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2022 NFL Draft: Jacksonville Jaguars make Travon Walker the No.1 pick

Former Georgia star Travon Walker plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars

A record five Georgia Bulldog defenders taken in round one but just one quarterback and plenty of trades in surprising NFL Draft night.

The Jacksonville Jaguars made Georgia defensive end Travon Walker the first pick of the 2022 NFL Draft on a night of trades and surprises in Las Vegas.
The 21-year-old was one of five players from the Georgia Bulldogs defence that was chosen in the first round, as the best college team in America broke the NFL Draft record for players on the same defence going on the opening day.
Walker was chosen ahead of fellow defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who had a more productive college career at Michigan and was seen as a more solid choice as an immediate NFL starter.
Hutchinson was chosen second by the Detroit Lions, with the Jags being impressed with Walker's spectacular physical attributes shown at the NFL Combine. Jacksonville believe his upside is far higher.
The Houston Texans used the third overall pick to make a surprise move for LSU cornerback Derek Stingley, who had a stand-out 2019 season but has had injury problems since then.

New York Giants and Jets go big in top 10

The two New York teams both had two picks in the top 10 and both kept them to address two of their several glaring holes in their faltering teams.
The Jets used pick number four on cornerback Ahmad 'Sauce' Gardner from Cincinnati and then the 10th pick to select Ohio State wide receiver Garrett Wilson.
Gardner was the AAC Defensive Player of the Year award winner and seen as an oven-ready NFL starter, while Wilson will offer help to their second-year quarterback Zach Wilson, who was the number two pick of last year's Draft.
The Giants went for Oregon edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux with the fifth pick, before being able to add giant offensive lineman Evan Neal from Alabama.
Thibodeaux has devastating ability to get after the quarterback so has a ton of upside, while Neal was mooted as a potential number one pick at one stage.

Just one quarterback taken in first round

Plenty of teams have questions to answer at quarterback, but only the Pittsburgh Steelers thought it was necessary to address that need in the first round of the NFL Draft.

It was labelled as a relatively weak QB class and so it proved, with all other teams looking elsewhere, while the Steelers stuck to what they know when picking Kenny Pickett from the University of Pittsburgh.
Not only is Pickett from the local college team, but they share the practice facility with the Steelers so Mike Tomlin and his staff will know all about him, which makes it a nice fit and much less of a gamble than the other signal callers in the Draft.

Pickett being selected down at number 20 makes this the lowest the first QB of a draft has been taken since 1997, which sums up why it wasn't exactly seen as a vintage crop of QBs.

With the Steelers having the underwhelming Mitchell Trubiskey as their projected starter following the retirement of team legend Ben Roethlisberger, Pickett could have an immediate chance to stake a claim - and he'll have plenty of backers as a hometown hero.

Eagles make shock trade for AJ Brown

There was plenty of trade action on night one as teams jostled for position to get their preferred targets, but none bigger than the Philadelphia Eagles making a blockbuster move for Tennessee Titans star AJ Brown.
The 24-year-old receiver wanted a new deal in Nashville but the Titans did not want to pay the sort of price he was asking, so he's gone to Philly, who will reportedly sign him on a $100million deal.
Tennessee got the Eagles' 18th and 101st overall picks in the deal - using the first one to draft a direct replacement in Arkansas receiver Treylon Burks.
"This wasn't my fault," Brown told ESPN after the trade. "I wanted to stay, but the deal they offered was a low offer."
Detroit also made a significant move by trading three picks to Minnesota to move up and grab Alabama's talented wide receiver Jameson Williams, as the Lions got aggressive in their bid to end years of poor performance.
The New Orleans Saints also moved up to bag a receiver, as they dealt with Washington to secure Chris Olave, while the Kansas City Chiefs moved from 29 to 21 to get cornerback Trent McDuffie.
READ MORE: NFL Draft day drama - the biggest shocks and surprises in history

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