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The winners (Giants) and losers (LOL PACKERS) from the NFL draft first round

Did you catch your breath yet from the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft?

Because, WHEW, there was a lot to take in from Thursday … and we’ve got two more days to go.

There were so many trades, something that felt like could happen given the rumblings that the back half of the draft held a lot of uncertainty. Two big-name wideouts were traded (and one of them WASN’T Deebo Samuel). And one — ONE — quarterback was selected, strange the era of WE NEED A QB, but probably proof that this QB class wasn’t great.

Let’s run through the winners and losers from Thursday, and make sure to check out our grades of every pick from the first round:

WINNERS

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong )

Detroit Lions

The Lions’ biggest need was pass rusher. The best one dropped into their laps thanks to a random act of Jaguars-ness. Aidan Hutchinson is from Michigan, played college football at Michigan, and now begins his pro career in Michigan. While Travon Walker made waves with his upside, it was actually Hutchinson who rated out as the Combine’s most athletic defensive lineman this spring.

Hutchinson would have been a great fit next to Josh Allen in Florida. Instead he’ll get to lead a group of pass rushers that includes Michael Brockers, Romeo Okwara, Julian Okwara, and Charles Harris. That could lead to more double-teams as a rookie – but should also lead to more opportunities to crash the pocket and rack up sacks.

Detroit also saw the run on wideouts unfolding and traded up from the No. 32 spot to snatch Jameson Williams away from the needy hordes, though it forced them into the most lopsided trade of the night that didn’t involve any current players. The Lions opted for an “A” tier prospect in Williams rather than settle for a B-/C+ guy like George Pickens or Christian Watson. Given the way the demand for this year’s wideouts – and guys like AJ and Hollywood Brown – turned out, that’s not a terrible plan. — Christian D’Andrea

New York Giants

New York came into the draft with the fifth and seventh overall picks and walked away with two of the best available prospects. Kayvon Thibodeaux took a beating through the pre-draft process for reasons indiscernible to most but has Myles Garrett-type upside. He’ll bring an immediate boost to a pass rush whose 20.1 percent pressure rate ranked 30th in the NFL last season. He’ll team with Dexter Lawrence, Azeez Ojulari, and Leonard Williams to give New York an athletic and powerful young core of pocket-evaporators up front.

The Thibodeaux pick ensured one of the draft’s top two blockers would still be available when the Giants were on the clock again at No. 7. The Panthers’ decision to bring Ikem Ekwonu into the fold left new general manager Joe Schoen with a no-brainer. Evan Neal, 2022’s top pass blocker, can slide into the starting lineup at right tackle and pair with Andrew Thomas to keep newborn giraffe Daniel Jones from wobbling into pieces in the pocket. 

With two picks, New York filled two positions of need and got projected starters at positions that cost a premium on the open market. That will leave plenty of salary cap space to potentially lure a veteran quarterback next offseason – and a tailor-made set of pass-blocking bookends will only sweeten the pot for a passer looking for a change of scenery. This was just about as good a first round as the Giants could have had. — CD

New York Jets

New York got arguably the best cornerback in the draft (Sauce Gardner), arguably the best wide receiver in the draft (Garrett Wilson), and a pass rusher draft experts had pegged as a rising top 10 pick (Jermaine Johnson). If you can get past the fact Zach Wilson did this last season:

Things are good! — CD

NFL fans who like trades

You like trades? Who doesn’t? And there were NINE OF THEM ON THURSDAY NIGHT! We graded a bunch of them, including the Hollywood Brown deal (we’ll get to that). — CC

Wide receivers

We knew this class was going to be a big part of the first round (six receivers went in total!). What we may not have predicted was AJ Brown and Hollywood Brown being a part of the action. What an offseason it’s been for wideouts everywhere. — CC

Baltimore Ravens, who had two extremely Raven-y players fall in their laps

Things didn’t go perfectly for the Ravens; they traded away top wideout Hollywood Brown and seemingly alienated the quarterback with whom they have to negotiate a contract extension in the process:

But trading away Brown net Baltimore the draft’s best center as well as the 130th pick, which is a decent haul for a player who ranked 104th in the NFL in yards per target last season – the same season that’s the only one where he’s had more than 769 receiving yards. Hollywood was a good player at an exciting position. The Ravens replaced him with a great player at a boring one.

