2024 NFL Draft Round 1 Recap Roundtable

With Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft in the books, Brendan Donahue, Ryan McCrystal, Rich Hribar, and Raymond Summerlin give their thoughts on what happened on Thursday night including the best moves, biggest surprise, and what they’re looking forward to on Day 2.

Pre Order The Best Analytical 2024 Football Preview

Don’t miss out on Warren Sharp’s 500+ page preview of the 2024 NFL season.

The preview is unlike anything you have ever seen, featuring stunning visualizations built with the reader in mind.

This preview shares insights into players, coaches, teams, and philosophies with one goal in mind: to prepare you for the 2024 NFL season by delivering the smartest information in the fastest, most direct way possible.

Pre order the 2024 Football Preview now!

Best Move of Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft

Brendan Donahue: I have to give GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah credit for not only reading the board correctly but also having the conviction to call the bluff of the New York Giants to not take J.J. McCarthy with their pick at six.

Many thought that to secure McCarthy, the Vikings were gonna have to give up at least pick 23 overall and maybe more, but instead all they needed to do to move up one spot was to give up picks 129 and 157 while getting pick 203 back as well.

They were then able to use pick 23 to move up to 17 to select Dallas Turner, who many people had as the consensus best defensive player in the draft.

Ryan McCrystal: It’s hard to pick just one because so many teams came away with a player who filled a need and also ranked near the top of the best-available list.

But I’ll say the Eagles taking Quinyon Mitchell.

We know Howie Roseman loves to trade up, and there were lots of rumors they were going to, so give Roseman credit for seeing how the draft was starting to play out and correctly choosing to remain patient.

He got arguably the best corner in the draft, filling their biggest immediate need, with the 22nd pick.

Rich Hribar: There was a lot to like from a player-to-team fit stance in Round 1.

A lot of what happened made inherent sense since we saw so many quarterbacks and offensive linemen come off the board.

That in turn arguably created the potential for defensive value since we saw teams in the middle to back end of the first round land defensive players at positions of need.

The Eagles got the CB1 in Quinyon Mitchell at pick No. 22 as a standout, but there is an outcome where we look back at this draft class and see a lot of offensive reaches that created value on the other side of the ball.

Raymond Summerlin: I also like what the Vikings did despite the draft capital they gave up in part because of expectations.

Minnesota might have entered the night thinking they would have had to give up what they did in both trades just to move up for a quarterback. Instead, they landed both their quarterback and perhaps the best defensive player in the draft.

The Jaguars also deserve a mention for reading the board correctly, picking up some much-needed draft ammo given the state of their roster, and still walking away with the top remaining player at a major position of need.

Biggest Surprise of Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft

Brendan Donahue: Atlanta taking Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 overall pick after just signing Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract with $100 million of that guaranteed might not be just the biggest surprise in this draft but in any draft that I can remember.

Penix will be 26 by the time the bulk of that guaranteed money is paid, so that is conceivably the earliest he will see the field.

I will also add the Raiders taking Brock Bowers after selecting Michael Mayer last year and having their pick of any defensive player in the draft on the board at the time of their pick.

Ryan McCrystal: Xavier Legette sneaking into the first round.

We heard some rumors the Panthers loved him, but I just never imagined he could go that high.

He flashed some big play potential last year, but one-year wonders who don’t break out until their fifth year in college are extremely risky, and teams rarely gamble on them so early.

Rich Hribar: It has to be the Falcons taking Penix after aggressively signing Cousins at the onset of free agency.

I don’t believe that having too many quarterbacks is ever a problem, and I have wanted a team to try something like this, but Atlanta is also in a spot to win their division (they are the favorite right now) and have a lot of holes to fill defensively that they could have addressed with a player at No. 8 or trading back.

I am not completely out on what they did, but it was a surprising approach even before factoring in if Penix was not an actual reach or not at that spot, even for a team with a clear immediate need at the position.

Raymond Summerlin: The answer is Penix, but for the sake of throwing out something else, the Bills trading down twice to teams that then took receivers, a primary area of need for Buffalo, was surprising.

Buffalo has caught a lot of heat for those moves, especially since it allowed the Chiefs to get Xavier Worthy, but it is at least possible to explain their thinking.

Given their current depth chart, it is reasonable to believe the Bills were more interested in a receiver like Adonai Mitchell than Worthy, a player who will still be available to them with the top pick in the second round.

If that is the case, they traded back to get more draft capital for a roster that quietly needs some help and will still get their guy.

We will see what happens on Friday night.

Biggest Winners of Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft

Brendan Donahue: The Chicago Bears.

After pulling off their heist of Carolina last year, Chicago was able to transform their offense in one night.

They not only got their franchise quarterback but also were able to stay at nine and get a top-tier wide receiver to pair with him for what they hope to be many years to come.

Ryan McCrystal: Too many to mention, but I will throw out a few players who landed in perfect spots.

J.J. McCarthy definitely landed in a great spot to develop in Minnesota. Not only does he have Justin Jefferson, but he also has a stable coaching staff who can be patient with him.

