If there was a surprise early in this draft, it might have been how little we heard from Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter early on with trades. While I had some doubts when I spoke to people in the league about whether anybody would be willing to pay the prices needed to move up, we didn't get a trade until basically halfway through Round 1. (I'll say this: The best trade player "landed" in Round 1 is probably Jimmy Graham, whom the Seahawks got via trade, so it's not as if trades didn't come into play.)
There were a few surprises later, but early I saw the top seven players on my final Big Board taken with the first seven picks, so my sense was the teams drafting at the top were really true to a "best player available" mantra.
Here are my favorite picks and biggest question marks from Round 1.
Liking it
The Patriots have a void up the middle in that defense after the departure of Vince Wilfork. I'm not sure you can do better than getting my No. 2 defensive tackle in the draft, and my No. 12 overall player, in Malcom Brown at No. 32. Yeah, he's got room to grow, but I said on the air I thought this was the best value selection in Round 1. When you hit a need with that kind of value, you have to be feeling pretty good.