2022 NFL Draft tracker and pick analysis for Round 1

Tracking every selection made in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Which players are headed to your favorite team this season?

Where will all of the top prospects in the 2022 NFL Draft land? The hay is in the barn. The mock drafts have been made.

Everybody is ready for the real thing and for the Jacksonville Jaguars to kick things off. What other surprises might we be in for on Thursday night as round one gets underway?

The Lions, Jets, Giants, Texans, Eagles, Saints, Packers, and Chiefs all have multiple first-round picks this year while the Bears, Broncos, Browns Dolphins, Colts, Raiders, 49ers, and Rams have none.

Could we see some fireworks in the form of a trade up the board by a contending team?

2022 NFL Draft tracker: Which players land in round one?

1. Jacksonville Jaguars: Travon Walker, EDGE, Georgia

The Jacksonville Jaguars undoubtedly went with potential, at least to a degree, over production by selecting Travon Walker over Aidan Hutchinson.

Even back in December, virtually nobody in the media would have been able to point out number 44 on Georgia’s defense, but when some analysts caught wind of how much NFL teams love Walker and his athletic traits, it became clear he was destined for the top 10.

Now, he’s got the label of being this year’s top overall selection and he will be a foundation piece for the Jaguars’ defense.

The Detroit Lions draft room undoubtedly had it written on their whiteboard — Aidan Hutchinson, no matter what.

The Lions keep Hutchinson in the state of Michigan and get themselves a game-changing pass rusher to build their defense around.

This is a surprising selection for some, but a lot of the buzz in the days leading up to the 2022 NFL Draft was how much the Texans loved Stingley.

A projected top five pick prior to injury, Stingley now gets the chance to go and prove himself as a CB1 on a team that is truly rebuilding from the ground up.

The New York Jets could have gone any variety of directions with this pick, but Sauce Gardner is as good of a selection as any.

He can’t even remember the last time he gave up a touchdown in coverage.

We had Thibodeaux to the Giants with the 7th pick in our final mock draft. There might have been too much late buzz for the Giants to let him past this selection here.

The Panthers have their pick of the litter on the offensive line if they want and the Giants can take another top-rated player at 7 overall if they want.

Just like Aidan Hutchinson won’t have to go far to play for the Detroit Lions, Ikem Ekwonu won’t have to go far to play for the Carolina Panthers.

The first offensive player is off the board to a team that desperately needs an infusion of talent on that side of the ball. The Panthers passed on QBs, could a trade for Jimmy Garoppolo or Baker Mayfield be on the way?

This is just an outstanding selection for the Giants. The new regime, led by Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll, understands that winning franchises are built from the inside out. They have now selected two cornerstone pieces off the edge and at the offensive tackle position.

The Falcons had an absolutely embarrassing group of wide receivers…until now.

It’s still not a complete unit, but the 6-foot-5 Drake London has the ability to take on a massive target share his rookie season.

He might remind Falcons of a player that has terrorized them through the years, Mike Evans.

The Seattle Seahawks didn’t re-sign Duane Brown this offseason, and now we see why.

Charles Cross is going to step in as the new left tackle for…Drew Lock. Russell Wilson is now a member of the Denver Broncos, so we’ll see if the Seahawks make another move for a QB in the near future.

The Jets couldn’t pull off a trade for Deebo Samuel or Tyreek Hill, and they tried.

Ultimately, they take Garrett Wilson to give Zach Wilson another weapon along with Elijah Moore, a really strong rookie from their 2021 class.

Wilson plays bigger than his size and should be a dynamic weapon right away.

We have our first trade of round one!

This is a solid value for the Commanders who likely couldn’t say no to a 3rd and 4th-round pick to move down just five spots.

The Saints do this annually. They target specific guys and they don’t care what capital it takes to get them.

It wasn’t for a QB, but for a wide receiver. In this case, they make it back-to-back Ohio State receivers and take the savvy route runner Chris Olave who joins another former Buckeye in Michael Thomas to give the Saints a desperately needed WR2.

Another massive trade, two in a row. The Lions jump all the way up to the 12th overall pick from 32nd.

Two divisional opponents come together on a blockbuster trade and the Vikings pave the way for the Detroit Lions to select Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams, who is the WR1 for a number of people in this draft.

He suffered an ACL injury in the National Championship game, but teams still valued him highly in this class and obviously none more so than the Detroit Lions.

Crazy enough, all three of Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, and Jameson Williams were all on the same roster at Ohio State at one point.

Adjust your day two mock drafts accordingly…again.

We have another trade!

The Eagles obviously didn’t care much about those mid-round picks and the rebuilding Texans obviously aren’t sacrificing much to move down two picks.

They’ll take those picks.

Jordan Davis is one of the freakiest athletes you will ever see at any position in the NFL. We’ll see how he holds up with an increased snap count in the NFL.

The Baltimore Ravens got leap-frogged for Jordan Davis, but they still come away with one of the top values in this year’s draft, Kyle Hamilton.

The safety out of Notre Dame has outstanding range and makes it feel like you’ve got 12 defenders out on the field at all times.

This is a surprising selection, to be sure. Not that Green was not a first-round caliber player, but this feels like one of your first really big “reaches” of the Draft.

