2014 NFL Draft 1st Round Review: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Too many people are hating on our Ryan Shazier pick. Those people need to settle down and look at the draft as a whole and not just one round.

Definitely not the craziest NFL Draft we've ever seen, but that's just fine because once again your man Johnny Football stole the spotlight and it was fantastic. Here's my take on what went down in the 1st Round of the 2014 NFL Draft:

The Good:

I was extremely pissed to see Justin Gilbert go at #8 and then to see my next pick for the Steelers go right before our pick when the Bears scooped up Virginia Tech's Kyle Fuller. With that said I absolutely love the pick of Ryan Shazier for the Steel Curtain. I loved it when I first heard it called and the more I hear people upset with the pick, the more my love for it grows. I know Vince Williams had an impressive year last year and Lawrence Timmons is a big part of our defense right now. The fact of the matter is Shazier is a playmaker with speed to wreak havoc all over the field. I can envision Dick LeBeau using him like a bigger Troy Polamalu in the box and that thought excites me. By all means wasn't the ideal pick for the 1st Round but considering who was on the board, I think it was a shrewd choice.

The St. Louis Rams might've had the most successful 1st Round out of everyone, which should be expected when you have the #2 and #13 picks but the Rams at least got it right. Tackle Greg Robinson is very raw but his ceiling as a Jonathan Ogden-esque lineman has to make Sam Bradford feel a little better going into the season. Then, what an absolute thrill ride this whole process must've been for our guy Aaron Donald. The former Pitt defensive tackle and Chuck Bednarik award winner used an incredible senior season and combine performance to vault himself into the top 15 consideration. He is going to be a monster on an already very good St. Louis front line and I can't wait to watch him make Pitt nation proud on Sundays.

If we were just talking football and who had the best drafts, the Browns would be mentioned here. But this is a Pittsburgh sports blog and as far I'm concerned nothing good has ever happened in Cleveland and nothing good ever will.

The Bad:

You couldn't go wrong with Johnny Football and yet, in classic Cleveland fashion, the Browns still managed to screw that up.

In reality though, the Browns absolute won the draft last night and in the process trolled the shit out of me. Tip of the cap to GM Ray Farmer and the boys in the war room. Touche. Well played. I hate you sons of bitches. First they did an excellent job of trading back in the draft and earning themselves an extra 1st Round pick in next year's draft from the Bills, so you know it's going to be pretty high. Then they go ahead and hit me right in the cubes early by snatching the guy I wanted to fall to the Steelers in corner Justin Gilbert. And to add the icing to the Browns Pissing Off Kyle cake they go ahead and grab my favorite college football player since Larry Fitzgerald. Absolute phenomenal start to the draft and it's eating away at me thinking about having to root against these two guys in the future.

Speaking of Larry Fitzgerald, I would've loved to have seen the Cardinals stay at #20 at grab Manziel. Nothing against their actual pick, I really like Deone Buchanan and they're gonna have a scary secondary this year. But I've been a closet Arizona fan since they drafted Fitzgerald and I can't believe they're still going to run Carson Palmer out there every Sunday and expect to compete in that division. Having a guy like Johnny Football running around the desert out there would not only excite the fan base, but I think he would've given them the best chance to be good both now and in the future.

The Ugly:

Watching a Philadelphia franchise make atrocious decisions will always make me as delighted as Ron Swanson during a government shutdown. So when I saw that the Eagles had selected Louisville's Marcus Smith when guys like Dominique Easley and Kony Ealy were on the board (Ealy still is), my reaction was a little something like this:

Not really sure what their game plan was with that one but they were one of the few teams, maybe the only one, that really screwed up their 1st Round pick.