Three of the NFL's most recent Super Bowl champions have something in common. The Chiefs used two first-round picks in 2022 on Trent McDuffie and George Karlaftis, then won back-to-back championships. The Eagles took Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith in 2023 and won the Super Bowl two seasons later. And the Seahawks also drafted Devon Witherspoon and Jaxon Smith-Njigba in 2023, with both developing into stars before Seattle won it all in February.

But there's another side to this story, and the New York Jets know it all too well. They had three first-round selections in 2022, landed some pretty good players, and somehow never made the playoffs. Four seasons later, only one of those players remains on the roster.

The Cleveland Browns have been down this road, too. They made five first-round picks across the 2017 and 2018 drafts, eventually won a playoff game, but couldn't sustain that success. And with the Jets holding three first-round picks in 2027 and the Browns holding two, both franchises are about to get another chance.

So what separates the teams that turn extra first-round picks into championships from those that find themselves starting over? Having Patrick Mahomes certainly helps, but not every Super Bowl winner needs a first-ballot Hall of Famer under center. Put differently: How much comes down to making the right picks, and how much depends on everything else?

To answer that, we went back through every NFL Draft since 2000 and found 103 instances in which a team had multiple first-round picks. In all, those teams selected 216 players, including 25 quarterbacks. And as we've seen play out in real time, there's a big difference between finding good players and building a winning football team.

2022 Jets: Three first-rounders, zero playoff appearances

It's easy to forget how promising the Jets' 2022 draft looked. They took Sauce Gardner fourth overall, Garrett Wilson at No. 10 and then traded back into Round 1 for Jermaine Johnson at No. 26. Gardner and Wilson were named Defensive and Offensive Rookie of the Year, while Johnson became a Pro Bowler in his second season.

Three first-round selections, two Rookie of the Year winners and a Pro Bowl pass rusher. You can't really draw it up any better than that.

The individual success, however, didn't translate to wins. The Jets went 7-10 in 2022 and 2023, then 5-12 and 3-14 the following two seasons. They cycled through quarterbacks, fired head coach Robert Saleh during the 2024 season and eventually moved on from general manager Joe Douglas, too. Then came the roster reset. Gardner was traded to Indianapolis in November 2025 for two first-round picks and receiver Adonai Mitchell. Johnson, who suffered a torn Achilles in 2024, was dealt to Tennessee for defensive tackle T'Vondre Sweat in March 2026. Only Wilson remains.

From a scouting standpoint, it's hard to call the 2022 draft a failure. But from a team-building standpoint? Four losing seasons, no playoffs, a fired coach and GM, and two of those three first-rounders playing elsewhere tell a different story.

The Jets, you might remember, weren't the only New York team with multiple first-rounders that year.

2022 Giants: Two top-seven selections, one massive miss

The Giants selected Kayvon Thibodeaux fifth overall and Evan Neal two picks later, hoping they had found an edge rusher and a franchise offensive tackle. Outside of quarterback, those are the two most valuable positions on the field, and to solve them early in the first round certainly made sense.

New York made the playoffs in 2022 and even won a playoff game. But after that 9-7-1 season, the Giants won just six, three and four games over the following three years. Thibodeaux, while he hasn't lived up to lofty expectations, has shown he can get after the quarterback, including an 11.5-sack season in 2023. Neal, meanwhile, struggled with injuries and inconsistent play at right tackle, prompting the Giants to move him to guard in 2025. He didn't play a snap that season because of a hamstring injury, was released before the 2026 season and is now on the Raiders' practice squad. 

The Jets' problem wasn't necessarily identifying talented players. The Giants' problem was that one of their two premium selections failed to deliver. Different circumstances, same disappointing result.

And recent history offers plenty of contrasting examples.

Recent teams with multiple first-round picks: What happened next?

