This year’s NFL draft was extra exciting for Philadelphia fans. Held locally on the art museum steps with related events on Ben Franklin Parkway, many fans had a chance to be there in person.

Philadelphia marked the first time a host city held the draft outside and about 250,000 people attended, breaking an NFL draft attendance record, according to the NFL.

Senior Mitch Ritter was there. He had planned to just walk around and participate in the activities surrounding the event such as 40-yard-dash and photo ops, but when he got there, he entered a contest and won seats.

“The draft was super exciting,” he said. “I loved that it was in Philly, and to top it off we won VIP Tickets.”

The draft also had the usual excitement surrounding picks. The Philadelphia Eagles surprised most fans with their 1st pick, taking defensive end Derek Barnett out of Tennessee.

Even though Barnett is a player who excelled at the college level and will fit well in Jim Schwartz’s defense, most fans expected the Eagles to draft a cornerback or a running back with their first round pick.

Later, the birds did address the CB need by drafting CB Sidney Jones out of Washington and CB Rasul Douglas out of West Virginia, with their 2nd and 3rd-round picks.

As for the rest of the draft, it was no surprise with the first overall pick by the Cleveland Browns, when they drafted the star DE out of Texas A&M, Myles Garrett.

One shocking story of this year’s draft is the Chicago Bears trading up one pick to draft QB Mitchell Trubisky.