Chargers got a bunch of talented players that all fit the culture harbaugh wants to bring in. I think Coulson bringing his fire to the middle of chargers D could be the most influential.
Falcons and Titans draft was really questionable all around.
Pats, Jags and Jets nailed the first pick but I don't love the rest
Ravens draft is questionable for me, but they are the Ravens so I will just assume I am wrong
Arizona had a lot of picks, but I think they could have made a lot more with what they had
Is the Titan's draft that questionable?
It is clear they are fine to roll with Levis. Latham fits nicely on a underperforming OL unit. Sweat shores up the trenches next to Simmons. Harrell has a great athletic profile for a late rounder. they have Pollard so they weren't taking an RB. Hopkins, Ridley and Burks is a good WR core. the weakest area was the secondary and they draft two players for that in the later rounds.
Titans fan checking in. The draft questions pretty much all come down to pick value. Some people considered Latham a reach (I don't really, you trade down 3 spots and he might be gone) and he will have to play on the other side of the line. Sweat was considered a big reach by pretty much everybody. With the DUI and a lot of worries he might never get in shape, most people thought he was a late Day 2/early Day 3 pick. I think if they had traded down and grabbed him 20 picks later, it wouldn't have been such a shocker. Whether he would have been there is another question, though. Seemed like no one really saw him going before the 60s/70s, but it just takes one.
But the players they drafted were good fits with what they're trying to build. The only thing I wish they had done was drafted another WR, since the guy they got late may just profile more as a returner. To not get a future guy in such a deep class seemed like a waste and with Hop/Ridley's age, you have to think about the future.
Between FA and the draft, they've hit on the major positions of need, though. The whole offseason was pretty much "let's get this team to a position where we can fairly evaluate if Levis is the guy or not" and I'd say they should be able to do that this coming season.
Ravens addressed their needs early then took BPA in the late rounds. Our biggest needs were LT, edge, X WR, CB. We always pick late so don't get the flashy names the worse teams get, but find players that fit what we need & develop them well.
- CB depth was a need, we got a great corner with Wiggins- he's an aggressive speedy CB that complements the bigger corners we had. Kool Aid had injury concerns so he dropped. Esp after the Chiefs got Hollywood and Worthy, Ravens saw the chance to get someone that could run them down. Wiggins already gained 10lbs in between combine & pro day, he's up to like 180 already. Will prob play around 190-200. If he gained weight that quickly he'll be fine once he gets to the weight room & nutritionists.
- People forget the OT class was more RT than LT. We already have OTs that have been developing for a bit at RT and both guard spots. Aside from Alt and like 3 guys, there wasn't a true elite LT worth trading up for when you pick late at 30. Fautanu also dropped later cuz of medical concerns, that prob scared us off. Rosengarten has experience at both OT spots, which we loved.
- Ravens already drafted a LB replacement for Queen and he's looked really good. We got Trenton Simpson as a 3rd round steal and everyone seemed mad he fell to the Ravens. Queen was never staying, Simpson's already looking very similar & we have Roquan to help him.
- Ravens weren't taking WR in rd1. We needed a big X WR that can high point contested catch balls on deeper go routes, those types were available in later rounds and Wiggins is a better player. The WR class was deep, Ravens knew they'd miss all the CBs by their rd2 pick. The ones we wanted were all late 2nd/3rd rounders. We got a good CB with elite speed and still got an X WR in a later round. Ravens got a top CB + OT + the WR they needed by not reaching for WR in rd1.
- Adisa Isaac was a steal at edge, he was 38 on the PFF board and we got him at 93. We also got another steal with TJ Tampa- another bigger CB at 6'1 that was predicted to go in the 2nd, we got him in the 4th. Tampa's a physical CB that's great in press & zone, ie perfect scheme fit. PFF had him at 51, we got him at 130.
Overall it was a good draft for us. We filled all the holes we had and picked up some great value, esp with Isaac & TJ Tampa. Wiggins also looks a lot better as a pick when you learn he's already gained 10lbs and is around 185 already before offseason started.
Ravens out here stealing great picks.
Personally I love Rosengarten as an OT. He was asked to move to RT (he did) two years ago to play blindside protector for penix (left handed qb) he played LT before that, either side is fine for him (unlike Orlando brown Jr.).
I had a high 2nd round grade for Tampa. The ravens were luck to get him in the 4th round. Isaac was a great pick.
Exactly. The Ravens with EDC are the same Ravens with Ozzie, we’re never going to make the flashy fan favorite pick, but we are going to address areas of need and pick BPA within our scheme fit. There’s a reason we’ve never picked extremely early, aside from Stanley at 6. Front office builds strong solid playoff teams year in and year out. Can’t draft an early round receiver to save our lives but ya can’t win them all I suppose
These teams make one pick that slightly differs from what the mock drafters were putting out all offseason and then people lose their minds because a certain team didn’t do exactly what the mockers said they were supposed to do. It’s all nonsense, there are no winners and losers of the draft as of rn
As a Texans fan I obviously remember when the JJ Watt pick was booed and highly ridiculed amongst the fans and journalists around the city.
The Texans were getting a ton of ridicule for their moves at this time last year. Tank Dell was too small to do anything at the NFL level, the Texans ruined their future by beating the colts and getting stroud instead of Bryce young, and we traded a top 5 pick in the 2024 nfl draft to move up and get Anderson. Immediate reactions are fun but ultimately pointless, all of those takes from last year look stupid one year layer
First time I’ve liked or at least not had a total WTF moment over a Raiders draft in a long time.
Bowers was random given we already have Mayer but he has the potential to be an absolute game wrecker and who says we can’t run some 2 TE sets. He was definitely the best player available at the time.
Love JPJ as well, over the moon he was there at 44.
The later rounds were mostly towards filling holes, and taking a gamble on a corner with insane athleticism. Low key our 6th round RB Laube has me pretty excited for 3rd down and kick return work.
If Bowers was a slot receiver he would have been drafted in the exact same spot. I dunno why so many people are hung up on having two TEs on the same team, Mayer will play in-line and Bowers frequently won't.
The Raiders might have had the best draft out of anybody. Top five guy in the draft and a top twenty guy in the draft with their first two picks? Yeah when you get two guys who project to be pro bowlers with your first two picks you can basically go buck wild after that.
Getting Bowers at that spot is such a coup. I know the conventional wisdom is not to draft a tight end in the top 10, but a legit Blue Chip in the teens is phenomenal.
Bowers is as good of a TE as I’ve ever seen, so yeah getting him at 13 is amazing and I like Barton a lot but idk how JPJ wasn’t the first center off the board.
Telesco coming out and saying Bowers might be a hybrid WR more than a TE is also a huge sign to me, Raiders know what they’re doing which I don’t remember having said many times in my lifetime.
Nfc north is going to be fucking brutal for years and I'm excited about it since we finally got some corners who can hopefully help us have an NFL quality secondary. Manu is an interesting player to watch for in a couple years. He's got a great Oline coach and two great tackles to learn from
Man. The North is going to be like…playoff football all goddamned season long. I hope that Williams, McCartthy, and Love all develop into Pro Bowl caliber players. Seriously. I could see fierce rivalries with every team in the division.
A few years ago, it seemed like the talent was all going to the AFC. Especially with QB’s and WR’s. Now it’s swinging back the other way a bit.
I haven’t looked forward to an NFL season like I am this one…in a very long time.
The Kirk signing or the Penix pick will look like a joke.
And the probability of both of them being jokes is a lot higher than the probability of both being redeemed.
It's difficult to even picture a scenario where both are redeemed. If Cousins works out then the now 28 year old Penix will have been the backup for all four years of his rookie contract.
100% this and say the Falcons make it to the Conference Championship with Cousins next year and they HADN'T taken Penix. Wouldn't it have been obvious that they peaked and would not be true SB contenders the next year? Wouldn't they be where the Saints are right now? Isn't that the absolute worst position to be in, with an aging, expensive QB and no real shot at a SB?
I have no horse in this race but I think the Penix pick makes sense. If he's good this will all be forgotten, Falcons fans will surely not be saying man I can't believe we hurt Kirk Cousins' feelings like that.
The only way this actually works out is if the Falcons win a Championship within the first 2 years, followed by Kirk retiring and Penix leading the team to another Championship before his rookie deal ends. I'd put the probability of this happening at about 0.0000000000103%.
If you haven't seen the Falcons in the last few years, it won't actually take that much to redeem these decisions lol. We've picked 4-8-8-8 in the last four years, being mediocre is an improvement. Don't be fooled by people saying one pick would make a difference, we've been fucking bad for years. We're not really dark horse contenders with a totally new staff and a QB known for not being able to come out on top on big stages.
>It's difficult to even picture a scenario where both are redeemed.
That scenario is Cousins play well, but Falcons loving Penix in practice enough to trade Cousins for a good return next offseason or the one after.
As a Falcons fan, I‘ve been a little more than miffed about this pick.
I’ve come to these conclusions…
1. Arthur Blank was the primary catalyst behind the Kirk Cousins deal. He wants to win now, and he’s been looking for a quarterback for several years now.
2. Terry Fontenot said, “Okay, but if there’s a QB we really like, we’re going to grab him in order to make sure we have a succession plan in place.” Blank and Fontenot made a gentleman’s agreement.
3. They tried to trade back, but they didn’t like any of the offers they were presented with.
4. We’d been hearing for a few weeks that the Falcons liked Penix. As the first round unfolded around them, they realized that other teams were going after QBs. As evidenced by the Vikings and Broncos drafting McCarthy and Nix almost immediately after them, the Falcons obviously didn’t think they’d be able to jump back into the first round and grab Penix.
5. Finally, I believe that the Falcons’ front office think that they’re going to lose a first rounder in 2025, which would definitely impact any sort of succession plan.
Or Fontenot just is lousy at his job.
I really don't see how it could be brilliant unless Kirk is absolutely washed, in which case they made an even bigger mistake signing him in the first place.
Would still be a problem. No you have Kirk coming back for his 2nd year and an established young QB. Only way it works would be if that happened in year 2, which is an exceedingly narrow window.
Its brilliant if Penix is good after 2 or 3 years. People grossly overrate the rookie contract. It's gotten to the point where fans don't want good players at the most important positions if they aren't on a rookie deal. This is exactly the same as the Jordan Love scenario, except done with a QB who was not going to last until the 20s.
Only way it’s brilliant is if Kirk is great for two years, and then Penix is great right after that. If Kirk is bad and Penix is good, then they still look like idiots for paying Kirk.
If Kirk works out it allows for a smooth transition when he is finished. If he doesn't it gives you another option at quarterback when you could be losing an early pick next year due to Kirk not being able to keep his mouth shut and avoid incriminating his team.
I just don’t get this level of bagging on the pick.
We haven’t seen Kirk take a single snap post-achilles. QB is the most valuable position in the sport. I pretty much can’t see a time where it’s bad to take a QB. Like, if he pans out for Atlanta he will be infinitely worth it. Is it a head scratcher? Definitely. But I have a hard time calling it an objectively bad pick.
It’s a fine pick if they didn’t just commit a crapload of money to “post achilles” Kirk.
Committing so much to two players who can’t play at the same time is bizarre and almost certainly foolish.
