1. Christian Kirk broke the receiver market.

Kirk’s contract at the start of free agency with the Jaguars was equal to throwing a hanging breaking ball to Barry Bonds; a no-brainer home run for one party, a head scratcher for the other, and a pivotal teaching moment for the rest of the class.

Kirk inked a four-year deal worth up to $84 million with Jacksonville following a nifty rookie contract year in Arizona. The short, bulky wide receiver played second fiddle to DeAndre Hopkins, but racked up just shy of one thousand receiving yards, eclipsing seventy-five receptions for the first time in his short career.

But the size of Kirk’s deal, which includes $72 million guaranteed, shocked a significant portion of football followers. It jumps off the page as an overpay for a quality, albeit insignificant receiver for a franchise with more holes than the plot of the 1998 film Armageddon. In what world is it easier to train oil drillers to be astronauts than it would be to train astronauts as oil drillers?

However, the contract shocked the market and sent the league into an overpay or trade frenzy. Tyreek Hill landed a new contract, but only after a trade to Miami. Davante Adams finally secured his wish of playing for Derek Carr… as the second-highest paid receiver in league history. Even Allen Robinson picked up a pretty pay-day in Los Angeles in the aftermath of a down year in Chicago in 2021.

Draft night.

Thursday night’s festivities brought forth a similar excitement and frenzy to the wide receiver market as the one that occurred when Kirk signed with Jacksonville. Six teams used picks on wide receivers, one prominent pass catcher found a new home via trade, with a prominent pass dropper dealt, too. Atlanta snagged Southern California’s Drake London with the eighth overall selection before a three pick run at ten, eleven and twelve saw Ohio State’s Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave off to East Rutherford and New Orleans with Alabama’s Jameson Williams headed to Detroit. Penn State phenom Jahan Dotson made five selected wide receivers with Washington calling his name.

Then the draft took an unsurprising, yet a teency-weency bit stunning turn; instead of the Eagles selecting at eighteen, the Tennessee Titans were on the clock. How? A trade that sent A.J Brown to Philadelphia. In return, Tennessee… didn’t have to pay A.J Brown. He inked a four-year deal worth a whopping $100 million. In Nashville, the Titans drafted Treylon Burks, a receiver from Arkansas whose draft comp was — none other than A.J Brown.

Baltimore earlier in the round sent Marquise Brown to Arizona for the twenty-third choice, then traded down with Buffalo before selecting Tyler Linderbaum out of Iowa. Arizona’s quest to field the most qualified receiving corps disqualified from riding Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America is just about complete.

Six receivers drafted within the first thirty-two selections, and two major deals centered around receivers awaiting a hefty pay day isn’t a fluke; it’s a byproduct of the shifting market, and how some teams value arguably replaceable commodities. We’re aware of the long-standing debate over paying running backs large sums after the expiration of their rookie deal; it’s eerily similar for receivers now. When the position is the strongest in a weak draft, why shell out the big bucks when somebody’s willing to pay top price and teams can find suitable replacement level talent out of college on far-more fiscally-responsible contracts?

Securing the player is another fight, and it’s why we saw the amount of trade-ups for receivers on Thursday night. Christian Kirk is forever that guy when it comes to knocking the receiver market out of the atmosphere. But this was an unavoidable future regardless of whether it was Kirk now or another underwhelming, yet serviceable player down the road.

2. The Packers and Brian Gutekunst don’t care who we think they should draft.

With two selections, one at twenty-two and another six spots later, the expectation amongst the masses was getting help for Aaron Rodgers, trying to replace some of the production gap left behind by Davante Adams. Instead, two defenders from a College Football Playoff Championship Georgia Bulldogs squad, Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt.

Twitter and the actual draft coverage erupted with quotes of the Green Bay front office “panicking” into its selections, dissing Rodgers and failing to improve a roster that met a comical end to its season in the playoffs last January.

