The NFL draft is among at last and for the first time since its inception will be held in Texas as representatives of all 32 teams will gather at AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys) in Arlington for the first round starting tonight at 8 p.m. and is expected to conclude around 11:30 p.m.
Rounds 2 and 3 will be held on Friday and rounds 4 to 7 will take place on Saturday. The second day of the draft will begin at 7:00 p.m. and the broadcast is expected to last about four hours.
Saturday is expected to be the longest day of the draft as the last four rounds take place. The broadcast will begin at noon on Saturday and could conclude as late as 7:00 p.m.
This draft will be quarterback heavy in its top part of the first round, which could mean that as many as four signal callers could be chosen among the first 10 picks and furthermore three of them could end up being taken in the top 5.
As a result of that, several teams could try to trade up with teams that don’t need a quarterback to get a hold of one of those prime draft spots.
This draft is different in the sense that there is usually a good amount of pass rushers from the start to the bottom of the first round. Also, most years there are several wide receivers and corners that are widely considered first-round talent.
This year that’s not the case as there are instead all those solid quarterbacks that could end up being taken in the first round.
A team that will dictate in a huge manner which way the draft goes is the Cleveland Browns. They hold the No. 1 and No. 4 overall picks in this year draft and they are expected to choose a quarterback in at least one of those two selections.
The issue with the Browns is that they have many needs other than the quarterback position, so they could end up surprising experts by trading down one of those two picks in exchange for more picks in the first two rounds.
If the Browns do get a quarterback with the first pick, then it would be logical to see the New York Giants picking running back Saquon Barkley with the second overall selection and the New York Jets then choosing another quarterback with the third as they traded with the Indianapolis Colts to get this spot.
Then the Browns could decide to use their No. 4 pick (from the Houston Texans) or even trade down before the Denver Broncos use their fifth pick on what is expected to be an offensive lineman, maybe guard Quenton Nelson from Notre Dame.
These are the top-five quarterbacks that could end up being drafted early in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft:
-Sam Darnold
-Baker Mayfield
-Josh Rosen
-Josh Allen
-Lamar Jackson
Other notable players that could end up being taken among the first 10 picks are: Saquon Barkley (RB), Quenton Nelson (OG), Bradley Chubb (DE), Denzel Ward (CB), Minkah Fitzpatrick (DB) and Roquan Smith (LB)
2018 NFL Draft Order for Picks 1 to 10
1.- Cleveland Browns
2.- New York Giants
3.- New York Jets (from Indianapolis Colts)
4.- Cleveland Brown (from Houston Texans)
5.- Denver Broncos
6.- Indianapolis Colts (from New York Jets)
7.- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
8.- Chicago Bears
9.- San Francisco 49ers
10.- Oakland Raiders
