NFL draft 2023 winners: Texans and Eagles make all the right moves

After months of rumor and speculation, Thursday night’s first round of the NFL draft featured less chaos than anticipated. There were few eyebrow-scorching picks and, instead, a steady stream of sensible selections.

Let’s look at some of the winners from the opening night.

Think about this: 12 months ago, the John Schneider-Pete Carroll axis, Seattle’s chief decision-makers, was at a crossroads. They were almost run out of town by a Russell Wilson-led revolt. Instead, they traded the quarterback to the Broncos, receiving a bounty of draft picks in return. Wilson proceeded to set fire to everything in his sights in Denver. Then the pair crushed last year’s draft, selecting six starters from nine picks, including grabbing Charles Cross, Abraham Lucas, Tariq Woolen and Kenneth Walker III, all budding stars at their position. Oh, and there was the small matter of them finding Geno Smith on the quarterback scrap heap and resurrecting his career.

Now this. On Thursday night they were able to land the top cornerback prospect in the class and the top receiving prospect, landing Illinois’ Devon Witherspoon with the fifth overall pick and Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba at No 20. Witherspoon is a quintessential Carroll corner: He’s quick, feisty, and plays with an aggressiveness bordering on violence. Smith-Njigba will serve as the perfect compliment to the DK Metcalf-Tyler Lockett receiving duo.

In the span of a year, Carroll has gone from hearing chatter that he should retire to having overhauled the Seahawks roster. What looked like it was going to be a long rebuild in the wake of the Wilson trade now looks like one of the most talented, youthful rosters in the craptastic NFC.

Questions about whether Geno Smith will be a viable