It's over! The 2016 NFL draft is in the books. You've read a ton about it already, so here's a little more. Forthwith: Ten unique, witty and insightful takeaways from the affair.
1. Only one rookie quarterback will start in Week 1
That's the way I see it on the final day of April, at least.
More than one quarterback in this draft is capable of starting immediately, and injuries could always change the equation. But the player/team matches suggest that only Jared Goff, who went No. 1 overall, will enter the season atop his team's depth chart.
Goff is the most pro-ready quarterback in this class, and he'll need to beat out only the venerable Case Keenum and Nick Foles in order to be the starter Sept. 12 at the San Francisco 49ers.
Think about it. The Philadelphia Eagles have 34 million reasons (via money guaranteed to Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel) to avoid rushing Carson Wentz. The Denver Broncos will have Mark Sanchez at their disposal while they teach Paxton Lynch how to take a snap from center.
The New York Jets still are trying to re-sign Ryan Fitzpatrick, but even if they move on, they could start Geno Smith or Bryce Petty while rebuilding Christian Hackenberg's mechanics and confidence. Connor Cook could have competed for a starting job with some teams, but after falling to the Oakland Raiders in the fourth round, he's destined to back up Derek Carr.
The other 11 quarterbacks drafted, from Cody Kessler (Cleveland Browns) to Dak Prescott (Dallas Cowboys) to Cardale Jones (Buffalo Bills), are all projected as long-term backups. If any of them start in Week 1, or at all in 2016, it will be after a massive organizational disaster of some kind.
This 15-man class was the NFL's largest since 2004 and stood in stark contrast to the seven-man group of 2015, the smallest in the draft's common-era history. But it has been six years since fewer than two rookie quarterbacks earned Week 1 starting jobs. That happened in 2010, also for the Rams (in St. Louis) and also for a No. 1 overall pick (Bradford). The recent high came in 2012, when five rookies -- Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Brandon Weeden, Ryan Tannehill and Russell Wilson -- started in Week 1.
2. The Browns' way
We've long since established that the Browns' new front office, led by former team attorney Sashi Brown and longtime baseball executive Paul DePodesta, will go about its business in an unconventional way. And it's pretty clear the team is taking a (very) long-term approach, as evidenced by the decision to grab what can only be considered their backup quarterback of the future (Kessler, in the third round) before they draft a long-term starter.
(If you're thinking of RG III as anything other than a flier, you're fooling yourself.)
But here's one way the Browns' approach could help them in 2016. Their aggressiveness in acquiring draft picks, both for now and in future years, allowed them to address an excruciating area of weakness with the kind of volume that should significantly increase their chances of a few immediate hits.
With the most picks (14) in this year’s draft, the Browns drafted five wide receivers. No team has done that, or has been able to do that, since the New Orleans Saints in 1967 -- when the draft was 17 rounds. With so many picks at their disposal, the Browns were still able to take two defensive ends, two offensive tackles, two defensive backs, a linebacker and a quarterback.
Many personnel evaluators like to think they can identify talent better than their competitors. Most statistical studies, in terms of draft hits and misses, show that not to be the case. Volume is what analytics tells us might be more important to draft success, and it's now clear the Browns will be a case study in that theory moving forward.
Already thinking about 2017? The Browns have two picks in the first round and another two in the second as a result of their trade maneuvers. They also have an extra second-round pick in 2018.
3. The quarterback as a commodity
This draft showed us the value of regularly drafting quarterbacks, regardless of the team's current situation.
The Patriots have made a habit of it during the Tom Brady era. Jacoby Brissett was the eighth quarterback they've drafted since Brady in 2000, a group that includes Matt Cassel, Kevin O'Connell, Ryan Mallet and Jimmy Garoppolo. Since 2008, they've drafted four quarterbacks in the second and third rounds.
At worst, the approach has given the Patriots a low-cost backup for a starter who rarely comes off the field. At best, it can give them an opportunity to recoup a draft pick via trade if another team views the backup as starter material. That could happen for Garoppolo next season.
Perhaps that's the model the Raiders had for Cook. He isn't likely to wrest the starting job away from Carr but could one day become a trade chip. Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie is a disciple of former Green Bay Packers general manager Ron Wolf, who presided over a program that routinely acquired and then flipped backup quarterbacks to other teams. Matt Hasselbeck, Mark Brunell and Aaron Brooks are among the products of that system.
Contrast that to the Cowboys, who hadn't drafted a quarterback since 2009 before getting Prescott in the fourth round Saturday. Instead, the Cowboys have stocked their roster with ineffective veteran backups for much of the Tony Romo era, from an aging Brad Johnson to Weeden to Matt Cassel and beyond.
Even when the Cowboys have drafted a quarterback, it has been halfhearted. Four of the last five have come via the fourth round, dating back to 1991, and the other was Quincy Carter in the second round. It's no surprise that in 2016, the Cowboys have a 36-year-old, injury-prone starter and absolutely no viable succession plan in place.
4. Lotta hog mollies
The term "hog mollie," a favorite of Carolina Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman, can be translated into "big dude." This draft was said to be full of them, especially in the defensive interior, and the numbers bore that out.
There were 21 defensive tackles drafted through the fifth round, after which draft trends tend to dissipate. Cornerback was the only position with more at 23. Another 15 defensive ends were drafted, ranking fifth among positions after five rounds.
Every team approached that talent glut in its own way, but one worth noting was ...