Still, it’s tough to fault Houston for collecting all the picks they have and upgrading the offensive line.

Jahan Dotson was one of the most improved all-around players in the country this past season at Penn State, showing off his strong hands and tremendous speed.

The Commanders get a much-needed weapon for Carson Wentz here.

The Los Angeles Chargers had to find upgrades on the offensive line, and they get one of the hottest players in the class here at pick 17 overall.

Zion Johnson played a couple of different positions at Boston College and joins Rashawn Slater as consecutive first-round picks on the offensive line to support their investment in Justin Herbert.

How about this for a blockbuster trade, in a draft that has been absolutely full of them?

This trade is going to require some time to unpack, but for the time being, it’s close to a one-for-one of AJ Brown for Treylon Burks.

Clearly Brown didn’t want to be in Tennessee or the Titans were motivated to get whatever value they could out of him.

This is a horrendous value for the Titans and a great deal for Howie Roseman and the Eagles, buying way low on a white-hot wide receiver market.

The New Orleans Saints needed a left tackle desperately, and they got themselves a nasty one here.

It was probably tough saying goodbye to Terron Armstead, but Penning will step in and do a great job right away as the bookend with Ryan Ramczyk.

The Pittsburgh Steelers say goodbye to Ben Roethlisberger and welcome in Kenny Pickett, who is no stranger to playing at Heinz Field.

This should be a seamless transition for Pickett who becomes the QB1 of the 2022 NFL Draft.

The Kansas City Chiefs struck a trade with the New England Patriots to move up and make this pick, a desperately needed one after Charvarius Ward bolted for the 49ers in free agency.

McDuffie is a physical corner whose aggressive style of play will fit right in with Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.

At this point, you have to respect the commitment the Packers have made to not getting Aaron Rodgers any weapons. On a night when a wide variety of receivers were available for trade or for the taking, the Packers stayed put and took a linebacker with their top pick in the Davante Adams trade.

The Buffalo Bills traded up a couple of spots to make this selection, which was originally owned by the Arizona Cardinals and then traded to the Baltimore Ravens for Hollywood Brown.

The Bills were embarrassed in their final game of the season, an overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Specifically in terms of their pass defense, they were egregious at the end of the game.

Kaiir Elam is big on traits and potential and should contribute right away.

The Cowboys knew they needed to address the offensive line going into this draft and while there were rumors about Kenyon Green and Zion Johnson being top targets, Tyler Smith comes in with the potential to start out at left guard and move to left tackle down the line.

The Baltimore Ravens have gotten two outstanding values in this year’s draft with Kyle Hamilton at pick no. 14 overall and now Tyler Linderbaum, who will anchor their offensive line for the next decade.

The New York Jets traded into this slot and managed to get the player that was rumored heavily to be going to them at pick no. 4 or pick no. 10.

To get him at 26?

This is an absolute heist and completes a great first round for the Jets.

We have our one-millionth trade of the first round of this particular NFL Draft.

The Jaguars moved on from Myles Jack this offseason, and here they replace him with another versatile weapon at the linebacker position in Devin Lloyd, one of the most dynamic defenders in all of college football this past season.

The Green Bay Packers land two players from the vaunted Georgia Bulldogs defense.

But they still refuse to help Aaron Rodgers at the skill positions.

This will go down as one of the more shocking selections of the first round. The Patriots obviously identified Cole Strange as the ideal long-term replacement for Ted Karras at the center position.

The Kansas City Chiefs didn’t go up for a receiver in this first round, but they didn’t have to. They move up earlier and get Trent McDuffie, only to follow it up here at 30 overall with Purdue pass rusher George Karlaftis.

Two primary areas of need were effectively addressed.

The versatile Daxton Hill joins the reigning AFC Champions, whose defense took a massive step forward last season.

He’ll move all over the formation and help them create more turnovers.

The Vikings traded down from 12 overall to make this pick. They could have taken Kyle Hamilton earlier but they instead opted for a steep trade down the board with a very modest return.

Cine is a good player but this wasn’t very well maneuvered by new Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

2022 NFL Draft could be one of the most unpredictable in recent years

This year’s incoming crop of rookies is fascinating because of how few truly “blue chip” types of prospects there are, notably and perhaps especially at the quarterback position.

There has yet to be any sort of consensus about the quarterbacks in this class. There is no “Trevor Lawrence” who is unanimously projected to go first overall.

If you put all of the last three draft classes together, I’m not even sure anyone from the 2022 NFL Draft class would make the top 10, but that’s certainly up for debate.

There will still be activity at the quarterback position on Thursday night and because of the tiers of players in this class — specifically at EDGE, wide receiver, cornerback, and tackle –, there could be a lot of jockeying for position by teams.

As the weekend rolls along, we’ll be tracking every single pick here and analyzing the fit for all 32 teams.

Grading selections in real-time seems futile but the reality is, everyone has formulated opinions about players in this draft, and everyone has formulated opinions about what directions teams should go.

After the Draft, every team is going to talk about how they can’t believe they landed all the top guys on their board at their respective draft positions. They’re going to preach value. And teams should feel proud of their draft classes.

With the expectation being that some players projected to go in the third round could go in round one and vice versa, it’s time to buckle up for a fun night.