Iowa’s Tyler Linderbaum wasn’t the only piece of the puzzle. Baltimore watched the rest of the league create a frenzy for this year’s wideouts and stood pat as safety Kyle Hamilton – a 6-foot-4, 220-pound beast of a center-fielder, fell into its lap. Hamilton was NFL.com’s top prospect for 2022. While he doesn’t play a premium position, he plays one of great importance for the Ravens, who rely on play-erasing safeties to be the secondary driver of their defense. 

Baltimore got two talented players who can start from Day 1 and who fit perfectly into their franchise philosophy. And they did so without trading up once. Sorry, rest of the AFC North. — CD

LOSERS

Lamar Jackson

Look: I really like the moves to draft Kyle Hamilton and Tyler Linderbaum … but ticking off your starting quarterback by trading Marquise Brown doesn’t seem like the smartest thing to do. — CC

The Packers’ dreams of getting a first round wide receiver

Green Bay wasn’t as aggressive as their NFC North rival and missed out as a result. By the time the Packers’ were on the clock with the 22nd pick, six wide receivers had already been selected – including players like Treylon Burks and Jahan Dotson. Aaron Rodgers told Pat McAfee his team’s plan coming into the draft would be to wait until Day 2 if the top six pass catchers on its board had been selected before their turn, and that’s exactly what happened.

So Green Bay pivoted with a pair of Georgia defenders. The Pack passed up more complete inside linebackers like Nakobe Dean or Devin Lloyd or pass rushers like Jermaine Johnson or Arnold Ebiketie in order to select Quay Walker – a player commonly tabbed as a second-round pick in mock drafts this spring. Walker has plenty of potential as a 6-foot-4, 240-pound beast with 4.5-second 40-speed, but a win-now team could regret passing up a player who may have been a bigger contributor in 2022 like Dean and Lloyd.

The team’s pick at No. 28 was tougher to argue with. Devonte Wyatt is disruptive defensive tackle who can give the team another Kenny Clark-type presence up front. Which is great, but it doesn’t address the fact the team’s top wideout is Allen Lazard. Fortunately, Green Bay has three picks on Day 2 to sort that out. — CD

Running backs

It was a bit of a longshot that we’d see a RB selected on Day 1; the odds of a first-round tailback clocked in at +150 by the time the draft officially started. Still, it looked as though Iowa State superstar Breece Hall could be a welcome addition for a team like the Bills, Buccaneers, or Bengals toward the end of Thursday night.

Nope! Sliding linebackers and a sudden surge of safeties turned Hall’s potential landing spot into a defense-first zone; six of the final seven picks were defenders. For the first time since 2014, no tailbacks were taken in the first round. The first runner selected that spring was Washington’s Bishop Sankey, who lasted just two years in the NFL. That’s not a great omen for Hall, who should be roughly 10 times better than his Husky counterpart. — CD

Bill Belichick (who's probably a winner anyway)

The Patriots traded back from the 21st pick and let the Chiefs draft Trent McDuffie – widely rated as 2022’s third-best cornerback – there. That was a rough sled for a team that lost All-Pro JC Jackson this offseason, but fine. Sliding backward is a long and proud New England tradition and plenty of top prospects remained on the board for the Pats’ selection at No. 29.

And Belichick did not get any of them. Instead he opted for Chattanooga interior lineman Cole Strange, who was widely considered a mid- to late-Day 2 pick.

Yes, New England needed a guard – in large part because it traded Shaq Mason to the Buccaneers for … a fifth-round pick. Here’s a partial list of the players Belichick passed on to get Strange, whom the Pats were convinced would not last until their next selection at No. 54:

  • LB Nakobe Dean
  • S Lewis Cine
  • S Daxton Hill
  • EDGE George Karlaftis
  • CB Andrew Booth
  • EDGE Arnold Ebiketie
  • DL Logan Hall
  • WR Christian Watson
  • WR George Pickens
  • WR Skyy Moore

Any of those players would have filled needs in New England and produced some sunnier analysis from draft experts. But none of those prospects were Bill Belichick’s guy. He’s pulled enough great players from relative obscurity that he’s earned the benefit of the doubt – Kyle Dugger from Lenoir-Rhyne, Jamie Collins from Southern Mississippi, and Logan Mankins from Fresno State foremost among them. Of course, he’s also whiffed on reaches like Ras-I Dowling, Terrence Wheatley, Ron Brace, and Aaron Dobson, so let’s not let him off the hook just yet. — CD

See live draft results and grades at the 2024 USA TODAY NFL Draft Hub.

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