The annual NFL draft finished this past weekend where the most promising college players are picked to play on the professional stage – with lucrative contracts worth up to $10m a year up for grabs. This makes the people who pick these players have multi million dollar headaches. But who picked well and who not so much?

Emeka Egbuka – Wide Receiver Drafted From Ohio State To The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Buccaneers won their division last year and went 10-7, a record that can certainly be improved upon but wasn’t due to a struggle on the offensive side of the ball which at worst was a top 10 unit in the entire league. Their issues glaringly were on the defensive side a team that could barely produce sacks also struggled to produce any kind of turnovers. In the first round with only 18 players in the country off the board the Bucs picked Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka.

A pick that doesn’t help the team’s glaring need and just adds to the plethora of offensive talent the team has created a huge question mark over the coming offseason.

Shedeur Sanders & Dillon Gabriel – Quarterbacks Drafted From Colorado & Oregon To The Cleveland Browns.

Cleveland never fail to appear like they have no idea what they are doing every single draft process since 1999.

A draft that started well with a trade back to fifth with Jacksonville that resulted in the Jaguars drafting the Heisman winner Travis Hunter and the Browns gaining more picks and drafting Michigan Wolverines standout Mason Graham. The draft did start night two along the same vein with UCLA Bruin Carson Schwesinger being picked first in the second round, however after that point Cleveland reaffirmed their long term struggle with this night for maybe the 26th straight year.

Their second pick in the second round was Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins who would enter the team with a very small window to see any playing time over the next few years due to Cleveland’s standout running back room. Their early third round pick Bowling Green tight end Harold Fannin Jr. was widely considered a huge reach with not just better players but better tight ends still available.

Then came Dillon Gabriel’s pick the 94th player taken in the draft after a standout season at Oregon. The only reason he was picked so late is his height which by NFL standards makes his game almost impossible to translate to the professional level but if it does the Browns would have made a pretty tidy pick.

The pick that everyone watching was waiting for a Hall of Famers son, a player that had his jersey number retired by his college team and he has fallen and not just fallen 10/15 picks from where he was projected. Shedeur Sanders had fallen almost 100 picks from where most people expected him to be drafted. Gabriel who had an already unclear path to being a starter just had his direct competition drafted 50 picks later a gamble for Cleveland sure, but a costly one if neither pan out.

Mike Green – Edge Drafted From Marshall To The Baltimore Ravens

Baltimore had a wonderful defence last season. Standouts like Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey in the secondary made room for improvement on the line and that’s exactly what Baltimore got at pick 59. Green was projected to slip into the end of the first round and almost certainly an early second round pick managed to fall to 59. How?.

That’s the question many fans had. Green found himself at the centre of media reports related to his time at college. The impact raised memories of previous years when future Hall of Famer Laremy Tunsil and Eagles’ Superbowl winner Jalen Carter saw their stock plummet in similar ways.

Matthew Golden – Wide Receiver Drafted From Texas To The Green Bay Packers

The longest streak of not selecting a specific position was snapped on night one of the NFL draft by the hosts of the draft (also for the first time since the 1940s) the Green Bay Packers had not selected a WR in the first round since 2002 but as Packers COO Mark Murphy took the stage thanking the fans and the city he read out Matthew Golden’s name and in that moment Golden became a Packer.

Even without the added context of it being the first time the Packers have a first round rookie Golden is a really interesting pick. A wide receiver group in Green Bay that before the draft had three or four players that could take that next step to becoming elite now has a playmaker with elite speed. This is in addition to other Packers draftee Savion Williams who is one of the most versatile players coming out of this year’s draft.

Golden’s ability to separate in college is exactly what this Green Bay team has been looking for especially with Christian Watson’s limited availability due to injury they need someone to be a consistent threat over the top for Jordan Love, Matt LaFleur will be ecstatic to see that he probably has that hit in Golden.