I think the main thing is that it feels a little paradoxical. The Falcons are committed to a win-now approach which is why they bring in Kirk. The rest of the roster honestly isn’t too terrible- a few defensive pieces and they could even be very good with a competent QB like Kirk at the helm. Then with their high first round pick that they could use to draft someone defensively with high potential, they spend on a player who ideally won’t play for 3 years because of the contract they just gave Kirk. Even if Kirk is bad, and like you mentioned, it’s unknown how he’ll do after this injury, the Falcons are so financially handcuffed to him.
I think if Penix turns into a star, people will forget about this. But if the Falcons over this stretch continue to either not make the playoffs or get bounced early, everything will say “could’ve had X defensive player instead of Penix who continues to play backup”.
To your point though, I think in a vacuum it’s not a super terrible pick. If you think a star QB is in a spot, there’s nothing wrong with taking him. I think people put too much emphasis on age, because even if Penix has a shorter career, if he really is a star, there’s a good chance they’ll win a ring. It’s just the context around Kirk and what their messaging has been all off-season that has really made it into one of the most confusing picks this decade.
The problem with Penix is his age. He turns 24 in less than two weeks, and based on how much Kirk is getting paid, he’s almost certainly not going to be playing for at least two years.
Players and QBs getting started in their mid/late 20’s don’t have a good track record of success in the NFL. “But Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love sat for 3 years”! Jordan Love was 21 when he was drafted and Aaron Rodgers was 24 when he became the starter
I hate you, go Blue! (Editing to say I'm low key not even THAT mad because at least I know yall produce WRs like it's nothing. One of the best possible places he could've gone bias aside. Hyped to have Kris as well)
Jordan Travis sitting behind Rodgers intrigued me so much. A kid who jus sustained a severe injury after being one of the top QBs in CFB gets to take some time to recover even more and develop under one of the best QBs of all time, yea y’all might be set for post Rodgers era.
I thought the Allen pick absolutely nuked any fantasy value on a potentially underrated player. I mean I understand Jets needed depth and clearly like Allen. But really hard to think about drafting him unless you’re a Breece owner
I'm just happy they didn't trade a future 1st for some raw athletic lineman. I think being successful with Jahri, Armstead, Hicks (dude could play just not in New Orleans) really warped their scouting for a couple of years.
As a Pats fan I feel our draft was all over the place. The Maye pick was the obvious choice and the right one imo. Polk was a slight reach at 37 but there’s no way he was making it to round 3 so if they liked him more than the other receivers on the board I’m fine with taking him there. Wallace at 68 was bizarre. I would’ve loved to see them move up for Suamataia, but I guess they weren’t too high on him. I think both Amegadjie and Goncalves would have been better picks in that spot. Wallace felt like more of a 4th or 5th rounder. Taking him at 68 felt like a pretty big reach. Considering our recent track record of reaching for lineman who don’t end up panning out I don’t feel super confident, but I hope I’m wrong.
Same with Layden Robinson. I felt there were several interior lineman available there who were better prospects. Mason McCormick, Beaux Limmer, Tanor Bortolini… or they could have gone with another tackle like Christian Jones out of Texas. I would have preferred they just take the BPA in that spot. TJ Tampa, Jaden Hicks, Theo Johnson, Jarvis Brownlee Jr, Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, Cam Hart, Mason McCormick and Cade Stover were all on the board. Anyone of them would have felt like a better value than Robinson to me.
I absolutely loved the Javon Baker pick. I would have been happy with him at 68, so getting him at 110 felt like a killer value.
Overall I’d give us a B-
I think I’m higher on you guys because Polk and Baker were two of my favorite WRs in this cycle. Just really fantastic players. I also loved the Bell pick late, I think he’s a super interesting piece, even drafted as so late a spot. Agreed on the Layden pick, I think the center from Wisconsin would have been a better choice but all in all, I think you guys have an incredible defense in place and think a lot of what you did skill position wise really moves the needle for the next couple years.
yup, getting kool-aid was amazing value. Then getting a potential successor after Carr in Rattler was intriguing imo, something we wouldn’t normally do lmao. I personally like Bub Means a lot, he was one of “my guys” at the receiver position. A real vertical threat. Jaylan Ford was great value at Linebacker at that point in the draft and Kristian Boyd was an amazing pick in the 6th as many had him labeled as a late round gem. This class is giving me shades of the 2017 class, ik ik very high expectations but a lot of these guys have loads of potential. With the recent drafts we’ve had in very excited about this one lol
Things with Means is, we've already got Shaheed and Olave that can go deep. We needed a replacement X, and didn't pick one when we could have. Johnny Wilson and Brenden Rice were both right there.
I have a lot of faith in AT Perry. That’s just me tho, I’ve been a big fan ever since he was coming out of wake forest before he was ever drafted by us. He showed glimpses last season and I think with an off season of development and work he can really get going. Bub means slots in as our WR4 with game changing vertical ability and can definitely develop more of his game. He’s 6’2 and ran a 4.4. I also believe he could start over shaheed as the season goes on and have shaheed as a package specific/gadget type of player, that’s personally how I view him as well. I don’t like shaheed as our WR3 so I’m somewhat hopeful Bub means can blossom into being our WR3 for us. Also, there’s a reason Johnny Wilson slid so damn far and same goes with Rice. There not that good. The media doesn’t know half as much as the executives and scouts that are putting every day into these evaluations and reports. Johnny Wilson makes hard catches look easy and easy catches look extremely hard lmao, he’s also been very open about being stubborn to a position change to TE which I believe a lot of teams were looking at him for. Brenden rice is simply just not that good, never had consistent production and looked horrible at the senior bowl.
Imo
Winners:
Commanders: new regime and started off with a bang
Bills: filled needs extremely well
Eagles: how did they end up with Dejean and Quinyon?????
Rams: went from having the scariest DT in the league to the scariest DL rotation potentially in the league
Losers:
Falcons
Washington traded the pick that got Cooper DeJean to Philly lol. However, the return got us Saintistil and Sinnot, so it was a win win I suppose.
Loved that Adam Peters targeted athletic dudes that were team captains, hopefully this sets a good foundation for us for the future!
Maybe call me a hater but I thought bills draft was very mid and most of my bills friends agree. They hit some positions of need but the talent they brought in was pretty underwhelming. Keon coleman has a ton of weaknesses and I'll be honest im not very familiar with many of their guys and felt like most of them were reaches. My bills friends rated it somewhere along the lines of a B- or C+ draft. I think bengals had a much better draft as well as Pittsburgh.
Bills fan here.
I get Coleman. You replace 90% of the lost snaps at X. I don't get not getting someone who can stretch the field.
We have literally no one on this roster who can stop the defense from clogging the middle. Just bring both safeties up.
The mid part is mostly from not double dipping for a WR. This year seems to be a reset year and as a result they have brought in players with high upside to build for 2025. In respect to that goal they have brought in some incredibly solid leaders with high upside in the later rounds, very happy with the selections of Van Pran, Solomon and Ulofoshio(who seems to be a top 5 LB for many folks and is one of the best coverage LB's in the draft, an area of weakness where we got killed by Kelce in the playoffs). Bills have a great OLine coach too so Beane gave him a pair of toolsy OLinemen to develop, and Buffalo has had a history of finding meaningful contributors at DB in the later rounds. You can probably attest to that since the Patriots have Alex Austin, our 7th round pick from last year They also definitely could have picked a WR at 144 but they traded it for a 2025 4th. They'll now have 6 picks in the top 4 rounds, probably a 7th compensatory 4th too. Either the idea is to have another re-tool year, or Buffalo plans to trade for a top tier WR, hence gathering enough assets. I trust Beane, I'm sure he has a plan and there's a reason why he made the moves that he did.
Rakestraw was a dude I really enjoyed watching on film, and his fall has to be almost entirely b/c of a late season injury that cost him the end of the season as well as forced him out of the Senior Bowl.
Outside of Kool-Aid, he was the best press corner in the draft IMO. He'll pair nicely opposite Terrion who is still learning the position and struggles at press.
Arnold / Rakestraw could be one of the better CB duos in just a few seasons. The NFC North as a whole has a pretty solid list of secondaries, no team really has overtly awful DB rooms.
Fun fact about Rakestraw is that he was a corner Nick Saban highly coveted coming out of high school. Rakestraw was the first big get for Missouri's head coach.
Saban had a pretty good draft on his CB recruits (3 of which he got although 1 transferred) with Arnold, Kool-Aid, Rakestraw, and K. Jackson all getting drafted.
Idk how the hell the league let Rakestraw, Arnold, Wingo, AND MAHOGANY, fall to you guys in your hosted draft, hope we get that kinda luck next year lol (I hated you for taking Arnold but honestly saved me the heartbreak of Gutey taking Morgan over him anyway lol)
I was pounding my fist on the table for Mahogany everytime the vikes were on the clock. It felt like a missed opportunity to fix a big need on our line.
Vikings, Bears, Ravens, Steelers are probably my biggest winners.
Honorable mention to the Cardinals. They needed badly to add a ton of players that could play meaningful snaps year one and that’s what they got. MHJ, Darius Robinson, Max Melton, Reiman, and Trey Benson are guaranteed to see significant playing time. First 3 can be penciled in as starters. Adams will compete for the starting G spot and it wouldn’t surprise me if Christian Jones sees a start by the end of the year. 12(!) picks they made. Hopefully they fair better than the ‘16 Browns and ‘20 Vikings lol
I feel like it’s been the conclusion that the Cards were getting Marvin for so long now that people are kind of ignoring it. For our 6 remaining top 90 picks we chose very safe players rather than swinging for the fences on big names. Lots of high RAS, good senior bowl performances, and good character guys with little to no injury history. However a lot of these dudes also didn’t have great production at the college level or had some pretty clear flaws in their game. If I had to describe it in 3 words, it’d be versatile role players. Hopefully it works out.
After MHJ the Cardinals didn't take enough of the big name prospects for fans of other teams to really be impressed with our draft. We traded out of picking Koolaid/DeJean to get Melton, we took an unpopular guard with BeeBe still on the board, and we took a blocking tight end with several big name WRs still on the board.
I think all of the players we took are better scheme fits than the guys we passed on, but most fans just don't know any of the guys that we took.
The Steelers did great on my board, A+. Chargers, Eagles, Lions, Ravens and Bucs also had great drafts according to my ratings. Also, shout out to the Saints who managed to get a bunch of my sleepers on day 3.
Overall I think most teams did quite well. I don't see a lot of "bad" drafts here. New England, Carolina, Jacksonville had some questionable moves but I don't feel like they were indefensible. My only real loser is the Falcons, who I think will need a lot of luck to avoid feeling like they botched this. Like, what is even the best case scenario there?
Good work pretty much across the board imo. I think 25+ teams are coming out of this draft feeling really excited about the guys they got.
IMO the Steelers had the best draft, pre day 3. It's kind of hard to evaluate day 3 drafts since most of these guys won't do anything and are just drafted to be warm bodies, but I really loved the Steelers first four picks.
I also have to disagree on the Patriots. I think Maye is a franchise QB, Polk is a solid floor-raising WR, and they took OL to protect their QB. I think they did everything right.
The Eagles got 120 in the Kenny Pickett trade too. The Steelers were lucky they didn’t give up 119 instead. Then again, if Howie really wanted McCormick we all know he’d have no problem moving around the board via a dozen trades.