Quay Walker is a likely stud in the NFL. The Packers helped Aaron Rodgers by improving a defense that lost key members to free agency following the season. Remember watching the College Football Playoff and thinking Georgia’s defense was swarming and suffocating at every turn? That was Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean.

Wyatt’s selection doesn’t mesh with the history of the Green Bay Packers, but he fills a hole nonetheless. Wyatt carries a questionably troubled past and is already twenty-four years old. Assuming Gutekunst is confident in the tackle’s character reconciliation, it makes a bit more sense. However, compared to past drafts, it’s an uncharacteristic risk from a calculated franchise.

As Green Bay moves forward onto the second and third day in Las Vegas, the likelihood to acquire some form of receiving help is astronomically high. With plenty of decent receivers left out of the first round, expect a few more runs at the position, and maybe even a trade from Green Bay to acquire a pick to draft somebody specifically available.

It’s not that Green Bay isn’t aware of the open wounds in the receiving corps; the organizational plan, however, as is usually the case, is “best available for the future.” When given enough opportunities, maybe there’s an occasional miscalculation. It’s why Jordan Love probably won’t start a game for Green Bay on his rookie deal without the presence of an injury to Rodgers or a Week 18 unimportant throwaway.

But when Green Bay is a perennial contender, had the best receiver in football rostered until March and has a top active quarterback who owns the NFC North in its entirety, why does it feel like we trick ourselves into the same “lack of offensive skill position players drafted in the first round by the Packers” conversation every year?

The Packers probably got better on Thursday even if the wideout room in Green Bay is currently led by Sammy Watkins and Allen Lazard. Gutekunst and company will have opportunities galore to fix the other issues over the next forty-eight hours.

3. Either every team is cool with its quarterback situation or…

It’s simply not a great year for college quarterbacks in the draft. Remember when Spencer Rattler to the Detroit Lions was a foregone conclusion like seven months ago? Kenny Pickett drafted to his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers was the only selection involving a quarterback on night one. Pittsburgh probably plans to start newly signed Mitchell Trubisky, which would mean a learning year for Pickett. However, similar to the rookie year in 2017 for Trubisky in which he began the season as Mike Glennon’s backup, just how much can you really pick up from QB1 when QB1 just isn’t that good?

Liberty’s Malik Willis dropped out of the first round, but it’s probably unlikely he falls past the fortieth pick. Tampa doesn’t have a great plan for life without Tom Brady on the horizon. Maybe Kevin O’Connell wants a contingency for when the offense built around Kirk Cousins’ strengths inevitably fails, but the old guard snagged Kellen Mond in the second round of last year’s draft.

Tennessee could look forward to life after Tannehill, but assuming the Titans use the pick to better the team at hand for another shot with the underwhelming quarterback, don’t expect Willis off the board at thirty-five. Maybe it’s the Giants at thirty-six, a day after opting to decline the fifth-year option on Daniel Jones’ rookie deal. A solid first round for new head honcho Joe Schoen could spell for a surprising day-two selection.

But if one of the aforementioned clubs doesn’t take a leap of faith on the next best quarterback available, Seattle with the eighth and ninth selections in the second round is an extremely likely landing spot. If he squeaks by either Indianapolis or Atlanta at forty-two and forty-three, then I’d think teams probably forgot he was available at that point.

Desmond Ridder, Matt Corral and Sam Howell round out the likely second wave of quarterback prospects, and while it’s possible one lasts to Saturday, teams in need of a prospect, albeit a project would be playing with fire.

4. East Rutherford, New Jersey: home of the best drafts so far?

You’re probably in unfamiliar territory if your allegiance belongs to a New York City area sports franchise. The red-hot Mets sit atop Major League Baseball with the best record nearly a month into the season. Second place? The Yankees. Adding another layer of shock, the Giants and Jets pulled off really nice first rounds, each possessing multiple picks, guts and a little luck.

