No Surprise: LSU QB Joe Burrow is Top Overall Pick in 2020 NFL Draft

The 2020 NFL Draft, which has been a multiday pageant second only to the Super Bowl on the NFL calendar, has had to switch to an online format due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, Day 1, which had Round 1 of the seven round draft, was a big hit with fans as a record 15.6 million tuned in to the multi network, multi platform broadcast. Of course, there isn’t much viewing competition out there for sports fans with everything shut down.

Heisman Trophy winning LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, to the surprise of no one, was chosen by the Cincinnati Bengals with the top overall pick. Burrow capped off his collegiate career by throwing five touchdown passes and scoring a TD himself in LSU’s 42-25 win over Clemson in the College Football Championship game.

Burrow was one of four quarterbacks taken in the first round. The Dolphins (picking 5th) took Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa; the Chargers (6th) selected Justin Herbert of Oregon, and in perhaps the biggest surprise of the first round, Green Bay chose Utah State’s Jordan Love with the 26th pick, and they traded up to get him.

Aaron Rodgers is 35 but has no retirement plans, but Green Bay, it seems, wants to get his successor in there for what is expected to be a multi season apprenticeship (the Packers could also use an upgrade as a backup quarterback, but no one picks a backup QB in Round 1. Love is now the designated heir apparent). The Love pick is also interesting because despite making it to the NFC Championship before losing to San Francisco, Green Bay has several immediate needs. We have to wonder if Green Bay’s management thinks they realistically are a year or two away from being a serious Super Bowl run and thus picked a project at the top. Green Bay has eight picks left, but three are in the sixth round and two are in the seventh. Remains to be seen how many impact players they can get late in the draft.

The Southeast Conference set a record with 15 players selected in the first round. There were five from LSU and four from Alabama. The Big Ten’s Ohio State was next with three.