NFL Draft: Night 1 Live Blog
From 1 to 32 (with plenty of Bears reaction in the middle) - kick it with us as we all get put on to the future of the League
Welcome to our live blog for Night 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft, a.k.a. — the night everything finally comes together for the Chicago Bears once again!
The next reign of Bears dominance is as impending as the next heart attack at Da Superfans imaginary draft party. Yes, we’re still making Da Superfans a thing — the Bears have little else over the past 30 years, at least at the moment…
What we got for you tonight is our continued takes, reaction and curation from a number of areas — we got our associate producer and Bears beat reporter Saul Rodriguez live from the Bears draft party at Soldier Field, he’ll be providing live content for social media throughout the night that we’ll re-post here.
Plenty of other opinions and other foolishness from other people online will be utilized here (especially if a joke can be made from it) and it’ll all be filled out by whatever filler I, WARR Executive Editor Kyle Means, have to fill ya with.
Enjoy the draft, y’all, and start off with us with our latest draft preview videos at the top of this post and below, featuring NBC Sports Chicago draft expert Glynn Morgan.
And if you can’t stand the draft coverage here, we recommend sticking with the guy at NBC, including Glynn and our guy Kenneth Davis who’ll be manning live coverage through NBC Chicago’s streaming platforms from 7 pm on. Utilize those multiple screens, people!
Carolina on the clock
Kansas City getting to stunt as the first round opens up. This has to be the first time a reigning Super Bowl champion gets to host the draft as they celebrate their big win. Its still their moment, got to let them dwell on it.
Of course, so much of what tonight is about is 31 other teams trying to build themselves up to be able to celebrate at the end of next season, or some time in the near future. The Carolina Panthers get the first swing at fortifying their future after the Bears so kindly allowed them too with the teams’ big trade last month.
Personally, I was all in favor of the trade, not only did it help the Bears in multiple ways for the present and future — the future focus coming with the additional draft picks, the present with a possible No. 1 receiver they gained in D.J. Moore — it also alleviated the Bears from so much pressure with what to do with the pick and whether or not to draft a QB to replace Justin Fields, a ridiculous proposal if there ever was one.
Pressure’s on Carolina now and they can have it, it also looks like they’re going to have Alabama’s Bryce Young as well. Good for them — another franchise player they can build their offense around after playing hacky-sack with several veteran signal callers since Cam Newton fell off.
And while I believe Young can be eventually effective in the NFL, don’t expect him to blaze the league from day one, especially on this current Carolina team. That’s just fine, cause the Bears got a ‘24 draft pick depending on it. Gotta love the wheeling and dealing. Hopefully there’s more to come tonight…
No. 1 - Carolina, Bryce Young (QB), Alabama
No. 2 - Houston, C.J. Stroud (QB), Ohio State
No. 3 - Houston (via trade), Will Anderson (LB), Ohio State
Houston has spiced up this first round right away with a big time deal with Arizona to get themselves back-to-back picks in the top 3. Houston doesn’t have Bryce Young but they still got a new franchise QB and possibly a franchise-altering defensive talent. Man…
(Was so much easier when I could just drop a twitter link in these posts…thanks, Elon…dumbass)
No. 4 - Indianapolis, Anthony Richardson (QB), Florida
Two mysteries are solved with this pick — whether or not Richardson will be valued top 5 and whether or not Indy will trade out their pick. For a while it looked like they’d be a prime contender to trade with the Bears, reach up to No. 1 and get their franchise guy? Would they have gone with Young or Stoud up there? Maybe they would have went with Richardson all along?
Whatever it is, they definitely valued Richardson high to stay still and pick him this high. Colts need a franchise QB, particularly a young one, as much as any team in this draft. Now, how much will they have to work with this physical marvel with little college experience to make him into a guy who could produce potentially like the big name guys the Colts have had in the past (Manning, Luck)?
No. 5 - Seattle, Devon Witherspoon (CB), Illinois
Check me out on Twitter @meansmatters for some supplemental takes and whatnot, just put something up on this pick. Also, definitely follow @WARRMedia if you haven’t already, you can see some cool picks like this from Saul at Soldier Field.