Draft	Team	First-round selections	Wins by season after draft	Playoff appearances
2022	Chiefs	Trent McDuffie, George Karlaftis	14, 11, 15, 6	3; 2 Super Bowl titles
2022			9, 12, 15, 9	2
2022	Jets	Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson	7, 7, 5, 3	0
2022	Giants	Kayvon Thibodeaux, Evan Neal	9, 6, 3, 4	1
2022			10, 13, 12, 8	3
2023			10, 10, 12	3
2023	Lions		12, 15, 9	2
2023	Eagles	Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith	11, 14, 11	3; Super Bowl title
2023	Seahawks	Devon Witherspoon, Jaxon Smith-Njigba	9, 10, 14	1; Super Bowl title
2024			5, 11	1
2024			14, 9	1
2024			8, 3	0

The Lions and Texans: How to rebuild with extra picks

Detroit and Houston were in very different situations when they entered their respective drafts, but both offer examples of how quickly things can change when a franchise gets it right.

The Lions were coming off a 3-13-1 season when they selected Aidan Hutchinson second overall in 2022, then traded up to No. 12 for Jameson Williams. Detroit improved to 9-8 that fall, and a year later, the Lions were back in the first round with two more selections, taking running back Jahmyr Gibbs at No. 12 and linebacker Jack Campbell at No. 18.

Four first-rounders in two drafts, and the results soon followed. Detroit went 12-5 in 2023 and reached the NFC Championship Game, then won 15 games the following season. Hutchinson became one of the NFL's best pass rushers, Gibbs emerged as one of the NFL's best backs, and Williams and Campbell developed into important contributors.

What made Detroit's turnaround different was that it didn't need to find a quarterback. Jared Goff arrived in the 2021 Matthew Stafford trade, seemingly a throw-in alongside the two first-rounders the Lions received from the Rams. But GM Brad Holmes knew Goff from their time together in LA, and while the Rams were ready to move on, Holmes believed he could still be a franchise quarterback. So instead of drafting his replacement, the Lions built around him.

Houston, meanwhile, needed a quarterback. Coming off a 3-13-1 season, the Texans selected CJ Stroud second overall in 2023, then traded up one spot later for Will Anderson Jr., and it wasn't cheap. Houston sent Arizona picks 12 and 33 that year, plus first- and third-rounders in 2024. But Anderson has been so good that no one even thinks to bring up what the Texans gave up to get him.

The payoff was immediate: Houston went 10-7 in each of the next two seasons, then 12-5 in 2025, making the playoffs all three years. Stroud and Anderson became foundational pieces, even if Stroud couldn't quite match his brilliant rookie season in '24 and '25. And hiring DeMeco Ryans before that draft was just as important. The Texans found their quarterback, improved their pass rush and put a coaching staff in place that could develop the rest of the roster.

The Chiefs, Eagles and Seahawks: How good teams stayed good

There's another advantage to having multiple first-round selections: Sometimes a team doesn't need to rebuild at all.

The Chiefs were coming off a 12-5 season when they traded Tyreek Hill to Miami in March 2022 for a package that included a first-round pick. They used some of that capital to move up for McDuffie at No. 21, then selected Karlaftis at No. 30. Kansas City also signed JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who combined for 1,620 receiving yards that season, while Travis Kelce added another 1,338 yards and 12 touchdowns.

(By the way, Hill picked up where he left off; in Miami, he caught 119 passes for 1,710 yards and seven touchdowns. The Dolphins finished 9-8 and reached the playoffs but lost to Buffalo in the Wild Card round with Skylar Thompson starting in place of an injured Tua Tagovailoa. Meanwhile, the Chiefs still won the Super Bowl without one of the NFL's most dynamic players.)

Kansas City led the NFL in scoring in 2022, Mahomes won MVP, and the Chiefs repeated as Super Bowl champions the following season. McDuffie and Karlaftis became important pieces of the defense, but the bigger story was how Kansas City retooled both sides of the ball without missing a beat. Having Mahomes and Andy Reid certainly helped (a lot), but the Chiefs also found a way to replace Hill's production while adding young, inexpensive defensive talent.

Philadelphia followed a similar path. Coming off their Super Bowl appearance, the Eagles landed Carter at No. 9 and Smith at No. 30 in 2023, then won the whole thing following the 2024 season. Carter developed into a disruptive interior defender, while Smith gave Philadelphia another young pass rusher for a defense that overwhelmed Kansas City in Super Bowl LIX.

Seattle's 2023 class might be the most impressive of the group. Witherspoon, selected fifth overall, quickly became one of the league's top cornerbacks. Smith-Njigba, taken 20th, has developed into one of the NFL's most productive receivers and was named Offensive Player of the Year in 2025, the same season the Seahawks went 14-3 and won Super Bowl LX.

