Rams take QB Goff with first pick of draft
Eagles take Wentz with second pick ● DE Bosa goes third ● Five Ohio State players populate Round 1
CHICAGO – Quarterbacks went onetwo at Thursday’s NFL Draft as the Los Angeles Rams took Jared Goff with the first pick, and the Philadelphia Eagles followed suit by naming signal caller Carson Wentz with the second choice.
It was the third time in the past five years that quarterbacks were taken with the first two picks of the National Football League Draft, a testament to the league’s more wide open, pass-happy thrust with rules tailored to bolster scoring and foster player safety.
For the Rams and their new quarterback it was a California dream come true.
The California native and three-year starter at University of California, Berkeley, will be a face of the franchise when it returns to Los Angeles after 21 seasons in St. Louis.
The Rams traded up to take the 6-foot-4 Goff, dealing numerous later-round picks to the Tennessee Titans earlier this month to acquire the first overall selection.
“I’m taking it as an honor and I’m going to have to prove them right, that they made the right decision,” said Goff, who last season set Pac-12 conference records for passing yards and touchdowns.
Wentz, 23, a rugged 6-foot-5 quarterback who led North Dakota State to two successive conference titles, showed off his strong, accurate arm and toughness by coming back from a broken right wrist to play in their championship game.
Los Angeles and Philadelphia both traded up to get their quarterbacks of the future.
The Rams, which were third in the NFL West with a 7-9 record, were initially slotted for the 15th selection but sent a passel of picks to the Tennessee Titans (3-13) to move up to number one.
Philadelphia (7-9) acquired the No. 2 overall choice in a trade with the Cleveland Browns (3-13), in another package of later picks in this draft and some future selections.
The San Diego Chargers broke the quarterback chain by taking Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa with the third pick and the Dallas Cowboys followed by claiming another Buckeye, Ohio State’s dynamic running back Ezekiel Elliott.
All in all, five players from Ohio State populated the first round.
The bold moves to trade up to the top of the list was a strong indication that the top quarterbacks would go one-two.
But there were a share of first-round surprises in the draft, the primary team-building opportunity in the most popular of US professional sports leagues.
Just one other quarterback was taken, as the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos traded up from 31 to 26 to claim Memphis signal caller Paxton Lynch.
The biggest shock involved top tackle prospect Laremy Tunsil, who tumbled down the list before being selected by the Miami Dolphins with the 13th pick following a controversial video posted on his Twitter account.
Just minutes before the draft, the former University of Mississippi player was shown wearing a gas mask and smoking something through a bong.
The video was quickly deleted and Tunsil suspended his Twitter account.
The tackle later said his account had been hacked, but teams steered clear of the player who had been expected to go near the very top of the draft.
Only 31 selections from the 32-team league were made as the New England Patriots had their pick No. 29 stripped as part of Deflategate punishment.
If the first round of the NFL draft revealed that three teams greatly valued the top three quarterbacks in this class, the second and third rounds on Friday revealed just how big of a chasm there truly was – at least in the opinion of NFL teams – between the top three quarterbacks and the rest of the class.
Three more quarterbacks were drafted Friday, but just one, Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg, was selected in the second round.
That move was surprising enough, given the polarizing opinions on Hackenberg after a rocky career in Happy Valley, but perhaps an even bigger surprise was Michigan State’s Connor Cook and Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott going undrafted through the first three rounds. Both fell behind North Carolina State’s Jacoby Brissett, who went to the New England Patriots at No. 91, and USC’s Cody Kessler, selected by the Cleveland Browns at No. 93.
It’s no wonder, then, that the Rams and Eagles made their early trades to make sure they got the quarterbacks they wanted, Goff and Wentz, respectively, or why the Broncos moved up on Thursday night to get Lynch.
Other teams with short-term quarterback questions, such as the San Francisco 49ers, or long-term ones, including the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals, punted on the chance to take a passer in a draft that so far has proven to be deep on defense.
Meanwhile, Myles Jack waited forever and a day to be selected in the NFL draft.
The former UCLA linebacker, whose surgically-repaired knee left doubt in the minds of potential employers, was taken by Jacksonville with the fifth pick of the second round.
Jack, a standout linebacker and occasional running back, opted not to return to UCLA after suffering a torn meniscus in his right knee during a practice in October. At the time, he was considered among the premier prospects in this class, a good bet to be a top-five pick.
Reports surfaced that Jack had additional cartilage damage in the knee that likely predated the injury, and might require microfracture surgery down the road, which Jack conceded this week. He also has insisted his knee won’t be a concern, and Friday posted a video clip on Twitter of him throwing down a two-handed dunk.
The Jaguars, who recently had Jack work out for them at UCLA, traded a fifth-round pick to move up two spots and get him.
UCLA Coach Jim Mora, who along with several other top college coaches attended the first round as guests of the NFL, said Jacksonville got “the steal of the draft” in Jack.
“He’s one of the top three athletes I’ve ever worked with, the other two being Michael Vick and Julius Peppers,” Mora said. “He’s in that category. I believe he could be an All-Pro running back, an AllPro safety or an All-Pro linebacker. When you look at the things we did with him, it confirms that.”
The draft concluded with rounds 4-7 yesterday.
Two spots before the Jaguars took Jack, the Dallas Cowboys rolled the dice on another damaged defensive star. They selected Notre Dame’s Jaylon Smith, the 2015 Butkus Award winner as the nation’s top linebacker, who suffered a devastating knee injury in a bowl game against Ohio State.
Smith, who suffered torn anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments, said that despite reports to the contrary, he “absolutely” believes he’ll be ready to play in 2016.
Perhaps the most inspiring story of the night was Cleveland’s drafting Auburn tackle Shon Coleman in the third round. Six years ago, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia as an 18-year-old high school senior.