Also, Amarius Mims landing in Cincinnati. He’s one of the most inexperienced offensive line prospects in league history, and playing offensive tackle at 6-foot-8 requires slightly different technique. So who better to learn from than Orlando Brown and Trent Brown, two 6-foot-8 veterans who can help him master the nuances of the position at his size.

Rich Hribar: It has to be the Bears.

The complete haul that they ended up with for the trade of the No. 1 overall pick last season has the potential to be franchise-changing.

They also still have Carolina’s second-round pick in next year’s draft as the final remaining piece of that trade.

I do want to mention that from a player fit, the Vikings did extremely well, but they paid a large overall cost to do so.

They have to nail those draft selections, but we also said similar things about the Texans last season when they went back up for Will Anderson.

If both McCarthy and Dallas Turner work out, the overall assets moved will end up as a footnote.

Raymond Summerlin: Every team in the second half of the first round that needed a defensive player.

The corners really stand out with the Eagles getting Quinyon Mitchell and the Lions only having to trade up to No. 24 to get Terrion Arnold.

Both players were expected to go much higher, and there was even buzz about Mitchell to the Falcons in the top 10.

Turner to the Vikings and Byron Murphy II to the Seahawks also stand out as potentially great values.

Biggest Losers of Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft

Brendan Donahue: Well I will not pile on Atlanta after already doing so in the biggest surprise section, even though they are the biggest loser of the night.

Instead, I will go with Denver staying at 12 and taking Bo Nix after five quarterbacks were already off the board and having their hand forced because they couldn’t risk trading behind the Raiders, who were picking right behind them, with only one of the potential first round quarterbacks still on the board.

Especially without a second-round pick this year, I think their goal was to trade down to acquire more draft capital and still come away with Nix later in the draft.

Ryan McCrystal: Brock Bowers is a very talented player, but the Raiders did not get better by adding him to the roster.

Bad teams simply don’t improve by adding tight ends.

Bowers was a luxury pick. He made sense for a team in win-now mode (like the Jets) or maybe a team trying to give a young quarterback more weapons (like the Colts).

But the Raiders are neither.

Rich Hribar: I agree that the Raiders probably got stuck just selecting the best player available and probably won’t end up much better because of it.

I also selfishly wanted Bowers to land somewhere with a good offense.

I also did not love the value of the picks of Ricky Pearsall and Xavier Leggette to close Round 1.

I am doing some squinting on Shanahan’s vision for Pearsall in the 49er offense, even if they do end up trading one of Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel.

Shanahan will forget more ball than I will ever fathom knowing, but Pearsall does not have a Round 1 profile.

He projects as more of a pure NFL slot in a system that has not used that type of receiver.

Legette felt like a solid Day 2 dart to throw. Maybe we are picking nits since Carolina could have taken him to open up Friday before the trade up one spot, but Legette has some Treylon Burks or N’Keal Harry vibes while being a player that had next no production profile until his fifth season in college.

Raymond Summerlin: I both like Michael Penix and think the Falcons will likely win their division this year, but it is the Falcons.

They had the opportunity to add a blue chip defensive player to a team that with Kirk Cousins can compete at the very top of the NFC, and they instead took an older rookie quarterback who is likely to sit behind Cousins for a couple of seasons, which also wastes the value of his rookie contract.

On top of that, Cousins’ agent confirmed they did not know about Atlanta’s plan until the team was on the clock, and reporting around it suggests Cousins was not particularly happy about the turn of events.

Looking Forward to Day 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft

Brendan Donahue: Does the run on wide receivers continue?

The last two picks of the first round and three of the last five were all wide receivers, and that’s with a wide receiver needy team in Buffalo trading down twice and now holding the first pick of the second round.

Another wide receiver needy team in New England is sitting right behind them, so we could have four wide receivers off the board in a row.

Also interested to see when and where the next quarterback goes now that six went off the board in the first 12 picks.

Ryan McCrystal does not have another one in his top 100 big board, so will a team feel the need to reach for the next one?

Ryan McCrystal: There’s a lack of Day 2 storylines with no players shockingly falling out of the first round and no big-name quarterbacks on the board.

So a few things to watch:

How many Michigan players does Jim Harbaugh draft? Junior Colson and Mike Sainristil could be targets in the early second round.
Do the Raiders make a desperate move for Spencer Rattler?
Do the Chiefs or 49ers draft their future tight end? There are some interesting potential heirs to Travis Kelce and George Kittle such as Kansas State’s Ben Sinnott, TCU’s Jared Wiley, and Ohio State’s Cade Stover (aka Farmer Gronk).

Rich Hribar: The Day 2 wide receivers and running backs were always the most intriguing part of this class from my fantasy neck of the woods.

After the “big three” wideouts, I felt this class provided a ton of arbitrage opportunities at wide receiver, and the secondary tiers were largely nebulous.

I want to see where players such as Ladd McConkey, AD Mitchell, Keon Coleman, Devontez Walker, Javon Baker, Roman Wilson, and others end up.