2020 NFL Draft 17 teams that focused on QB in Round 1 either by drafting one adding protection or weapon

The NFL is a pa sing league. It's a cliche, sure, but it's become a cliche for a reason: it's true.Every year, teams throw the ball more and more often. They spend entire offseasons building out their offensive infrastructure so that when the season rolls around, they can put their quarterback in position to succeed. They hire new coaching staffs and sign free agents and make trades and draft players, all so that they can throw the ball as efficiently and explosively as po sible.A whole lot of teams acted accordingly on Thursday night, with four drafting quarterbacks, seven drafting offensive linemen, six drafting wide receivers, and the reigning Super Bowl champions selecting a pa s-catching running back. Given that extensive focus throughout the first round, we're going to use the space below to walk through the different approaches that teams took, by separating them into three buckets: teams that identified their next franchise pa ser; teams that drafted a player whose primary job will be to protect their franchise pa ser; and teams who acquired a new weapon for their franchise pa ser.The first round of the draft is in the books, so who were the winners and losers? Will Brinson and the Pick Six Podcast Superfriends are here to break it all down; listen below andfor daily NFL goodne s.Identifiers: (1); : (5); : (6); : (26)Burrow, coming off of perhaps the greatest collegiate season of all time, seems like the only one of these four who is a lock to start from Day 1. Tagovailoa has the injury questions and the Dolphins have as a competent bridge to the Tua era. Herbert was widely considered a player who, despite his tremendous talent, would need some time to make the transition to the next level; and the Chargers have to start in the meantime. And Love is going to sit behind for at least a year. (Given Rodgers' contract situation, Love is likely to sit for at least two years.)Burrow is lucky enough to have A.J. Green (a suming he signs his franchise tender) and to throw to, but the Bengals undoubtedly need to get him some more help along the offensive line on Days 2 and 3. (2019 first-round pick coming back from injury is a nice step in the right direction, but still more help is needed.) It would be a good idea to nab another receiver for him as well, even if only to step into the lineup full time whenever Green decides to hang up his spikes. Cincy landed the No. 1 pick for a reason; this is still a roster that needs a whole lot of help.The Dolphins spent most of their free-agent dollars on upgrading their defense, bringing in , , , , and . That was a pretty big clue that it was going to be an offense-heavy draft for Miami, and that's exactly how it went early on. Tagovailoa is the kind of pa ser who would have gone No. 1 overall in a draft that did not have Burrow, and if he didn't get injured he might have gone No. 1 anyway. Miami, like Cincinnati, definitely needs to add some more help along the line, but they at least got that started with their next first-round selection. With Davante Parker, , and on the outside, he has a decent, if not nece sarily explosive crop of pa s-catchers, and it would not be surprising if they used one or more of their 12 remaining picks on another wideout.Herbert has the best immediate supporting cast of any of the first-round QBs. He has and on the outside, over the middle, and making plays out of the backfield. Even with the team very obviously still needing to add a left tackle, he's in a pretty good spot right away. And because the Chargers have Taylor, he also is not under the immediate pre sure to start. I was not as high on Herbert as the top two quarterbacks, but he landed in a really good situation.The Packers, obviously, betrayed Aaron Rodgers and deserve to be tarred and feathered for the rest of their lives. Wait, no. What they did was just fine. They identified their quarterback of the future and did not give up all that much to move up and get him. They have the kind of QB in Evan Neal Jersey place that will allow Love the time he needs to develop. And, breaking some news here, the draft is not over. There are still 10 or so receivers who look like they can step in and be productive enough to help Rodgers right away. If they come out of Day 2 with two of Denzel Mims, K.J. Hamler, Tee Higgins, Laviska Shenault, Michael Pittman, Chase Claypool, Tyler Johnson, or Antonio Gandy-Golden, is anyone going to be saying they didn't go get Rodgers help? Planning for life after a 36-year-old QB makes sense, and the Packers had the luxury of doing it in a draft where there is incredible wideout depth still available to them. Rodgers presumably won't love this plan, but the proce s is sound.Protectors: (4); : Jedrick Wills (10); : (11); : (13); Dolphins (again): (18); : (24); : (29)Pretty much everybody knew the Giants were going to take the first tackle off the board. The only question was which of the near-consensus top four it would be. They ended up going with Thomas, and it's hard to fault them for valuing any of this group over the others. Thomas has the ability to step in and play on the right side right away, and potentially swing back to the left whenever the Giants decide to cut ties with . Protecting well enough for him to spread the ball around to an underrated group of pa s-catchers had to be the team's highest priority coming into the draft, and with this pick, they showed that's exactly what it was.The same applied to the Browns, whose offense was completely undermined in 2019 by a complete lack of adequate protection for . Signing to play right tackle was a step in the right direction, but they entered the draft with an obvious hole on the left side. There was a lot of speculation about a potential trade, but we can probably shut that down now. The Browns turned a weakne s into something more resembling a strength with their offseason plan, and it'll allow them to actually run the type of offense Kevin Stefanski wants to run.No team has spent more capital this offseason on the offensive line than the Jets. They handed out $67.5 million worth of contracts to , , and , and kept it going by nabbing Becton at No. 11 overall. He is a ridiculous physical specimen, and it's not at all difficult to see why some consider him the highest-upside tackle prospect in the draft. He seems likely to slide in at left tackle right away, with Fant going back to the left side. still needs better targets to throw to, but nobody can say New