What's different about Seattle is that it didn't have the established quarterback-coach combo that Kansas City, or even Philadelphia, enjoyed during their title runs. The Seahawks changed coaches after 2023, eventually brought in Sam Darnold and still managed to build a championship roster around young stars on both sides of the ball.

Baltimore took a similar approach in 2022, drafting safety Kyle Hamilton at No. 14 and center Tyler Linderbaum at No. 25. Both developed into Pro Bowl players, and while the Ravens haven't reached the Super Bowl with that duo, they made the playoffs in three of their first four seasons. With Lamar Jackson already entrenched as an MVP-winning franchise quarterback, Baltimore could use both first-round picks to strengthen an already-talented roster.

What does the historical evidence tell us?

The recent success stories are equal parts impressive and fun to revisit, but they're hardly representative of what usually happens when struggling teams accumulate first-round picks.

Of the 44 struggling teams (six or fewer wins) that had multiple first-round picks since 2000, 86% improved by roughly three wins or more in at least one of the next three seasons. But only 34% had two winning seasons and made the playoffs during that stretch.

The numbers get even more telling: Over the next five seasons, struggling teams with multiple first-round picks won 44.9% of their games. Struggling teams with just one first-rounder? They won 45.6%. Basically, no difference.

For teams that were already winning, though, the results were more encouraging. Those with multiple first-round picks won 57% of their games over the next five seasons, compared with 52.1% for teams with just one.

That stability matters. Consider this: Of the 23 rebuilding teams with multiple first-round picks between 2012 and 2023, only six still had the same head coach three drafts later. Just 11 had the same GM.

That's part of what makes rebuilding so difficult. Teams spend years trying to find and develop young talent, but the coaches and executives responsible for those decisions often aren't around long enough to see it through.

What about the Browns and Jets in 2027?

If there's a franchise that knows the difference between collecting first-round picks and building a consistent winner, it's the Browns. They've had plenty of opportunities over the years and have gotten some of those selections right. The wins, however, haven't always followed.

In 2017, Cleveland selected Myles Garrett first overall, Jabrill Peppers at No. 25 and David Njoku at No. 29. The following year, after finishing 0-16, the Browns took Baker Mayfield first and Denzel Ward fourth.

Five first-round selections in two drafts, including several players who became real difference-makers. Cleveland went 11-5 in 2020 and won a playoff game for the first time since 1995. But they couldn't build on that breakthrough, and Mayfield was traded before the 2022 season.

There's now guarded optimism in Cleveland. The 2025 draft produced promising young contributors in Mason Graham, Carson Schwesinger, Quinshon Judkins and Harold Fannin Jr., all taken in the first three rounds. And they followed that up by taking Spencer Fano and KC Concepcion in the first round in 2026. The former is the starting left tackle, and the latter has been the dynamic slot receiver this team has been missing for years.

GM Andrew Berry has also positioned Cleveland for another draft-heavy offseason. Trading Garrett to the Rams brought back young pass rusher Jared Verse, plus first-, second- and third-round picks in 2027, 2028 and 2029. I wrote about it when the deal happened, and the question wasn't whether Garrett was better than Verse. It was whether the marginal difference justified everything LA gave up. It's way too early to declare a winner, but the Browns have a chance to come away with far more than just one productive player.

And with two first-round picks in 2027, the Browns will have another opportunity to add to a young roster that's beginning to take shape. The biggest question, as it has been so often in Cleveland, is whether they can get the quarterback position right.

The Jets find themselves in a similar position. That once-celebrated 2022 draft failed to produce a single playoff appearance, but trading Gardner has helped restock the draft capital cupboard. With three first-round picks projected for 2027, they'll have another chance to do what the previous group couldn't.

And if we've learned anything from recent draft history, it's this: Most struggling franchises with multiple first-round picks eventually get better. Far fewer turn that improvement into sustained success. Some find their franchise quarterback and quickly become contenders. Others draft really good players … and are still treading water in the same place several years later.

For the Jets and Browns, the question isn't simply whether they can find good players in April. Both have done that before. It's whether they can build something around those players that lasts longer than the people who drafted them.