NFL.COM: Brandt: A wrapup of the first round

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A wrapup of the first round

By Gil Brandt

NFL.com Senior Analyst

http://www.nfl.com/draft/story/7280868

Evaluating the first day

NEW YORK (April 24, 2004) -- First of all, the draft so far is historical in that you have the most players ever picked from one school (Miami, Fla.) and we set a record for the most wide receivers selected in the first round with seven. We probably also break a record for most number of trades in the first round. The ironic thing is that everyone thought there would be trades with the No. 2 and No 3 teams, yet Oakland and Arizona didn't make them.

I thought the Falcons had a very good first round, coming up with two very good players. DeAngelo Hall (No. 8) is a shutdown corner and WR Michael Jenkins (No. 29), who the Falcons made a trade at the bottom of the draft to acquire, has tremendous potential. He has size and speed. I really like when you have two picks in a round and do that.

I thought Detroit did very well with WR Roy Williams (No. 7) and RB Kevin Jones (No. 30) -- two very good players who will help the offense. The Patriots did well getting DT Vince Wilfork (No. 21) and TE Ben Watson (No. 32). Buffalo did very well because they got a quarterback in J.P. Losman who has tremendous potential, and they also got Lee Evans (No. 13), a wide receiver who can probably help them more than any of the other first-round receivers this year. He's short (under 6-foot) but he has long legs and can really snatch the ball.

Any team that got a quarterback in this draft did well. Four went in the first round -- Eli Manning (No. 1), Philip Rivers (No. 4), Ben Roethlisberger (No. 11) and Losman (No. 22) -- and all have a chance to be future stars in the NFL.

Thought of as a second-round pick, J.P. Losman wound up in the first round.

I like Philadelphia's trade where they traded up with San Francisco and came away with Shawn Andrews (No. 16), who is going to be an outstanding offensive tackle. I don't think he can play left tackle, but he will be an outstanding tackle in this league.

I really liked Oakland's selection of Robert Gallery with the second overall pick. What it does for the Raiders is they can move Barry Sims to right tackle and play Gallery on the left side when he's ready.

I like Green Bay's choice of Ahmad Carroll (No. 25). He can come in and be a good corner and add speed because I don't think it was a choice where they did something for need. I think they took the best player available and now they can trade Mike McKenzie, and if not, then they have a guy who can play as their third corner.

Defensive end Will Smith (No. 18) for New Orleans is a big help for their team. Houston had two first-round picks -- Dunta Robinson (No. 10) and Jason Babin (No. 27), who is an excellent player for the Texans' 3-4 defense.

All in all, at the end of the day, there are a lot of people who worked very hard up to today and a lot of them will be very satisfied. As of midway through the second round, we have not had a player selected who wasn't invited to the combine. As an example: Pittsburgh is getting a quarterback of the future (Roethlisberger, No. 11) and a cornerback ( Ricardo Colclough, No. 38) who can play now.

What we've seen is a lot of players in this draft that are very good players, and when we see the Robinsons, Vilmas, Evans' and Harris', I don't think any will go to the Pro Bowl, but they will be good, solid players.

I think the interest in this draft has been unparalleled. We've realized it from the amount of traffic on NFL.com and the number of radio show and print media requests. From all of us at NFL.com, we're pleased.