May 6, 2015 By Katelyn Quinn
After being held in New York City for the last 50 years, the NFL Draft tried something new and headed to Chicago this year.
The event started on Thursday night at Draft Town at Grant Park in Chicago. As they waited for the gates to open, fans in every teams’ jerseys came together to be a part of the festivities. Despite a few rowdy Bears’ fans attempting to direct jabs at the Packers fans who almost outnumbered them, the fans of each team were eager to get to know the fans of teams other than their own.
Draft Town included many activities to keep fans occupied while they waited for the Draft to begin a few hours later in Auditorium Theater. Some of these activities included meeting NFL players, visiting each team’s headquarters, listening to musicians play, customizing Draft t-shirts, taking pictures with the Lombardi trophy and watching Wilson footballs be made.
The closer it got to the start of the draft, the more fans swarmed around Selection Square to get a better view of the first pick of 2015.
Soon enough, the countdown began and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stepped up to the podium with the envelope containing the first pick.
“With the first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select Jameis Winston, quarterback, Florida State,” Goodell said.
Tampa Bay fans roared with approval of the player that would now be a part of their team.
The Green Bay Packers would not pick until the 30th pick in the Draft, but a Wisconsin Badger was drafted before then. The San Diego Chargers traded up two spots to pick number Fifteen, to select former Wisconsin Badgers running back Melvin Gordon. Gordon hugged his mother, and celebrated with others before joining Goodell onstage to receive his Chargers hat and jersey.
After San Diego’s pick, “I don’t know how it will work out due to San Diego being a throwing team, but we’ll see how they use him. He’s pretty versatile,” Badgers fan Austin Deich said.
Fifteen picks later, the Green Bay Packers were on the clock to select their first pick. Packers fans roared as Goodell announced that Green Bay chose defensive back Damarious Randall from Arizona State. But later, Packers fans admitted they did not believe that this was the right pick.
“I’m wondering why they didn’t pick an inside linebacker since that’s their biggest need that they had to fill,” Packers fan Ross Hasheider said.
Many other fans agreed that the Packers should have picked a linebacker instead, which they did, in the 4th round, two days later, when they selected Michigan’s Jake Ryan.
Other picks that the Packers made were defensive back Quentin Rollins from Miami of Ohio in round two, wide receiver Ty Montgomery from Stanford in round three, and quarterback Brett Hundley from UCLA in round five. Green Bay had three sixth round picks, and selected Oklahoma fullback, Aaron Ripkowski, Louisiana-Lafayette defensive back Christian Ringo, and Alabama-Birmingham tight end Kennard Backman. The Packers did not have a seventh round pick because they used it to trade up in the fourth round.
The 2015 NFL season begins on Aug. 9 at 8pm when the Pittsburgh Steelers will face the Minnesota Vikings for the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.
