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Will Levis, Joey Porter Jr., and Brian Branch highlight the best players available in the NFL Draft
Night one of the 2023 NFL Draft is in the books.
But we are just getting started.
31 players had their NFL dreams realized on Thursday night, but we have six rounds of draft picks remaining. Rounds 2 and 3 are set to begin later tonight, and there are a lot of great players left.
Thursday night began as expected, with Alabama quarterback Bryce Young coming off the board with the first-overall selection, to the Carolina Panthers.

For all the hoopla over the quarterbacks who did go in the first round of the 2023 NFL draft, almost as much attention was given to a quarterback who did not.
Kentucky quarterback Will Levis—mentioned for much of the pre-draft process in the same breath as Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud and Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson—was not selected in the first round. His omission was a stark departure from rumors that placed the Wildcats gunslinger as high as the top five.

The first round of the 2023 NFL draft is officially in the books, and what a wild Thursday night it was to kick off this year’s three-day event in Kansas City.
We had plenty of intrigue heading into this year’s draft, and the hype delivered with a dramatic first night, highlighted by three quarterbacks coming off the board in the top four picks, and a flurry of trades that shook up the early going for a handful of teams. As always, we had a few surprise picks and a couple of big names that lasted longer than expected.

The slide out of the first round of the NFL draft by former Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Will Levis, who was expected by many to be selected among the top 10 picks, may have been due to injury concerns.
Late Thursday night, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that teams may been hesitant to invest in the talented signal-caller due to a toe injury suffered at Kentucky last season.
The toe injury, which caused him to miss several games in 2022, could be the reason for Levis’s unexpected drop out of the opening round.

Hit the road, Shams.
The Athletic’s very own NBA insider couldn’t take the night off on a day that belonged entirely to the NFL.
Known for his NBA breaking news, Charania branched out and started to tweet out NFL scoops leading up to the Carolina Panthers’ first pick.
Synonymous with the NBA, Shams’ foray into the NFL felt off. It was similar to hearing a breaking MLB story being first reported by John McEnroe.
Shams managed to “break” the news that Bryce Young would be selected with the No. 1 pick, flexing his reporting skills a bit too hard.

Zay Flowers was drafted by the Ravens with the No. 22 pick in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Flowers was the third consecutive receiver off the board with Jaxon Smith-Njigba going to Seattle at No. 20 and Quentin Johnston going to the Chargers at No. 21. Given the value Baltimore placed on the former Boston College playmaker, fantasy football players should expect Flowers to contribute early in his rookie season.

What Flowers lacks in size (5’9”, 182 pounds) he makes up for in athleticism.

When the Hawks forced a Game 6 against the Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs, one of the biggest pieces of news heading into the matchup was that a Janet Jackson concert had to be postponed at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena because it was scheduled for the same night.
As it turned out, Boston beat Atlanta on Thursday night, 128–120, to advance to the second round. In his on-court postgame interview, Celtics star forward Jayson Tatum took a moment to apologize to the pop legend for not finishing the series earlier to allow her concert to remain on schedule.