NFL Draft: Espy's Round 1 recap

Some thoughts on the first round. Atlanta picked for need. They had a big hole at cornerback and took Desmond Trufant of Washington to fill it. He's a worthy first-rounder but they had to give up draft picks to move up for him. Made sense for them. The Vikings took three first rounders and could have used a fourth. They got theWR (Patterson from Tenn.), cornerback (Rhodes from FSU) and defensive tackle (Shariff Floyd of Florida) they needed. They did not get a MLB, which Mel Kiper will talk about endlessly for the next month. Good aggressive work. Floyd was a steal at 23. Rhores a reach at 25. Patterson was expensive in the trade up, but a potentially high payoff. The lineman in me was thrilled to see six "brutes" selected in the first 11 picks. None was a big surprise.Howie Long's boy Kyle, a guard at Oregon, went a little high to the Bears at 20 and Justin Pugh, a guard-tackle from Syracuse I like a lot, was a typical Giants selection. The Bills reached big time for EJ Manuel. This team has too many holes to roll the dice on an inconsistent player. At least they traded down. The Super Bowl opponent 49ers and Ravens both took safeties. San Fran moved up for Eric Reid of LSU, who was the focus of a lot of split opinion. Thrilled to see Jarvis Jones go to a great organization like Pittsburgh. He'll be following in big footsteps, replacing James Harrison at OLB. His Georgia teammate Alec Ogletree slid to the 30th pick and to my Rams. He should be an immediate starter. Hopefully he won't become drinking buddies with fellow "bad boy" Janoris Jenkins. The Rams are getting better and if these two play to their potential, the Rams could be very good on defense. Al Davis may be dead but the didn't keep the Raiders for reaching for a very, very fast cornerback. Oakland traded down from the third pick (where the could have had Dee Milliner) and added picks, then grabbed Hayden. Scratching me head over Bengals taking Tyler Eifert since they have a good tight end. It will be interesting to see how they use him. Rams were active.They traded down and still got Alec Ogletree after earlier trading up to get Tayvon Austin, the burner wide receiver out of West Virginia. Speaking of WVU, it was painful to watch Geno Smith go undrafted. Seems like there is aways one of these guys who drops much more than he expected. Smith was so distraught hardly any mention was made of the invisible man, Matt Barkley. Both should go in round two or three. Look for the Eagles to eyeball Smith. Dallas reached big time for Travis Fredrick. They need a center but could have got Fredrick later. Also, they have other big needs they could have addressed. My favorite players for Day 2. Eddie Lacy-RB. Alabama Tyrann Mathieu-CB, Planet Pot Jonathan Banks-CB, Mississippi St. Tank Carradine-DE, FSU Arthur Brown-LB Kansas Khasseem Greene-LB Rutgers Robert Woods-WR USC David Amerson-CB NC State Ryan Swope-WR Texas A&M Johnathan Hankins-DT Ohio State