2013 NFL Draft First Round Predictions
8 Predictions about what will happen in tonight's first round
The 2013 Draft is only an hour away from starting and with that in mind, I have a few predictions about what is going to happen before the first round is in the books many hours later from now. I'm not doing a "mock" draft as there are plenty of those to be found up and down the blogosphere. Most of them will be wrong by pick #5, and I'd bet all of them by pick #26. So instead, here are a few predictions I have about what we can expect to happen:
1) The big three OT's (Luke Joeckel, Eric Fisher, and Lane Johnson) will be selected in the first 4 picks. Even if it takes one or two teams trading up to select them.
2) The Oakland Raiders will NOT draft one of the fastest WR's in the first round.
3) The San Francisco 49ers will trade up in round 1 as they have extra picks to give.
4) There will be at least 10 first round trades.
5) Only 2 quarterbacks will be selected in the first round. None in the top 10. Your guess is as good as mine as to which two, but I'll say Geno Smith and Ryan Nassib.
6) Not only will this NOT be the first draft to not have a running back selected in round 1, but there will be TWO running backs selected in the first round (Eddie Lacey and Jonathan Franklin).
7) I will vehemently disagree with at least 1 of the 2 selections the St. Louis Rams make in round 1. They screwed up 2 of their 3 picks in round 2 last year and I am positive they will probably screw up their second first round pick this year, and possibly the first one, too. (As a lifelong Rams fan going back to the Fearsome Foursome days I feel entitled to include a bash on my team when I can see a mistake coming)
8) No matter what the Jets do tonight, you will hear their fans boo them at the draft. They have too many holes and the only player the fans seem to really want is WR Tavon Austin. And I get the feeling he isn't going to be there at the 9th pick (even if he should be). Jets fans haven't cheered a pick their team has made since Mark Sanchez and we all know how that turned out.
There you have it: 8 predictions about round one of tonight's NFL draft. I know some of them were kind of ridiculous (Oakland picks too high to take a speedy WR this year), but it's stuff like this that is fun to do while waiting for the biggest non-sporting sporting event to begin!