{"id":95956,"date":"2026-04-23T22:21:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T05:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=95956"},"modified":"2026-04-24T01:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T08:09:56","slug":"nfl-draft-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=95956","title":{"rendered":"NFL Draft: First Round"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-9.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-95957\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-9.png 810w, https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-9-225x300.png 225w, https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-9-53x70.png 53w, https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-9-768x1024.png 768w, https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-9-113x150.png 113w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NFL Draft: First Round &#8211; Thursday April 23 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n\n\n<p>By Tim Peterson <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Rams took Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson with the 13th pick. The Rams became the first team to have a quarterback win MVP (Matthew Stafford) then select a quarterback in the subsequent draft since the Green Bay Packers in 1967. Bart Starr won MVP in 1966 and Green Bay drafted Don Horn 25th overall the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rams head Coach Sean McVay proclaimed that the Rams are still Matthew Stafford&#8217;s team which means Simpson could be sitting for two to three years. the Rams had several other options but elected to take Simpson, who had just 15 starts at Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the popular opinion was that the Rams would take USC wide receiver Makai Lemon but he dropped to 20 where he was taken by the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles made a trade with the Dallas Cowboys to move up to 20 and take Lemon. By drafting Lemon the Eagles are expected to trade A.J. Brown at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simpson was considered the second-best quarterback in the draft to Indiana&#8217;s Fernando Mendoza, who went number one to the Las Vegas Raiders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The New York Jets had three first-round picks selecting Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey at number two, tight end Kenyon Sadiq from Oregon at 16 and Indiana receiver Omar Cooper Jr. from Indiana at 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ohio State had four players taken in the first 11 picks. The Cowboys landed one of those Buckeyes drafting talented safety Caleb Downs with the 11th pick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Chargers had the 22nd pick and took Miami edge\/linebacker Akheem Mesidor.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Carnell Tate, another Buckeye, was the first receiver taken off the board going fourth to Tennessee.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jeremiyah Love from Notre Dame was the first running back taken going to Arizona at number 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rounds 2 and 3 are scheduled for Friday April 24 at 7:00 PM ET. (4:00 PM PT). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NFL Draft: First Round &#8211; Thursday April 23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-news-notes-around-professional-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95956"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95969,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95956\/revisions\/95969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}