Less than two months removed from being jilted at the aisle by Brock Osweiler, Broncos head honcho John Elway has found his new lanky quarterback of the future.
The Broncostraded up five spots to No. 26 overall Thursday night to take Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch, giving up the 31st overall pick and a third-rounder to Seattle in order to do so. Elway seemingly couldn't wait to let the world know that the Broncos were no longer interested in Colin Kaepernick.
Mark Sanchez suddenly looks like a real favorite to start in Week 1 for the defending Super Bowl champions, which is a sentence I never expected to write. The Broncos aren't drafting Lynch to start right away. He has a lot to learn at the NFL level and looks like a player who will need to spend his first season on the sidelines.
Lynch's mobility and arm strength make him a perfect fit for coach Gary Kubiak's system. Kubiak's history as a quarterback tutor and the team's talent on both sides of the ball make Denver a perfect fit for Lynch.
The Memphis product looks like one of the biggest winners after a wild Day 1 of the NFL Draft. In the meantime, the Broncos might have to win games with a quarterback that didn't start for a 7-9 Eagles team last year. The Broncos didn't wind up trading for Kaepernick, Sam Bradford or Nick Foles after all. They traded for a rookie. Elway had his eye on a true quarterback of the future to build his franchise around. Again.
Here are some other winners and losers from Thursday night:
Winners
Ezekiel Elliott's fantasy football value: When Joey Bosa was surprisingly taken third overall by the Chargers, the Cowboys war room looked like it had seen a ghost. We'll never know if Bosa was the apple of owner Jerry Jones' eye as was rumored, but Dallas rebounded nicely by taking Elliott.
It's hard to imagine a better situation for a rookie running back. Elliott is a complete three-down back that will be playing behind one of the best offensive lines in football against one of the easiest schedules possible. With all apologies to Darren McFadden and Alfred Morris, Elliott could be a top-20 fantasy pick.
Gus Bradley: The Jaguars head coach is out of excuses for his underperforming defense. Plenty of analysts believed that Florida State cornerback Jalen Ramsey was the best player in this draft. The Jaguars were reasonably deep at cornerback even before Ramsey fell into their lap, but general manager David Caldwell smartly didn't let Ramsey slide any further than No. 5 overall.
The Jaguars have basically added two top-five picks this offseason with Dante Fowler coming off a serious injury. Free agents Malik Jackson and Prince Amukamara were also added to a defense that should vastly improve from the second-worst scoring defense in the league.
Sashi Brown's draft pick war chest: Cleveland's new draft impresario traded down again from No. 8 to No. 15 and still nabbed the first wide receiver off the board in Corey Coleman. Just as importantly, Brown picked up an extra 2016 third-round pick and 2017 second-round pick in the bargain.
Kirk Cousins and Teddy Bridgewater: Cousins already had plenty of impressive weapons to throw to in Washington. Adding TCU wide receiver Josh Doctson to the mix gives him an embarrassment of riches. (And probably means that DeSean Jackson or Pierre Garcon are on borrowed time in Washington.)
One pick after Doctson was selected, the Vikings snapped up LaQuon Treadwell. Reasonable folks can disagree on the best receiver in this class, with Coleman, Doctson, and Treadwell all in the mix. We love Treadwell's toughness and think he's actually what Bridgewater needed to add to the mix.
Losers
Mock Drafts after the Bosa pick: We heard countless breathless reports this week about who the San Diego Chargers could take at No. 3. Virtually none of them had Joey Bosa as an option, and none of them had Bosa as the favorite. We know that most pre-draft analysis is guesswork, but this really highlighted it for everyone to see. No one had any clue.
Laremy Tunsil's Social Media Portfolio: There is one way that Ole Miss tackle Laremy Tunsil's draft night could have been a bigger nightmare. He could have slipped much further than seven spots after a video was posted on his Twitter account just before the draft started of Tunsil smoking out of a bong. The Ravens had Tunsil rated higher than Notre Dame tackle Ronnie Stanley according to Aditi Kinkhabwala. But the Ravens took Tunsil off their board and drafted Stanley because of the video. Other teams followed suit until the Dolphins stopped Tunsil's fall at No. 13.
The bizarre story got stranger later in the night when Tunsil's Instagram account was also apparently hacked, showing an exchange between Tunsil and an Ole Miss official. Tunsil later admitted to receiving money from the official. We're not sure why Tunsil's social media accounts were not all shut down at once, but that is a story for another day. And this promises to be a story that continues to unfold. It's the story we'll remember this draft by years from now, more than any other.
**Myles Jack**: It was difficult to watch the insanely talented UCLA linebacker fall so far because of medical concerns about his knee. Jack was the No. 2 overall player on NFL Media's Daniel Jeremiah's board and could be a great value for some team on Day 2.
Offensive coordinators under Rex Ryan: This is the seventh straight year a Ryan-coached team has taken a defensive player in the first round. Rex gets what Rex wants.
