Draft Diary: The First Ten Picks

Draft diary of the first 10 picks:

• 5:50 PM Mountain Time:  Mel Kiper is just the best. He is synonymous with the draft, and you just know it’s a big day in the NFL when Kiper is front and center.
• 5:56:  I love the live stream into the Bronco’s war room. How great would it be to be a fly on the wall of that room?
• 6:00:  Elway, Fox, etc. all look very calm in the war room. I love that. They look cool and confident like a group of people who have already done a ton of work and are satisfied with their decisions up to this point.
• 6:01:  All of a sudden, the war room gets organized. Everyone sits in their position and is getting prepared. They still look very loose and are joking around with each other.

• 6:03:  They just showed the Newton family celebrating.  It looks like they found out officially he will be going #1.
• 6:04:  Roger Goodell steps to the podium and announces the start of the draft to a rousing chorus of boos! Hilarious!
• 6:06:  Newton is selected first almost immediately to another chorus of boos. Denver is on the clock!! That happened really fast. (I almost killed the AT&T U-Verse guy who just rang my doorbell)
• 6:08:  Kiper gives his 2 cents on the pick and they throw it to Suzy Kolber for an interview with Newton.
• 6:10:  5 minutes and counting until the Denver pick. War room looks quiet. They must not be fielding too many trade requests.
• 6:11:  Still nothing going in the war room. Looks very calm. Who is that bum in the back of the room with net shorts on by the way? Oh my god! That’s Bowlen!!!!!! Come on man, throw on a suit!
• 6:12:  The pick is in and the war room is standing and celebrating.
• 6:12:  Werder thinks it’s going to be Von Miller.
• 6:13:  Von Miller is on the phone, and it’s going to be him. Roger Goodell makes it official. VON MILLER is a Bronco!  Bring back the Orange Crush Defense baby! Thank goodness nothing controversial went down. We just kept our pick and took our guy. I have no qualms with that pick. They were confident and took the guy they wanted, and he is widely seen as one of the very best players available this year. I love it!
• 6:15:  Kiper just said Von Miller was probably the consensus #1 player in the draft if you asked all the experts.
• 6:16:  Miller gives Goodell a big hug. He looks dang good with the Broncos hat on!!! I don’t know about those glasses though…
• 6:17:  My Twitter timeline just exploded!
• 6:17:  Jon Gruden just said that Miller was his #1 player in the draft.
• 6:19:  With Dumervil and Ayers coming back, plus the re-signing of champ bailey, the Broncos’ defense is a lot better right now than it was at the end of last season.
• 6:19:  Dareus is going to Buffalo.  I loved Dareus too. It’s a shame the Broncos couldn’t take them both.
• 6:21:  What is the deal with hugging Roger Goodell like he’s your brother coming home after a deployment overseas??
• 6:24:  A.J. Green goes to the Bengals at #4. Huge offensive playmaker. I guess they are going to make a run at Kevin Kolb or beg Carson Palmer to come back.
• 6:25:  The Broncos draft room is pretty quiet. They are taking a little bit of a break now that they got the pick out of the way. Still celebrating a little as well! GO BRONCOS!
• 6:28:  The Draft should be a commercial-free zone. This sucks.
• 6:29:  Arizona is up and this is a huge pick; Peterson or Gabbert?
• 6:29:  It sounds like they are going Peterson according to Colleen Dominguez.
• 6:30:  Goodell makes it official. Patrick Peterson is an Arizona Cardinal. He is a stud. He would have also been a great Bronco.
• 6:32:  I am glad none of these guys are going into our division! For the first time since 1991, a top ten talent is coming to Denver!
• 6:34:  Shefter says Atlanta is trying to come up to get Julio Jones, and Jones is on the phone. It looks like Shefter is right on.
• 6:36:  The Atlanta Falcons have traded up to the #6 spot and have drafted Julio Jones.  The first trade of the draft comes at #6 as the Browns trade back. I wonder how that sits in Cleveland? It sounds like Cleveland received a ton from Atlanta. WOW. The Browns got 5 picks back over this year and next.  If they use those picks wisely, that may be a great move for the Browns.
• 6:38:  The 49ers are on the clock and I know they are bummed Peterson did not fall to them. It was very close. Do they go with Gabbert now??
• 6:40:  Another commercial… ugh.
• 6:41:  The 7^th pick is in, and the 49ers select Aldon Smith from Missouri. I thought they may go Gabbert, but they obviously wanted to tighten up that D-line. They probably got a good look at Smith when they were scouting Gabbert.
• 6:45:  The Titans took Jake Locker at #8! WOW! Crazy that he went that high, and before Gabbert too! Boos throughout the draft room. The first reach there. They must really love Locker. That and they were probably surprised Gabbert was still available and didn’t want to change their mind at the last second.
• 6:48:  I love Gruden. I love when commentators are willing to go against the grain and not agree with everything. He was very vocal with his disagreement over what Kiper had to say about Locker.
• 6:49:  Commercial… NOOOO!
• 6:53:  It sounds like Gabbert might drop to Minnesota at 12. Pretty surprising.
• 6:54:  The Dallas Cowboys pick is in. The commentators think they may be leaning towards a defensive back.
• 6:54:  The Cowboys select Tyron Smith, the offensive tackle out of USC at #9. That is definitely a position of need for them and Smith is the best tackle out there.
• 6:58:  Mike Shanahan and the Redskins are on the clock for the last pick of the top ten. As ESPN goes to commercial, I am thinking they may go with Gabbert here.
• 6:59:  NO, the Redskins have traded the pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars. They will be the team who selects Blaine Gabbert this year. Gabbert stays in the top ten after all. I think these 3 quarterbacks have all gone a little too high, but oh well.
• 7:01:  Nick Fairley is still out there. That is probably the biggest surprise to me besides Jake Locker going so early. His momentum after the national championship game really cooled off.

I’m going to sit back and enjoy the rest of this round. I will follow-up with thoughts on the rest of the Broncos’ draft after it’s all said and done. Let’s go Broncos! No controversy today. They just drafted a great player and we are a better team now than we were this morning. I am very happy with their draft so far! Let’s see if they can keep it going and make some great picks over the next few days.

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