'm excited. Yes. Listen to Around the NFL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast, happy drafting. All right. Back here with you, move the sticks. Right, Lewis Bucky Brooks kind of assessed our thoughts on how the first round ended up shaping up there, Bryce Young at number one, Felix Enyadique, Zama going to the champs in the home of the draft of the Kansas City Chiefs to close out night one, which means four guys are left in the green room in Kansas City going into day two here, Buck. Brian Branch arguably the best slot corner in this draft. All right. Will Levis, guy we thought is one of the top five quarterbacks. Kian White. That's close. Kian White. Right. George attack. That's fine. And then Joey Porter Jr. didn't go in the first round. I would say of all of those in terms of expressing surprise, Joey Porter Jr. I may be the most surprised at because when you look at the grade, he was a bumper and corner player at a high level. Had all those PBUs against Purdue, but then it was not necessarily up and down, but he had exposed for some moments. The thing is, he does have a complete toolbox and those guys at the top, they have the ability to do more than just press. They can play off, they can bail, they can do a bunch of different things. He hasn't shown that ability consistently. And so because of that, he's getting punished on draft day because of his inaction or inability to kind of do things in a complete fashion like some of these other guys. Okay. So let's just assess here quickly. Pittsburgh Steelers on the clock to lead off the second round after getting that pick from the Chicago Bears as part of the Chase Claypool trade. I don't think they're taking Will Levis. Are they fielding calls for teams that may want to get up there and try to get a Levis or a Hendon Hooker who did not hear their names called? When do you see those teams coming off here? I think those teams are trying to jump off in the thirties before you get to 40. But some of these guys are going to take, you know, they're going to take the chance they're going to swing because we talked about how this year is a little unique in terms of how everyone has everybody graded. Everyone looks good in our room and looked different in another room. And so you're just trying to figure out how to piece it together because I think guys are going to be a little more conservative to talk to some of those blue chip guys that slid through the cracks much like a couple of years ago, the Giants took Xavier McKinnon McKinnon to give them a safety. Let's see who just to say, I don't know, like Roger Jones earlier. Okay. Just kind of looking at this here, you know, thinking about it, the Raiders come on the board at 38, um, talked about them as maybe a team in that quarterback market at seven. That'd be a good place for them to take a quarterback, whether it's Will Levis or hitting the hooker. That's like a nice sweet spot. Yeah. Top first 10 picks of the, of the second round could be interesting. You got a lot, a lot of fun to dig into here. It's going to continue to, it's only going to get wilder because after we got through the first set of blue college, like you just look around and you're like, oh, yeah, I don't see a lot of people. This is, yeah, this is not good. This is not, it's not good. Okay. So for the, just another note on the first round, for the first time in the common draft era, we had wide receivers go back to back to back to back for about that. How about that? And I know you being a wide receiver, especially as you got JSN, Quentin Johnson going to the LA Chargers, Zayflaw is going to the Raiders we were talking about. But the guy that we talked about early in the week down in the green room, Jordan Addison joining the Minnesota Vikings to play alongside Justin Jefferson. That's an interesting one to say to Lee. I like it. I mean, they made their choice. They're riding with, with Kirk Cousins for the foreseeable future. And so they're trying to support him and they did giants. I, at that point got shut out of the wide receiver market and ended up going Deontay Banks, the corner on a Maryland. So I think who takes Jalen Hyatt in the second round, I think is going to be really intriguing as well as he did not get his name called. So there's some definite talent out there at the top. When we kick this thing off at the offensive lineman, I think we're going to again, to start coming, we didn't get any of the interior guys. Not a single one. No tipman, no JMS. We got no Steve Camila, no Osiris Torrance. So I think all those guys, Cody Malk is going to be available there early day two. And I think those are some of the things that we're going to be excited about and some of the things that Bucky and perhaps our buddy, Lance Zirline will talk to you about on the day two wrap up podcast, which will be back with you following the conclusion of rounds two and three. Look forward to seeing your reminder NFL networks coverage kicks off seven PM Eastern time live from Kansas City. You can check DJ out there. And then of course be back here tomorrow night for the wrap up pod. It's been great being with you. Thanks to our great production team led by the one and only and super fan of the Green Bay Packers and the Lucas Van Ness pick. And if you all is on, I am Red Lewis here with Bucky Brooks. Thanks again for being with us. We'll catch you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye., bye... Bye.... Thank you. .