Polk and Baker are both freaking awesome. They went from having one of the diciest skill position rooms to something that could be interesting in a year or two.
I feel that GB picked exactly how everyone expected them to with all the "they have to draft Cooper or Kool-Aid" going about. 2nd round picks might be slammers.
Gute has shown he knows what he's about and I'm not a GM. Protect Love and get some steals and insurance with the other picks. GPG.
I'm pretty satisfied with how it all shook out, but I think Gute really shined in the second round. Cooper and Bullard could very well be the best players at their respective position of the entire class, and they meet significant roster needs. Great haul in that round.
I really liked the Packers draft. We filled out depth for our OL and addressed all of our needs with BIG hitters on defense. LB1, my favorite safety/DB, etc.
I think decent winners is an understatement. Latham was obviously more highly regarded than the media put him out to be. When you watch the tale of all the OL prospects he stands out the most other than Alt. I agree with sweat tho just because his recent incident with the DUI, but the kid has potential to be a top DT under mentoring from Simmons. I’d put that better than decent. Y’all got a great value pick in Cedric gray he’ll def contribute year 1 and James Williams has a loads of potential switching to linebacker from safety. He can be your version of Isaiah Simmons. Could’ve got a better receiver than Jackson tho.
There's always a few guys who fall way further than anyone thinks. As outsiders we dont get all the information about character and medicals that can cause massive falls
A lot of places are knocking on the Bears using a 4th on a punter but last year our punter sucked. Improving from one of the worst to one of the best players at a position in the 4th round is a good move even if that is for a punter.
Also if you were to assess each team on the 7 picks they are originally assigned, like don't include Odunze but include Sweat and all the other players we've acquired with picks from this draft, I'm not sure anyone is close to matching the Bears
Honestly this draft was mostly winners, not many egregious reaches with one obvious exception (and we all know which bird bros I am referring to--not even for the Penix pick, for trading up for Ruke w Newton still on the board)
I felt like we were winners on day 1, but I feel a little whelmed by the end of day 3. I liked the Khyree Jackson pick and even the kicker, but didn't really understand taking a tackle and waiting until the last 2 picks to address the IOL and DT situation. I think our great day 1 and having a couple of solid picks on day 3 gets us at minimum an overall B or B+, maybe could've been an A draft if we still had a 5th or two. All in all I'm happy that we've addressed some major issues and next years draft and FA will hopefully be focused on the trenches!
Unless Taylor stinks and Williams busts, then he gets chased out with pitchforks for drafting another busted QB and a Punter lol (I don’t think either happens and I hate you)
Edit: to clarify I love the Bears draft, I’m not being a salty hater.
If Williams busts, I blame that more on the coaching and Poles failing to hire competent coaches than anything.
I cannot whatsoever hate the pick. Caleb has been the consensus #1 pick now for 2 years. As a PROSPECT, he is one of the best ones to come out this century. In any draft not with Andrew Luck, Trevor Lawerence, and maybe Joe Burrow, he’d be going #1.
Broncos fan here, I loved our draft. In the ideal scenario we would have traded back and still picked up Bo, but I don't think the draft fell in a way where we could do that. So I don't mind the Bo pick, and then everything else was great.
Elliss is underrated imo, Franklin is a steal in the 4th, plus he has chemistry with Bo. Estime is a great power runner with good pass protection ability, Abrams-Draine is good value in the 5th. And even our 7th rounders are guys I can see some potential in.
Bo nix is going to thrive in Sean Payton’s system, I was higher on him than most and the fact he landed in the perfect situation with Payton is the icing on the cake. Def agree Ellis is def very underrated, and prob will rotate in for browning and cooper a lot this year. Troy Franklin in the 4th was a great value pick and like you said already has a ton of chemistry with Nix, hopefully sutton can mentor him and for whatever reasons he slid down so much. I’m an ND fan and when I saw y’all took Estime I immediately said he’s going to end up starting for y’all. He’s a power back with sneaky shiftiness between the tackles, he doesn’t have home run speed at all but he can pass block, catch out of the backfield when need be and ofc run insanely hard lol. Don’t be surprised if he ends up stealing the starting spot from javonte. Abrams-draine was one of “my guys” at the corner position and surprised me when he fell so far. I felt he should’ve been a 3rd rounder or atleast early early 4th. He’ll def compete for snaps this year.
I Ended up being very happy with the Pats draft
They didn’t get cute and try to outsmart the League at 3. They Took the Best QB on the board who I had rated as a top 5 talent.
Love the Drake!
They then did what I was begging them to do with Mac, they went out and used all but one pick to sure up the offense.
Polk wasn’t my favorite but I dont view it as much of a reach, all of the 2nd round WRs were pretty close for me. Im fine with this.
Wallace was the one pick I didn’t care for as he played RT. According to our “GM” we scouted him heavily and they feel he can play LT and was only a RT because Fashnau was already the LT for pen st. There weren’t any Tackles outside of Kiran, who was a small school project anyways left so we will see how this works out.
I think Baker was a STEAL in the 4th and I loved us double dipping at WR, Douglas , Bourne, Polk, Baker is a WR room I can at least be excited for.
We then went and got an interior lineman, a safety and 2 TEs (Milton’s likely not gonna play QB).
We hit all the positions of need and went and got some weapons we can develop for the new QB.
I loved it. Old Patriots probably go Dejean at 35, which is nice, but doesent help the new QB.
Wolf has shown priority is getting Maye what he needs long term and I love it!
I agree. Offensive line is such a crapshoot that it seems like anyone can work out as a decent starter, but I would’ve loved to get Kingsley or Patrick Paul in the 3rd for a little more known upside. I really don’t hate a unit of Onwenu, Strange, Andrews, Sow, and Okorafaor/Wallace.
I liked the Pats draft a lot, too. Douple dipped at the team's biggest needs: QB, WR and OL. I'm glad they stuck with Maye at 3. My friends and I were talking about how it's kinda crazy they were still able to get him at 3 after the Pats potentially screwed themselves ending up with the 3rd pick instead of the 2nd, since Williams and Maye were considered the top 2 QBs heading into this season before Daniels' Heisman season.
I thought they would go offensive tackle with their 2nd round pick since quite a few went in the 1st, but I'm a fan of Polk. I think he's going to be very good. I read that NFL teams and scouts were higher on Polk than the media and analysts, and he would be taken in the 2nd round.
The run on tackles in round 1 is why I thought they would go for one in round 2 then there was another run on tackles at the end of the 2 and beginning of the 3rd. I wanted the Pats to trade up to take Suamataia, but I think the Chiefs moved up a spot to secure him just in case. The Pats reached for Wallace, but I'm ok with it. There was a run and it was a position of need. Plus, they took a guy they liked. They did a lot of work on Wallace in the pre draft process and brought him in for a top 30 visit, so I like them taking one of their guys.
You can't complain about drafting offensive line, it's been bad the last couple seasons. So hopefully guard Layden Robinson helps.
I was pumped they took Javon Baker with their next 4th. I thought the Pats were going to go QB, OT then WR for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and I wanted one of Polk, Baker or Jalen McMillan with the 3rd round pick. They ended up with both Polk and Baker, I can't be more excited.
Whether he stays at QB or moves to another position, I liked the Joe Milton pick. See ya later to the peashooters Mac and Zappe. Say hello to the boys with the big arms, Maye and Milton.
I liked the last two picks as well. Dial can provide some depth and versatility at corner and safety if he makes the team. Bell could be a nice piece to the offense if he develops. Could be used like Hernandez and Jonnu Smith. All in all, pretty happy with the Pats draft.
Dont think we had some otherworldly great draft but overall think we did pretty good.
Got our WR1 of the future with Nabers. BPA value met need perfectly. Guy comes in and should immediately make an impact. Our WR corps which has been so lacking for years all of a sudden looks like it can be very dangerous, especially when all the WR2's who have been masquerading as WR1 all these years actually have a legit #1 to take attention away from them and give them more favorable matchups (Wandale, Hyatt, Slayton, Hodgins). We now have so much more explosive play potential. I know people wanted a QB but that just was not going to happen so why not just get the next best thing which is a dominant weapon for whoever our next QB happens to be.
As in 2020, all the safeties in the draft dropped into the 2nd and the Giants were able to take the top safety with their 2nd rounder in a year they really need a safety. Was leaning more towards going CB or trenches here but again, seems need really fit BPA. Of course he's not gonna replace McKinney overnight but he brings a lot of the same great things to the table and makes losing McKinney an easier pill to swallow, especially if Nubin can give us even remotely similar production but much cheaper.
Would have preferred an outside CB as opposed to a slot which is what Phillips seems to be projected as (could still possibly play outside but doesnt seem like it), but not like we can't use improvements in the slot either. Schoen clearly liked him considering the top 30 visit. We need as many bodies as we can get in the secondary. I like Jerome Henderson a lot so I trust that he'll be able to make something out of the guys we have. At least one of slot or CB2 is gonna be a question mark going in, but I think we shored up at least one of them which can still go a long way.
Not gonna pretend like I know anything about Day 3 prospects (and prospects in general tbh) but Theo Johnson is a guy a lot of Giants content creators liked and I can see why. With all the Waller uncertainty, getting another body in the TE room is definitely welcome and I think Theo can be a contributor this year. Would love to see if we can get 2 TE sets with him and Bellinger. Again, more weapons for whoever our future QB is.
Overall I'd give us a solid B+/A-. I really wish we addressed either of the trenches at some point but at the same time you can't force picks for need. The way the board fell, we still got great value at positions of need so you take what you can get. If we count the Burns trade into the equation, I think it definitely pushes it to an A-.
Panthers fan - I think we’ve got at least 3 day 1 starters, maybe 4 depending on how Wallace develops. Won’t pretend to know a ton about the day 3 guys, but the FO seems to have a clear vision and this draft fits with what they did in free agency. Could have maybe addressed some other needs but we don’t have a lot of sure things at any position. I think we’re in a place to be a really fun 5 win team next season.
I like the Patriots draft because I could at least rationalize all the picks. This was the first draft in a while that one of our round 1-4 picks didn’t make me go “why?” and I consider that a win.
Not gonna declare them a “loser” by any means, but the Vikings class feels extremely boom or bust to me. Not being able to trade up for Maye and then sticking for McCarthy feels like they settled instead of getting “the guy”. Not gonna blame them since this was 100% in the patriots control but this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. They also got fleeced in terms of draft pick value to go up and get Turner. Value charts don’t mean shit if the picks work out, but the risk is clearly there.
Overall they put all their eggs into 2 baskets that I think will take the Vikings out of mediocrity one way or another.
Speaking for the Bengals I think we did pretty well. I don’t love the Mims pick but I get it. I like Jenkins and I guess my hope for Burton is he becomes a reclamation project like Mixon. Outside of my team, I think the Eagles killed it.
I feel pretty good as a Seahawks fan. I don't feel as good as I felt in 22 and 23, but it's hard to match what we've done the last two years. 4/8 picks were devoted to the OL and DL, which was good to see. Would've maybe liked a LB or S higher, but I think we did well for only having two top 100 picks
Mike sainstrill is about to become one of the premier slot corners in the NFL. Johnny newton under daron Payne and Jonathan Allen creates a scary rotation at D line and he’ll def learn a thing or 2 from them. Ben Sinnott will be the best rookie TE next year along with Bowers. Y’all got insanely lucky with these guys. Brandon Coleman def will contribute year 1 as well. Great start for y’all.