5. Texans buck trend
The Houston Texans followed what might have been the smartest approach to a draft deep with defensive tackles. They didn't rush to take one, regardless of need.
Instead, the Texans spent much of this draft accumulating options for new quarterback Brock Osweiler. They selected receivers in the first (Will Fuller) and third (Braxton Miller) rounds, and a running back (Tyler Ervin) in the fourth. Then, with their second selection of the fifth round, they grabbed defensive tackle D.J. Reader.
Some might argue that the Texans missed out on the strength of this draft by looking elsewhere in the first four rounds. I'd suggest the opposite. They jumped on less-stocked positions when they could and then circled back to the hog mollies later. Intentional or by accident, it made perfect sense.
6. Coolest draft story goes to Patriots
(And no, I'm not referring to Kevin Faulk's biting Deflategate commentary.)
The draft is full of under-told stories, and the one I loved best centered around Georgia receiver Malcolm Mitchell -- a fourth-round pick of the Patriots.
Mitchell, as the story goes, tested at a low level for reading when he entered Georgia. After tearing his ACL, he used the extra time to improve his reading ability. After a chance meeting at a bookstore, he joined a book club hosted by a group of 40-year-old women. He has since written and self-published a book, “The Magician's Hat,” about the magical power of books to explore dreams and develop creativity.
I have no idea whether Mitchell will make it as a receiver in the NFL, but I hope he has a long career in football to spread one of the most important messages a child can hear: Reading is cool.
7. Farewell, Chicago ...
The draft drew more than 200,000 fans over three days despite some nasty Chicago-style spring weather, but the NFL is far from committed to returning to the city in 2017. From the sounds of it, the league will open up national bidding for at least the next few drafts, having succeeded in creating a traveling caravan from what was once a stage show in Manhattan.
If nothing else, why not find out whether another municipality would be willing to gift the NFL a better deal than what it got in Chicago the past two years? The city has spent about $5 million to stage each draft, according to the Chicago Tribune, but the money was raised privately and not billed directly to taxpayers.
The draft eventually is expected to wind up at the Los Angeles Rams' new stadium complex, scheduled to open in 2019. You can only imagine the kind of red-carpeted, Oscar-like event that could be staged there. In the meantime, the NFL will look at sites in Philadelphia, Dallas and Denver, among other places.
"What Chicago has done is redefine the draft," commissioner Roger Goodell told ESPN Radio. "...It's been great. Here's the problem: We've created such a great success. We wanted to come back here to reward the fans for what they did. But every other city in the country, practically, wants us. They've seen it. And the opportunity for us to be able to share it, move around, and maybe come back here [exists]. But we haven't decided yet."
That sounds like the opening line of an RFP (request for proposal) to me. Stay tuned.
8. The rarest of rare
As you might have heard, German-born receiver Moritz Boehringer is the first German player to be drafted without playing college football in the United States. The Minnesota Vikings drafted him in the sixth round, and while it's a great story, there is no evidence that this is about to become a thing.
The best route to the NFL remains through college football, and the NCAA's latest statistics show international students remain a tiny percentage of the overall player pool.
In the 2014-15 season, 0.4 percent of players across all three NCAA divisions were classified as international students. Most of them were from Canada (60 of 240 internationals), followed by Australia (16) and Germany (12).
If an international trend were beginning, you would think it would have its roots in players moving to America for college football rather than directly to the NFL. There's no indication of that yet.
9. Final word on Tunsil
The Baltimore Ravens would have drafted left tackle Laremy Tunsil with the No. 6 overall pick, according to a report Saturday from ESPN's Adam Schefter, if a video had not surfaced of Tunsil smoking what appeared to be marijuana. The Ravens pivoted to Notre Dame left tackle Ronnie Stanley and Tunsil fell to the Miami Dolphins at No. 13 overall.
I wrote Thursday that most NFL teams don't make long-term draft decisions based on a possible instance of previous marijuana use, and I still believe that. For the most part, Thursday night's drama served as a final tipping point in a series of off-field issues that suggest Tunsil has a lot going on in his life right now.
The Ravens, however, might have been particularly sensitive to the impact of visual evidence. This is the same team, after all, that took heavy criticism in 2014 when video surfaced of a domestic violence incident involving former Ravens running back Ray Rice. Two years ago, the nation watched as one of their top players was caught on a security camera punching his then-fiancée. It's understandable why the Ravens might have been reluctant to draft a player as video circulated of him allegedly using drugs.
10. And my favorite quote goes to ...
Goodell, who absorbed the usual barbs this weekend -- and then some. As he stood at the podium Saturday to open the fourth round, dressed casually in a black hat and thermal vest amid the cold rain, Goodell paused for a moment to take in the adulation and now-routine boos.
"Come on, bring it on," Goodell said, raising both hands to encourage the crowd. "There you go. There you go."
The boos don't seem to bother Goodell, and perhaps, as we discussed Thursday, he knows that any compelling narrative needs good guys and bad guys. But I don't get it. The television production of the NFL draft can roll right along without the commissioner. Why not honor former players, throw in some young fans, and mix in some celebrities to announce the picks? The booing was fun for a while, but all it does now is reinforce negative public opinion of Goodell -- he did a decent job of that himself this week -- and add a degree of negativity to something that should be overwhelmingly positive.
OK. I'll jump off the soap box. Until next year, of course.