Winners? You want draft-day winners?
How about Mitchell Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson? Three quarterbacks. All taken in the top 12 picks Thursday night. And all three somehow managed to avoid going to Cleveland — a graveyard for 26 starting quarterbacks the past 18 years — even though the QB-starved Browns began the day with two of those 12 picks.
Talk about impressive escapability.
More winners?
How about the Texans for getting Cleveland to take Brock Osweiller off their hands in March and hand-deliver Watson to them in April? They took Watson 12th overall after giving the Browns a third-round pick this year and a first-rounder next year to move down 13 spots in the first round.
More winners?
How about the return of running backs, especially those who get ripped for skipping their bowl games to avoid injury and focus on the NFL draft? Leonard Fournette went fourth to Jacksonville, Christian McCaffrey went eighth to Carolina, and college bowl organizers everywhere cringed at the certain trend that's to follow.
More winners?
How about receivers? Often considered the riskiest top-10 pick around (just ask Matt Millen), three were taken in the top nine, including Western Michigan's Corey Davis, who has to be thanking P.J. Fleck for historic FBS production and the money that goes with the fifth overall pick to Tennessee.
One team celebrating the run on quarterbacks, running backs and receivers was Washington. The Redskins cashed in defensively at No. 17 when they pounced on Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Allen, a top-5 talent.
More winners?
How about John Lynch's debut draft as general manager of the 49ers? He targeted Stanford's elite pass rusher Solomon Thomas to help a pathetic defense that ranked last in scoring (30.0) and yards allowed (406.4). But rather than sit at No. 2 and take him, he shopped the pick to a lot of teams that needed a quarterback. Chicago agreed to send Lynch a third- and a fourth-round pick this year and a third next year to move down one spot and still take the guy he wanted.
Speaking of da Bears …
You want some losers?
How about Chicago giving up that much for Trubisky, who had only 13 starts at North Carolina? The Bears had better be right on Trubisky because their defense was desperate for help, having created only 11 takeaways with no playmakers last season. Instead, they get a project quarterback who probably will sit for a while behind Mike Glennon, who suddenly found out he's a one-year bridge.
More losers?
How about Alex Smith? The Chiefs quarterback is young for a QB, 32, but he won't grow much older in Kansas City. Not after Andy Reid traded a third-rounder this year and a first-rounder next year to move from 27th to 10th so he could pick Texas Tech quarterback Mahomes.
More losers?
How about cornerbacks and offensive linemen? In a passing league that puts a premium on cornerbacks and offensive tackles, the first corner was taken 11th by New Orleans while the first tackle went 20th to Denver. Only two offensive linemen were taken all night.
There were six trades, including two involving the Seahawks, who went from 26 to 31 and then to 34. For dropping eight spots they collected extra picks in the third, fourth and seventh rounds.
The Browns, meanwhile, pulled a Spielman. They traded back into the first round to become the first team since the 2013 Vikings to make three first-round picks.
Some will say the Browns "won the draft." That seems to happen every year, only to be proven wrong time after time.
But …
The Browns did improve their defense. They made defensive end Myles Garrett the no-brainer pick at the top of the draft and then used the 25th pick on Michigan safety Jabrill Peppers. After trading a fourth-rounder to Green Bay, they moved from 33rd to 29th and took Miami tight end David Njoku.
For months, all we heard was how terrible this draft was for quarterbacks. And yet, much like 2011 — when Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder were top-12 picks — three questionable QBs were taken in the top 12 on Thursday.
The Browns patiently or foolishly passed on all three. But they will return next April with two first-rounders and three second-rounders.
And who knows? With next year's draft supposedly much stronger at the quarterback position, maybe the Browns finally will be considered the smart team. And that, more than anything, would confirm that this is a crazy league.
Mark Craig is an NFL and Vikings Insider. Twitter: @markcraigNFL E-mail: mcraig@startribune.com
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