The 2023 promised to be polarizing given how many of the 32 teams were in agreement that there were fewer than 20 players with true, first-round grades. Thursday night lived up to that billing with not one but TWO running backs going in not just the first round, but the first 12 picks, in an in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty three. If told that was going to happen beforehand, I would've thought it was a weird dream or a hallucination after a few sleep-deprived days.Plenty of teams crushed their picks, including the first two picks with going first overall to the and going second overall to the , after plenty of .Three teams with multiple picks made picks I liked (the Texans, , and ) while one (the ) drafted like it was the 1990s all over again. Here are five picks I liked and five I didn't after the opening round in Kansas City. QB C.J. Stroud (No. 2 to Texans) HOU QB #7 This makes all the sense in the world. I had my " come out earlier this week, and I said the Houston Texans should take C.J. Stroud and not overthink it. We heard some conversations about it maybe being . Great football player, but he doesn't throw touchdown pa ses. Stroud checks all of the boxes. He can even win with his legs, which he showed against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Playoff semifinals.He's arguably the most accurate pa ser in this cla s, and that includes Bryce Young. He doesn't throw with as much anticipation as Young, but Stroud also had , , Marvin Harrison Jr., and . Those guys were always open. I understand why there were questions about that part of his game, but from what I saw, no moment was too big. You get a sense in-person of the edge he plays with. I think this is a great Robbie Grossman Jersey pick for the Houston Texans.CB (No. 5 to Seahawks) SEA CB #21 I love this pick. The Seahawks already had their version of 2022 Defensive Rookie of the Year in fellow first-year player , whose six interceptions were tied for the most in the entire last season. Now you have someone you can line up opposite Woolen in Witherspoon, who didn't allow any touchdowns as the primary defender during his collegiate season at Illinois in 2022. He's a dog. Even though he's barely six feet tall and 180-185 pounds, go watch him play against Indiana. He was blowing guys up. Devon Witherspoon destroyed this Indiana RB Footballism (@FootbaIIism) He can also cover in addition to blowing guys up. Witherspoon feels like a cla sic Pete Carroll, Seattle throwback corner from the Legion of Boom when and were back there. I had heard they were honing in on Florida quarterback , who went fourth to the . I heard they were off , so they went to their board and picked the best player available in Witherspoon.DT Jalen Carter and EDGE(Nos. 9 and 30 to Eagles) PHI DL #98 If you just watched football Kent Hrbek Jersey in the fall and didn't know anything else about Jalen Carter, you would be wondering why he was still on the board at this point. It was because of a stemming from a fatal single-car accident on Jan. 15. Winning fixes a lot, so you have that winning culture in Philadelphia. Plus, there are people around him, like his teammates at Georgia in linebacker and defensive tackle , who can keep him in line. The idea of him next to Davis on that defensive line while playing with Dean in the front seven is a scary proposition for opposing offenses. Carter led the back-to-back national champions in quarterback pre sures (66), quarterback hurries (48), and tackles for lo s (15.5) acro s the last two seasons. Huge victory to add a supreme talent to an already great Eagles defense. PHI EDGE #3 Georgia edge rusher Nolan Smith is a generational athlete, not just as an edge rusher, but in the entire landscape of NFL athletes. Smith is the heaviest player at 6-foot-2, 238 pounds with a 40-plus inch vertical (41.5") and sub-4.4 40 time (4.39 seconds) at the NFL Scouting Combine since individual numbers were publicly tracked starting in 2003. The second and third-heaviest such players to accomplish those feats of athletic dominance at the combine: Seattle Seahawks wide receiver (228 pounds) and running back (217). Adding another freaky athlete to go along with, whose 16 sacks last season were tied for the second-most in the NFL behind only 2022 Defensive Player of the Year 18.5, is simply unfair. OT(No. 14 to Steelers) PIT OT #77 Broderick Jones' athleticism is off the charts: he ran a 4.97 40-yard dash, the fastest among all offensive lineman at the 2023 NFL Combine while measuring at 6-foot-5 and 311 pounds. He didn't allow any sacks and gave up only eight quarterback pre sures on 449 pa s-blocking snaps for the 2022 national champion Georgia Bulldogs while displaying perfect health, starting all 15 games. This is about as strong of a pick as it gets for a Steelers team that was desperate to upgrade 2022 first-round pick quarterback protection. Pick Six Newsletter Crafted By The Best NFL Experts Get the day's big stories + fun stuff you love like mock drafts, picks and power rankings. I agree to receive the "Pick Six Newsletter" and Addison Reed Jersey marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers), and other information from CBS Sports and the Paramount family of companies. By pre sing sign up, I confirm that I have read and agree to the and acknowledge Paramount's . Please check the opt-in box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe. Thanks for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. Sorry! There was an error proce sing your subscription. Tony Oliva Jersey RB and LB (Nos. 12 and 18 to Lions) DET RB #26 I will say this: When Rick Spielman and I were at the Alabama Pro Day watching Bryce Young, Jahmyr Gibbs caught our attention running routes and running back drills. He looked different. I just didn't expect him to go in the top 12 based on team needs and other prospects available. DET LB #46 Pairing the 2022 Butkus Award winner, the best linebacker in , with creates a nice linebacking tandem in the middle of head coach Dan Campbell's smash mouth, blue collar defense. Campbell had the fastest three-cone drill time (6.74 seconds) and 20-yard shuttle time (4.24 seconds) among all linebackers at the 2023 NFL Combine. I just wasn't expecting a linebacker to go in the middle of the first round, and the Lions to be the ones to take one. DAL DL #58 They needed help in the middle of their defense line. I had them taking Pitt's , who was already off the board after going 19th to the , in my last mock draft that came out earlier Thursday. Smith is 323 pounds and a freakish athlete, but it doesn't show up play-to-play. That's when you wonder, why not? Does he love football? Is there something else going on? How are we going to handle this? Fortunately, Dallas has the players around him who can keep him focused on football. Defensive line depth is clearly the plan in Dallas.EDGE(No. 7 to Raiders) LV EDGE #9 There were concerns from some teams that Tyree Wilson's foot injury wasn't where it needed to be medically after hurting his foot in November. He didn't work out at the Senior Bowl, but I talked to him there. Great, young man. Great year despite the injury, leading the Big 12 Conference in quarterback pre sures with 50 despite mi sing three games. Wilson also had the highest quarterback pre sure rate in the conference in 2022, 20.7%, That was 5.2% higher than the next player (Oklahoma State's Collin Oliver, 15.5%) Eduardo Escobar Jersey with a minimum of 150 pa s rushes. That's the gap between the second-best pa s-rusher in the Big 12 and the 31st-best pa s-rusher in the Big 12 in terms of pre sure rate.He's very serious about football and wanted to work out at the combine, but it didn't happen. The Raiders were a team that was OK with him. He's 6-foot-6 and 270 pounds, but he's so tall he looks like he's 220. It's a good complement to , but when you look at the secondary over there and see cornerback available, maybe you go defensive backfield first. OT (No. 10 to Bears) CHI OT #58 When Wright came into the 2022 college football season, he was considered a Day 3 pick until he moved from left tackle to right tackle. Wright had no sacks and five pre sures allowed in 461 pa s-blocking snaps last season, concluding his career with 19 straight games without a sack, the last 13 of which came in 2022. He just got better (young players do get better when you face SEC competition on a regular basis.) At the end of the day, though, the Bears could have had Jalen Carter, the best overall prospect in this draft, at No. 9 before they allowed the Eagles to trade ahead of them for only a fourth-round pick.It's time to celebrate the NFL's stars of tomorrow with a brand new jersey. .