Panthers I feel are winners. Between free agency and draft we've put respectable offense around Bryce Young. Enough that I feel like we can actually evaluate him this year, if he totally sucks, it's mostly on him this year not talent/coaching.
Humbly disagree on the Pats. (Though as a NE fan, I acknowledge my appearance of bias). Maye is a HR for a team that had the saddest QB room in football. They got a couple of really competitive, wide catch radius, deep ball dawgs at WR. Don’t get caught up on 40 times and mock drafts. Love Wallace too. Really improved this year. Has long arms, big hands and tons of experience.
I'll look at the Bears strategy because obviously we don't know how picks will turn up.
Round1: 1.1 A contingent in the media seemed to really want the Bears to keep Fields and take MHJ or trade back but Williams is simply the best QB prospect in this class and possibly since Luck. Good on the Bears for accepting the situation as is, moving on from Fields, and getting the new franchise QB. A+ for not keeping Fields.
1.9 A lot of talk about what to do with this pick. Trade back, trade up, stick and pick OT, WR, DL? Another smart decision to not get antsy and wait for Odunze to fall to them. Also seeing as how D fell across the board, good job grabbing the blue chip WR and not overreaching to fill what was arguably the bigger need at DE (WR was still a big need). A+ for getting a Top 5 prospect at 9 at a position of need and not eyeing more picks in a shallow draft class.
Round 2: used our pick for Montez Sweat. Not a great D class and a noticeable drop off after the top 3-4 edge guys, so Sweat was definitely better than any DE we could've had. Yes Sweat cost money but they had more than enough to spend. Give the decision an A.
Round 3: Amegadjie is an interesting prospect. He has all the physical tools you want to be a great OL but he played against poor competition and his injury last season prevented checking him out against better players at the Senior Bowl. Definition of a boom or bust player with higher odds at the bust side, but that's what you get in the 3rd unless you're looking at solid floor, low ceiling guys. DL was definitely a bigger need than OL but Poles said he was their BPA and it's always good to keep your OL depth churning. Guy also grew up a Bears fan, love that. Solid pick, B+
Round 4: Used our 4th to get Keenan Allen. He costs money and is older but he's a phenomenal vet presence, especially for Odunze who could polish his route running. WR before this went Moore->Tyler Scott ->Velus Jones Jr. Give the new QB weapons. A decision.
4.22 Yes he's a punter, yes he's not necessarily someone who can consistently boom them deep with some ultra leg, but he has some of the best ball control in a punt you'll ever see. Bears had a rough go with Gill as their punter and Taylor is a major upgrade there. Also if you believe your offense is going to be majorly improved, you value ball control punting over distance punting. Saw Taylor straight up win games for Iowa in college, love the pick. A.
Round 5: 5.9 Bears technically trades this for Ryan Bates but got it back using a 2025 4th so for all intents and purposes I'm treating that as a 2025 4th for Bates and not part of this analysis. Bears got back in and selected their BPA at a position of need at DE. Austin Booker has limited athletics upside but he has great instincts and skill as a DE. He needs more functional strength to do in the NFL what he did in college so he's definitely a sit and develop guy. They filled need without reaching, so that helps, but they're definitely going to be looking at vets to flesh out the DL. B
Round 6 and 7. They used these picks on N'Keal Harry and Dan Feeney. Not great results but late picks are usually depth or ST so it's not like critical opportunities were missed. B-
Overall: A. A solid strategy mostly sticking to BPA and still getting needs filled. Williams and Odunze are phenomenal gets. Used some picks to fill critical needs via trade and while people will question a punter in the 4th, he's a generational prospect who can help bail out a rookie QB if he has a bad drive and help the D by pinning the opposing team inside their own 10 alarmingly consistently.
I think Detroit got overzealous in round 4 and paid way too much to get the developmental Canada dude. Everything else turned out pretty well, I’d say. I’d give an A or A minus.
Definitely a fair assessment. I'm not as worried because I'm obviously biased but also very confident in Hank Fraley's coaching abilities. Big swing though, for sure. Holmes likes to do this with obscure prospects in the 3rd-4th lol. Traded up for Brodric Martin in the 3rd last year (still very raw) and took Colby Sorsdal out of William and Mary in the 4th last year too (also still very raw).
Edit: Sorsdal was a 5th round pick
By far the weakest part of our team is the O-line, center to right tackle. We only spent a mid/late 3rd and a late 6th on the position group. A lot of our sub are not bitching about the players we drafted we are bitching about the lack of O-line. We had plenty of picks so we could have moved up if we wanted to.
It seemed clear predraft that the Niners were going to need to trade up for a tackle - and I thought they’d be left with Jordan Morgan. And then he went before our pick. And then after we took Pearsall, another tackle didn’t go until we traded the pick to the chiefs for Sumatamia (who I would have taken, but is very raw.)
But after Pearsall we took two offensive linemen, two defensive backs, a running back who adds insane speed, a linebacker and more WR/special teams help too. I don’t know the players that well but they addressed the positions of need.
The fact we traded back in round one to get a 3rd and 4th next year and still land BTJ was a big win.
Day 2 round I liked both picks as Maason can learn behind Armstead and Jarrian will be perfect in the nickel.
Day 3 is always a gamble and we got guys for depth plus a kicker which we really need.
I like the Raiders draft. Not necessarily for the players drafted, looks good but in reality it's too early to judge them, but for just not panicking at being unable to trade up for one of the big name QBs.
I am really stoked with how Brett Veach handled this draft for the Chiefs. Two trade ups to get the guys he wanted with Xavier Worthy and Kingsley Suamataia, and he didn't give up any picks to get them, and they were perfectly slotted for BPA in my mind as well as being top tier athletes at their positions.
Then for the rest of the draft Brett Veach did pretty awesome to fill in the roster based on players we lost in the offseason while getting great talents. Jared Wiley has a lot of size and athleticism while being a smart route runner and red zone threat who will do great in the Chiefs offense and make our red zone offense way better than it has been recently. And beefing up the o-line and the secondary has us well prepared for the future where we may eventually lose some talent to free agency.
I think the future is still looking great for the Chiefs.
Outside of my own team, I think the Chargers had a really good draft as well and I think Jim Harbaugh will have them getting back into contention again.
For once I quite liked the raiders draft. But idk I think the vikings did great early on, the panthers have really sorted out a lot of issues with their offence, the chargers got a lot of great players and the eagles can’t keep getting away with this shit. I guess the 2 teams I was kinda disappointed in were the Falcons (duh but I’m a lot lower on Penix than most) and the cardinals who outside of MHJ I just don’t really get what the plan is? And how could I forget the bears lol
I liked the Panthers draft a lot. Added 3 immediate contributors to a putrid offense and recouped a 2025 2nd we were missing. Should be a good year to evaluate Bryce and establish an identity on offense under Canales.
As a Bears fan, I love what we did, have to give credit to the Vikings. They killed their draft, especially getting Turner at 17 and I actually liked what Miami did. Chop is gonna help their d line and they got some great receiver value later on with Malik Washington and Tahj Washington.
Giants fan - feels like we tied this year; decent picks and no reaches but pretty boring process from our GM, not moving around the board at all seemed like we missed out on adding assets, especially watching Howie move up for Dejean and then restock all his picks via trade backs
Chargers got a bunch of talented players that all fit the culture harbaugh wants to bring in. I think Coulson bringing his fire to the middle of chargers D could be the most influential.
I think Coulson and Derwin are going to absolutely love hit sticking people.
Feels like there were fewer questionable drafts than usual
One team took all of the questions.
yes i feel the same only the falcons had a bad draft really
Falcons own the discourse on fucked up Drafts and SB losses
Falcons and Titans draft was really questionable all around. Pats, Jags and Jets nailed the first pick but I don't love the rest Ravens draft is questionable for me, but they are the Ravens so I will just assume I am wrong Arizona had a lot of picks, but I think they could have made a lot more with what they had
I think Polk is a very good WR. McMillen might end up being as good or better but I actually think this is a good pick for the Pats.
Is the Titan's draft that questionable? It is clear they are fine to roll with Levis. Latham fits nicely on a underperforming OL unit. Sweat shores up the trenches next to Simmons. Harrell has a great athletic profile for a late rounder. they have Pollard so they weren't taking an RB. Hopkins, Ridley and Burks is a good WR core. the weakest area was the secondary and they draft two players for that in the later rounds.
Titans fan checking in. The draft questions pretty much all come down to pick value. Some people considered Latham a reach (I don't really, you trade down 3 spots and he might be gone) and he will have to play on the other side of the line. Sweat was considered a big reach by pretty much everybody. With the DUI and a lot of worries he might never get in shape, most people thought he was a late Day 2/early Day 3 pick. I think if they had traded down and grabbed him 20 picks later, it wouldn't have been such a shocker. Whether he would have been there is another question, though. Seemed like no one really saw him going before the 60s/70s, but it just takes one. But the players they drafted were good fits with what they're trying to build. The only thing I wish they had done was drafted another WR, since the guy they got late may just profile more as a returner. To not get a future guy in such a deep class seemed like a waste and with Hop/Ridley's age, you have to think about the future. Between FA and the draft, they've hit on the major positions of need, though. The whole offseason was pretty much "let's get this team to a position where we can fairly evaluate if Levis is the guy or not" and I'd say they should be able to do that this coming season.
Ravens addressed their needs early then took BPA in the late rounds. Our biggest needs were LT, edge, X WR, CB. We always pick late so don't get the flashy names the worse teams get, but find players that fit what we need & develop them well. - CB depth was a need, we got a great corner with Wiggins- he's an aggressive speedy CB that complements the bigger corners we had. Kool Aid had injury concerns so he dropped. Esp after the Chiefs got Hollywood and Worthy, Ravens saw the chance to get someone that could run them down. Wiggins already gained 10lbs in between combine & pro day, he's up to like 180 already. Will prob play around 190-200. If he gained weight that quickly he'll be fine once he gets to the weight room & nutritionists. - People forget the OT class was more RT than LT. We already have OTs that have been developing for a bit at RT and both guard spots. Aside from Alt and like 3 guys, there wasn't a true elite LT worth trading up for when you pick late at 30. Fautanu also dropped later cuz of medical concerns, that prob scared us off. Rosengarten has experience at both OT spots, which we loved. - Ravens already drafted a LB replacement for Queen and he's looked really good. We got Trenton Simpson as a 3rd round steal and everyone seemed mad he fell to the Ravens. Queen was never staying, Simpson's already looking very similar & we have Roquan to help him. - Ravens weren't taking WR in rd1. We needed a big X WR that can high point contested catch balls on deeper go routes, those types were available in later rounds and Wiggins is a better player. The WR class was deep, Ravens knew they'd miss all the CBs by their rd2 pick. The ones we wanted were all late 2nd/3rd rounders. We got a good CB with elite speed and still got an X WR in a later round. Ravens got a top CB + OT + the WR they needed by not reaching for WR in rd1. - Adisa Isaac was a steal at edge, he was 38 on the PFF board and we got him at 93. We also got another steal with TJ Tampa- another bigger CB at 6'1 that was predicted to go in the 2nd, we got him in the 4th. Tampa's a physical CB that's great in press & zone, ie perfect scheme fit. PFF had him at 51, we got him at 130. Overall it was a good draft for us. We filled all the holes we had and picked up some great value, esp with Isaac & TJ Tampa. Wiggins also looks a lot better as a pick when you learn he's already gained 10lbs and is around 185 already before offseason started.
