NEW YORK (AP) – It was an opening night of daring moves and dangerous choices.
With the 32 NFL teams trying sort things out before the league tells them how to operate now that the lockout has been lifted, it was the Atlanta Falcons who made the boldest deal in Thursday night’s first round of the draft.
The Falcons traded away four picks, including two No. 1s, to get Cleveland’s No. 6 spot and jumped on Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones.
“It was an aggressive, bold move to get up from 27 to 6,” conceded Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff. “We knew it was going to cost us. As an organization we felt very strongly about the move for a player who truly adds the explosive, urgent athleticism we’re looking for to improve on this team.”
The hope is Jones will complement All-Pro Roddy White and give quarterback Matt Ryan another game-breaking threat. The Falcons, by the way, had the best record in the NFC last year and were knocked out of the playoffs by the Green Bay Packers.
Teams desperate for quarterbacks like Tennessee and Minnesota may have been reaching with their choices.
While the Carolina Panthers went for Auburn’s Cam Newton with the No. 1 overall pick, three other quarterbacks were in the top 12 – and not in the order they were projected.
Jacksonville, which needs someone to replace the inconsistent David Garrard, traded up six spots for Washington’s No. 10 pick and went for Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert, considered a strong, accurate passer.
Before that, the Titans defied many draft experts by going for Washington’s Jake Locker at No. 8. He returned for his senior year, and his workouts did not produce rave reviews.
Nonetheless, new coach Mike Munchak is a Locker guy. We’ll see how he feels in a few years.
“I just pictured myself in the huddle with this guy and thought, ‘Man, these guys will love playing for this guy,”’ Munchak said. “I think he has got something special like that that he’ll bring out the best in other players.”
An even bigger surprise came from the Vikings, who went for Florida State’s Christian Ponder at No. 12. Ponder is short by QB standards (6-foot-2) and needs work on the deep pass.
Vikings vice president for player personnel Rick Spielman said the asking price was too high to trade up to get Gabbert. So they went with Ponder.
“Quarterback was a huge need for us,” he said. “Everybody knows that.”
In a normal year, free-agent signings and pre-draft trades might have helped teams looking for quarterbacks. Kevin Kolb, Donovan McNabb, Marc Bulger and Matt Hasselbeck could have been available, but the lockout that was just lifted prevented any player movement before the draft.
That, of course, could change Friday, when the NFL will tell its clubs how to proceed with player transactions.
Another big surprise came when the Detroit Lions went for Auburn defensive tackle Nick Fairley with the No. 13 pick. The Lions probably figured, “Why change a good thing?” Last year, they took DT Ndamukong Suh at No. 2, and he went on to make the AP’s All-Pro team.
Fairley was once considered a top-five pick, but his stock slipped because of questions about his desire to play all out all the time. Schwartz was happy to see him still around.
Then again, he could end up as part of a trade in the next few days.
There were several other trades involving draft picks, but nothing out of the ordinary, other than Commissioner Roger Goodell being booed and fans chanting, “We want football!”
For now, they’ll have to settle for the draft.
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