Okay, so I’ve been digging into the 2017 NFL draft lately, and man, what a trip down memory lane! I decided to do a little experiment – a “what if” scenario, you know? I went back and re-drafted the whole first round, pretending I was the GM for each team, but with the knowledge we have now. Let me tell you, it was a wild ride.
First off, I started by looking at all the data from that year. We’re talking stats, player performance over the past few years, team needs at the time – the whole nine yards. It was a lot to take in, but I love this stuff. This draft was something else, remember Patrick Mahomes went way down at number 10, and Deshaun Watson at 12! Unbelievable looking back.
Then came the fun part. I started with the first pick and worked my way down. For each team, I thought long and hard. Do they stick with their original pick? Or do they go for someone who turned out to be a superstar, even if they were picked later in the real draft?
- Chiefs grab Mahomes: I mean, come on! The Chiefs traded up in the real draft to get Patrick Mahomes at number 10, so, obviously, that’s my pick for them here, and I did it quickly. In my redo, the Chiefs still snagged him, but they didn’t have to trade up to do it, which was wild.
- Steelers snatch Watt: The Steelers got T.J. Watt in the first round back in 2017, and boy, has he been a game-changer! He played, like, 15 games each of his first five seasons. He was selected by the Steelers in the first round, so he’s my first pick! Insane!
- Chargers pick Kupp: Okay, so the Chargers were pretty stacked with Keenan Allen, Tyrell Williams, and Hunter Henry at the time. But imagine if they had Cooper Kupp too? I had them grabbing Kupp in my redo.
I kept going like this, team by team. Some picks were easy, some were a real head-scratcher. And for some teams, I went completely off-script. It was tough, especially knowing what happened with some of these guys. Injuries, off-field issues, you name it. But I tried to balance potential with what they’ve actually accomplished.
It was a fun experiment and had me thinking about how different the NFL landscape would be if some teams had made different choices. It made me appreciate how hard it is to predict the future in the draft. You just never know who’s gonna be a star and who’s gonna fade away. Anyway, that’s my little football deep dive for the week. Maybe I’ll tackle the second round next!