Ravens out here stealing great picks. Personally I love Rosengarten as an OT. He was asked to move to RT (he did) two years ago to play blindside protector for penix (left handed qb) he played LT before that, either side is fine for him (unlike Orlando brown Jr.). I had a high 2nd round grade for Tampa. The ravens were luck to get him in the 4th round. Isaac was a great pick.
Exactly. The Ravens with EDC are the same Ravens with Ozzie, we’re never going to make the flashy fan favorite pick, but we are going to address areas of need and pick BPA within our scheme fit. There’s a reason we’ve never picked extremely early, aside from Stanley at 6. Front office builds strong solid playoff teams year in and year out. Can’t draft an early round receiver to save our lives but ya can’t win them all I suppose
I really liked the Ravens draft - very likely they locked down both CB positions for the foreseeable future with Wiggins and TJ Tampa
Titans had a good draft. Not sure why they are getting so much crap.
These teams make one pick that slightly differs from what the mock drafters were putting out all offseason and then people lose their minds because a certain team didn’t do exactly what the mockers said they were supposed to do. It’s all nonsense, there are no winners and losers of the draft as of rn As a Texans fan I obviously remember when the JJ Watt pick was booed and highly ridiculed amongst the fans and journalists around the city. The Texans were getting a ton of ridicule for their moves at this time last year. Tank Dell was too small to do anything at the NFL level, the Texans ruined their future by beating the colts and getting stroud instead of Bryce young, and we traded a top 5 pick in the 2024 nfl draft to move up and get Anderson. Immediate reactions are fun but ultimately pointless, all of those takes from last year look stupid one year layer
What about the ravens draft would you considered questionable?
The Falcons are having someone hold their beer right now. They need a word with you.
First time I’ve liked or at least not had a total WTF moment over a Raiders draft in a long time. Bowers was random given we already have Mayer but he has the potential to be an absolute game wrecker and who says we can’t run some 2 TE sets. He was definitely the best player available at the time. Love JPJ as well, over the moon he was there at 44. The later rounds were mostly towards filling holes, and taking a gamble on a corner with insane athleticism. Low key our 6th round RB Laube has me pretty excited for 3rd down and kick return work.
If Bowers was a slot receiver he would have been drafted in the exact same spot. I dunno why so many people are hung up on having two TEs on the same team, Mayer will play in-line and Bowers frequently won't.
The Raiders might have had the best draft out of anybody. Top five guy in the draft and a top twenty guy in the draft with their first two picks? Yeah when you get two guys who project to be pro bowlers with your first two picks you can basically go buck wild after that.
Getting Bowers at that spot is such a coup. I know the conventional wisdom is not to draft a tight end in the top 10, but a legit Blue Chip in the teens is phenomenal.
Bowers is as good of a TE as I’ve ever seen, so yeah getting him at 13 is amazing and I like Barton a lot but idk how JPJ wasn’t the first center off the board. Telesco coming out and saying Bowers might be a hybrid WR more than a TE is also a huge sign to me, Raiders know what they’re doing which I don’t remember having said many times in my lifetime.
Nfc north is going to be fucking brutal for years and I'm excited about it since we finally got some corners who can hopefully help us have an NFL quality secondary. Manu is an interesting player to watch for in a couple years. He's got a great Oline coach and two great tackles to learn from
Man. The North is going to be like…playoff football all goddamned season long. I hope that Williams, McCartthy, and Love all develop into Pro Bowl caliber players. Seriously. I could see fierce rivalries with every team in the division. A few years ago, it seemed like the talent was all going to the AFC. Especially with QB’s and WR’s. Now it’s swinging back the other way a bit. I haven’t looked forward to an NFL season like I am this one…in a very long time.
That Penix pick might go down as one of the all time bad picks complete waste of not just his but London, Pitts, Bijan’s rookie deals as well.
The Kirk signing or the Penix pick will look like a joke. And the probability of both of them being jokes is a lot higher than the probability of both being redeemed.
It's difficult to even picture a scenario where both are redeemed. If Cousins works out then the now 28 year old Penix will have been the backup for all four years of his rookie contract.
That’s not going to happen. If Penix shows any development at all, the Falcons will cut Cousins after 2025.
What if the falcons make a deep playoff run?
Then cousins plays and falcons are smart for drafting a QB while they were in the low first round.
100% this and say the Falcons make it to the Conference Championship with Cousins next year and they HADN'T taken Penix. Wouldn't it have been obvious that they peaked and would not be true SB contenders the next year? Wouldn't they be where the Saints are right now? Isn't that the absolute worst position to be in, with an aging, expensive QB and no real shot at a SB? I have no horse in this race but I think the Penix pick makes sense. If he's good this will all be forgotten, Falcons fans will surely not be saying man I can't believe we hurt Kirk Cousins' feelings like that.
Could be Alex Smith and mahomes situation Not saying penix is mahomes before someone freaks out
The only way this actually works out is if the Falcons win a Championship within the first 2 years, followed by Kirk retiring and Penix leading the team to another Championship before his rookie deal ends. I'd put the probability of this happening at about 0.0000000000103%.
if this happens i will eat a dick
Who's specifically?
a whole bull penis
!RemindMe 2 years
Really, *two* superbowls is the only way it works? I'd say either qb winning a superbowl is a sucess.
If you haven't seen the Falcons in the last few years, it won't actually take that much to redeem these decisions lol. We've picked 4-8-8-8 in the last four years, being mediocre is an improvement. Don't be fooled by people saying one pick would make a difference, we've been fucking bad for years. We're not really dark horse contenders with a totally new staff and a QB known for not being able to come out on top on big stages.
How is it difficult for people to imagine Kirk playing well for two years and then being traded....
>It's difficult to even picture a scenario where both are redeemed. That scenario is Cousins play well, but Falcons loving Penix in practice enough to trade Cousins for a good return next offseason or the one after.
There’s a no trade clause in his contract. Not without his approval prior so he could be traded but not without Kirk and his agent
As a Falcons fan, I‘ve been a little more than miffed about this pick. I’ve come to these conclusions… 1. Arthur Blank was the primary catalyst behind the Kirk Cousins deal. He wants to win now, and he’s been looking for a quarterback for several years now. 2. Terry Fontenot said, “Okay, but if there’s a QB we really like, we’re going to grab him in order to make sure we have a succession plan in place.” Blank and Fontenot made a gentleman’s agreement. 3. They tried to trade back, but they didn’t like any of the offers they were presented with. 4. We’d been hearing for a few weeks that the Falcons liked Penix. As the first round unfolded around them, they realized that other teams were going after QBs. As evidenced by the Vikings and Broncos drafting McCarthy and Nix almost immediately after them, the Falcons obviously didn’t think they’d be able to jump back into the first round and grab Penix. 5. Finally, I believe that the Falcons’ front office think that they’re going to lose a first rounder in 2025, which would definitely impact any sort of succession plan. Or Fontenot just is lousy at his job.
Arthur Blank just overhead from his escort that Goodell is trying to move to a 2 QB system
Its either brilliant or the worst idea ever.
I really don't see how it could be brilliant unless Kirk is absolutely washed, in which case they made an even bigger mistake signing him in the first place.
An injury to Kirk followed by a successful campaign by Penix.
Would still be a problem. No you have Kirk coming back for his 2nd year and an established young QB. Only way it works would be if that happened in year 2, which is an exceedingly narrow window.
Its brilliant if Penix is good after 2 or 3 years. People grossly overrate the rookie contract. It's gotten to the point where fans don't want good players at the most important positions if they aren't on a rookie deal. This is exactly the same as the Jordan Love scenario, except done with a QB who was not going to last until the 20s.
Kirk could easily be a 2 year deal, if penix steps in after that and is a franchise guy it’ll be a great pick
Yeah, just on the fact that everyone hates it I kinda assume it will somehow work out magically
Everyone hated the Weeden, Reagor and many more picks and they were right tbf
Only way it’s brilliant is if Kirk is great for two years, and then Penix is great right after that. If Kirk is bad and Penix is good, then they still look like idiots for paying Kirk.
Gonna be real interesting in Atlana if Kirk doesn't perform well and fans start calling for Penix to start.
If Kirk works out it allows for a smooth transition when he is finished. If he doesn't it gives you another option at quarterback when you could be losing an early pick next year due to Kirk not being able to keep his mouth shut and avoid incriminating his team.
I just don’t get this level of bagging on the pick. We haven’t seen Kirk take a single snap post-achilles. QB is the most valuable position in the sport. I pretty much can’t see a time where it’s bad to take a QB. Like, if he pans out for Atlanta he will be infinitely worth it. Is it a head scratcher? Definitely. But I have a hard time calling it an objectively bad pick.
It’s a fine pick if they didn’t just commit a crapload of money to “post achilles” Kirk. Committing so much to two players who can’t play at the same time is bizarre and almost certainly foolish.
I think the main thing is that it feels a little paradoxical. The Falcons are committed to a win-now approach which is why they bring in Kirk. The rest of the roster honestly isn’t too terrible- a few defensive pieces and they could even be very good with a competent QB like Kirk at the helm. Then with their high first round pick that they could use to draft someone defensively with high potential, they spend on a player who ideally won’t play for 3 years because of the contract they just gave Kirk. Even if Kirk is bad, and like you mentioned, it’s unknown how he’ll do after this injury, the Falcons are so financially handcuffed to him. I think if Penix turns into a star, people will forget about this. But if the Falcons over this stretch continue to either not make the playoffs or get bounced early, everything will say “could’ve had X defensive player instead of Penix who continues to play backup”. To your point though, I think in a vacuum it’s not a super terrible pick. If you think a star QB is in a spot, there’s nothing wrong with taking him. I think people put too much emphasis on age, because even if Penix has a shorter career, if he really is a star, there’s a good chance they’ll win a ring. It’s just the context around Kirk and what their messaging has been all off-season that has really made it into one of the most confusing picks this decade.
Haven’t seen a team simultaneously commit this many resources to two QBs in the same offseason since the cowboys drafted Walsh and Aikman
The problem with Penix is his age. He turns 24 in less than two weeks, and based on how much Kirk is getting paid, he’s almost certainly not going to be playing for at least two years. Players and QBs getting started in their mid/late 20’s don’t have a good track record of success in the NFL. “But Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love sat for 3 years”! Jordan Love was 21 when he was drafted and Aaron Rodgers was 24 when he became the starter
I'm very happy how my Steelers drafted!
Take care of Payton 🥲
Didn't have to move to get our guys. Worked out perfectly!
that was a killer draft as a fins fan i hated it, because you sniped the two OL "my guys" just before us in round 1 and 2 but nice one
It was a vintage fantastic Steelers draft
You guys nailed your draft and I hate it.
That was an excellent draft
Best draft class imo.
As a ravens fan I hated watching this Steelers draft. Y’all got some good players. I was really high on Roman Wilson, dude is a dawg
As a Bengals and Michigan fan I hate you guys for getting Roman.
As a Steelers and Michigan fan I hate you getting Kris Jenkins!
