Love this graphic. Gives you a good sense of average score across "experts". Regardless of what they think, I think they did a great job. People get so caught up in every little aspect of the draft like if you don't get the full value for every pick you make then that means you must have had a bad draft. It seems like those that didn't like our draft either had a problem with us getting rid of Darnold or thought we should have gone Justin Fields at QB. The thing is who cares until the actual football is played. If we took Josh Allen at 3 in 2018 we would have been roundly criticized for that move. Which brings me to my next point, all this crap goes out the window when these rookie QBs have to step foot inside their new NFL teams. Development is now all that matters. Prior to the AVT pick, we had a rookie QB that was coming on the team with the worst pair of guards in the NFL, no home run threat (Mims or Davis COULD be that but lets see it first), a backfield that was a question mark and we addressed ALL of these things with arguably BPA at their selections. Compare the OL in 2018 vs now and compare the weapons we had in 2018 vs now. I don't need to say any more because its night and day a better roster on paper compared to what Darnold got, same thing goes for the coaching staff too.
Curious to what and why Thor Nystrom gave a D and what he would do different. He's def the outlier for the Jets draft and consensus
seems to be just more negative in general. he gave the lowest grade as an average. maybe click bait? he shit on several teams others graded high but gave the highest grades to some others considered poorly. could be click bait. but realistically he didn't really do any analysis. he did a "formula" based on value wilson was a bad pick becuase he was ranked 10th and we took him 2nd AVT was a bad pick because he was ranked 16th and we took him 14th our 3 5th rounders were bad picks as they were valued as UDFA same with echols in the 6th. according to his chart our only good picks are moore, RB carter, hamsah, and marshall. the thing is it's all based on his rankings of players which makes it funny. not really a good barometer. basically anyone other then pitts at 2 was a bad pick to him for us but in reality pitts would have been awful when we needed a QB badly. he also claims SF "tricked us" by not letting us see how good lance was. I'm sure JD spent plenty of time evaluating all the QBs before deciding on wilson. that kind of thinking is just dumb
I commented on this in another thread, but I also find it hilarious how Chicago gets the highest overall grade for trading up for Fields despite already having Dalton. Whereas Denver gets an above-average grade for passing on Fields despite their quarterbacks being worse than Dalton. (Fwiw I would give Chicago an A and Denver an F.)
If someone knocks the Jets' grade down for picking Wilson over Fields, then I would hope they dropoed their grade for the 49ers for taking Lance over Fields and Denver for simply passing Fields up completely. That still blows my mind. Why in the world didn't Denver take Fields?! They need a QB. Did they think that little of him??
i think the process of Wilson vs Lance is an interesting one, and one that I feel may have moved to Wilson because he simply has more recent game tape. Also the Niners could afford to take a bigger risk here, Lance may have the higher ceiling as an overall dual threat QB over Wilson. They also have Jimmy G, so the Niners could realistically play Jimmy G and start him for as long as he’s effective, allowing Lance to be molded. He hasn’t played in a year or so...that’s a big factor. I don’t think the Jets were afforded that opportunity and yes they are rebuilding, but they really don’t have the option to mold Lance if he was here with a decent backup or guy who could hold the fort. Realistically, Wilson is the better prospect to start from game 1 and moreso, the brass felt he was the better QB anyways.
At least Thor handed out some D's and F's. Even if his criteria don't make sense, at least he used the full range of grades to show some separation between good, average, and bad. I count 8 different writers who didn't give out any grades lower than a C-. Great. Every team had a good draft. Nobody sucks. It's a miracle. Way to not risk losing any subscribers, guys!
TwoHeadedMonster, I thought the same thing, and couldn't have said it any better myself. I always have the same thought when I look at Kiper's Rankings...he never seems to give out anything below a C or a C+ at worst....he gives out a few A's (like 3-4) and then literally every other team gets a B+ or a B. Begs the question, why even give out a grade at that point? And we thought grade inflation was a problem in america's high schools and universities.....lol! So, yes I do definitely agree...kudos to the guys who at least handed out a few D's or F's for drafts that they honestly think sucked.
The whole farce with the media giving grades is that they don't have nearly all the information on prospects or what the team's plans are. It's arrogant in the extreme and a severe case of hubris on the part of the media to presume that they are in a position to evaluate what the teams do and why.
