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NFL Draft Round 1 Winners and Losers: Eagles Get Great Value, Cardinals Make a Reach

By Gilberto Manzano Sports Illustrated

PITTSBURGH - There was plenty of shouting in the back corner of where the recent NFL draftees arrived to begin their media rounds at Acrisure Stadium.

A fired up Caleb Downs clapped his hands and shouted, "How ‘bout them Cowboys," before greeting Mansoor Delane and Sonny Styles about an hour after the trio became first-round picks on Thursday night.

Minutes before that, someone who may have been related to Makai Lemon unleashed a booming squeal that frightened a few reporters when it was announced through the speakers that the Eagles had just drafted the wideout from USC. Or maybe that scream served as an alarm for a sight most football fans thought they would never see-a trade between the Eagles and Cowboys, who relinquished the No. 20 pick that sent Lemon to Philadelphia.

As for another sound, poor Ty Simpson, who might have had the most media requests for being the biggest surprise draft pick of the night, asked the person handling his obligations whether he could go home after knocking out a few more interviews, and this was a few minutes past 11 p.m. ET.

I gotta say I found a nice spot to absorb the aftermath of a wild first night of the 2026 NFL draft, which started with me walking more than 10,000 steps from the red carpet at Point State Park to the media work room inside the home stadium of the Steelers.

Here are my winners for the first round, along with a few question marks that I had once the dust settled. Hopefully, Simpson got to go home by the time I filed this story.

Winners

Eagles pull off impressive post-A.J. Brown plans

The Eagles must have felt dirty doing business with the Cowboys, but it needed to be done for them to be in good shape once the worst kept secret is made official on June 1, also known as the day that A.J. Brown will likely be joining the Patriots.

It will also be known as the day the Eagles will finally get to move on from all the drama that has transpired between Brown and Jalen Hurts the past few seasons. It remains to be seen whether the team is making the right move siding with the Super Bowl-winning quarterback over the wideout who helped the 2020 signal-caller take his game to the next level.

Putting that aside, Philadelphia needed to break up this duo because it appeared from the outside, and all the reports that have leaked this offseason, that this feud divided the locker room. Now, the Eagles will get to see whether Hurts can perform at a high level with a different talented receiving corps, which include the versatile Lemon, DeVonta Smith and the recently acquired Dontayvion Wicks.

If Hurts continues to struggle in the post-Brown era, well, Eagles GM Howie Roseman can find a different quarterback in what is supposed to be a stacked 2027 draft class. The pressure is now on Hurts after Roseman delivered Lemon.

Question marks

Did the Cardinals really need to take a running back at No. 3?

Don't get me wrong, Jeremiyah Love is going to be a star player in this league. But the Cardinals weren't in an ideal place to make Love the first running back taken in the top three of the draft since the Giants did it with Saquon Barkley in 2018.

New York gained a few special years from Barkley, but it wasn't until he left to join the Eagles that he started winning games due to being on a team with a well-rounded roster.

The Cardinals don't have a franchise quarterback, no offense to Jacoby Brissett, who now has some leverage after asking for a pay raise last week. Perhaps Arizona gets a quarterback next year in that loaded class, and this question will seem silly then, especially because this team has talent at the skill positions with Love, Trey McBride, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson.

But I can't help but to think what this team would have looked like if it had gone with Arvell Reese or Sonny Styles to continue building the defense, or gone with one of the top tackles to fill the massive void on the right side. The Cardinals could have taken a top defender or a tackle with the option of later trading back into the first round to take Jadarian Price, the other Notre Dame running back who went to the Seahawks at No. 32.

Seattle built its defense without needing to splurge on a running back and won the Super Bowl in February.

This story will be updated throughout the night .

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Draft Round 1 Winners and Losers: Eagles Get Great Value, Cardinals Make a Reach.

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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 9:48 PM.

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