No. 6 - Arizona (via trade), Paris Johnson Jr. (OL), Ohio State
Arizona moved back up by dealing with Detroit to get here and get a potential franchise left tackle, someone the Bears would have to have been tempted to take at No. 9. As it is, Jalen Carter is still available and possibly bound to be the name written down by the decision makers at Halas Hall. Let’s see how the next couple picks go first.
No. 7 - Las Vegas, Tyree Wilson (DE), Texas Tech
No. 8 - Atlanta, Bijan Robinson (RB), Texas
The consensus top running back in the draft, going to Atlanta and that pick looks like its going to set up the Bears at No. 9 with Jalen Carter. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Bears are picking No. 10 now, traded down one spot with the holder of that pick, Philadelphia. Eagles also giving up a fourth-round pick in ‘24 in this deal.
No. 9 - Philadelphia (via trade), Jalen Carter (DL), Georgia
As it turns out, Carter is not the guy the Bears wanted. He was there to be had but the trade with Philly was made. We’ll have a lot more on this to come. Word is trickling out now that the pick has been made at 10.
No. 10 - Chicago (via trade), Darnell Wright (OT), Tennessee
So…there we go. One of the most important picks in Bears draft history has been made. Not sexy, we’re talking likely a starting right tackle (not left) at best, but its got to be the guy that Ryan Poles and Co. wanted — they had options in front of them, including a very popular one, and they moved to get this guy. Big as hell and he was a part of a prolific offense at Rocky Top.
We’ll look at what others say and there’ll be plenty more we’ll say on what’s happened tonight to come. In the meantime, here’s some tape to look at.
No. 11 - Tennessee, Peter Skoronski (OL), Northwestern
Big up to the Park Ridge native for completing his dream. Again, a guy the Bears could have had that they turned down, but many are saying that he’s destined to ply his trade at offensive guard in the league and the Bears need there has been minimized after free agent pick up Nate Davis.
No. 12 - Detroit (via trade), Jahmyr Gibbs (RB), Alabama
No. 13 - Green Bay, Lukas Van Ness (DL), Iowa
Another suburban Chicago kid, who could have helped the Bears in an impact position, is off the board. This pick came via the Aaron Rodgers trade, which occurred earlier this week.
Going to the rival Pack too. Hopefully Darnell Wright and the crew can keep this pick from biting the Bears in the ass two times a season going forward.
Gonna lay back for a while with the pick-by-pick analysis unless the Bears get back into Round 1. This has been a fun draft though, always got to like multiple deals going down. Would have liked to see a current player involved in a deal too, but don’t expect that to happen with these later picks. Still got something going on with the Patriots dealing out the next pick to Pittsburgh.
No. 14 - Pittsburgh (via trade), Broderick Jones (OT), Georgia
No. 15 - N.Y. Jets, Will McDonald IV (LB), Iowa State
No. 16 - Washington, Emmanuel Forbes (DB), Mississippi State
No. 17 - New England (via trade), Christian Gonzalez (CB), Oregon
No. 18 - Detroit, Jack Campbell (LB), Iowa
No. 19 - Tampa Bay, Calijah Kancey (DT), Pittsburgh
No. 20 - Seattle, Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR), Ohio State
No. 21 - L.A. Chargers, Quentin Johnston (WR), TCU
No. 22 - Baltimore, Zay Flowers (WR), Boston College
No. 23 - Minnesota, Jordan Addison (WR), USC
No. 24 - N.Y. Giants (via trade), Deonte Banks (CB), Maryland
No. 25 - Buffalo (via trade), Dalton Kincaid (TE), Utah
No. 26 - Dallas, Mazi Smith (DT), Michigan
No. 27 - Jacksonville (via trade), Anton Harrison (OT), Oklahoma
No. 28 - Cincinnati, Myles Murphy (DL), Clemson
No. 29 - New Orleans, Bryan Bresee (DT), Clemson
No. 30 - Philadelphia, Nolan Smith (LB), Georgia
No. 31 - Kansas City, Felix Anudike-Uzomah (DE), Kansas State
NOTE: As I obviously forgot in the subhead for this post, there were actually only 31 picks for this year’s first round. No. 32 will kick off the second round (a pick that so many are quick to remind that the Bears would have had if not for their mid-season deal for Chase Claypool).
Why 31? The Miami Dolphins’ first rounder for this draft was forfeited due to findings in the League’s investigation into the Dolphins tampering to try to get Tom Brady and intentionally losing to improve their draft position.
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