York didn't prioritize keeping him upright.The Bucs had just as obvious a glaring hole at tackle as did the Browns, and they had the fourth of the group of four fall basically right into the laps. They gave up about a 100-pick drop on Day 3 in order to ensure nobody jumped them for Wirfs, and that's a perfectly fine price for them to pay. Tampa has one of the best groups of pa s-catchers in the league to help out, but because he is not the most mobile QB out there, you absolutely need to prioritize the offensive line as well. We saw last season how even Brady's performance could suffer without adequate protection, so the Bucks doing whatever they could to make sure they don't end up in the same situation this season made sense.Miami, armed with three first-round picks, had to make sure to protect its investment in Tagovailoa. Your mileage may vary on their decision to make Jackson the fifth tackle off the board, but it's the decision to prioritize taking players at premium positions early in the draft shows they have the right proce s in mind for how to build their team. As mentioned previously, the Dolphins should probably still add another target for Tagovailoa on Day 2 or 3, but making sure he has an all-new offensive line in front of him was a nice start.Seeing the Saints spring for an interior offensive lineman a year after taking another interior offensive lineman in the first round (center ) was a bit of a surprise, especially given the team's needs on defense. But is perhaps more dependent on solid interior protection than any QB in the league because of the combination of his lack of size and relative lack of out-of-the-pocket escapability, so making sure that group is as strong as po sible is a worthy endeavor. I'm not sure whether this means Ruiz will start right away and the team will cut ties with or if they plan to have Ruiz sit for a year and then step into the lineup, but this team having Ruiz, McCoy, , , and up front for the foreseeable future is pretty nice.After letting Conklin leave in free agency, it was not surprising to see the Titans use their first-round pick on a monster-sized right tackle. It's not much more complicated than that.Weaponizers: Henry Ruggs (12); : (15); : (17); : (21); : (22); : (25); : (32)Ruggs' pure speed has led to him being labeled a pure deep threat by many observers, but as noted during ESPN's draft coverage, he is actually more of a catch-and-run guy. That makes him a better fit with than it would appear on the surface. Plus, a player that can burn it like Ruggs can force defenses to adjust their coverage in ways that benefit everyone else. and will have much more room to operate in the underneath areas of the field, which, again, is a nice thing for Carr, who prefers to throw short anyway.The Broncos had as much of an obvious receiver need as anybody in the draft, and they landed a guy many considered the draft's top wideout at No. 15 overall. Jeudy's technical proficiency as a route-runner is going to make him an inner-circle member of the Always Open Club for a long time, and he makes for a fantastic perimeter partner for , who is coming off a breakout season of his own. looked a bit better than many expected him to last season, and with Jeudy, Sutton, and stretching defenses in all kinds of ways, he has plenty of weaponry available to him moving forward.I still can't really believe that A. Lamb was available for the Cowboys at pick 17; and B. they actually took him rather than picking purely based on need. (There's no way this would have been the pick if this were still the Jason Garrett era.) Dallas finished last season second in the NFL in offensive DVOA, and just replaced with arguably the best receiver in the draft. He is an after-catch marvel who can play both outside and in the slot, and the Cowboys can mix-and-match him and inside and out while keeping on the perimeter to stretch the field. may not have his long-term deal just yet, but he is better positioned to succeed than at any previous point in his career. Have fun trying to defend these guys.The Eagles mi sing out on the top three wideouts had to hurt, especially given that they saw Lamb head to a division rival. Taking Reagor over Jefferson was an interesting decision, but it makes a bit more sense if you view it through the prism of Philly prioritizing speed on the outside. We saw the difference between what their offense looked like with last season and without him, and if you were going for pure perimeter speed after the top three receivers came off the board, Reagor might make a bit more sense than Jefferson, who, while a bit more versatile, isn't quite as much of a burner.That said, the Vikings landing Jefferson is really fascinating. He did a lot of his damage at LSU out of the slot, so it'll be interesting to see how the team elects to deploy him and , who himself is a slot maven. Swapping out to land a cornerback and replacing him with Jefferson is actually a pretty nice bit of busine s. got an extension this offseason, and he should have quality wideouts to throw to for the duration of that contract thanks to this pick.San Francisco moving up from No. 31 to No. 25 was a bit of a surprise given all the trade-down speculation that surrounded them leading up to the draft, but Kyle Shanahan seemed pretty damn fired up about landing Aiyuk at this spot. He's not nece sarily the type of receiver who is going to beat pre s coverage, but lucky for him, he's going to a team that will do a better job of scheming him into open space than any other in the league. Shanahan and John Lynch specifically mentioned his ability to make plays in those types of situations, and pairing him with , , and their dynamic group of running backs will help them maintain one of the league's most efficient offenses.The Chiefs taking a running back at No. 32 overall is a puzzling decision. If there's any team that could get by with whoever the heck they want at that position, it's the team with . They just won a Super Bowl with an undrafted free agent who washed out from the Dolphins. Andy Reid has shown throughout his career that he can turn e sentially anybody into a productive running back anyway. If they were going to take a player at that position, however, Edwards-Helaire made the most sense for them. He's a dynamic pa s-catcher out of the backfield who is reminiscent of Brian Westbrook, and should provide Mahomes with a solid option on screens, checkdowns, swing routes, and more. The position value is not great, but it's difficult to argue with the scheme fit. Graham Gano Jersey