One quarterback dropped like a stone, another surged higher than many predicted, and a third snuck into the first round after a precipitous drop leading up to Thursday night’s festivities.
The first round of the NFL Draft was wildly unpredictable — led by where quarterbacks Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel and Teddy Bridgewater were selected.
Bortles, the big-armed Central Florida quarterback, was the first big surprise of the draft, taken by the Jaguars with the third overall pick — 19 picks before Manziel was taken by the Browns and 29 picks before Bridgewater went to the Vikings.
“When our college staff got together and our coaching staff got together, he was a unanimous consensus of the guy we all wanted,” Jaguars’ general manager David Caldwell told Jacksonville reporters.
The Browns passed on Texas A&M’s Manziel twice, before using a third-round pick to move up from 26th to 22nd. Louisville’s Bridgewater, considered by some during the college football season as a potential top pick, saw his stock plummet after an underwhelming pro day. He was predicted to be a second-round pick, before the Vikings traded for the Seahawks’ first-round pick, the last choice of the night, and took the Louisville quarterback.
Bortles is considered somewhat of a project, but a potential franchise quarterback. The prototypical 6-foot-5 pocket passer was the 2013 AAC Offensive Player of the Year after completing 68 percent of his passes for 3,581 yards and 25 touchdowns compared to only nine interceptions.
“He reminds me a little bit of a Ben Roethlisberger.” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said.
Buffalo outside linebacker Khalil Mack, taken fifth overall by the Raiders, became the second player from the mid-major Mid-American Conference to go in the top five picks of the draft in as many years, joining former Central Michigan offensive tackle Eric Fisher, who went first overall to the Chiefs.
Before Fisher, the MAC’s last top 10 pick was Bernie Casey, who, out of Bowling Green in 1961, went ninth overall to the 49ers. … The draft was three hours and 39 minutes long. … No running backs were taken in the first round for the second straight year. Last April’s draft marked the first time it happened.