2023 NFL draft live updates: Panthers expected to pick Bryce Young No 1

The Panthers are really going to let the timer hit triple zeros here before announcing this aren’t they?

In my unbiased opinion, this would be a good idea. Especially when the team has already decided who they are going to select.

The Carolina Panthers are on the clock. The lack of suspense is killing me.

The world’s greatest Draft tradition: booing the commissioner. Roger Goodell can’t even do the “trolling the audience like a wrestling heel” bit like David Stern used to do in the NBA Draft.

Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, on the other hand, get huge cheers from the hometown crowd.

On Twitter, this year’s Spoiler Wars have already begun!

Sad news for anybody hoping to watch “Grey’s Anatomy” on ABC. Instead we get an ocean of football fans, mostly in Kansas City Chiefs red, ready for several hours of… names being read.

NFL fans are a different breed.

Alright, we’re getting ready for the big event here! In an attempt to prepare for today’s festivities, I watched clips from one of the strangest pieces of NFL propaganda ever made: the Kevin Costner movie “Draft Day.” If you’ve ever wanted to see Roger Goodell’s acting chops, well, you don’t! However, if you’re morbidly curious it goes something like this:

Yes, that is a pre-Black Panther Chadwick Boseman (R.I.P.) bringing a dignity to the proceedings that the movie does not deserve.

In a way, the Ravens have already won the day and they haven’t even made a pick yet.

Predictions

I’m already second-guessing myself about the Houston Texans. The current chatter is that they’re not going to be going with a QB with the No 2 pick. We’ll see. As of this morning, these were my predictions for the top ten picks.

1. Carolina Panthers: Bryce Young, quarterback

2. Houston Texans: C.J. Stroud, quarterback

3. Arizona Cardinals: Will Anderson, edge

4. Indianapolis Colts: Anthony Richardson, quarterback

5. Seattle Seahawks: Jalen Carter, defensive tackle

6. Detroit Lions: Devon Witherspoon, cornerback

7. Tennessee Titans (via trade with the Las Vegas Raiders): Will Levis, quarterback

8. Atlanta Falcons: Tyree Wilson, edge

9. Chicago Bears: Christian Gonzalez, cornerback

10. Philadelphia Eagles: Nolan Smith, edge

Bonus Prediction: The New England Patriots will not trade down at No 14.

Have your own prediction about who your favorite team will draft? Which players will slide and which players will rise? Which teams will trade up or down in this first round? Feel free to send us your predictions, either via email (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com) or via Twitter (to @HunterFelt) and we’ll use them here.

Fun fact

I won’t lie, this bit of trivia absolutely stunned me, considering that Alabama has had 79 players selected in the first round of the NFL draft (and very much counting).

Rumor: The Arizona Cardinals trading down?

Of course, the Arizona Cardinals will have final say on where Hopkins will land. The latest rumors have the Cardinals sending him to the Tennessee Titans for the 11th overall pick plus additional lower picks. It’s a bit of an odd move for them to trade down, one imagines that it’s a deal being considered for financial reasons rather than football ones.

Lamar Jackson

It looks like that rift between the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson has healed. Hours before the draft came reports that the Ravens signed their franchise QB to a five-year, $260 million extension ($185 million guaranteed). That’s a large enough contract to make Jackson the league’s highest-paid player. This follows reports that the Ravens are seeking a trade for Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, a way to appease the frustrated QB by pairing him with a brand-new weapon.

Preamble

Welcome to the most important event in the NFL calendar that does not actually involve any actual football. Yes, it’s time for the 2023 NFL Draft! Every year, NFL teams come together to select what they believed to be the most pro-ready eligible players in college football.

Of course, not every team will be picking in today’s first round. The Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers will not be active as they have parted ways with their selections in various trades. Meanwhile, the league has taken away the Miami Dolphins’ first-rounder as punishment “for violating the policies pertaining to the integrity of the game” (as someone writing this from New England Patriots territory, I can assure you that this is not the first time the NFL has done such a thing).

This draft looks to be heavy with quarterbacks on top, a drastic change from last year’s somewhat less hyped-up affair. This would be the primary reason that the Chicago Bears traded the number one overall pick to the Carolina Panthers. At this point, it looks like it’s all but confirmed that the Panthers have decided on Alabama QB Bryce Young unless these reports were all just a gigantic smokescreen.

After that, things get much harder to predict! In fact, the people who make it their full-time jobs to try to forecast the NFL Draft have had remarkably different theories about what will happen after that. At the very least, this means that when my predictions are invariably wrong, I won’t be alone.

If you want to contribute to tonight’s liveblog, feel free to email us at hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet @HunterFelt and we’ll post your draft-related commentary and questions here throughout the course of the next few hours. It’s the 2023 NFL Draft live at Kansas City’s Union Station. We’re scheduled to start at 8:00 pm EST, but we’ll be back before then with additional updates.

Where and when to watch

Hunter will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s who out writers think will go No 1. And they’re all in agreement:

Bryce Young, QB, Alabama. I’m guessing you’ve heard that Young is short. And he’s slender too: he looks more like a yoga instructor than an NFL quarterback. But Young is a pocket wizard. There have been comparisons to Patrick Mahomes’ bobbing and weaving style in the pocket, but even those fall short: Young is a more sudden manipulator than the bulkier Mahomes. He creates space when it appears there isn’t any. That’s his superpower, and why he’s separated himself from the other QBs at the top of the class. Oliver Connolly

Young. No need to be clever here. The Chicago Bears, having won the Justin Fields sweepstake, decided they had no need to pick first in a quarterback-heavy draft so they fleeced the Carolina Panthers, who desperately need a QB, in a March trade. By all accounts, Carolina have their eye on Young. Hunter Felt

Young. If Young were 6ft 2in, he’d be perfect. But he’s still about to be a Carolina Panther thanks to his talent and high football IQ, an especially important trait for his soon-to-be head coach Frank Reich. And Reich recently debunked the notion that he’s a quarterback heightist. Melissa Jacobs

Draft order for first-round