Jacksonville Jaguars Hard not to roll the eyes when you hear new coach Urban Meyer bloviate about all the research they invested in No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence ... but sure, cross your T's and dot your I's, coach. End of the day, even if the only prerequisite to obtain Lawrence was going 1-15, getting a generational prospect like the Clemson star pretty much makes this a near-perfect draft with the subsequent picks serving as gravy – even if the gravy here is scrumptious. As for Lawrence? He seems uniquely suited to elevate this franchise in the win column and at the gate with the persona to handle such pressure even at 21 years of age. Keeping first-round RB Travis Etienne, another Clemson product, teamed with Lawrence makes perfect sense, while second-round OT Walker Little and third-round S Andre Cisco have significant upside if fully healthy. Second-round CB Tyson Campbell has great physical traits but needs to polish his football skills ... but, again, gravy. Grade: A+ New York Jets This draft will ultimately be defined by whatever success No. 2 pick Zach Wilson has compared to what Darnold, now a member of the Panthers, does with a bona fide supporting cast – which NYJ GM Joe Douglas could have built for his former QB by dealing the second pick for a king's ransom, which was apparently on the table. Be that as it may, Darnold is hardly a proven NFL commodity – and by going the Wilson route, Douglas maintains far more financial flexibility than if he had to speculate on the inevitable mid-tier compensation (at minimum) Darnold has coming sooner than later. And give Douglas credit – he may have hit a home run with Wilson, who has awe-inspiring arm talent that gives him the ability to make just about any throw from just about any area of the field, whether or not his feet are set. But he'll have to prove he can do it against better competition than BYU played while using his athleticism to preserve his 6-2, 214-body from NFL poundings as much as possible. Oh, and there's that Big Apple pressure cooker factor, too. However overcoming such obstacles should all be easier given Douglas has started doing for Wilson what he didn't have time to do for Darnold – import supplementary talent, which will include first-round OL Alijah Vera-Tucker, second-round WR Elijah Moore and fourth-round RB Michael Carter. (And Douglas already has multiple first- and second-round selections in 2022.) Given the path the Jets have chosen, you have to like how they're navigating it so far. Grade: A New York Giants After eschewing trade-down opportunities in his first eight drafts as a general manager, Dave Gettleman couldn't get enough of it Thursday and Friday, parlaying deals with the Bears and Dolphins into first-, third- and fourth-round picks in 2022. As for Gettleman's actual draft board – and Thursday's deal with Chicago suggests he didn't want to miss out on Alabama's DeVonta Smith – it seemed he stacked it well since he wasn't a slave to his beloved "hog mollies." Round 1 WR Kadarius Toney and Round 2 OLB Azeez Ojulari both have first-round ability, and Toney should help third-year QB Daniel Jones get going in the right direction. Grade: A New England Patriots QB Mac Jones (in Round 1) and DE Ronnie Perkins (in Round 3) fell to the Pats, and they (wisely) climbed the board to get DT Christian Barmore in the second round, the Alabama-to-Foxborough pipeline alive and well. The defense should get a nice boost after its ranking dropped to 15th in 2020, and Bill Belichick also used a dash of his draft capital to reacquire Pro Bowl OT Trent Brown. The big question here might be how New England designs an offense that both suits veteran QB Cam Newton while making it comfortable enough for Jones, whose skill set is pocket-based. Grade: A-
Kansas City Chiefs You're not going to find a left tackle the caliber of Orlando Brown Jr. at No. 31, so high marks for their trade with Baltimore. LB Nick Bolton and C Creed Humphrey, both late second-rounders who some thought would go earlier, seem likely to be starters no later than the midpoint of the 2021 season for a team with few job openings. Grade: A- Carolina Panthers Rookie GM Scott Fitterer was quite active before and during the draft and has already recouped some of what he spent on Darnold. Since then, Fitterer has busily gone to work in a bid to help his new quarterback – something the Jets didn't do nearly enough – WR Terrace Marshall Jr., LT Brady Christensen, TE Tommy Tremble and RB Chuba Hubbard all coming after Round 1. And that first round did net CB Jaycee Horn, the first defender picked in 2021. Fitterer will need to hope Marshall is healthy enough to contribute and that he didn't miscalculate when Fields was available at No. 8, but plenty for the people of Charlotte to be pumped about. Grade: B+ Miami Dolphins Did they get too cute with their circuitous route from No. 3 to No. 6? TBD. But this much is sure: Despite a sensible near-term commitment to help second-year QB Tua Tagovailoa, neither Pitts nor Chase is walking through that door. It will be a moot point if WR Jaylen Waddle, a teammate of Tagovailoa's at Alabama, becomes the second coming of Tyreek Hill, to whom he's been compared. And, collectively, first-round DE Jaelan Phillips, second-round S Jevon Holland and OT Liam Eichenberg and third-round TE Hunter Long could form a strong class. But the Fins' future considerations could have a hard time compensating for the immediate opportunity cost. Grade: B Buffalo Bills They've also largely remained intact since January's AFC title game loss at Kansas City, a defeat that served a reminder that it's probably going to be incumbent to make Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes' life miserable in the future (Mahomes was only sacked once in that game). Perhaps not coincidentally, the Bills' first two picks were pass rushers, Greg Rousseau and Carlos "Boogie" Basham, who provide a double dose of heat and youth to a front that needed both given how much Sean McDermott's defense has become uncharacteristically reliant on blitzes in recent years. Worth wondering if Buffalo should've targeted another running back in the middle rounds rather than offensive line depth. Grade: B Seattle Seahawks Given they only had three picks ... pretty flabbergasting – to QB Russell Wilson and The 12's – that their highest one was used for a wide receiver, D'Wayne Eskridge in Round 2. It should be noted that G Gabe Jackson was plucked from the Raiders (and later extended) for a fifth-rounder in March. But it remains to be seen if S Jamal Adams was worth a pair of Round 1 choices – though the Seahawks tend to muck those up anyway – especially given how he was picked on by the Rams in the playoffs. Grade: C-
For all 32 teams: NFL draft grades: Bears, Jets among best team classes in 2021 while Raiders among worst (msn.com)
even a broken clock is right twice a day. and kiper isn't a moron regardless. but he does has a have on for sam and it shows his bias overall. plus he's a tv personality so saying over the top things gets views
Bears gave up a 1st rounder next year, how are they possibly ranked so high? they have to hope Fields hits otherwise their draft was a disaster
