Round 1

Mike Mayock said that there would be no trades in the top-10 of the 2012 NFL Draft. I think that he was joking. There were six in the first seven selections. The Washington Redskins jump started the trading weeks ago when they gave the St Louis Rams a ton to move up to #2 to select Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III. The Minnesota Vikings started the draft day trading about an hour early. The Vikings moved from three to four in a trade with the Cleveland Browns. In return the Vikings received the Browns' picks in the 4th, 5th and 7th. The Vikings still got their top choice in USC tackle Matt Kalil. Rumors had been floating for days, especially in that last day, that the Vikings preferred LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne. My hunch is that the Vikings floated those rumors to get Cleveland and Tampa Bay bidding against each other. Each supposedly wanted Alabama running back Trent Richardson. It's all fun and games in the NFL Draft. It was a nice move by Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, in his first draft with the final say, to gain picks while still getting the player that he wanted all along. Just before the first round was about to end the Vikings were again on the clock. Spielman took advantage of the extra 4th rounder gained earlier in the day and traded a 2nd and a 4th for the Baltimore Ravens 1st round pick. With the 29th selection of the first round, the Vikings selected Notre Dame safety Harrison Smith. My hope was that the Vikings could select Smith with their pick in round 2. Clearly they didn't think that he'd still be available. Ironically, the team that I most feared would take Smith was in fact the Ravens.

So, the Minnesota Vikings cleared the first round with their new starting left tackle and new starting safety.
Welcome to Minnesota Matt Kalil and Harrison Smith.

Maybe Wake Forest receiver Chris Givens in the third today.

The trade that surprised me the most was the Dallas Cowboys trading with the St Louis Rams to jump from #14 to #6. The trade didn't surprise me so much as the player that they selected did. I assumed that they would be targeting Alabama S Mark Barron. Instead Morris Claiborne was the selection. He's a terrific player and a terrific selection. I just expected him to be gone before then.

Perhaps an even greater surprise was to see the New England Patriots trade up rather than down. They selected nice defenders in Syracuse defensive end Chandler Jones and Alabama linebacker Dont'a Hightower. The Patriots defense got much better on the first day of the draft.

There's no way that Stanford guard David DeCastro should have been available for the Pittsburgh Steelers at #24. Lining him up next to center Maurkice Pouncey will keep quarterback Ben Roethlisberger safe from any rush up the middle. I expected DeCastro to be selected in the top third of the draft.

Oh, Andrew Luck went first overall to the Indianapolis Colts but everyone knew that.