The 10 biggest surprises from the 1st round of the 2019 NFL Draft

The NFL Draft is rarely a place for the expected. Each year, mock drafts wind up shredded on the floor as teams deviate away from common logic and curiously planted reports to make foundation-altering trades, reach for players who were expected to languish in the green room a couple hours later, or find a way to ignore their needs to stuff prospects into already-filled depth charts.

In 2019, we got all three and more.

This year’s first round left no shortage of surprises after Kyler Murray, Nick Bosa, and Quinnen Williams went a predictable 1-2-3 at the top of the draft. The Giants got their quarterback, just not the one anybody expected. Projected first-rounders like Jawaan Taylor and Drew Lock didn’t go in the first round, but a man mountain from Alabama State did. And Washington was ... smart? Huh.

Here are the 10 moments that shook us the most on Day 1 of the 2019 NFL Draft.

Tytus Howard had been mostly considered a Day 2 selection after a sturdy career with the FCS Hornets, but when the Texans had their OT pick, Andre Dillard, swiped out from under their nose by the Eagles at No. 22, Houston shifted to its Plan B — the high-upside blocker from Montgomery. Howard spent his last four years blocking out the sun against SWAC competition, but scaling that performance up to NFL levels will be his greatest challenge yet.

Howard is a dynamic talent who is big (6’5, 322 pounds), strong, and athletic. But whether he’ll be a better pro lineman than more highly regarded players like Taylor and Ford has yet to be seen. Still, congratulations to the Hornets, who now have a more recent first-round pick than Florida, USC, Penn State, Auburn, Oregon, Texas, or Miami.

The Dolphins’ most viable starting quarterback on the roster right now is 36-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick. Haskins, rated as SB Nation’s No. 1 quarterback this year, was still available at No. 13. Passing on Haskins and drafting a defensive tackle suggests they’re more interested in whomever they can pick after next year’s three-win season than adding an upper-tier QB prospect this spring.

Haskins would have had his hands full behind a deficient offensive line and with a limited group of targets, so instead they’ll let Fitzpatrick deal with that knowing (another) bad season won’t have any impact on his future or the team’s.

Now, first-year head coach Brian Flores gets a top-notch space-eater in Christian Wilkins and another building block for an intriguing defense. The Miami offense will be borderline unwatchable in 2019, but that’s the best way for it to get Justin Herbert or Tua Tagovailoa in 2020, which was probably the plan anyway.

Every year a handful of players who are projected to go in the first round fall to the second day of the draft. This year’s draft was no different. Here are some of the names who were in the first-round conversation, but are still available for whatever reason.

That’s a lot of talented players still on the board, especially at receiver and cornerback. It’s very possible we’ll see a little run at those positions to start the second round.

The Falcons made a surprise pick by selecting Boston College guard Chris Lindstrom with the 14th-overall pick. Then, they doubled down on offensive line by trading back into the first round and selecting Washington offensive tackle Kaleb McGary with the 31st pick.

It wasn’t necessarily shocking to see Atlanta beef up its trenches, but it was surprising to see the team ignore the defensive line entirely. The Falcons gave up 42 sacks last season, which was the 13th-most in the league. Clearly they needed to get better in that regard, but two first-round offensive linemen was a head scratcher.

For the first time in 13 years, the Steelers traded up in the first round of the draft. The Steelers leapt the rival Bengals to nab Devin Bush with the 10th pick in the draft. To make that happen, they swapped first-round picks with the Broncos, and gave them their second-round pick and a third-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The last time the Steelers traded up in the first round was in 2006 for Ohio State receiver Santonio Holmes, who was taken with the No. 25 pick. For a team that usually stands pat in Round 1, it was a bit unexpected to see the Steelers move all the way up into the top 10 of the draft.

Green Bay needed a pass rusher to replace the departed (to the Rams) Clay Matthews. Instead of getting an edge rusher like Brian Burns or Montez Sweat, the Packers pounced on a high-ceiling, low-production standout in Michigan’s Rashan Gary. The folks over at Acme Packing Co. weren’t convinced this was the right move.

Gary was the nation’s top recruit in high school, but his three seasons with the Wolverines left lots to be desired. The burly lineman — somehow talked up as a linebacker during the draft broadcast — finished his college career with only 9.5 sacks in 34 games and looked more like a three-star recruit than a guy who had offers from nearly every major program.

The Packers went and addressed a big need at safety by trading up to snag Maryland’s Darnell Savage, but there’s a chance Savage would have been available for the team’s selection at No. 30 after he failed to make an appearance in the bulk of this year’s mock drafts. Gary and Savage could be great players in green and gold, but they may have been available later on.

Everything seemed to fall in place for Washington during the first round of the draft. It got a new franchise quarterback in Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins and traded up for a freakishly athletic edge rusher in Montez Sweat.

Both moves earned high praise from these parts — Dan Kadar gave the Haskins pick an “A+” grade and the Sweat one an “A.” Bill Connelly wrote, “Washington may have just gotten two top-10 talents with the 15th and 26th picks. Well done.”

What’s really stunning is that Washington made these first-round selections when owner Dan Snyder reportedly took command of the draft.

Head coach Jay Gruden has already said Haskins will have a chance to compete with Case Keenum for the starting quarterback job, which makes sense. Gruden is on the hottest of hot seats so he really just needs to put the best player on the field — it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Haskins is better than Keenum.

A franchise quarterback and an edge rusher to replace Preston Smith. Not a bad Round 1 at all.

Pittsburgh’s trade up for Bush makes sense, considering the Steelers have needed a linebacker since Ryan Shazier was injured a couple seasons ago.

The strange part about the pick was Bush’s outfit. What is this?

Bush came out dressed like a Yin and Yang symbol. On the biggest day of his life he dressed up as an Othello board.

At least he’s a stud on the field because this outfit surely ain’t it.

No one saw this one coming.

In Mike Mayock’s first draft as the Raiders’ general manager, he pulled an absolute stunner by selecting Clemson defensive end Clelin Ferrell with the fourth pick in the draft. Ferrell was a productive player for Clemson with 50.5 tackles for loss and 27 sacks in four seasons, but none of the major mock drafts expected him to go this high.

Perhaps the funniest part of the pick was that the Raiders sent their scouts home last week because they didn’t want any leaks. No one would have believed a scout if they said Oakland planned on taking Ferrell fourth overall.

The Giants finally took their quarterback of the future (even if that future is three years from now). David Gettleman drafting Daniel Jones isn’t that surprising, but taking him with their first pick was a bit of a shocker — especially when they were expected to take a pass rusher at No. 6 and players like Josh Allen were available.

Jones wasn’t exactly the most productive college quarterback, to put it kindly. That doesn’t matter much now, but it’s a bit hard to understand why the Giants would pick Jones that early and with Dwayne Haskins, who ended up falling to Washington, still on the board.

We’ll never know, but the Giants might have been able to select Jones with the 17th pick in the draft — where they ended up taking Clemson defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.