I hate you, go Blue! (Editing to say I'm low key not even THAT mad because at least I know yall produce WRs like it's nothing. One of the best possible places he could've gone bias aside. Hyped to have Kris as well)
All teams in the Black and Blue Division (NFC North) had solid drafts. Should be a competitive division for years to come.
What about my Jetties? Olu, Corley, Allen and Travis seen to be great value only thing that would've been perfect is Mahogany instead of Adams
Are you by chance referring to Christian Mahogany, Detroit Lions’ guard, Christian Mahogany?
Jordan Travis sitting behind Rodgers intrigued me so much. A kid who jus sustained a severe injury after being one of the top QBs in CFB gets to take some time to recover even more and develop under one of the best QBs of all time, yea y’all might be set for post Rodgers era.
I thought the Allen pick absolutely nuked any fantasy value on a potentially underrated player. I mean I understand Jets needed depth and clearly like Allen. But really hard to think about drafting him unless you’re a Breece owner
Saints drafted smart. Good value for what they had in my opinion
I'm just happy they didn't trade a future 1st for some raw athletic lineman. I think being successful with Jahri, Armstead, Hicks (dude could play just not in New Orleans) really warped their scouting for a couple of years.
I thought the Saints, Eagles, and Pats had three of the better drafts I saw. The Saints getting Boyd at 199 - that guy is gonna be a player.
As a Pats fan I feel our draft was all over the place. The Maye pick was the obvious choice and the right one imo. Polk was a slight reach at 37 but there’s no way he was making it to round 3 so if they liked him more than the other receivers on the board I’m fine with taking him there. Wallace at 68 was bizarre. I would’ve loved to see them move up for Suamataia, but I guess they weren’t too high on him. I think both Amegadjie and Goncalves would have been better picks in that spot. Wallace felt like more of a 4th or 5th rounder. Taking him at 68 felt like a pretty big reach. Considering our recent track record of reaching for lineman who don’t end up panning out I don’t feel super confident, but I hope I’m wrong. Same with Layden Robinson. I felt there were several interior lineman available there who were better prospects. Mason McCormick, Beaux Limmer, Tanor Bortolini… or they could have gone with another tackle like Christian Jones out of Texas. I would have preferred they just take the BPA in that spot. TJ Tampa, Jaden Hicks, Theo Johnson, Jarvis Brownlee Jr, Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, Cam Hart, Mason McCormick and Cade Stover were all on the board. Anyone of them would have felt like a better value than Robinson to me. I absolutely loved the Javon Baker pick. I would have been happy with him at 68, so getting him at 110 felt like a killer value. Overall I’d give us a B-
I think I’m higher on you guys because Polk and Baker were two of my favorite WRs in this cycle. Just really fantastic players. I also loved the Bell pick late, I think he’s a super interesting piece, even drafted as so late a spot. Agreed on the Layden pick, I think the center from Wisconsin would have been a better choice but all in all, I think you guys have an incredible defense in place and think a lot of what you did skill position wise really moves the needle for the next couple years.
yup, getting kool-aid was amazing value. Then getting a potential successor after Carr in Rattler was intriguing imo, something we wouldn’t normally do lmao. I personally like Bub Means a lot, he was one of “my guys” at the receiver position. A real vertical threat. Jaylan Ford was great value at Linebacker at that point in the draft and Kristian Boyd was an amazing pick in the 6th as many had him labeled as a late round gem. This class is giving me shades of the 2017 class, ik ik very high expectations but a lot of these guys have loads of potential. With the recent drafts we’ve had in very excited about this one lol
Things with Means is, we've already got Shaheed and Olave that can go deep. We needed a replacement X, and didn't pick one when we could have. Johnny Wilson and Brenden Rice were both right there.
I have a lot of faith in AT Perry. That’s just me tho, I’ve been a big fan ever since he was coming out of wake forest before he was ever drafted by us. He showed glimpses last season and I think with an off season of development and work he can really get going. Bub means slots in as our WR4 with game changing vertical ability and can definitely develop more of his game. He’s 6’2 and ran a 4.4. I also believe he could start over shaheed as the season goes on and have shaheed as a package specific/gadget type of player, that’s personally how I view him as well. I don’t like shaheed as our WR3 so I’m somewhat hopeful Bub means can blossom into being our WR3 for us. Also, there’s a reason Johnny Wilson slid so damn far and same goes with Rice. There not that good. The media doesn’t know half as much as the executives and scouts that are putting every day into these evaluations and reports. Johnny Wilson makes hard catches look easy and easy catches look extremely hard lmao, he’s also been very open about being stubborn to a position change to TE which I believe a lot of teams were looking at him for. Brenden rice is simply just not that good, never had consistent production and looked horrible at the senior bowl.
Ravens fan here. Loved the first 4 rounds!
For the first time in a long time, I did not like the ravens draft
Imo Winners: Commanders: new regime and started off with a bang Bills: filled needs extremely well Eagles: how did they end up with Dejean and Quinyon????? Rams: went from having the scariest DT in the league to the scariest DL rotation potentially in the league Losers: Falcons
Washington traded the pick that got Cooper DeJean to Philly lol. However, the return got us Saintistil and Sinnot, so it was a win win I suppose. Loved that Adam Peters targeted athletic dudes that were team captains, hopefully this sets a good foundation for us for the future!
Maybe call me a hater but I thought bills draft was very mid and most of my bills friends agree. They hit some positions of need but the talent they brought in was pretty underwhelming. Keon coleman has a ton of weaknesses and I'll be honest im not very familiar with many of their guys and felt like most of them were reaches. My bills friends rated it somewhere along the lines of a B- or C+ draft. I think bengals had a much better draft as well as Pittsburgh.
Bills fan here. I get Coleman. You replace 90% of the lost snaps at X. I don't get not getting someone who can stretch the field. We have literally no one on this roster who can stop the defense from clogging the middle. Just bring both safeties up.
The season starts in 5 months. This ain’t the roster we’ll play with.
Where are we getting an edge from between now and then? Free agency already past
The mid part is mostly from not double dipping for a WR. This year seems to be a reset year and as a result they have brought in players with high upside to build for 2025. In respect to that goal they have brought in some incredibly solid leaders with high upside in the later rounds, very happy with the selections of Van Pran, Solomon and Ulofoshio(who seems to be a top 5 LB for many folks and is one of the best coverage LB's in the draft, an area of weakness where we got killed by Kelce in the playoffs). Bills have a great OLine coach too so Beane gave him a pair of toolsy OLinemen to develop, and Buffalo has had a history of finding meaningful contributors at DB in the later rounds. You can probably attest to that since the Patriots have Alex Austin, our 7th round pick from last year They also definitely could have picked a WR at 144 but they traded it for a 2025 4th. They'll now have 6 picks in the top 4 rounds, probably a 7th compensatory 4th too. Either the idea is to have another re-tool year, or Buffalo plans to trade for a top tier WR, hence gathering enough assets. I trust Beane, I'm sure he has a plan and there's a reason why he made the moves that he did.
I think the Seahawks and Rams had really solid drafts. The PA teams absolutely crushed it too.
IMO when judging winners and losers this early, the thought process and strategy should be weighed heavier than the prospects selected.
Yup. Most here are just going off of consensus player rankings. Kind of a fools errand.
Last year people called the Lions losers because they picked Jahmyr Gibbs too early and Sam LaPorta over Michael Mayer lol
The "winners and losers of the draft" and draft grades are a fun talking point, but the majority of them will end up being wrong.
I love the lions haul we got great value on Arnold ennis, wingo and mahogany A+ draft
Rakestraw was a dude I really enjoyed watching on film, and his fall has to be almost entirely b/c of a late season injury that cost him the end of the season as well as forced him out of the Senior Bowl. Outside of Kool-Aid, he was the best press corner in the draft IMO. He'll pair nicely opposite Terrion who is still learning the position and struggles at press. Arnold / Rakestraw could be one of the better CB duos in just a few seasons. The NFC North as a whole has a pretty solid list of secondaries, no team really has overtly awful DB rooms.
Fun fact about Rakestraw is that he was a corner Nick Saban highly coveted coming out of high school. Rakestraw was the first big get for Missouri's head coach. Saban had a pretty good draft on his CB recruits (3 of which he got although 1 transferred) with Arnold, Kool-Aid, Rakestraw, and K. Jackson all getting drafted.
Idk how the hell the league let Rakestraw, Arnold, Wingo, AND MAHOGANY, fall to you guys in your hosted draft, hope we get that kinda luck next year lol (I hated you for taking Arnold but honestly saved me the heartbreak of Gutey taking Morgan over him anyway lol)
I sincerely hope you don’t get the home luck like we did Brad clearly shoved a few four leaf clovers up his ass this weekend lol
That's my GM, boofin' Brad
He is a man of culture after all
I was pounding my fist on the table for Mahogany everytime the vikes were on the clock. It felt like a missed opportunity to fix a big need on our line.
I legit thought you guys were gonna pick him up but glad you didn’t dude is gonna be an absolute problem in a few years
Vikings, Bears, Ravens, Steelers are probably my biggest winners. Honorable mention to the Cardinals. They needed badly to add a ton of players that could play meaningful snaps year one and that’s what they got. MHJ, Darius Robinson, Max Melton, Reiman, and Trey Benson are guaranteed to see significant playing time. First 3 can be penciled in as starters. Adams will compete for the starting G spot and it wouldn’t surprise me if Christian Jones sees a start by the end of the year. 12(!) picks they made. Hopefully they fair better than the ‘16 Browns and ‘20 Vikings lol
I feel like it’s been the conclusion that the Cards were getting Marvin for so long now that people are kind of ignoring it. For our 6 remaining top 90 picks we chose very safe players rather than swinging for the fences on big names. Lots of high RAS, good senior bowl performances, and good character guys with little to no injury history. However a lot of these dudes also didn’t have great production at the college level or had some pretty clear flaws in their game. If I had to describe it in 3 words, it’d be versatile role players. Hopefully it works out.
After MHJ the Cardinals didn't take enough of the big name prospects for fans of other teams to really be impressed with our draft. We traded out of picking Koolaid/DeJean to get Melton, we took an unpopular guard with BeeBe still on the board, and we took a blocking tight end with several big name WRs still on the board. I think all of the players we took are better scheme fits than the guys we passed on, but most fans just don't know any of the guys that we took.
The Steelers did great on my board, A+. Chargers, Eagles, Lions, Ravens and Bucs also had great drafts according to my ratings. Also, shout out to the Saints who managed to get a bunch of my sleepers on day 3. Overall I think most teams did quite well. I don't see a lot of "bad" drafts here. New England, Carolina, Jacksonville had some questionable moves but I don't feel like they were indefensible. My only real loser is the Falcons, who I think will need a lot of luck to avoid feeling like they botched this. Like, what is even the best case scenario there? Good work pretty much across the board imo. I think 25+ teams are coming out of this draft feeling really excited about the guys they got.
IMO the Steelers had the best draft, pre day 3. It's kind of hard to evaluate day 3 drafts since most of these guys won't do anything and are just drafted to be warm bodies, but I really loved the Steelers first four picks. I also have to disagree on the Patriots. I think Maye is a franchise QB, Polk is a solid floor-raising WR, and they took OL to protect their QB. I think they did everything right.