The New York Football Giants arguably drafted two top-pick-overall caliber players at fifth and seventh. Kayvon Thibodeaux is a monster. Every other team in the NFC East boasts one solid pass rusher. Now the Giants can join the club. The former Oregon Duck racked up forty-nine total tackles in 2021, with an impressive seven sacks and two forced fumbles. Ridiculously enough, the seven sacks wasn’t a career-high at Oregon for Thibodeaux; he picked up nine his freshman season.

Evan Neal is the icing on the cake for rookie General Manager Joe Schoen. A tackle to significantly shore up an offensive line that failed to keep Daniel Jones upright a year ago, the selection reads as a potential vote of confidence for Jones, but at the least a hopefully permanent fix to a long-standing issue for the G-Men.

In the same building, but in different, somehow worse looking uniforms, the Jets played an aggressive game on night one of the 2022 NFL Draft. Selecting Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner is a tremendously talented piece for Robert Saleh’s vision heading into year two. The defense lacked any truly reliable pieces, but the scheme works. Regardless of finish, the Jets fought tooth and nail in each game; it just didn’t have any firepower for proper execution. Gardner is a terrific building block for the phase.

Seattle’s pick sacrificed for Jamal Adams brought Garrett Wilson to Zach Wilson. The second wide receiver off of the board on Thursday is a nifty consolation prize for coming in second place in the Tyreek Hill sweepstakes, and the five years of control at an affordable rate certainly adds to the attraction.

After Florida State’s Jermaine Johnson II surprisingly slid into the back half of the round, the Jets jumped back into the action, trading up with Tennessee to grab a guy Jets fans would’ve liked at ten, too. Instead, Johnson II still finds his way to New Jersey, just through a more unconventional route. A strong 6’5 defensive end fits the dream for Saleh, but paired with Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson gives the Jets one of the best draft grades imaginable in a weaker-than-usual class.

5. Ryan Poles isn’t Ryan Pace. Hopefully that’s a good thing.

I feel an obligation or a sense of duty to touch on Chicago before the second round. The Bears did not possess a first round selection heading into Thursday, and despite some less-than-reliable murmurs, that’s how it stayed through the conclusion of night one. Patience; that’s Ryan Poles’ modus operandi thus far in his brief stint at Halas Hall.

Ryan Pace worked in the complete opposite fashion, and unfortunately it left a devastating disparity in roster needs and adequate solutions. However, losing this year’s top selection meant bringing Justin Fields to Chicago in last year’s first round. It’s a trade I think most Bears fans would process time and time again for the rush of potentially landing a franchise superstar. But the prized possession didn’t exactly have a coming out party in his rookie campaign, and while Fields is a beacon of hope for Bears football, he’s also an unproven commodity. A good one, but hopefully more than what he showed under Matt Nagy in 2021.

As the run of wide receivers occurred between the eighth pick and beyond, an odd sense of déjà vu felt appropriate, as if at any moment we’d witness the commissioner announce a trade that spiraled the Bears into the top ten to get a weapon for its quarterback… with the price tag of every pick necessary to build a complete roster before training camp in July. But the sound of crickets was a refreshing change of pace (I swear to God, no pun intended), and the patience displayed by Poles and company is a welcomed reminder that Ryan Pace can’t hurt us anymore.

Seeing the Bears stay the course — while a top receiver would’ve been a fun and new toy — not overpay or outbid themselves, with significant talent within reach at thirty-nine on Friday night, is… unusual. The sheer amount of weakness in the roster already looking forward to 2023 truly bestows the best available player at thirty-nine a hero’s welcome upon arrival. Do the Bears need line help? Offensive and defensive. How about secondary assistance, or maybe another mobile, off-ball linebacker? What about some weapons for Fields?

There’s simply not enough picks or capital to right the wrongs of the previous regime overnight, but Thursday’s refusal to panic-trade, the willingness to shift from the status quo, and the level-headed nature to not compound another’s errors is a step in the right direction for a franchise yearning for competency.