Friday open thread: What was the biggest surprise of the first round?

After months of endless speculation, the 2020 NFL Draft is finally upon us. For both the Detroit Lions and the rest of the league, dozens and dozens of rumors about potential picks and trades circled the internet as we braced for Thursday night. Finally, we can take a step back and take a look at what went down.

Like any draft, there were some surprises. Henry Ruggs III was the first receiver off the board, with CeeDee Lamb falling down to 17. Not only did Miami and Los Angeles decide to go with quarterbacks despite plenty of contrary reports, neither team had to move up to grab their guy. Meanwhile, the Packers apparently wanted a quarterback too, trading up to draft Jordan Love at 26th overall.

Today’s Question of the Day is:

What was the biggest surprise of the first round?

My answer: Honestly, what stood out most to me was how unsurprising most of the top picks were. Outside of Andrew Thomas (although it was clear the Giants were going to take a tackle) and Isaiah Simmons (who I personally had going to the Cardinals anyway), everything else inside the top eight was basically chalk.

Twitter talked itself into “the craziest draft ever” with no fewer than five teams linked to trades with the Lions alone. Instead, every team held onto its own pick in the top 12 and went with the position that made the most sense. The quarterback needy teams took a quarterback, while Washington, Detroit, Carolina, and Arizona took the best defender available to them in positions of need. The biggest surprise to me is that there was no huge surprise at the top of the draft at all.