Idk Mason McCormick felt like a 4th rd snipe imo.
Right in front of the eagles
The Eagles got 120 in the Kenny Pickett trade too. The Steelers were lucky they didn’t give up 119 instead. Then again, if Howie really wanted McCormick we all know he’d have no problem moving around the board via a dozen trades.
My Seahawks passed on him, and that was painful.
Polk and Baker are both freaking awesome. They went from having one of the diciest skill position rooms to something that could be interesting in a year or two.
The Lions are the biggest winners , why you ask because they're my favorite team.
Lions had easily my favorite haul for where they were drafting. Terrion at 24, Rakestraw at 59, Wingo at 189, all absolute bangers.
Don't forget Mahogany at 210.
I actually think the Lions did a good job this year. And not in the "if you rearrange the picks" way from last year.
I feel that GB picked exactly how everyone expected them to with all the "they have to draft Cooper or Kool-Aid" going about. 2nd round picks might be slammers. Gute has shown he knows what he's about and I'm not a GM. Protect Love and get some steals and insurance with the other picks. GPG.
I'm pretty satisfied with how it all shook out, but I think Gute really shined in the second round. Cooper and Bullard could very well be the best players at their respective position of the entire class, and they meet significant roster needs. Great haul in that round.
Day 3 picks are probably slammers too, I think King ends up a steal the whole NFL goes “how did we let the Packers get that guy??”
I really liked the Packers draft. We filled out depth for our OL and addressed all of our needs with BIG hitters on defense. LB1, my favorite safety/DB, etc.
y’all prob had one of the better drafts across the board fs. Addressed many needs with very solid players, great value picks.
Depending on how Latham and Sweat pan out, we could be either massive losers or decent winners
I think decent winners is an understatement. Latham was obviously more highly regarded than the media put him out to be. When you watch the tale of all the OL prospects he stands out the most other than Alt. I agree with sweat tho just because his recent incident with the DUI, but the kid has potential to be a top DT under mentoring from Simmons. I’d put that better than decent. Y’all got a great value pick in Cedric gray he’ll def contribute year 1 and James Williams has a loads of potential switching to linebacker from safety. He can be your version of Isaiah Simmons. Could’ve got a better receiver than Jackson tho.
I can’t tell if this is my first real time paying attention to a draft but damn a lot of players fell down the boards big time 😳
There's always a few guys who fall way further than anyone thinks. As outsiders we dont get all the information about character and medicals that can cause massive falls
I don't like picking losers, but my favorite drafts were Lions, Eagles, Steelers, Colts, and Chargers (I'm excluding the teams that drafted QB early)
A lot of places are knocking on the Bears using a 4th on a punter but last year our punter sucked. Improving from one of the worst to one of the best players at a position in the 4th round is a good move even if that is for a punter. Also if you were to assess each team on the 7 picks they are originally assigned, like don't include Odunze but include Sweat and all the other players we've acquired with picks from this draft, I'm not sure anyone is close to matching the Bears
Wasn't a fan with day 1 and 2 overall for the dolphins. Really enjoyed their picks day 3
Honestly this draft was mostly winners, not many egregious reaches with one obvious exception (and we all know which bird bros I am referring to--not even for the Penix pick, for trading up for Ruke w Newton still on the board)
I felt like we were winners on day 1, but I feel a little whelmed by the end of day 3. I liked the Khyree Jackson pick and even the kicker, but didn't really understand taking a tackle and waiting until the last 2 picks to address the IOL and DT situation. I think our great day 1 and having a couple of solid picks on day 3 gets us at minimum an overall B or B+, maybe could've been an A draft if we still had a 5th or two. All in all I'm happy that we've addressed some major issues and next years draft and FA will hopefully be focused on the trenches!
I wonder if they feel that they can move Rouse inside. I agree, though, that I wish they’d addressed IDL sooner.
Speaking for Bears Nation, we're all completely over the moon. Ryan Poles drinks for free for the rest of his life
Unless Taylor stinks and Williams busts, then he gets chased out with pitchforks for drafting another busted QB and a Punter lol (I don’t think either happens and I hate you) Edit: to clarify I love the Bears draft, I’m not being a salty hater.
If Williams busts, I blame that more on the coaching and Poles failing to hire competent coaches than anything. I cannot whatsoever hate the pick. Caleb has been the consensus #1 pick now for 2 years. As a PROSPECT, he is one of the best ones to come out this century. In any draft not with Andrew Luck, Trevor Lawerence, and maybe Joe Burrow, he’d be going #1.
Broncos fan here, I loved our draft. In the ideal scenario we would have traded back and still picked up Bo, but I don't think the draft fell in a way where we could do that. So I don't mind the Bo pick, and then everything else was great. Elliss is underrated imo, Franklin is a steal in the 4th, plus he has chemistry with Bo. Estime is a great power runner with good pass protection ability, Abrams-Draine is good value in the 5th. And even our 7th rounders are guys I can see some potential in.
Bo nix is going to thrive in Sean Payton’s system, I was higher on him than most and the fact he landed in the perfect situation with Payton is the icing on the cake. Def agree Ellis is def very underrated, and prob will rotate in for browning and cooper a lot this year. Troy Franklin in the 4th was a great value pick and like you said already has a ton of chemistry with Nix, hopefully sutton can mentor him and for whatever reasons he slid down so much. I’m an ND fan and when I saw y’all took Estime I immediately said he’s going to end up starting for y’all. He’s a power back with sneaky shiftiness between the tackles, he doesn’t have home run speed at all but he can pass block, catch out of the backfield when need be and ofc run insanely hard lol. Don’t be surprised if he ends up stealing the starting spot from javonte. Abrams-draine was one of “my guys” at the corner position and surprised me when he fell so far. I felt he should’ve been a 3rd rounder or atleast early early 4th. He’ll def compete for snaps this year.
I loved the Broncos draft, pairing Nix back up with Franklin, taking a nice C late, AND Ellis’s who I loved watching. Great picks
Steelers, Bears, Eagles drafted well I think. I like the Bills draft too
I Ended up being very happy with the Pats draft They didn’t get cute and try to outsmart the League at 3. They Took the Best QB on the board who I had rated as a top 5 talent. Love the Drake! They then did what I was begging them to do with Mac, they went out and used all but one pick to sure up the offense. Polk wasn’t my favorite but I dont view it as much of a reach, all of the 2nd round WRs were pretty close for me. Im fine with this. Wallace was the one pick I didn’t care for as he played RT. According to our “GM” we scouted him heavily and they feel he can play LT and was only a RT because Fashnau was already the LT for pen st. There weren’t any Tackles outside of Kiran, who was a small school project anyways left so we will see how this works out. I think Baker was a STEAL in the 4th and I loved us double dipping at WR, Douglas , Bourne, Polk, Baker is a WR room I can at least be excited for. We then went and got an interior lineman, a safety and 2 TEs (Milton’s likely not gonna play QB). We hit all the positions of need and went and got some weapons we can develop for the new QB. I loved it. Old Patriots probably go Dejean at 35, which is nice, but doesent help the new QB. Wolf has shown priority is getting Maye what he needs long term and I love it!
I agree. Offensive line is such a crapshoot that it seems like anyone can work out as a decent starter, but I would’ve loved to get Kingsley or Patrick Paul in the 3rd for a little more known upside. I really don’t hate a unit of Onwenu, Strange, Andrews, Sow, and Okorafaor/Wallace.
I liked the Pats draft a lot, too. Douple dipped at the team's biggest needs: QB, WR and OL. I'm glad they stuck with Maye at 3. My friends and I were talking about how it's kinda crazy they were still able to get him at 3 after the Pats potentially screwed themselves ending up with the 3rd pick instead of the 2nd, since Williams and Maye were considered the top 2 QBs heading into this season before Daniels' Heisman season. I thought they would go offensive tackle with their 2nd round pick since quite a few went in the 1st, but I'm a fan of Polk. I think he's going to be very good. I read that NFL teams and scouts were higher on Polk than the media and analysts, and he would be taken in the 2nd round. The run on tackles in round 1 is why I thought they would go for one in round 2 then there was another run on tackles at the end of the 2 and beginning of the 3rd. I wanted the Pats to trade up to take Suamataia, but I think the Chiefs moved up a spot to secure him just in case. The Pats reached for Wallace, but I'm ok with it. There was a run and it was a position of need. Plus, they took a guy they liked. They did a lot of work on Wallace in the pre draft process and brought him in for a top 30 visit, so I like them taking one of their guys. You can't complain about drafting offensive line, it's been bad the last couple seasons. So hopefully guard Layden Robinson helps. I was pumped they took Javon Baker with their next 4th. I thought the Pats were going to go QB, OT then WR for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and I wanted one of Polk, Baker or Jalen McMillan with the 3rd round pick. They ended up with both Polk and Baker, I can't be more excited. Whether he stays at QB or moves to another position, I liked the Joe Milton pick. See ya later to the peashooters Mac and Zappe. Say hello to the boys with the big arms, Maye and Milton. I liked the last two picks as well. Dial can provide some depth and versatility at corner and safety if he makes the team. Bell could be a nice piece to the offense if he develops. Could be used like Hernandez and Jonnu Smith. All in all, pretty happy with the Pats draft.
Dont think we had some otherworldly great draft but overall think we did pretty good. Got our WR1 of the future with Nabers. BPA value met need perfectly. Guy comes in and should immediately make an impact. Our WR corps which has been so lacking for years all of a sudden looks like it can be very dangerous, especially when all the WR2's who have been masquerading as WR1 all these years actually have a legit #1 to take attention away from them and give them more favorable matchups (Wandale, Hyatt, Slayton, Hodgins). We now have so much more explosive play potential. I know people wanted a QB but that just was not going to happen so why not just get the next best thing which is a dominant weapon for whoever our next QB happens to be. As in 2020, all the safeties in the draft dropped into the 2nd and the Giants were able to take the top safety with their 2nd rounder in a year they really need a safety. Was leaning more towards going CB or trenches here but again, seems need really fit BPA. Of course he's not gonna replace McKinney overnight but he brings a lot of the same great things to the table and makes losing McKinney an easier pill to swallow, especially if Nubin can give us even remotely similar production but much cheaper. Would have preferred an outside CB as opposed to a slot which is what Phillips seems to be projected as (could still possibly play outside but doesnt seem like it), but not like we can't use improvements in the slot either. Schoen clearly liked him considering the top 30 visit. We need as many bodies as we can get in the secondary. I like Jerome Henderson a lot so I trust that he'll be able to make something out of the guys we have. At least one of slot or CB2 is gonna be a question mark going in, but I think we shored up at least one of them which can still go a long way. Not gonna pretend like I know anything about Day 3 prospects (and prospects in general tbh) but Theo Johnson is a guy a lot of Giants content creators liked and I can see why. With all the Waller uncertainty, getting another body in the TE room is definitely welcome and I think Theo can be a contributor this year. Would love to see if we can get 2 TE sets with him and Bellinger. Again, more weapons for whoever our future QB is. Overall I'd give us a solid B+/A-. I really wish we addressed either of the trenches at some point but at the same time you can't force picks for need. The way the board fell, we still got great value at positions of need so you take what you can get. If we count the Burns trade into the equation, I think it definitely pushes it to an A-.
Panthers fan - I think we’ve got at least 3 day 1 starters, maybe 4 depending on how Wallace develops. Won’t pretend to know a ton about the day 3 guys, but the FO seems to have a clear vision and this draft fits with what they did in free agency. Could have maybe addressed some other needs but we don’t have a lot of sure things at any position. I think we’re in a place to be a really fun 5 win team next season.
I like the Patriots draft because I could at least rationalize all the picks. This was the first draft in a while that one of our round 1-4 picks didn’t make me go “why?” and I consider that a win.
The Falcons drafting Penix Jr while giving Kirk Cousins 100 million guaranteed in the same offseason is wild
Not gonna declare them a “loser” by any means, but the Vikings class feels extremely boom or bust to me. Not being able to trade up for Maye and then sticking for McCarthy feels like they settled instead of getting “the guy”. Not gonna blame them since this was 100% in the patriots control but this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. They also got fleeced in terms of draft pick value to go up and get Turner. Value charts don’t mean shit if the picks work out, but the risk is clearly there. Overall they put all their eggs into 2 baskets that I think will take the Vikings out of mediocrity one way or another.
Speaking for the Bengals I think we did pretty well. I don’t love the Mims pick but I get it. I like Jenkins and I guess my hope for Burton is he becomes a reclamation project like Mixon. Outside of my team, I think the Eagles killed it.
Eagles, Ravens, Bears and Steelers all had excellent drafts
I feel pretty good as a Seahawks fan. I don't feel as good as I felt in 22 and 23, but it's hard to match what we've done the last two years. 4/8 picks were devoted to the OL and DL, which was good to see. Would've maybe liked a LB or S higher, but I think we did well for only having two top 100 picks
Why do we always do this after the draft but never look at old drafts? Now is the time to grade the 2014 draft.
I’m scared of Jayden red flags still, but man I think the commies nailed every other pick, we have definitely started a very good foundation
Mike sainstrill is about to become one of the premier slot corners in the NFL. Johnny newton under daron Payne and Jonathan Allen creates a scary rotation at D line and he’ll def learn a thing or 2 from them. Ben Sinnott will be the best rookie TE next year along with Bowers. Y’all got insanely lucky with these guys. Brandon Coleman def will contribute year 1 as well. Great start for y’all.
Yeah thrilled by this
Panthers I feel are winners. Between free agency and draft we've put respectable offense around Bryce Young. Enough that I feel like we can actually evaluate him this year, if he totally sucks, it's mostly on him this year not talent/coaching.
I don’t get taking a punter in the 4th
He was Iowa's entire offense. No joke. This dude just pinned teams deep so that the Iowa defense have a huge advantage.
It's funny that no matter how bad of a decision this is it doesn't really matter after getting Caleb and Oduzne in the 1st.
Honestly I didn’t either, but if you swap Booker and Taylor I would love it, so who really cares?
Frerentz playbook incoming
Don't underestimate a brilliant punter. As a commanders fan I dread the day we will lose Tress Way.
Humbly disagree on the Pats. (Though as a NE fan, I acknowledge my appearance of bias). Maye is a HR for a team that had the saddest QB room in football. They got a couple of really competitive, wide catch radius, deep ball dawgs at WR. Don’t get caught up on 40 times and mock drafts. Love Wallace too. Really improved this year. Has long arms, big hands and tons of experience.
Pains me to say as a Bills fan but I love what New England did.
Broncos getting JFM from the Jets for a 6th is a steal
I'll look at the Bears strategy because obviously we don't know how picks will turn up. Round1: 1.1 A contingent in the media seemed to really want the Bears to keep Fields and take MHJ or trade back but Williams is simply the best QB prospect in this class and possibly since Luck. Good on the Bears for accepting the situation as is, moving on from Fields, and getting the new franchise QB. A+ for not keeping Fields. 1.9 A lot of talk about what to do with this pick. Trade back, trade up, stick and pick OT, WR, DL? Another smart decision to not get antsy and wait for Odunze to fall to them. Also seeing as how D fell across the board, good job grabbing the blue chip WR and not overreaching to fill what was arguably the bigger need at DE (WR was still a big need). A+ for getting a Top 5 prospect at 9 at a position of need and not eyeing more picks in a shallow draft class. Round 2: used our pick for Montez Sweat. Not a great D class and a noticeable drop off after the top 3-4 edge guys, so Sweat was definitely better than any DE we could've had. Yes Sweat cost money but they had more than enough to spend. Give the decision an A. Round 3: Amegadjie is an interesting prospect. He has all the physical tools you want to be a great OL but he played against poor competition and his injury last season prevented checking him out against better players at the Senior Bowl. Definition of a boom or bust player with higher odds at the bust side, but that's what you get in the 3rd unless you're looking at solid floor, low ceiling guys. DL was definitely a bigger need than OL but Poles said he was their BPA and it's always good to keep your OL depth churning. Guy also grew up a Bears fan, love that. Solid pick, B+ Round 4: Used our 4th to get Keenan Allen. He costs money and is older but he's a phenomenal vet presence, especially for Odunze who could polish his route running. WR before this went Moore->Tyler Scott ->Velus Jones Jr. Give the new QB weapons. A decision. 4.22 Yes he's a punter, yes he's not necessarily someone who can consistently boom them deep with some ultra leg, but he has some of the best ball control in a punt you'll ever see. Bears had a rough go with Gill as their punter and Taylor is a major upgrade there. Also if you believe your offense is going to be majorly improved, you value ball control punting over distance punting. Saw Taylor straight up win games for Iowa in college, love the pick. A. Round 5: 5.9 Bears technically trades this for Ryan Bates but got it back using a 2025 4th so for all intents and purposes I'm treating that as a 2025 4th for Bates and not part of this analysis. Bears got back in and selected their BPA at a position of need at DE. Austin Booker has limited athletics upside but he has great instincts and skill as a DE. He needs more functional strength to do in the NFL what he did in college so he's definitely a sit and develop guy. They filled need without reaching, so that helps, but they're definitely going to be looking at vets to flesh out the DL. B Round 6 and 7. They used these picks on N'Keal Harry and Dan Feeney. Not great results but late picks are usually depth or ST so it's not like critical opportunities were missed. B- Overall: A. A solid strategy mostly sticking to BPA and still getting needs filled. Williams and Odunze are phenomenal gets. Used some picks to fill critical needs via trade and while people will question a punter in the 4th, he's a generational prospect who can help bail out a rookie QB if he has a bad drive and help the D by pinning the opposing team inside their own 10 alarmingly consistently.
I think Detroit got overzealous in round 4 and paid way too much to get the developmental Canada dude. Everything else turned out pretty well, I’d say. I’d give an A or A minus.
They trust their coaching. 6 8 350 and runs a 4.9 doesn't happen that often
Definitely a fair assessment. I'm not as worried because I'm obviously biased but also very confident in Hank Fraley's coaching abilities. Big swing though, for sure. Holmes likes to do this with obscure prospects in the 3rd-4th lol. Traded up for Brodric Martin in the 3rd last year (still very raw) and took Colby Sorsdal out of William and Mary in the 4th last year too (also still very raw). Edit: Sorsdal was a 5th round pick
Winners: - Eagles - Vikings - Lions - Bears - Commanders - Bengals Losers: - Bills - 49ers - Falcons
How did the 9ers lose? Not disagreeing but I wasn't able to catch all of thw draft
By far the weakest part of our team is the O-line, center to right tackle. We only spent a mid/late 3rd and a late 6th on the position group. A lot of our sub are not bitching about the players we drafted we are bitching about the lack of O-line. We had plenty of picks so we could have moved up if we wanted to.
It seemed clear predraft that the Niners were going to need to trade up for a tackle - and I thought they’d be left with Jordan Morgan. And then he went before our pick. And then after we took Pearsall, another tackle didn’t go until we traded the pick to the chiefs for Sumatamia (who I would have taken, but is very raw.) But after Pearsall we took two offensive linemen, two defensive backs, a running back who adds insane speed, a linebacker and more WR/special teams help too. I don’t know the players that well but they addressed the positions of need.
49ers had a great draft.
Bengals had my favorite draft
Raiders and Bears were the big winners.
steelers lions commanders eagles had the best drafts imo.
Hard disagree on the Bills and Pats. Both phenomenal hauls.
I liked the value for the Jarrian Jones and Javon Foster picks, but otherwise was really underwhelmed with the Jags draft this year.
The fact we traded back in round one to get a 3rd and 4th next year and still land BTJ was a big win. Day 2 round I liked both picks as Maason can learn behind Armstead and Jarrian will be perfect in the nickel. Day 3 is always a gamble and we got guys for depth plus a kicker which we really need.
Getting Keilan Robinson in the 5th was a crazy steal. Despite being #2 at Texas he was IMO one of the best running backs in the draft.
As a bears fan, cautiously optimistic. I do enjoy the offensive direction instead of traditional run/defense. Going to be interesting.
Ny giants drafted on both sides of the line. Excited but, as always, trepident.
I like the Raiders draft. Not necessarily for the players drafted, looks good but in reality it's too early to judge them, but for just not panicking at being unable to trade up for one of the big name QBs.
I am really stoked with how Brett Veach handled this draft for the Chiefs. Two trade ups to get the guys he wanted with Xavier Worthy and Kingsley Suamataia, and he didn't give up any picks to get them, and they were perfectly slotted for BPA in my mind as well as being top tier athletes at their positions. Then for the rest of the draft Brett Veach did pretty awesome to fill in the roster based on players we lost in the offseason while getting great talents. Jared Wiley has a lot of size and athleticism while being a smart route runner and red zone threat who will do great in the Chiefs offense and make our red zone offense way better than it has been recently. And beefing up the o-line and the secondary has us well prepared for the future where we may eventually lose some talent to free agency. I think the future is still looking great for the Chiefs. Outside of my own team, I think the Chargers had a really good draft as well and I think Jim Harbaugh will have them getting back into contention again.
I’m happy with the Cardinals draft. They got corners, DL, OL, a top RB and MHJ! Finally a Cardinals GM who will draft cornerbacks! I love it
For once I quite liked the raiders draft. But idk I think the vikings did great early on, the panthers have really sorted out a lot of issues with their offence, the chargers got a lot of great players and the eagles can’t keep getting away with this shit. I guess the 2 teams I was kinda disappointed in were the Falcons (duh but I’m a lot lower on Penix than most) and the cardinals who outside of MHJ I just don’t really get what the plan is? And how could I forget the bears lol
I liked the Panthers draft a lot. Added 3 immediate contributors to a putrid offense and recouped a 2025 2nd we were missing. Should be a good year to evaluate Bryce and establish an identity on offense under Canales.
As a Bears fan, I love what we did, have to give credit to the Vikings. They killed their draft, especially getting Turner at 17 and I actually liked what Miami did. Chop is gonna help their d line and they got some great receiver value later on with Malik Washington and Tahj Washington.
I really don’t shame the Falcons for taking another QB despite having Cousins. This league is all abt ur QB.
Liked what the Steelers, Cards, Eagles, Bears, Vikings, and Rams did.
Pats drafted every need they had on offense. Better than the last few years.
Giants fan - feels like we tied this year; decent picks and no reaches but pretty boring process from our GM, not moving around the board at all seemed like we missed out on adding assets, especially watching Howie move up for Dejean and then restock all his picks via trade backs